Spanning six decades and counting without ever leaving the conversation in any kind of significant way, Eon's James Bond series is the best movie franchise in history. Based on Ian Fleming's books about a British gentleman spy, the series at its best aims, first and foremost, to entertain. Bond films are sometimes bombastic, sometimes a little more grounded. Sometimes their plots are rather simple; often they're endearingly convoluted. This is a series largely defined by screen spectacle, and thrilling scenes that stay in the zeitgeist. To celebrate the 60th anniversary of Goldfinger's North American release (the film is often considered the series' gold standard), this is a countdown of the most iconic, heart-pounding, sometimes quite funny or sexy scenes that have made Bond a pop-culture giant without peer. These are the greatest moments in all of Bond movie history, full stop.
12 The Tanker Chase 'Licence to Kill' (1989) Close
"Don't you want to know why?" Kicking things off here with the most technically impressive sequence of what's arguably the most underrated of all Bond films. Longtime Bond director John Glen's Licence to Kill is an uncommonly stripped-down revenge tale, on top of being the most violent Bond film by far. Timothy Dalton is excellent here, as Bond seeks vengeance upon a powerful drug lord (Robert Davi).
The early stretches of Licence to Kill clearly took inspiration from cop shows like Miami Vice, but the final set piece of the film is more like Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. It's a prolonged affair by land and by air, soaked in fire and blood. That it all maintains that sense of wit and toeing a line of plausability that makes Bond Bond just goes to show how firm a grip Glen had on this franchise, and how well Dalton embodied this character.
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Licence to Kill
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.
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*Availability in US 11 Bond Discovers Jill Masterson's Corpse 'Goldfinger' (1964)
The third outing in the Eon series, Goldfinger is the moment a popular series of movies became an unprecedented phenomenon. Released in December of 1964 to positive reviews, enormous box-office, and even an Academy Award win, the comic thriller established the Bond formula and made Sean Connery the most famous actor on the planet.
Goldfinger differs a fair amount from Fleming's book of the same name, and it's all for the better. Fleming's clever story is given a much more cinematic sense of urgency. Case in point is the iconic moment of Bond discovering the gold-painted corpse of Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe)'s henchwoman Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton). It's meant to send a message. It's morbid and impossibly alluring, just like this series in general.
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Goldfinger Approved ActionAdventureCrimeThriller Where to Watch stream rent buy
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*Availability in US Release Date September 20, 1964 Director Guy Hamilton Cast Sean Connery , Honor Blackman , Gert Fröbe , Shirley Eaton , Tania Mallet , Harold Sakata Runtime 110 Minutes Writers Richard Maibaum , Paul Dehn , Ian Fleming Main Genre Action Expand 10 The Battle in Blofeld's Volcano Lair 'You Only Live Twice' (1967)
Connery's run as 007 got increasingly bigger and also increasingly sillier. His fifth outing, You Only Live Twice, is often ridiculous. It's also a great deal of fun. It's highly iconic, with much of the iconography influencing, most notably, the Austin Powers films.
The finale is as spectacular as anything in Bond canon, with most of the credit going to legendary production designer Ken Adam. This is the first time (in the films, at least) where Bond meets face-to-face with nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasence). In the background of this personal confrontation is a jaw-dropping battle in Blofeld's volcano lair. It's ninjas vs. SPECTRE. It's ultra-widescreen. Some of the shots still look absolutely staggering to this day.
9 The Train Fight 'From Russia With Love' (1963)
Based on Fleming's best book, From Russia With Love is a stripped-down, linear and red-blooded thriller about counter plots to obtain a decoding device. Connery expanded upon his great debut performance to the tune of box-office wildfire. This is one of the best pure suspense films ever made.
James Bond is a killer by trade, and killing is often a really nasty business. Bond's climactic face-off with SPECTRE operative Red Grant (Robert Shaw) is Hitchcockian in its setup, and in its visceral, vaguely sick execution. Spy games of the mind give way to brute force, and both actors here excel at both. It's an action scene that's been referenced over and over in this series and elsewhere ever since.
