Filmtracks: No Time to Die (Hans Zimmer)

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Written 10/17/21

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Buy it... if your desire for nostalgia in the James Bond franchise outweighs your skepticism of Hans Zimmer's techniques in this concept, the overall result offering enough strategically smart satisfaction to recommend.

Avoid it... if you expect Zimmer to modulate his mannerisms in a way as to not distract from this film, his trademark bloated melodrama and brooding gloominess having a detrimental impact on the narrative.

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No Time to Die: (Hans Zimmer) For decades, the James Bond franchise was effortless escapism filled with explosions, slick technology, and funny one-liners of irreverent and politically incorrect leanings. With the Daniel Craig era of the concept, the movies adopted a more cohesively connected story and infinitely more dramatic appeal, leading Bond to emotional depths mostly unexplored and largely unwanted in prior entries. Through 2021's belated No Time to Die, the overarching Craig narrative reaches its inevitable and depressing conclusion, killing main protagonists without remorse and yielding very little of that escapism that once made Bond films so much fun. While many viewers and critics viewed No Time to Die as a poignantly dramatic thriller necessary for the impending reboot of the franchise, never has a Bond film been as unsatisfying or untrue to the original novels. The formula doesn't require the character to have a backstory, a family, or any other tether of mundane life, so forcing him to deal with these situations makes for stressful watching when the whole point of Bond is indeed how effortless he makes everything seem. In short, the franchise assumes we want to see 007 suffer and lose, and in an era of coronavirus when real life challenges are already mounting, the succumbing of the Bond concept to such darkness is unacceptable. To some extent, audiences agreed, No Time to Die faring poorly at the box office compared to its predecessors and dashing early studio hopes that the movie could break even with total costs in its theatrical release alone. The soundtrack for the film wasn't a smooth production experience either, the franchise hunting for a new composer with Thomas Newman out of the equation. Director Cary Joji Fukunaga originally hired his regular collaborator, Dan Romer, who had not yet really emerged into the mainstream at the time. Surprisingly late in the process, Romer and Fukunaga suffered fatal disagreements over the music for the picture, and Romer departed. The logical replacement would have been David Arnold, whose popular and effective music for the Pierce Brosnan and early Craig films was extended gloriously in a short, Bond-affiliated 2019 film advertising apparel, "From N.Peal With Love." But, alas, Arnold was never called.

Instead, the production turned to fixer extraordinaire Hans Zimmer, who tackled the assignment largely himself but also relied heavily on regular Remote Control Productions ghostwriter supreme, Steve Mazzaro, who not only provided additional music but also received music production credit in the opening song sequence of the film. One has to wonder if Zimmer could not contractually allow Mazzaro to receive co-compositional credit. Regardless, their work together for No Time to Die is absolutely rich with discussion points after a pair of comparatively less interesting scores by Newman. No matter your opinion of Zimmer's controversial production methodologies (Pirates of the Caribbean) and sometimes senseless strategic decisions (Widows), you have to admire the painstaking care he takes in his handling of this assignment. These Bond scores, as the films have become more narratively interconnected, have become a spotting minefield, and Zimmer and Mazzaro acquit themselves quite well despite some occasionally questionable choices. The interpolation of the song melody into the score, reprises of story-related themes from prior films, and the handling of Monty Norman's classic franchise identities are all addressed smartly in No Time to Die, even if there was some room for improvement. It's become rare in the franchise to hear total symbiosis between the score and song, and in this entry, such connections thrive. This alone is a huge victory for Zimmer, who did not have a hand in writing the Billie Eilish song, "No Time to Die," but whose orchestrator and conductor, Matt Dunkley, did. (Dunkley has long meandered through the industry since his fruitful collaboration with Craig Armstrong, aiding in some of A.R. Rahman's best works and Zimmer's successful Wonder Woman 1984.) As such, there's just enough presence of proper orchestration in the recording of the song for it to retain a Bond-like feel. That can't save the song from Eilish's horrendous performance, however. There was skepticism upon the hiring of the very young American artist, including from Craig himself, because her method of mumbling through her lyrics didn't match the typical tone of a Bond song. Her slurred, understated, and at times incoherent performance here managed to somehow snag a Grammy Award, a considerable surprise given how poorly her voice matches the needs of a Bond song.

