Bond fans certainly can cherry-pick their favorites. But there's really only one way
to view these adventures as the work of one semi-ageless operative — and it's not
in chronological order. You've been watching James Bond movies all wrong, and here's why.
To start at the character's beginning means 2006's Casino Royale, the franchise
reboot that served as Daniel Craig's Bond debut. Based on Fleming's first Bond novel,
the film gives Bond a gritty origin story in which he earns his "Double-0" status,
drives off with his signature Aston Martin, and uses his brawn as well
as his wits — like when he flings an empty handgun right back in an opponent's face.
Most importantly, the film refreshes the trope of a woman who does him wrong
by having a genuine love story with an unwilling betrayal. Eva Green's treasury liaison Vesper
Lynd throws real sparks with Craig, revealing a striking complexity beneath Bond's flinty gaze.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the Fleabag star and co-screenwriter of No Time to Die, told GQ -
"He let us in a bit, which makes the moments he shuts us out even more arresting. Overall,
he grounded a fantasy character in real emotion,
which is what I think we hadn't realized we'd missed amongst the action and the bravado."
Quantum of Solace, released in 2008, picks up where Casino Royale left off,
with Bond discovering that criminal banker Le Chiffre is part of a larger terrorist
organization called Quantum. He also ferrets out more about Vesper's past. Unfortunately,
the Writer's Guild strike at the time hampered a cohesive plot, with Craig admitting to GQ -
"We didn't have a script. So we concentrated a lot on the stunts."
Craig's third outing, Skyfall, continued to develop Bond as a character,
particularly his relationship with M. After a botched mission with new agent Eve,
Bond is presumed dead. But when vengeful ex-agent Raoul Silva targets M and MI6,
Bond returns as M's protector, taking her to Skyfall, his childhood home in the Scottish
Highlands. There, viewers see the headstones of his parents, and their surname confirms that James
Bond is the same character across the franchise, admittedly one without much of a secret identity.
Bond defeats Silva, but M dies,
throwing off the continuity when Dench turns up in the Pierce Brosnan years.
As much as the Craig films serve as Bond's origin story,
2015's Spectre also delves into his connection to the criminal organization,
a frequent adversary from Fleming's novels. On the trail of Mr. White, a character from Casino
Royale and Quantum of Solace, Bond learns that the Quantum organization is a SPECTRE subsidiary.
He also meets White's daughter, psychologist Madeleine Swann. The two follow SPECTRE's
trail to Morocco, where they wind up prisoners of a man Bond recognizes as Franz Oberhauser,
son of a foster father from Bond's youth.
Oberhauser reveals that his current name is Ernst Stavro Blofeld, which rings a bell for
Bond aficionados. As Oberhauser, he'd faked his death, and now he's in charge of SPECTRE,
which has an MI6 mole with designs on a global surveillance network.
Of course, Bond foils Blofeld's plan, then drives off with Swann, leaving espionage behind.
No Time to Die forces him back into the field as CIA pal Felix Leiter
asks for help in pursuing Safin, an anarchist and ex-SPECTRE assassin. Meanwhile, Blofeld
stirs up trouble while in custody, and a secret from Swann's past surfaces. It's safe to assume
that whatever else No Time to Die has in store, Bond's relationship with Swann won't survive.
Dr. No, released in 1962, officially introduced moviegoers to Fleming's secret agent,
along with the concept of the "Bond girl" and an eccentric, power-crazy villain. Sean Connery's
Bond heads to Jamaica to investigate the slaying of another British agent,
discovering that the death is connected to recent sabotage of the U.S. space program.
His investigation leads to a private island, where he encounters Honey Ryder, a gorgeous diver
searching for seashells. The two meet the island's owner, Dr. Julius No, a SPECTRE
agent and nuclear scientist aiming to take over a U.S. rocket launch as revenge for both the
Americans and the East not recognizing his genius. Thanks to Bond, his plans end in a meltdown.
Connery's follow-up, 1963's From Russia with Love,
further explores SPECTRE and its nefarious plans as Bond goes undercover to meet Tatiana Romanova,
a Russian cipher clerk wanting to defect with a decoder device. She turns out to be
an unwitting pawn in a SPECTRE assassination plot against Bond for killing Dr. No.