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From Russia With Love PG ActionAdventureCrimeThriller Where to Watch stream rent buy
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*Availability in US Release Date October 10, 1963 Director Terence Young Cast Sean Connery , Daniela Bianchi , Pedro Armendáriz , Lotte Lenya , Robert Shaw , Bernard Lee Runtime 115 minutes Writers Richard Maibaum , Johanna Harwood , Ian Fleming Main Genre Action Expand 8 The Death of James Bond (No, Not That One) 'Skyfall' (2012)
In 2021's long-delayed No Time to Die, James Bond is killed for real. That moment is contrived in the extreme, unearned, out of character, and just plain lame. It gets worse with every viewing. The Daniel Craig films "killed" James Bond once before that to far more dramatically satisfying effect nearly a decade prior.
With beautiful Roger Deakins photography and muscular direction from Sam Mendes, Skyfall hits the ground running, with Bond pursuing a MacGuffin through the streets and other terrains of Instanbul. Faced with no other option, an overwhelmed Eve Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) fires an unsure shot at a moving target, hitting Bond by accident. A stuntman plunges quite some distance off a bridge, Bond's fate is uncertain, and this all leads into one of the series' best title sequences. This is intoxicating, top-tier Bond.
7 The Tank 'GoldenEye' (1995)
"He's going to derail us." Following an undeservedly lackluster response Licence to Kill, Bond went missing from cinemas for six years. Most fans will tell you his return was very much worth the wait, Pierce Brosnan of Remington Steele fame was a natural, dare one say perfect fit for the role, and Martin Campbell's direction provided some of the series' best action.
Explosive action meets that signature, mischievous Bond wit and irreverence about halfway through the picture, when Bond pursues a captured Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco) through the streets of Saint Petersburg with all the subtlety of, well, a tank. It's the moment she falls for him. Maybe it's the moment you fell for him.
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GoldenEye PG-13 ActionAdventureCrimeThriller Where to Watch stream rent buy
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*Availability in US 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 6 Bond Is Tortured 'Casino Royale' (2006)
"The whole world is going to know you died scratching my balls." The Daniel Craig probably would have done well to drop at least some of its pungently downbeat tone (here directly derived from Fleming's excellent book), but Casino Royale was an undeniably phenomenal reboot, maybe the very best gritty reboot in a period of time where gritty reboots were a pop culture staple.
There are so many moments from this genuine classic that could be on this ranking, include the parkour-heavy opening set piece, or the emotionally brutal death of Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), but perhaps the scene that left the greatest impact was a scene of torture taken straight from the page, where terrorist networker Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) torments a fully nude Bond with a rope, through a chair with no seat. It's all the more gripping because we and Bond are just as concerned about the off-screen Vesper, who can be heard screaming. Though nothing explicit is shown, and the sequence is sold through performance, it is quite possibly the most graphic and disturbing scene in a PG-13 movie, ever.
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Casino Royale PG-13 ActionAdventureCrimeThriller Where to Watch stream rent buy
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*Availability in US 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 Expand 5 Honey Ryder Emerges From the Ocean 'Dr. No' (1962)
Bond's first outing is a slow-burn detective story which pits Bond against a megalomaniac SPECTRE operative (Joseph Wiseman) with a nefarious eye on the U.S. space program. It's the most low-key Bond film of all, but it's rich in character thanks to Connery's splendid performance, which reportedly impressed Fleming so much he gave the character Scottish heritage on the page.
Another reason this first movie works so damn well is how primal it is. Even from the jump, Bond is a male fantasy (and there isn't a damn thing wrong with that). About two thirds of the way through the film, our suavely established hero comes across Ursula Andress's Honey Ryder emerging from the beach of Crab Key. It's one of the sexiest moments in all of cinema history.
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Dr. No r ActionAdventure
A resourceful British government agent seeks answers in a case involving the disappearance of a colleague and the disruption of the American space program.