Successful Bond title song performances require stylish enunciation and confidence, and Eilish provides nothing of the sort for No Time to Die. Her performance has no impact, no style, and no truly discerning melodic presence in its softly grungy atmosphere, building volume throughout but not achieving clarity. That said, some may argue that her obscure tone is perfect for the depressing nature of this particular film. The irony of the song is that its primary melody and interlude sequences are borderline excellent, but listeners may not have a chance to realize that if not for the fact that Zimmer was allowed to convey those ideas throughout the score, where they flourish in ways the song can't even approach because of Eilish's muddy enunciation. The translation of two portions of the song into Zimmer's main themes for the score is a fantastic highlight of the soundtrack generally, as such cohesion is sadly rare in the modern Bond films. Zimmer took his care a step further, invoking explicit references to the music of both John Barry and David Arnold in his score. The film specifically calls out several references to On Her Majesty's Secret Service in its screenplay and props, so Zimmer and Mazzaro obliged with multiple reprises of the two themes from that score; the filmmakers also apply Louis Armstrong's performance of that film's song, "We Have All the Time in the World," to the end credits of No Time to Die. On some levels, the reprise of the Barry material makes much more sense than others, but it's a very nice touch in general. Zimmer also returns to the Vesper Lynd theme from Casino Royale by David Arnold, though its application in an early scene never escapes repetition of the melody's first phrase, a disappointment given Arnold's own superior adaptation of the theme to melancholy ends in Quantum of Solace. One of the more interesting carry-overs is the underlying chord modernization to the main Monty Norman rhythm that the Skyfall song so wonderfully explored so that each of the rising and falling notes in that motif contains its own dramatic chord shift underneath instead of sticking to key in the bass. Zimmer continues this chord usage in the opening "Gun Barrel" and at 1:06 into "Shouldn't We Get to Know Each Other First." Overall, the Norman theme returns in much of its usual glory, though not with as much swagger throughout the film as one might hope for. Zimmer does allow its pieces several prominent placements over travelling sequences, and that usage has to be appreciated.

Like the rest of the score for No Time to Die, the Norman material is adapted to fit the Zimmer "sound" in some scenes, and this means that some of the panache and other elements of high style are replaced by brutal, bass-heavy blasting that defies the franchise's past at times. Very generally, Zimmer carries over his heavy-handed tones to lend the score a more brooding and militaristic sensibility. Whereas Zimmer's infusion of manly despair to the Bond franchise may be preferable to Newman's largely neutral personality for the concept, neither can compete with the swagger of Arnold's action material. The score for No Time to Die sometimes resorts to simplistic pounding, dissonance, and choral chanting, aspects of Zimmer's past that serve this film decently but without much satisfaction. There are passages such as the pounded, slapping action of "Norway Chase" that are totally foreign to the Bond sound. Some of the action sequences in the latter half of the score are frightfully inept, including "Opening the Doors," and the presence of the choral chanting from The Peacemaker to punctuate the horrors of the villain's hidden island lair in this story (some things actually do stay the same) had to be dialed down in the film in a few places. In a few cues, the mix can be blamed for making the cue sound like a jumbled, lifeless mess, the terrible mixing of layers in "Cuba Chase" especially annoying. Most obvious to casual viewers will be tired Zimmer application of string drama to No Time to Die, his chopping, unsophisticated string figures begging for eyerolls in "I'll Be Right Back" and his extremely derivative, overwrought melodramatic crescendos for the scenes of loss to end "Square Escape" and "Final Ascent" reminding of everything from The Da Vinci Code to Inception at the most inconvenient of times. Also a point of contention is Zimmer's decision to supply overbearing dissonance during both scenes involving a sound concussion Bond experiences courtesy explosions in his face ("Message From an Old Friend" and "Opening the Doors") and the mass death early in "Cuba Chase," though the former were clearly an attempt to emulate the disorienting buzzing one experiences after such an event. Emerging only occasionally in the Bond franchise and struggling to assert itself here is the use of choir. Zimmer uses it in predictable fashion given his past, using the group's menacing tones to represent the villain of this story and, more specifically, the nanobot technology he plans to unleash upon the world.

