Bond’s interrogation of Blofeld in No Time to Die is an odd sequence that encapsulates many of the movie’s broader problems. Swann’s abrupt fear and retreat feel overdramatic and the contrived “delivery” of Blofeld to Bond resembles a claw machine rather than a tense confrontation. Blofeld’s once chilling dialogue has been reduced to toothless threats and generic sentiment, with “cuckoo” notably overstaying its welcome, and his death via nanobots is ultimately unsatisfying.

More fundamentally, Bond simply lacks panache when when interrogating a captive in a sterile, formal setting. Give me a formal dinner confrontation or smoky casino any day. Overall, it’s a boring scene that functions as a microcosm of No Time to Die‘s faults (minus Bond’s stupid death, the biggest, of course). It’s almost as contrived as Blofeld’s eye-birthday spectacle.