How 007 Avoids The "I Can Fix Him" Cliche in Romantic Plot Arcs

Women tend to love romance stories in which there's an alpha male who doesn't have his act entirely together. I love that type of romance, too. Hades and Persephone? Yep, love it. Beauty and the Beast? Adore it. But the 007 franchise expertly avoids the whole "I can fix him" mentality in its love story arcs despite Bond unquestionably being an alpha male. I'd like to use two romance arcs within the James Bond franchise. 

The first is the love story between James Bond and Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale. When James and Vesper first meet, it quickly becomes clear to the audience that she is not some ditzy Bond girl; that she is not Bond's latest prize to seduce and bed. She is a strong and witty woman who is able to hold her own while bantering with James. She is quickly established as his equal. Vesper quickly figures out that Bond is a womanizer, makes it clear that she is not there to get sexually involved with him, and seeks to keep him at arms length. James, on the other hand, is impressed with her wit, and is attracted to her. He tries to get under her skin and win her over, even telling her at one point that she is not his type. This is what makes their dynamic so appealing and fun to watch from the get-go.

 A little while later, a sweet scene with the two of them comes around. After a fight in a hotel stairwell that leaves Vesper in shock and traumatized, Bond returns to their hotel room and finds her sitting huddled on the floor of the shower, fully clothed, and with the water running over her. He joins her and undoes his bowtie. She says, "It's like there's blood on my hands. It's not coming off."

She says this because she made it possible for James to kill one of the bad guys during the stairwell fight. She is a Royal Treasury employee and therefore is not used to being in that kind of situation. 

James takes one of her hands and there is no actual blood on her hands. He sucks each of  her fingers, taking her guilt onto himself. Then he asks her if she's cold and adjusts the water temperature when she says yes. He just sits there and strokes her head, comforting her. 

Later, after he has won a poker game against the villain, Bond and Vesper celebrate by going out to dinner. During dinner, Vesper asks, "Doesn't it bother you? Killing those people?" 

"I wouldn't be good at my job if it did." James answers. 

"I don't believe you. You have a choice, you know. Just because you've done something doesn't mean have to keep doing it." Vesper says. 

Vesper's quandary comes after she has seen Bond's tender side firsthand. While she does have this quandary about James continuing his line of work as a 00 agent,* she doesn't press the matter after the dinner scene. She doesn't seek to fix him because whether or not he decides to quit his job is up to him. The villain tortures Bond and Vesper for the number and password to his account, in which the winnings from the poker game have been deposited. Despite the painful toll the torture has on their bodies, neither of them divulge the credentials to the account. The toll that the torture has on Bond's body is enough to leave him in a critical condition and it takes some time for him to recover.  While he is convalescing, James and Vesper confess their love for one another. Then, they travel together. It is during their travels that Bond thinks about what Vesper told him during dinner after the poker game and decides to quit his job. However, their relationship and his resignation is short-lived. While they are on  vacation in Venice, Vesper betrays James by withdrawing the winnings and giving it to the bad guys. Vesper soon takes her own life because in her guilt and shame, she couldn't face Bond. After Vesper's death, Bond's boss reveals that the bad guys had been blackmailing her. She had a boyfriend and they kidnapped him. They threatened to kill him unless she cooperated. His boss also revealed that on the night they were tortured, Vesper made a deal with her blackmailers to spare James's life in exchange for the winnings. This second piece of info implies that while Vesper had eyes only for her ex at first, her feelings and loyalty shifted. 

The second love story is between James and Dr. Madeleine Swann in SPECTRE and No Time To Die. When Bond meets Madeleine in SPECTRE, it is because she can lead him to a place that has info he needs to complete his mission. Even before James meets her and we are introduced to her, we learn that she is the daughter of Mr. White, a terrorist Bond went up against years prior to the events of SPECTRE. Mr. White makes James promise that he will protect Madeleine. It sounds like a pretty sweet deal: Bond will get more info that will help him accomplish his mission and Madeleine will be protected from the terrorist group her father was once a loyal member of. It turns out Madeleine is a psychologist and Bond schedules an appointment with her. During the appointment, he initially goes along with the mental health checkup, but then, he tells her that her father is dead. Upon hearing this, Madeleine instantly deduces that James is trouble and asks him if he killed her father. When Bond answers no, Madeleine's instincts do not vanish. James tells her that he promised her father that he would protect her and that he needs her to lead to L'Americaine. Madeleine tells Bond that he has to leave the building within 10 minutes. He leaves her office, but not the building. He sits at the clinic's bar. 

A few minutes later, SPECTRE agents abduct Madeleine. James goes after Madeleine and her kidnappers in a snow plane. Even though he successfully rescues her, she still isn't happy with him and doesn't want anything to do with him. It's only after Bond tells her that he is her only chance of survival and protection that she agrees to go with him, albeit reluctantly. In Tangier, she continues to keep James at arms length, but not because of danger. Despite her hatred for her father, Madeleine is grieving and  guesses that Bond is a womanizer. Therefore, she knew that James would likely take advantage of her distraught state and she would end up in his arms. But on the train in Morocco, things begin to change. 

