The film opens with a flashback. Young Madeleine Swann tends to her ailing mother, while a man
in a mask approaches their home. Madeleine sees the man at the window and runs to hide.
The man enters the house, introduces himself to her mother as Lyutsifer Safin, and says he is
there for Mr. White, as he killed Safin’s family. When Madeleine’s mother can’t give him an answer,
Safin shoots her to death. Madeleine goes to hide under her bed where Safin goes to look for her.
She shoots him and drags his body outside, but he turns out to be alive.
Madeleine starts running across the icy lake until she falls through.
Safin cannot bring himself to let the girl die, so he shoots the ice and pulls her out.
Jump to the present where Madeleine is living with James Bond in Matera, romantically. Although they
are both happy together, Madeleine knows Bond still has lingering thoughts about Vesper Lynd,
whom she points out is buried close to them. She encourages to let her go, doing the same
with her memory of Safin by writing “masked man” in French on a piece of paper and burning it.
The next morning, Bond goes to Vesper’s tomb to finally forgive her.
He also has a piece of paper ready to burn that says “forgive me” on it. Before leaving, Bond sees
a SPECTRE calling card nearby, and seconds later, the tomb explodes. Bond recovers quickly enough to
start running, only for assassins, led by a man with a cybernetic eye called Primo or ”Cyclops”,
to go after him. Bond races back to his room on a motorcycle to get Madeleine, accusing her of
having him set up since the assassins should not know where to have found him. He gets Madeleine in
the Aston Martin and ends up in a high-speed chase across Matera, with Bond getting assassins to
crash their vans or get shot. The villain's corner Bond and Madeleine in the middle of the plaza,
with her begging Bond to make a move while he sits there and lets the thugs shoot at the car.
When he sees that Madeleine is telling the truth, he activates the machine gun in the car and kills
nearly every assassin except for Primo. Once they are in the clear, Bond takes Madeleine to a train
station where he puts her on a train and parts ways with her because of his trust in her being
destroyed. She tearfully tries to catch him as the train begins to depart, but he is long gone.
Five years later, another team of assassins breaks into an MI6 lab. They are working under Safin,
who contacts head scientist Valdo Obruchev and warns him about who is coming.
The assassins take Obruchev and another scientist captive while killing the rest of the team.
They are there to acquire Heracles, a deadly bioweapon that can be used as a poison through
skin-to-skin contact. After getting what they want, the assassins kill the other man
and take Obruchev with them. MI6 catches wind of this, with Moneypenny going to talk to M about it,
but he remains tight-lipped on what Heracles is and demands to know where 007 is.
Bond is now retired from MI6 and living in Jamaica.
He runs into Felix Leiter and his colleague Logan Ash. They go to a nightclub where
Felix tells Bond about Obruchev’s capture and the break-in to the lab.
Bond has little interest in getting involved in recovering Obruchev, and he also tells Felix he
has a suspicious feeling about Ash. As Bond tries to go home, he finds that his car isn’t working.
He is approached by a woman called Nomi, who gives him a ride on her motorcycle. When they get
back to his place, she quickly drops her facade to reveal that she is not only an agent with MI6, but
also the new 007. She tells him that Obruchev is her target and for Bond to stay out of her way.
M and Bill Tanner talk to Q about retrieving files stolen from the lab. Bond contacts M to
ask him what he has done involving Obruchev and SPECTRE. M hangs up and tells Tanner he wants
to get in touch with Blofeld, who is locked up in Belmarsh and is seen talking to himself.
Felix has Bond go to Cuba to meet a CIA operative named Paloma. They infiltrate a SPECTRE meeting
where Blofeld is using a robotic eye like the one Primo uses to observe the party. Meanwhile,
Obruchev is being forced to set up Heracles in the facility, but he is seen switching a vial from the
device. Once Bond and Paloma realize Blofeld is up to something, the entire party turns their focus
to Bond. The Heracles poison is released into the room, with the intent to kill Bond while
the poison doesn’t affect SPECTRE agents. What happens is the opposite, as SPECTRE operatives
start to grow boils on their faces before dropping dead, all while Bond and Paloma remain unaffected.
The two face off against gunmen, including Primo, while Nomi shows up to apprehend Obruchev. After
killing off several henchmen, Paloma gets a car and spots Obruchev, trying to make a run for it.
She rams the car into the structure he is climbing down, causing him and it to collapse onto the car.
Bond takes Obruchev and parts ways with Paloma after she gives him a cigar for Felix, and Bond
takes Obruchev away on a rickety old plane. Bond brings Obruchev to Felix’s boat to
meet with him and Ash. When they start to interrogate Obruchev over Heracles and why
it specifically did not affect Bond, Ash grows nervous and tells Obruchev to stop talking.
Obruchev says SPECTRE was always the main target, so he changed the DNA sample during
the poisoning to kill them instead of Bond, and he also says that M helped him create Heracles.
When Bond asks how Blofeld knew he would be there, he quickly realizes Ash is a double
agent working with Obruchev. During a struggle, Ash shoots Felix and gets away with Obruchev,
where they blow a hole into the ship to cause it to sink. Although Bond tries to help Felix,
they know his gunshot wound is too severe, and Felix resigns himself to his fate.
Bond regrettably leaves his friend behind before managing to break free and escape.