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With the choral element debuting in the middle of "What Have You Done?," one must assume it stereotypically represents the doomsday possibilities in No Time to Die, its dissonant atmosphere returning to start "Cuba Chase" as SPECTRE is wiped out with the technology. The pulsating choral notes of the score's later action first appear early in "Norway Chase," open "Poison Garden," and dwell early in "The Factory," though the most obvious choral shades in the final cue are not clearly heard in the film. Instrumentally, there are positives worth mentioning. The score offers refreshingly nice bass flute performances in a nod to vintage Barry mannerisms. Solo piano recalls the softer moments of Arnold's scores well. Both electric and acoustic guitars are tastefully applied, though the latter, also for the new, female 007, is surprisingly diminished given the Latin locations and the character's presence. Zimmer collectors will suck up the cello solos for dramatic passages, though the far better emotional appeals are made through sparingly applied wordless female vocals. The score is mostly organic, ironically less harsh in its looped mixes than some of Arnold's later Brosnan-era techniques. Where No Time to Die will really ensnare your attention is in its thematic development. As mentioned before, both of Zimmer and Mazzaro's main themes for the score are based on sequences in the Eilish song. On top of these two themes are a dedicated villain theme, an agonizing loss motif, a recurring two-note action motif, and the various Barry, Arnold, and Norman ideas. Eilish's poor performance forces the score to work overtime to clarify the song's primary melody, and it does so with repeated development. (Note that the album's credits claim to identify all the score tracks using the song's theme, but the list is awkwardly incomplete.) Zimmer applies this idea as the overarching love theme for Bond and Madeleine Swann but also for the romance of the franchise in earlier sequences. While full and obvious performances of the theme are not particularly frequent, the spotting of its usage was handled well in the film, the most powerful interpersonal moments applying the idea on piano. It's absent from the film's pre-credits scenes with the main characters and debuts in ominous, dramatic layers at 0:30 into "Someone Was Here." Fragmented on flute in "Not What I Expected," it serves as counterpoint to the Norman theme to close "Shouldn't We Get to Know Each Other First." Its impactful representation of Bond and Swann really begins as the characters reunite at 0:38 into "Lovely to See You Again" on solo piano over somber ambience.

The primary song theme of No Time to Die achieves its most robust development throughout "Home," the typical Zimmer solo cello treatment leading to a haunted wordless female vocal version over piano that was minimized in the picture but did receive a placement in the end credits assembly. A string rendition late in the cue raises the emotional stakes. Slight background plucking of the idea late in "Gearing Up" keeps the theme in mind, as does its faint informing of the drama late in "Poison Garden." It opens "I'll Be Right Back" softly before shifting to full melodramatic mode at 2:35, including a return of the female vocals. Piano continues at 3:47 into "Final Ascent," fragments of the theme overlapping the descending loss motif at the climax of the scene. Interestingly, though, Zimmer opted to take a secondary portion of the Eilish song and adapt that as the more frequent, main identity of the score. Inspired by the song's interlude sequence at 1:20, this theme serves as a representation of adversity that absolutely pervades throughout the work. Its meandering around key is useful in that it can match well with the Norman rhythm, a trait proven immediately at 1:35 into "Matera," where a romantic, major string mode with the Norman material in counterpoint matches Bond's constant worries that someone is after him. This theme returns under the Norman theme once again at 1:15 into "Message From an Old Friend" but really explodes later in the cue. More pronounced at 2:58 and 4:39 in that cue, Zimmer presents it in highly staccato stuttering, though it does become more fluid later. It rambles as an electric guitar motif overlay to a unique thematic idea at 5:54 and blossoms into massive wailing brass on its own at 6:10. Bond is extraordinarily angry in this scene, so the adversity theme is most intense in the score during this cue. As Bond enters his suspicion mode, the adversity theme returns at 1:11 into "Someone Was Here" on solo electric guitar over fragments of the song melody, accelerating on guitar in rhythmic form at 2:17. Under the Norman theme again at 1:40 into "What Have You Done?," the theme once more dissolves to solo guitar. It meanders under the Norman theme in action at 2:16 into "Cuba Chase," stews in quiet panic to open "Norway Chase," and is skittish on violins at 1:58 into "Gearing Up." Against ominous choir, the theme builds throughout the first half of "The Factory" (starting at 0:28), turns fast and frantic underneath the action at 1:06 into "Opening the Doors," and shifts to solo cello at 1:39 into "Final Ascent," where it turns compelling in a slow crescendo.

