“ | Shame, I was such a big fan of his. | „ |
~ Ash after blowing up the CIA boat and leaving James Bond and Felix Leiter to die. |
“ | Nice moves, Bond. You won’t be able to stop him... so why don’t you help me out, brother? | „ |
~ Ash's last words to Bond. |
Logan Ash is a supporting antagonist in the 2021 James Bond film No Time to Die. He is a corrupt State Department agent who is later revealed to be a mole working for the notorious terrorist leader Lyutsifer Safin. He is also the man responsible for the death of CIA agent Felix Leiter, one of James Bond's closest allies.
He was portrayed by Billy Magnussen, who also played Paulie Gualtieri in The Many Saints of Newark and Ben Brandt in Road House.
Biography[]
Meeting Bond[]
Ash started out as an operative of the CIA and a State Department agent who became assigned as Felix Leiter's partner, while secretly in league with terrorist Lyutsifer Safin as an infiltrator. When MI6 scientist Valdo Obruchev is abducted by Primo and several Spectre agents, Ash and Leiter are sent to track down former MI6 agent James Bond and convince him to help track down Obruchev. Ash over-enthusiastically introduces himself to Bond, calling himself a "big fan", much to Bond's annoyance.
Bond is dismissive of Ash, derisively nicknaming him "The Book of Mormon", and refuses to help; however, he changes his mind after discovering that Obruchev was working on "Project Heracles", an MI6 bioweapon containing nanobots that spread like a virus upon touch and are coded to specific DNA strands so they are only dangerous if programmed to an individual's genetic code.
Betraying Bond and Leiter[]
Bond and another CIA agent named Paloma are able to capture Obruchev after he re-codes Heracles to wipe out all of the remaining SPECTRE members on the orders of Safin. Bond brings Obruchev back to a boat where Leiter and Ash are waiting. Despite Ash telling Bond that his mission is over and he is out of line, Bond refuses to leave and angrily demands to know who Obruchev is working for. Ash, realizing that there's no way out, reveals his true nature by pulling out a gun and shooting Leiter in the stomach before kicking him into the hull. This leads to him being attacked by Bond and a fight breaking out until Obruchev is able to kick a gun over to Ash, forcing the unarmed Bond to retreat into the hull. Ash locks him in and sinks the ship with a limpet mine before leaving with Obruchev and bringing him over to Safin. Bond escapes the ship, but Leiter bleeds out and drowns.
Following Ernst Stavro Blofeld's death, Q learns through several video files recorded on Blofeld's bionic eye that Ash met up with Primo and convinced him to turn against SPECTRE. This leads Q and Bond to realize that Primo, Obruchev and Ash are in cahoots with Safin. MI6 agent Nomi is sent after Ash, tracking him to Norway. Bond is informed of Ash's location while visiting his former lover Madeline Swann and their daughter Mathilde and realizes that Ash is near his location and is tracking him. He drives away with Swann and Mathilde and is pursued by Ash and a convoy of armed men in black/grey, modified Land Rovers and motorcycles. The chase continues into the forest, where Bond directs Swann and Mathilde to hide before running away firing his gun to attract Ash's attention. Ash falls for the deception and follows the gunshots, getting most of his men shot by Bond.
Death[]
Ash tries to kill Bond personally with his driver attempting to run him down in a black Land Rover Defender while Ash shoots at him; however, the SUV hits a log, which causes the car to flip over, throwing Ash from the vehicle and leaving him seriously injured. He is able to drop out of the car but is unable to move any further, observing that the car is only being held up by a slowly breaking sapling and begging Bond to help him and calling him his "brother". Bond coldly replies: "I had a brother. His name was Felix Leiter," before shoving the car downward, breaking the sapling and causing it to fall and crush Ash to death, thus avenging Leiter's death.
Despite Ash's death, Bond realizes too late that Safin only sent Ash to distract him so that he could capture Swann and Mathilde himself. Even when Bond manages to kill Safin and his men while letting Madeleine and Mathilde escape to safety, Bond ends up being infected with nanobots equipped with Madeleine and Mathilde's DNA that would kill them if he touches them again. As such, Bond joins Leiter in death by sacrificing himself in a missile explosion to destroy the nanobots.
Personality[]
At first, Logan Ash seems like an eager and enthusiastic newcomer who really admires James. However, this turns out to be a cover for the fact that he's really a mole for Safin, and when his cover is blown, he quickly turns on him and Felix. From that point on, he shows a much more smug, arrogant and all-around unpleasant personality. That said, even though he may have not had any qualms with killing him, he may have still genuinely respected James since he remarks to Obruchev in the helicopter after leaving him to die on the sinking ship that he really did admire him. Plus, after James unwillingly played his part in Safin's plan by retrieving Obruchev, he made a strong effort to convince him the mission was over and prevent him from extracting information out of Obruchev. While this was obviously at least partly because he didn't want his cover to be blown, it's also very possible that he preferred to avoid having to kill him or Felix, especially due to his admiration for the former, and only did so because he was forced to due to the circumstances. He is also cowardly in the face of death, as evidenced by him begging for Bond's help and trying to appeal to him by calling him "brother" even though he previously killed Felix and tried to kill him twice.
External Links[]
- Logan Ash on the James Bond Wiki