Bond strangles one SPECTRE assassin and goes toe-to-toe with another wielding a
poisoned spike in her shoe. Romanova comes to his defense, proving that love conquers all.
Definitely one of the most memorable Bond films, Goldfinger finds Bond looking into
Auric Goldfinger, a gold magnate who smuggles the stuff out of England through the bodywork
of his Rolls-Royce. But Goldfinger has a grander scheme in mind: Destroying the gold reserve in
Fort Knox with an atomic bomb, rendering it useless and thus cementing his wealth.
To enter Fort Knox, Goldfinger enlists an elite squad of female pilots to spray
nerve gas, which will kill thousands. Bond wins over the improbably named squadron
leader Pussy Galore before stopping the bomb with a precise 007 seconds to spare.
Connery told The New York Times at the time -
"It sort of demonstrates what I believe is a subtler, more discriminating Bond
than you have seen in the earlier films. […] I guess I'm trying to make James Bond
grow up a little — in the same way that I'm growing up myself. Not too much,
though. Definitely not too much. That would spoil the fun for both of us."
Thunderball, released in 1965, sends Bond to the Bahamas to recover two
nuclear warheads that Emilio Largo, second in command at SPECTRE, hijacks for ransom.
Swiping them involved brainwashing a pilot and sending him for plastic surgery, something Bond
discovers while visiting a health spa for some R&R under M's orders. Eventually, Bond pieces
together that the brainwashed pilot, whom SPECTRE kills, is the brother of Domino, Largo's mistress.
You Only Live Twice, released in 1967, showed Connery's Bond at last meeting SPECTRE leader
Ernst Stavro Blofeld. After an attempt on Bond's life, complete with a burial at sea,
Bond re-emerges and joins forces with Tiger Tanaka of Japanese Intelligence. Tanaka suggests
that Bond marry to pose as a local fisherman so he can investigate under cover. The bride is another
agent, Kissy Suzuki, who is all business. The two uncover a secret SPECTRE base within a volcano,
where Blofeld hoped to deceive the Soviets and Americans into starting World War III.
With those plans thwarted, Kissy and Bond decide to enjoy their honeymoon until MI6 interrupts.
Australian actor George Lazenby stepped into Bond's shoes in 1969's On Her Majesty's
Secret Service. After he rescues the suicidal Contessa Tracy di Vicenzo
from drowning in the opening moments, she drives away, leaving Bond dumbstruck — and
spurring theories of "James Bond" being a codename with a cheeky aside to the camera.
"This never happened to the other fellow."
The espionage plot is a little kooky this time around, with Blofeld running
an allergy clinic in the Swiss Alps that's really a way to brainwash attendees into
distributing biological warfare. But that's secondary to Bond's relationship with Tracy,
the spirited but troubled daughter of a mob boss. Tracy, a skilled skier as well as driver,
gamely helps Bond throughout the movie, and the two marry toward the film's end.
Then Blofeld and an assassin pepper their car with bullets after the ceremony,
killing Tracy and leaving Bond poignantly holding her behind the shattered windshield.
Connery returned as Bond in 1971's Diamonds Are Forever, which begins with him tracking
down Blofeld to an underground lair where the SPECTRE leader prepares for plastic surgery.
Bond ties Blofeld to an operating table and plunges it into a steaming mud lake,
presumably avenging Tracy's death, although his late wife isn't mentioned elsewhere in the film.
"Welcome to Hell Blofeld."
As Bond investigates who is stealing huge quantities of diamonds,
he learns that the Blofeld in the lair was actually a double for the real Blofeld,
currently hanging out in Las Vegas under the guise of multimillionaire Willard Whyte.
With the help of conniving jewel smuggler Tiffany Case,
Bond figures out that the diamonds are powering a space satellite and laser
aimed at nuclear installations around the world. They stop the destruction,
of course, although Tiffany wonders if there's any way to get those sparklers back to Earth.
Roger Moore took over as 007 with 1973's Live and Let Die. Moore definitely brought
a lighter touch to Bond, but this film's blaxploitation influences haven't aged well.
"Well you just keep on the tail of that jukebox and there's an extra 20 in it for you."
"Hey man, for 20 bucks, I'll take you to a Ku Klux Klan cookout."