During dinner, Madeleine asks, "Why given every other option does one choose the life of a paid assassin?"

Bond replies flippantly, "It was that or the priesthood."

Madeleine says, "Answer the question."

Bond answers, "I didn't have a choice. Anyway, I don't stop to think about it."

Madeleine enquires, "What would happen if you did?"

Bond says, "Stop? I don't know."

After a waiter brings them their vodka martinis, Madeleine says, "You know, that's where I think you were wrong."

"What's that?" Bond replies.

"We always have a choice." Madeleine tells him. 

I find it interesting that not only is Madeleine the second Bond lady to ask the Craig 007 why he chose to be a spy with a license to kill, but she asks that question during a dinner scene, just like Vesper. 

But Madeleine is not Vesper 2.0. She's not supposed to be like Vesper at all, except that she's James's equal. 

Bond and Madeleine reach their destination: SPECTRE's compound in the middle of the Moroccan desert. There, they meet James's foster brother, Franz Oberhauser, or as he goes by, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Blofeld tortures Bond and makes Madeleine watch. During a break in the torture session, Madeleine confesses her love to James. 

With the help of Bond's explosive watch, Madeleine and Bond  incapacitate Blofeld and escape the compound. After shooting SPECTRE agents and blowing up the compound, they return to London. Madeleine meets M and then James tells M what C, one of Blofeld's henchman, plans to do next. They set out to thwart C's plan.  

Madeleine decided to remove herself from the situation and Bond's life, as she couldn't go back to being with someone who was involved in espionage. She told James that she wasn't asking him to change and affirmed his inherent goodness, as she understood that spy work was a big part of who he was.

 
But Blofeld abducted her shortly after she parted aways with Bond. Bond rescued her and pursued Blofeld. When given the chance to kill an unarmed and injured Blofeld, Bond had two choices: kill Blofeld and lose Madeleine or spare Blofeld, walk away from the only line of work he knew how to do, and pursue a long-term romantic relationship. Despite the effects of his doomed romance with Vesper, James chose a committed relationship once more. 

Notice how Madeleine doesn't try to fix James. She merely asks him a question that gets him to think about other paths in life and then she leaves the question of his occupation in his hands. When she sees that his job is an integral part of his identity, she respects that and tries to remove herself from his life even though she has fallen in love with him because she will not do things or be with people when it goes against her values.

But then she accepts Bond with open arms when he chooses her over killing Blofeld and continuing to work as a 00.

No Time To Die opens with James & Madeleine reveling in each other's company and vacationing in Italy. But a shadow lingers over the new couple. Both are carrying wounds from traumatic memories. When Bond asks Madeleine about hers, she agrees to tell him on the condition that he tells her about Vesper first. James tells her that he forgave Vesper a long time ago. But Madeleine knows Blofeld reopened an old wound by mentioning Vesper.

 
She tells James that he has to go to Vesper's grave and let the past go. She asks him to do so for his own wellbeing and to ensure that he loves her, not Vesper. She is making sure that their relationship is not a rebound romance.

 
Madeleine's requirement here is not an unreasonable one. She wants all of James. He doesn't know this yet but she is expecting their first child. With this information, it's perfectly reasonable for Madeleine to ask Bond to move on from what happened to Vesper once and for all. She wants him to be free from that and present, ready to be the father that their child deserves. 

James does as she says, but SPECTRE frames her and makes it look like she betrayed him. A long action sequence ensues (a cool action sequence in the pre-title sequence is a 007 movie staple), during which Madeleine says, "There's something I need to tell you." Expecting a confession rather than a pregnancy announcement, Bond bitterly replies, "I bet there is." But no confession or pregnancy announcement comes. Instead, Madeleine makes a declaration of innocence. James doesn't believe her and dumps her at the end of the pre-title sequence. 

Despite his vow that she'll never see him again, they are reunited five years later when a bioweapon being developed by British intelligence is stolen by bad actors. Madeleine has been running her own private practice and working for MI6 as a psychologist. Bond finds out that Madeleine didn't betray him after all and goes to Madeleine's house in Norway to apologize. 

There, he meets their 5 year old daughter, Mathilde. James immediately embraces his fatherhood. For the rest of the movie, his actions stem from his love for his family, culminating in him making the ultimate sacrifice to protect his girlfriend and daughter. 

As one of the biggest franchises in cinema, it is fitting that 007 should show its leading ladies romancing its anti-heroic and morally complex protagonist without seeking to fix him. 

*A 00 agent is an elite MI6 agent with a license to kill. They exist only in the James Bond universe. A license to kill allows an operative to kill someone at their own discretion in order to complete their mission.  An agent must have two confirmed kills to obtain 00 status.