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*Availability in US Release Date October 2, 1962 Director Terence Young Cast Sean Connery , Joseph Wiseman Runtime 110 minutes Writers Terence Young Budget $1.1 million Studio(s) United Artists Distributor(s) United Artists Expand 4 The Ski Jump 'The Spy Who Loved Me' (1977)
"Well, tell him to pull out, immediately!" Following the relative failure of the dour and tired The Man With the Golden Gun, Bond producers pulled out all the stops to make The Spy Who Loved Me, based in name only upon Fleming's book, the biggest Bond yet. These days, some would even call it the best. This is a wildly witty, globetrotting affair that goes full sci-fi in places, but everything works.
The best moment comes early on, when Roger Moore's Bond is evading adversaries on icy mountain slopes in Austria. Just when it looks like all hope is lost (he's running out of mountain, and fast), Bond dives off the cliff, deploying a Union Jack parachute to safety. It's a stand-up-and-cheer moment that would arguably come to both salvage and define Moore's (long-running, highly lucrative) era as the gentleman spy. It also just might be the greatest film stunt of all time. The Spy Who Loved Me is full of more iconography, like Richard Kiel's henchman, Jaws, and a Lotus Esprit that becomes a submarine.
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The Spy Who Loved Me PG ActionAdventureCrimeThriller Where to Watch stream rent buy
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*Availability in US Release Date July 7, 1977 Director Lewis Gilbert Cast Roger Moore , Barbara Bach , Curd Jürgens , Richard Kiel , Caroline Munro , Walter Gotell Runtime 125 minutes Writers Ian Fleming , Christopher Wood , Richard Maibaum Budget $13.5 Million Distributor(s) United Artists Main Genre Action Franchise(s) James Bond Expand 3 The Death of Tracy Bond 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' (1969)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service is another Bond film that always comes up in conversation around the series' most underrated entries. Visually stunning and thematically rich without losing an overall sense of fun, many hardcore fans of today even say it's the greatest Bond outing.
Based on one of Fleming's absolute best and richest page-turners, and quite faithfully adapted, On Her Majesty's Secret Service sees Bond (George Lazenby in his only Bond appearance) spying upon arch-nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld while falling in love with troubled Countess Teresa Di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg). The final moments of the film see Bond's heart broken beyond repair, as the love of his life is struck with a bullet intended for him, on their wedding day no less. Lazenby's performance is uneven in the film, but he's perfect here. Bond will never stop bleeding.
2 Bond's Introduction 'Dr. No' (1964)
Sean Connery wasn't Fleming's ideal choice for James Bond, but the 31-year-old Scot played a bigger part in 007's rise to a genuine phenomenon than could have been anticipated. In Dr. No, Bond is the everyman's aspiration, and a sexual fantasy for women (or, you know whomever). He's gorgeous, wry, and doesn't break a sweat emptying his new Walther PPK into an opponent who's had his six. It's all so... defining.
An icon for the ages was born mere minutes into the picture, when the first-ever Bond Girl, Sylvia Trench (Eunice Gayson), admires a smoking man's luck at cards, and asks his name. "Bond, James Bond." Perhaps you have heard this quotation quoted elsewhere.
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Dr. No r ActionAdventure
A resourceful British government agent seeks answers in a case involving the disappearance of a colleague and the disruption of the American space program.
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*Availability in US Release Date October 2, 1962 Director Terence Young Cast Sean Connery , Joseph Wiseman Runtime 110 minutes Writers Terence Young Budget $1.1 million Studio(s) United Artists Distributor(s) United Artists Expand 1 "Do You Expect Me to Talk?" 'Goldfinger' (1964)
"No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!" Sure, we're also doubling up on Goldfinger, but how could we not? The most essential of all spy films sees Bond in his most gratifying tête-à-tête, with a megalomaniac obsessed with gold. Goldfinger is a groundbreaking action picture, but the mind games of it all are an essential reason why it's commonly, often considered the greatest Bond picture.
Midway through the film, Bond is captured, and Goldfinger torments him with a slowly-moving laser beam (it's a saw in the book). The performers are perfect here: Fröbe (notably dubbed, but sublime in his physicality) is finding pleasure in all this, and Connery's Bond is finding it harder and harder too be cool, as each second passes. Goldfinger is a film of often near-unbearable suspense, and it's Connery's finest hour. Seriously, is this the single most entertaining movie ever made?
NEXT: Every James Bond Movie Era, Ranked