The plot has Bond checking out a heroin operation controlled by a Caribbean dictator and a gangster,
both of whom are actually the same person in disguise. There's a lengthy motorboat chase,
a wince-inducing Southern sheriff, alligators,
voodoo, and some duplicitous consent with the film's women,
blaxploitation actress Gloria Hendry playing a field agent, and the tarot reader Solitaire.
Moore's next Bond film, 1974's The Man with the Golden Gun, finds him the target of Francisco
Scaramanga, the world's most expensive assassin, who kills with a single shot from a specialized
weapon. Bond also delves into the work of a scientist wanting to harness the sun's power
to solve the energy crisis. When M calls him off that mission for his safety, Bond ignores him,
learning that Scaramanga is after not just Bond as a trophy but the solar technology as well.
With SPECTRE seemingly gone, the Bond films of the 1970s into the 1990s focused more on
Cold War antagonists. The Spy Who Loved Me, from 1977, does that with the cheekiness and
excess of the Moore era, but for some reason, it all works.
When British and Soviet nuclear submarines vanish, Bond follows a lead to Cairo,
where he runs across Russian Major Anya Amasova working the case from the Soviet end.
The two form a tenuous alliance to defeat wealthy shipping entrepreneur Karl Stromberg,
who wants the submarines to launch armageddon so he can create a new civilization beneath the sea.
Stromberg likes sharks that devour enemies and has a metal-toothed henchman named
Jaws. For all its flash, the film also has a notable callback to Bond's late wife, Tracy.
"Many lady friends, but married only once. Wife killed -"
"All right you've made your point."
Blame the success of Star Wars for launching Bond into space with 1979's Moonraker,
a film that copies the basic plot of The Spy Who Loved Me — with that film's henchman,
Jaws, now working for a different megalomaniac who wants to kill people and start over fresh.
This time, Hugo Drax, a supplier of space shuttles to the US government,
makes off with a shuttle to transport a new "master race" to his space station.
It's not enough to leave Earth behind, though. Drax also has concocted a lethal
toxin to kill the not-so-worthy humans trapped on the planet.
The film includes a wild chase through Venice where a gondola becomes a hovercraft and a full-on
laser battle in space. Bond also gets a hand from one of the smarter women of the Moore era,
an astronaut and CIA agent with the eye-rolling name of Holly Goodhead.
At least she can pilot a shuttle.
Bond went more down to earth for 1981's For Your Eyes Only. The agent searched the Mediterranean
for a missing British ship equipped with a weapons encryption device, meeting Melina Havelock,
a crossbow-wielding woman whose parents worked with the British government. Her quest for revenge
against whoever killed them dovetails with a secret KGB agent, Kristatos, and a Greek smuggler.
The film includes realistic action scenes both underwater and during a
mountain-climbing climax. But first, it closes the book on SPECTRE. In the opening moments,
as Bond visits the grave of his late wife Tracy, a helicopter arrives to whisk him back to MI6.
Once in the air, a surge of electricity through the headset kills the pilot,
and Blofeld, now using a wheelchair, takes control of the craft from the ground.
The agent manages to rip out cables connecting Blofeld's remote control,
then flies after his one time nemesis, scooping
up the wheelchair on one of the chopper's skids and dropping him down a smokestack.
For Moore's final two Bond outings, the agent again dealt with Cold War
machinations. In 1983's Octopussy, Bond becomes involved with a jewelry smuggler and circus
owner who gives the film its title. She's in league with exiled Afghan prince Kamal Khan,
who's actually using her circus operation to stage a nuclear accident with a rogue Soviet general.
There are acrobatic thieves, a hunt in India that's an homage to the short story "The
Most Dangerous Game," and disguises for Bond that include an ape costume and a clown suit.
Moore hung up his Walther PPK after 1985's A View to a Kill, which pitted Bond against
industrialist Max Zorin, a psychopath thanks to failed Soviet steroid experiments.
Zorin has a striking henchwoman named May Day, and designs on destroying Silicon Valley through
an earthquake so he can control the microchip market. Naturally, a San Francisco geologist
helps Bond disrupt Zorin's plans, resulting in a showdown atop the landmark Golden Gate Bridge.
