By Liam Gaughan
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The James Bond franchise has had a longer lifespan than nearly any other recurring saga in history, as it remains to be seen if properties like Star Wars or Planet of the Apes will retain their relevance in the next several decades. While the films were originally based on a series of novels by Ian Fleming, new stories have begun to be told, ensuring that every generation will have their own version of the character.
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It may be overwhelming to start the Bond franchise for newcomers, as identifying which films are considered to be all-time classics can be subjective. However, there are a select few Bond films that stand out because of the impact that they had on the saga at large, and the key takeaways that were made. Here are ten essential James Bond movies that define the franchise.
10 ‘Licence to Kill’ (1989)
Directed by John Glen
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Licence to Kill is by far one of the grittiest Bond films ever, as it completely leaned into being a neo-noir revenge thriller that just happened to feature 007 as a main character. Timothy Dalton had done a good job in the previous film, The Living Daylights, but it did not totally capitalize on the darker sensibilities that he could bring to the role.
However, Licence to Kill set up Bond on a very different type of mission, as it saw him having his “license to kill” removed from MI6, forcing him to go out on his own to take down a group of terrorists responsible for attacking his friend. While viewers accustomed to the goofier films in the series like Octopussy or A View To A Kill may have been taken by surprise, Licence to Kill was the truest depiction of Bond as Fleming had written him at this point in the franchise’s trajectory.
Licence to Kill
PG-13
Action
Adventure
Thriller
James Bond goes rogue to seek revenge against drug lord Franz Sanchez after his friend Felix Leiter is brutally attacked and left for dead. Stripped of his license to kill, Bond infiltrates Sanchez’s organization, navigating a dangerous world of deception and betrayal. As he gains Sanchez’s trust, Bond meticulously dismantles the drug empire from within.
- Release Date
- July 14, 1989
- Director
- John Glen
- Cast
- Timothy Dalton , Robert Davi , Carey Lowell , Talisa Soto , Anthony Zerbe
- Runtime
- 133 Minutes
- Main Genre
- Action
- Writers
- Michael G. Wilson , Richard Maibaum , Ian Fleming
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9 ‘Dr. No’ (1962)
Directed by Terence Young
Dr. No is the first Bond film ever released in theaters, and has held up much better than it had any right to considering the constraints of the era. Part of the brilliance of Dr. No is that it did not present itself as an “origin story” for the character, as Sean Connery’s version of Bond was already an established agent for MI6 who was serving at the height of the Cold War.
Dr. No captured the exotic locations, romantic undertones, and cool gadgets that were essential to the franchise, and also featured a great villain in Joseph Wiseman’s portrayal of the titular scientist working for the SPECTRE organization. While not every film from the Golden Age of Hollywood holds up today, Dr. No is just as deliriously entertaining as it was when it was initially released over six decades prior.
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Dr. No
PG
Action
Adventure
Crime
Thriller
A resourceful British government agent seeks answers in a case involving the disappearance of a colleague and the disruption of the American space program.
- Release Date
- October 7, 1962
- Director
- Terence Young
- Cast
- Sean Connery , ursula andress , Joseph Wiseman , Jack Lord , Bernard Lee , Anthony Dawson
- Runtime
- 110
- Main Genre
- Action
- Writers
- Richard Maibaum , Johanna Harwood , Berkely Mather , Ian Fleming , Terence Young
- Tagline
- NOW meet the most extraordinary gentleman spy in all fiction!
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8 ‘GoldenEye’ (1995)
Directed by Martin Campbell
GoldenEye is credited with relaunching the Bond franchise in the 1990s, as it had been six years since Licence to Kill had underperformed at the box office, putting the rest of the saga in jeopardy. Although there was a rise in action cinema at the time in the aftermath of Die Hard and its many imitators, GoldenEye presented an exciting international espionage story that made the franchise feel exciting once more.
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Pierce Brosnan proved to be one of the most charismatic Bonds ever, as he captured the mix of playfulness and true heroism that was essential to the character. While the rest of the films he appeared in sadly began to decline in quality, GoldenEye still remains one of the best action spectacles of its decade. The film also featured a great performance by Sean Bean as the former MI6 agent 006, who was certainly one of the standout villains of the series.