The villain's theme in No Time to Die takes a while to emerge, as those attempting to kill Bond at the start of the film are not associated with the main antagonist of the story. The theme debuts as a new, almost hypnotic rhythmic formation in its slight choral conveyance at 0:54 into "Norway Chase," transitioning into a striking but obnoxious action motif at 2:18; fortunately, it stabilizes later on brass. It toys with a variant of the adversity theme at 2:01 into "Poison Garden," closes out "The Factory" with slight violins, and opens "I'll Be Right Back" under the song melody. Like the villain himself, this theme is soft spoken and understated, and given its hyper-aggressive stance in "Norway Chase," it's intriguing that the Zimmer and Mazzaro chose not to feature the idea in fuller form during the final confrontation. Zimmer's separate loss motif will be a greater point of contention with the score, representing Bond's agony with descending figures of typical overblown Zimmer drama. Solo cello offers the idea at 1:22 into "Square Escape" for the parting of the leads, it faintly recurs at 4:56 into "The Factory," and it opens "Final Ascent" on solo cello before turning to its The Da Vinci Code and Inception incarnation at 6:06 for the closing death scene. This cue's climax is extremely distracting in the film, a detriment to a moment that needed more tact and, likely, an overt connection to the song instead. While tying the two loss scenes together musically is smart, the execution is unnecessarily bloated. The final new motif in No Time to Die is a generic action identity consisting of two-note bursts that may be fragments of the Norman theme. Heard in the first half of "Cuba Chase," these figures develop fully on brass at 2:37. They return in the second half of "Norway Chase," the second minute of "I'll Be Right Back," and from the middle to end of "Opening the Doors." The Norman theme itself, in all its various pieces, is incorporated more directly to every corner of the score, an improvement over the Newman entries. The "Gun Barrel" sequence presents the standard opening, and Zimmer applies it at 0:54 into "Message From an Old Friend" as Bond is forced unwillingly back into action, building quickly to suspense and then full killing mode; fragments persist throughout the cue until a quick burst of the fanfare at 6:07. The immediately subsequent "Square Escape" introduces a new take on the idea at its opening that is absolutely brutal on low brass. This is Zimmer taking everything as low as it can go, and it's a brutish and unstylish technique that is reprised almost identically at least twice more in the score.