Royal Shakespeare Company actor Timothy Dalton starred as Bond in 1987's The Living
Daylights. As The Guardian noted, his more "nuanced and complex interpretation" hewed
closer to Fleming's novels but perplexed fans accustomed to the quippy Moore years.
Dalton is introduced during a training exercise at the Rock of Gibraltar, where an assassin picks
off several agents until the film reveals the new 007. Defecting KGB General Georgi Koskov
says his former superior has revived a spy assassination program, but Bond later learns that
Koskov is in league with an American arms dealer and wants the man dead for business reasons.
Because of the AIDS epidemic, Bond is a one-woman man this time around,
forging a romance with Kara Milovy, a cellist who had been Koskov's girlfriend.
Dalton's follow-up, 1989's License to Kill, finds Bond on a cold-blooded personal crusade
against a drug dealer whose men leave Felix Leiter for dead and kill his bride,
Della. Before her death, Della wonders why their friend James hasn't found a steady sweetheart,
and Felix briefly explains that he was once married.
Because of legal issues, Bond didn't return to theaters until 1995's GoldenEye, which starred
Pierce Brosnan after Dalton resigned. The film starts about a decade before the present day,
with Bond on a job with fellow "00" agent and friend Alec Trevelyan, who seemingly dies.
Of course, events in Bond's life are rarely what they appear,
and Bond later learns that Alec is alive and leading a crime syndicate.
He seeks a satellite-based electromagnetic pulse weapon known as GoldenEye.
The filmmakers attempted to update Bond for
modern audiences by giving him a female M who criticizes him:
"I think you're a sexist, misogynist dinosaur. A relic of the Cold War."
But some Bond things never change. They also gave Alec a leggy accomplice,
Xenia Onatopp, who likes to crush victims between her thighs.
Bond gets some assistance from a CIA contact who disconcertingly calls Bond Jimbo,
as well as Natalya, a Russian computer programmer who flirts with getting Bond to settle down.
Brosnan's second outing, 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies, explores more of Bond's past
by introducing a former girlfriend, Paris, now married to Elliot Carver, a tabloid
media mogul. Carver draws MI6's attention after a spurious signal from one of his company's
communication satellites occurs at the same time a British warship sinks in Chinese waters.
Paris helps Bond infiltrate her husband's headquarters for old times' sake,
for which Carver has her killed.
Carver has a more unusual scheme for a Bond villain: He wants to secure exclusive broadcasting
rights in China in exchange for starting a war between the British and the Chinese.
Fortunately, Bond finds an ally in Wai Lin, a Chinese agent who can handle herself.
1999's The World Is Not Enough packed an impressive twist. At M's request,
Bond retrieves money from a Swiss banker for British oil tycoon Sir Robert King,
a particular sum that turns out to be treated with an explosive.
Bond deduces that someone wanted to send a message by killing King through the cash
because King's daughter Elektra had recently been ransomed for the same amount of money.
Although he presumes that the terrorist who kidnapped Elektra is responsible,
King's killer turns out to be Elektra herself. She's developed feelings for her kidnapper,
and the two want to detonate a nuclear explosion in Istanbul, leaving the King
pipeline the only viable route for extracting petroleum from that region. Along to diffuse
the situation is a nuclear physicist with the eye-roll inducing name of Dr. Christmas Jones.
Brosnan's tenure as Bond finished with 2002's Die Another Day.
Released the same year as the 40th anniversary of Dr. No, the film pays homage in some ways to other
previous Bond films and Fleming's novels. One such nod? Having Bond pick up the book A Field Guide
to Birds of the West Indies, whose author James Bond inspired the name of Fleming's famous spy.
The plot mirrors some elements of previous entries with an adversary whom Bond thought
was dead assuming a new identity to build a space laser out of diamonds. NSA agent Jinx
Johnson teams up with Bond in a story that becomes more fantastical than some fans liked. Bond surfs
through an iceberg tsunami, there's an ice palace, and the Aston Martin Vanquish becomes invisible.
Although he felt shocked over being replaced at first,
Brosnan in 2020 said he has, quote, "no regret" over his 007 days, telling The Guardian -
"Bond is the gift that keeps giving and has allowed me to have a wonderful career.
Once you're branded as a Bond, it's with you forever."
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