Bond returns to MI6 to confront M. He demands to be let into Belmarsh to speak to Blofeld,
but M refuses and ends up sending Bond out after Bond pisses him off. M calls Nomi in to tell
her that he wants everything in Blofeld’s cell scanned, even the man himself. On his way out,
Moneypenny offers to help Bond. That night, they go to Q’s house as he is preparing to have dinner
with his boyfriend. They ask him to take a look at the files they recovered, and when he does,
they discover files on the SPECTRE targets, with only Blofeld remaining. There are also thousands
of other files on others regarding their DNA samples all over the world. Bond tells Q to get
him into Belmarsh to meet with Blofeld, but he says only one person has access to him.
Cut to Madeleine going to her job as a psychiatrist. She goes to her office to find
Safin there, but she doesn’t immediately recognize him until he presents her with his broken mask.
Once she becomes frightened, he tells her that he needs her for something.
Bond later meets with the whole MI6 team to be reinstated as a 00 agent.
They review files over a SPECTRE operative’s funeral, where five family members who came
into contact with him are now dead from contracting the Heracles poison.
M then explains that Heracles was not meant to be as harmful as it is now, as it was
only meant to be designed for specific targets through contact over those it doesn’t affect,
but now it has been weaponized using nanobots to go after targets and anyone related to them.
M finally approves for Bond to meet with Blofeld and find out whatever he can.
Bond goes to Belmarsh and reunites with Madeleine. He tries to shake her hand, but she declines.
Once Blofeld is brought out to them, Madeleine starts to grow nervous and tries to leave.
Bond grabs her wrist, but she pulls away and leaves.
Bond is left talking to Blofeld, who taunts him and says he set up an attack at Vesper’s tomb
to deliberately make Bond believe that Madeleine set him up. He taunts Bond to the point where he
grabs Blofeld to physically attack him. As Tanner enters to stop Bond, they then see that Blofeld
has been poisoned to death by Bond’s touch. Bond learns he was infected with Heracles after
touching Madeleine, and he can’t get it out. Madeleine has fled her apartment and nobody can
find her. Bond goes after her on her own and finds her at her childhood home. To his surprise, he
finds that she has a daughter, Mathilde, although Madeleine claims she is not Bond’s. After putting
Mathilde to bed, Madeleine informs Bond of who Safin is. Blofeld instructed Madeleine’s father
to kill Safin’s whole family, which left him as the only survivor with facial disfigurements.
She also mentions an island that Safin’s family had, where his base of operations currently is.
Bond gives Q info on locating Safin, and Q informs MI6 that the island is located between Japan and
Russia. Nomi is looking for Ash, but Bond learns that he and Safin’s other minions are close,
so he gets Madeleine and Mathilde out of the house for safety.
On the road, Safin’s assassins chase after the three.
Bond runs two off the road, but their van is also knocked off the road. Bond shoots
at the assassins and sets trap for a couple others until Ash comes out to try and kill Bond himself.
Bond overturns his van and causes him to crash. Ash crawls out and asks for Bond’s help.
In retribution for Felix’s death, Bond pushes Ash’s van down to crush him.
He then learns that Madeleine and Mathilde have been abducted and taken to the island.
Bond rejoins MI6, where Nomi relinquishes the 007
title to Bond as they head out to the island to stop Safin and save Madeleine and Mathilde.
Meanwhile, the villain brings the two to his garden where other poisonous plants are developed,
including the nanobots being harvested for the Heracles poison distribution.
Bond and Nomi are brought to the island where they break into the facility and go after the gunmen.
They capture Obruchev and plan to blow the place up, although they don’t have enough explosives to
get the job done. After continued threats, Nomi pushes Obruchev into a pool of nanobots, where
he is gruesomely dissolved. The other workers flee once they see the effects of the nanobots.
Madeleine manages to escape from Primo’s captivity by throwing hot tea in his face.
Bond finds Safin with Mathilde in his captivity. When Safin threatens both her and Madeleine,
Bond gets on his knees and begs Safin to not hurt them if he does what he wants, but Bond then takes
out a concealed pistol and kills Safin’s guards, but he escapes through a hatch with Mathilde.
However, the little girl bites Safin and he just lets her go. She hides until Madeleine finds her.
Bond runs into them and helps them getaway. Primo attacks Bond, but he uses Q’s gadget
watch to fry Primo’s cybernetic eye and make it blow up in his head, killing him. Bond then
goes to open the hatch doors to allow the Royal Navy to launch missiles to destroy the facility.
He succeeds and starts to make his way out until he finds that they are closing again
because of Safin. Bond goes to open them again and is attacked by Safin,
who shoots him and then infects him with nanobots specifically targeting Madeleine and Mathilde.
Bond fights Safin and breaks his arm before shooting him dead.
He manages to open the doors again, but he realizes he cannot leave the island without
hurting Madeleine and Mathilde. He contacts Q, who has Nomi put Madeleine on the line for him.
They share a final moment together, reaffirming their love for one another, and Madeleine confirms
that Mathilde really is Bond’s daughter. He then stands as the missiles arrive,
obliterating the facility and Bond himself. Everyone else realizes what has happened.
Back at MI6, M, Tanner, Q, Moneypenny, and Nomi all gather for a toast to Bond’s memory.
Madeleine drives Mathilde to Matera to continue their lives.
She then decides to tell Mathilde the story about her father, a man named Bond…James Bond.