The Norman theme is arguably most impactful in No Time to Die during the scenes from Bond's retirement in Jamaica through his return to service in London, supplying the character with his necessary identity even if he doesn't know the future path. A softly cool moment awaits for the theme at 0:55 into "Someone Was Here," the idea shifting later to suspense and retribution modes that carry over to the latter half of "What Have You Done?" It toys in romance during the humorous "Shouldn't We Get to Know Each Other First?" and contributes with Latin flair in the middle of "Cuba Chase" before returning to the low brass brutality of "Square Escape" in that cue. The Norman material assumes its original guitar form in "Back to MI6," though a bit on the aggressive side. The slight Latin hints persists with the Bond rhythm in "Gearing Up" (by this point, the Latin element clearly represents Nomi, the new 007) before shifting to concerned determination; there's not enough overt coolness in the theme's performances late in this cue. The rhythm comes in and out during "I'll Be Right Back" and again reprises the brutish brass of "Square Escape" at 0:32 into "Opening the Doors." That overbearingly forceful adaptation is so unsophisticated that it's disappointing to hear it so many times in the work. More fascinating is the resurrection of the Barry and Arnold themes in No Time to Die. The script and props of this film almost required Zimmer to reference music from On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which is otherwise an odd choice with which to wrap up the Craig era of the franchise. The "Matera" cue opening the film with glorious shots of Southern Italy is a reprise of Barry's instrumental version of "We Have All the Time in the World" from the 1969 movie, and while the statement here is a faithful rendition, Zimmer and Mazzaro do an absolutely fantastic job shifting the melody to their original adversity theme by its end to denote Bond's lingering suspicions, a clever and very well executed move. The final scene of No Time to Die returns to the same location and offers a different version of essentially the same material from "We Have All the Time in the World," though that cue was left off the album. That second cue transitions directly into the original Louis Armstrong performance of the song to open the end credits. The composers take the references to On Her Majesty's Secret Service even further, referencing Barry's other, catchy main theme for the 1969 score during all of "Good to Have You Back" as Bond and M converse in London about the former's return to service. It's a gloomy performance that doesn't make much impact under the dialogue, however.

On one hand, the outward presence of the Barry material from On Her Majesty's Secret Service in No Time to Die is a fantastic plus for enthusiasts of the franchise's music. On the other hand, though, the 1969 film wasn't the Craig era, and if this score was meant to be sensitive to the concept's prior music, then some tip of the hat to Casino Royale was merited to provide closure to Craig's Bond specifically. Yes, the Vesper theme is included in her tomb scene (albeit not on album), but its statements aren't resolved even though Bond himself finds such purpose in being there. The early portion of that scene would have been perfect for a subtle, if not melancholy rendition of Arnold's "City of Lovers" romance identity, apart from the actual Vesper theme. Likewise, the "Good to Have You Back" cue could have applied an equally grim instrumental reprise of the "You Know My Name" theme from Casino Royale instead, with just as much relevance. As they are, the throwback themes in No Time to Die are tied to an era long gone rather than neatly closing out the current era. The applications of the Norman theme and its underlying rhythm are always welcome, though there is that lack of panache in the performances to reconcile. While Bond is a somewhat broken and retired man in this film, he still requires stylish swagger, and that's an intangible sense of performance inflection that this score cannot match from the Arnold entries. Some will argue that No Time to Die is a sufficiently dark film to justify the use of Zimmer's usual brooding techniques, though some of the dissonant or suspense sequences, especially "Lovely to See You Again" and "Poison Garden," failed to evoke much emotional response. Blofeld's entrance during the former cue could have used a tortured version of the song's love theme to a better impact, for instance. Scenic transition cues are hit and miss, the Norway opening of "Home" among the better. Some action sequences devolve into generic Remote Control pounding unbefitting of this franchise. Still, on the whole, Zimmer and Mazzaro need commended for their otherwise thoughtful strategic decisions and salvaging of the melody from the dismal, incoherent song. On album, some major sequence cues are missing, including the entire sinking boat scene with Felix Leiter, and the tracks are cross-mixed, but it's a decent, chronological presentation. The end credits music (after the song) was pieced together from the score. A longer LP album offers four Q-related bonus cues, but these are all rather pointless atmosphere with occasional Norman theme allusions, and none makes an impact in the film anyway. This score is a massively mixed bag, with so much to like and yet passages in which Zimmer's methods simply don't work. Arnold remains as the franchise's modern benchmark. *** @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Hans Zimmer reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.85 (in 128 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.96 (in 299,193 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

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