WARNING: The following contains spoilers for No Time to Die, in theaters now.
While No Time to Die serves as a sendoff for Daniel Craig's James Bond, it also functions as a tribute to the twenty-four films that have preceded it in the series. The majority of Craig's other Bond films have mostly stayed realistic and gritty, but his swan song embraces the cheesy tropes that fans of the super-spy have come to love. One of these tropes is the inclusion of a formidable henchman who usually has some sort of crazy gimmick, and No Time to Die fulfills this by introducing audiences to the sinister Primo.
Primo is the first major threat faced by Bond in the film, as he attacks the spy right after he visits Vesper Lynd's grave. Equipped with a bionic eye and working for SPECTRE, Primo chases down James and Madeleine Swann with a vicious tenacity. Not even having his bionic eye torn out by Bond is enough to keep the henchman from his mission, but 007 and Madeleine are eventually able to evade him and go their separate ways.
Five years later, Primo leads a team of SPECTRE agents to kidnap Valdo Obruchev and bring him to Cuba, where SPECTRE is throwing a birthday party for their incarcerated leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Having been sent to track down Obruchev by Felix Leiter, Bond sees Primo and realizes that he is using an upgraded bionic eye to allow Blofeld to deliver orders to his organization. The Heracles nanobots are released on the party in an attempt to kill Bond, but when the SPECTRE members begin to drop dead instead, Primo grabs his eye and beats a hasty retreat.
At this point, Primo switches sides and begins to work for the mysterious Safin, serving as the head enforcer at his secret island base. He is entrusted to guard Madeleine Swann, but she tricks him and escapes, leaving the one-eyed henchman to try and hunt her down. As Bond works his way through the base in an attempt to open the island's silo doors and allow the nanobots to be destroyed by incoming missiles, Primo confronts him, and the two engage in a brutal fight. Although the henchman gains the upper hand, Bond ultimately kills him by using his EMP watch to blow up Primo's bionic eye.
While Daniel Craig's past Bond films have featured some villainous henchmen, Primo is by far the best. Quantum of Solace's Elvis is fairly unmemorable, while Skyfall's Patrice and Spectre's Mr. Hinx are both deadly but underdeveloped. Primo's bionic eye is a fantastic gimmick that gives him an off-putting appearance, while also serving as an important plot point.
In addition, Primo's willingness to switch sides during the film is a trait not exhibited by many other Bond henchmen and adds layers to his character by showing that his self-preservation instinct is stronger than his loyalty to SPECTRE. His final confrontation with Bond is one of No Time to Die's most well-choreographed and intense scenes, and it also gives 007 the perfect opportunity to drop a classic one-liner about his watch: "it blew his mind."
To see Primo in action, No Time to Die is now playing in theaters.