GoldenEye
PG-13
Action
Adventure
Crime
Thriller
- Release Date
- November 16, 1995
- Director
- Martin Campbell
- Cast
- Pierce Brosnan , Sean Bean , Izabella Scorupco , Famke Janssen , Joe Don Baker , judi dench
- Runtime
- 130 minutes
- Writers
- Ian Fleming , Michael France , Jeffrey Caine , Bruce Feirstein
- Tagline
- Website
Watch on Prime Video
7 ‘Live and Let Die’ (1973)
Directed by Guy Hamilton
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Live and Let Die was a very impressive debut for Roger Moore as Bond, as it allowed him to prove that Connery did not have a monopoly on how 007 should be portrayed. While Moore’s string of Bond films gradually grew sillier and more over-the-top as they went along, Live and Let Die was a unique stylistic break, as it took 007 on a mission to New Orleans and drew heavily from blaxploitation cinema.
Live and Let Die is one of the scarier Bond films, as there are elements of voodoo and suspense that felt closer to a psychological horror film. Despite some of the seedier elements of the mission and elements of crime fiction, Moore also proved to have a great sense-of-humor that acknowledged the inherent ridiculousness, which would become the most defining trait of his era of the franchise.
Live and Let Die
PG
Action
Adventure
Thriller
- Release Date
- June 27, 1973
- Director
- Guy Hamilton
- Cast
- Roger Moore , Yaphet Kotto , Jane Seymour , Clifton James , Julius Harris , Geoffrey Holder
- Runtime
- 121 minutes
- Main Genre
- Action
- Writers
- Tom Mankiewicz , Ian Fleming
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6 ‘From Russia With Love’ (1964)
Directed by Terence Young
From Russia With Love was a significant step up in quality compared to Dr. No, as it attempted to tell a slightly more serious story that leaned into the Cold War tensions that were present at the time of its release. Although From Russia With Love drew from the preexisting SPECTRE organization that had been established as Bond’s core nemesis, it also acknowledged the real tensions between the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union that had been brewing since the end of World War II.
From Russia With Love featured excellent craftsmanship, as a majority of the film’s action is contained to a train where Bond has to deduce who is trying to kill him. Robert Shaw was also able to give a terrific performance as the ruthless SPECTRE assassin Red Grant, who became one of the few villains that tested Bond on both a physical and psychological level.
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From Russia With Love
PG
Action
Adventure
Crime
Thriller
- Release Date
- October 10, 1963
- Director
- Terence Young
- Cast
- Sean Connery , Daniela Bianchi , Pedro Armendáriz , Lotte Lenya , Robert Shaw , Bernard Lee
- Runtime
- 115 minutes
- Main Genre
- Action
- Writers
- Richard Maibaum , Johanna Harwood , Ian Fleming
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5 ‘Goldfinger’ (1964)
Directed by Guy Hamilton
Goldfinger launched what is perceived to be the modern version of Bond by establishing precedent about the franchise. The cheeky humor, ridiculous action scenes, extravagant musical openings, quippy one-liners, and strangely named love interests all have their origins in Goldfinger, which effectively turned Connery into the coolest spy in existence. While it was still loosely inspired by the grittier direction of Fleming’s books, Goldfinger threw plausibility out the window in order to make a film that could simply be as entertaining as possible.
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Goldfinger featured the debut of Bond’s Aston Martin, a car that would become frequently reused throughout the saga. Goldfinger also had a striking visual design that inspired one of the best Bond posters, which has also led to many notable parodies in the Austin Powers and Kingsman franchises, as well as one of the very best episodes of The Simpsons.
Goldfinger (1964)
PG
Action
Adventure
Crime
Thriller
- Release Date
- September 20, 1964
- Director
- Guy Hamilton
- Cast
- Sean Connery , Honor Blackman , Gert Fröbe , Shirley Eaton , Tania Mallet , Harold Sakata
- Runtime
- 112
- Main Genre
- Action
- Writers
- Richard Maibaum , Paul Dehn , Ian Fleming
- Tagline
- James Bond is back in action! Everything he touches turns to excitement!
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4 ‘Casino Royale’ (2006)
Directed by Martin Campbell
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Casino Royale is the film that finally showed the origin story of Bond, as the first novel in Fleming’s series has only ever previously been adapted as a non-EON parody film in 1967. Casino Royale showed how Daniel Craig’s version of the character transformed from a young, somewhat idealistic field agent into an emotionally impenetrable action hero who was defined by both his charisma and cynicism.
Casino Royale featured some of the best action in the Bond franchise, as it chose to make the tone much more dour; there was even a graphic torture scene that ranks among the most disturbing moments to ever be featured in a PG-13 film. However, the real heart of the film was Eva Green’s portrayal of Vesper Lyn, who became one of the very few women that could steal (and ultimately break) Bond’s heart.
Casino Royale
PG-13
Action
Adventure
Crime
Thriller
- Release Date
- November 14, 2006
- Director
- Martin Campbell
- Cast
- Daniel Craig , Eva Green , Mads Mikkelsen , judi dench , Jeffrey Wright , Giancarlo Giannini
- Runtime
- 144 minutes
- Writers
- Neal Purvis , Robert Wade , Paul Haggis , Ian Fleming
- Budget
- $150 million
- Studio(s)
- Sony
- Distributor(s)
- Sony
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3 ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ (1977)
Directed by Lewis Gilbert
The Spy Who Loved Me is one of the most unabashedly romantic films in the Bond series, and certainly allowed Moore to redeem himself after The Man With The Golden Gun had fallen short of expectations. The film saw Bond teaming up with the Soviet Union spy XXX (Barbara Bach), who slowly realizes that her new partner is responsible for the death of her former lover.
The Spy Who Loved Me explored the inherently fatalistic nature of espionage, and was surprisingly able to bring a much more sensitive portrayal of Bond than what had previously been seen in the series. In addition to an incredible final set piece (which was brought to life thanks to a secret contribution by Stanley Kubrick), The Spy Who Loved Me featured an all-time great Bond musical number with Carly Simon’s iconic rendition of “Nobody Does It Better.”
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The Spy Who Loved Me
PG
Action
Adventure
Crime
Thriller
- Release Date
- July 7, 1977
- Director
- Lewis Gilbert
- Cast
- Roger Moore , Barbara Bach , Curd Jürgens , Richard Kiel , Caroline Munro , Walter Gotell
- Runtime
- 125 minutes
- Main Genre
- Action
- Writers
- Ian Fleming , Christopher Wood , Richard Maibaum
- Tagline
- Website
Rent on Amazon
2 ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ (1969)
Directed by Peter R. Hunt
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service feels like an outlier within the Bond franchise, as it was the only film that starred George Lazenby as the character, and had many arthouse qualities that distinguished it. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is easily the most emotional installment in the series, as it shows how Bond begins to fall in love with his future fiancee Tracy (Diana Rigg) after the two are assigned a mission to the Swiss Alps to uncover a SPECTRE conspiracy.
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On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was willing to treat Bond as a real person who was capable of experiencing fear, distress, and even heartbreak. In addition to featuring one of the most shocking twists in any Bond film during its thrilling final scene, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service features an amazing ski chase that still ranks among the saga’s greatest action scenes.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
PG
Action
Adventure
Crime
Romance
Thriller
- Release Date
- December 12, 1969
- Director
- Peter R. Hunt
- Cast
- George Lazenby , Diana Rigg , Telly Savalas , Gabriele Ferzetti , Ilse Steppat , Angela Scoular
- Runtime
- 142
- Main Genre
- Action
- Writers
- Simon Raven , Richard Maibaum , Ian Fleming
- Tagline
- Far up! Far out! Far more! James Bond 007 is back!
Rent on Amazon
1 ‘Skyfall’ (2012)
Directed by Sam Mendes
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Skyfall was the culmination of Bond’s legacy, as it merged the somewhat more realistic interpretation of the character established in Casino Royale with more classical sensibilities that were inherited from Connery’s run as the character. Released on the 50th anniversary year of Dr. No, Skyfall featured Craig’s version of Bond fighting to prove that MI6 still has relevance in the modern time. Academy Award-winning director Sam Mendes explored the political dichotomy of Bond that had often been left ambiguous by other films in the series.
Skyfall is among the best acted films in the series, as Craig was able to show an aged, more soulful version of the character. However, it was Judi Dench’s empowering portrayal of the MI6 boss M and Javier Bardem’s terrifying depiction of the ruthless cyberterrorist Raoul Silva that turned Skyfall into a genuine classic, regardless of its connection to any other films in the series.
Skyfall
PG-13
Action
Adventure
Thriller
James Bond's loyalty to M is tested when her past comes back to haunt her. When MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.
- Release Date
- October 25, 2012
- Director
- Sam Mendes
- Cast
- Daniel Craig , judi dench , Javier Bardem , Ralph Fiennes , Naomie Harris , Berenice Marlohe
- Runtime
- 143
- Main Genre
- Action
- Writers
- Neal Purvis , Robert Wade , John Logan , Ian Fleming
- Studio
- MGM / Sony Pictures
- Tagline
- Daniel Craig is James Bond!
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Watch on Prime Video
KEEP READING: The 10 Best Pierce Brosnan Movies, Ranked
- Movie
- James Bond
- Goldfinger
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