With Netflix having recently released a few James Bond movies for streaming, it seemed an appropriate time to put out a list ranking the top 10 movies of the series. Without further ado, here is our official list of the top 10 James Bond movies ever made.
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10 The Man with the Golden Gun
Make no mistake, this movie is not great, but it’s pure fun. Roger Moore dons the tux and squares off against a crack shot assassin, Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee), that is out to kill him. It features a flying car, a sinister midget, and an epic dual in Scaramanga’s “Fun House.” What more could you want?
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9 License to Kill
Bond (Timothy Dalton) is out for revenge after his friend at the CIA, Felix Leiter (David Hedison), is brutally attacked by a Colombian drug lord. Having to go rogue he teams up with CIA informer and lethal beauty, Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell), and his ever-loyal master of gadgets, Q (Desmond Llewelyn). It’s refreshing to see Bond go completely unhinged here, and we get the bonus of a young Benicio Del Toro as a knife wielding henchman.
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8 Thunderball
After the evil organization SPECTRE hijacks two nuclear warheads and holds the world ransom, it’s up to Bond (Sean Connery) to travel to the Bahamas to save the day. The movie is chock full of amazing scenes including some classic Bond card playing, a massive underwater battle at the climax, and a jetpack! There’s just something about Bond being in the Caribbean that works.
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7 Dr. No
Following the loss of one of their agents in Jamaica, M16 sends Bond down to investigate. This was the first film of the iconic series and should hold a dear place in any true fans heart. Connery delivers some epic one liners while showing how cool smoking, drinking and womanizing can be. This movie not only launched one of the largest film series of all time, it catapulted Connery into Hollywood stardom. We also get the introduction of SPECTRE, which became a pillar of the Connery films.
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6 The Spy Who Love Me
Following the capture of their nuclear submarines, the British and Russian governments send their best agents off to Egypt to investigate. Here we have Moore teaming up with Barbara Bach as the gorgeous Russian spy, Anya Amasova, aka Triple X. This film was easily Moore’s best, and it features some of the most famous aspects of the entire series, including the introduction of Jaws (Richard Kiel), the Lotus Esprit car chase, and the opening sequence that has Bond skiing off the side of a mountain. This one is a ton of fun and rarely slows down.
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5 From Russia With Love
Now the list gets REALLY hard, because it feels like most of these films could be interchangeable based on the mood you’re in. Regardless, From Russia With Love will currently hold down the five spot. Connery is out for his second run as Bond, and he really develops his craft with this one. Bond is pitted up against SPECTRE once more, and this time they use the promise of a decoding machine delivered by a Russian beauty to lead him into a trap. Waiting at the other end of the trap is the psychotic killing machine and Russian agent, Donald “Red” Grant (Robert Shaw). This movie just had the feel of an espionage thriller from start to finish, with double agents everywhere and assassinations in dark alleys. To cap things off, the movie ends with an all-time great Bond fight scene, as he goes head-to-head against Grant on a train.
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4 Skyfall
Daniel Craig makes his debut on the list in the four spot with Skyfall, which feels like an injustice because of how amazing this movie is. Here Bond goes up against a former operative, Silva (played masterfully by Javier Bardem), that is out for revenge against M (Judi Dench). By this point you can tell how comfortable Craig is playing Bond, as he channels his inner Connery to add a certain swagger to his version of the character we hadn’t yet seen. However, as good as Craig is, Bardem manages to steal every scene, giving the most well-acted villain performance we’ve seen in the franchise. This was director Sam Mendes’ first Bond movie, and he did an incredible job paying homage to earlier films in the series.
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3 Goldeneye
As natural of a fit for Bond as Pierce Brosnan was, he came into the role at an unfortunate time in the series where the movies were plagued by their own ridiculousness. Despite this, his first film, Goldeneye, is still a Bond Hall of Famer. Bond goes up against former agent and friend, Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean), who plans to rob England using a stolen satellite weapon. Even though this movie can certainly be a bit much with Bond driving a tank through the streets of St. Petersburg, Russia, it flows well behind the performance from Brosnan. We’re introduced to a new M (Dench), as well as a couple regulars to the Brosnan films, Jack Wade (Joe Don Baker) and Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane). The only downside to Goldeneye is that we didn’t have more time to develop Trevelyan’s relationship with Bond, which would’ve been nice had it gone back a few movies. Perhaps the biggest thing that Goldeneye sparked was a revolution to the first-person gamer industry once it was released for Nintendo 64. To this day it’s hailed as one of the best video games of all time.
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2 Casino Royale
And then there were two. Casino Royale is not only an amazing Bond movie, it’s an amazing movie. There was much controversy surrounding Brosnan leaving the series and the little-known Craig taking over. Craig didn’t fit the build of Bond that Connery, Dalton and Brosnan were all more natural fits for. But WOW did Craig put skeptics to rest. He gave us a look at Bond as an uncompromising brawler that will pull the trigger on a whim, and that happened to be exactly what the audience wanted. In just his first movie as 007 Craig was a series legend. Casino Royale puts Bond up against known terrorist financier, Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), in a poker game he organized to recoup some recent losses. It’s up to Bond to clean him so the British government can offer sanctuary before his clients come for his head. Director Martin Campbell (who also directed Goldeneye) did a top notch job balancing the intensity of this movie with some dark comedy that Craig delivers perfectly. The action throughout the film is second to none, and Bond fans even get a nice little tribute as we’re shown the inception of the vodka martini, shaken, not stirred. Craig also gave the franchise its best chase scene ever as Bond tracks down a terrorist on foot, and winds up fighting him hundreds of feet in the air on scaffolding. The ending of the movie drags of a bit, but it gets a pass based on how amazing the first two hours are.
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1 Goldfinger
I would venture a guess that the vast majority of Bond fans rank Goldfinger as number 1 on their lists, for this film truly encapsulates the formula of a Bond flick. It’s got the best gadgets, the coolest car, a megalomaniac villain with a weird obsession, an infamous henchman, and it’s got Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman) for god’s sake! It really checks all the Bond boxes. In Goldfinger it’s up to Bond to stop gold-obsessed smuggler, Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe), from setting off an atomic device in Fort Knox in an effort to radiate the gold supply of the United States. Honestly, typing out that plot overview almost felt cringeworthy, but for some reason this movie really works. Connery gives his best performance as Bond after he perfected his character in the previous two movies. Aston Martin comes into the fold as Bond starts driving the most iconic car from the franchise, the DB5 (that comes complete with a freakin’ ejector seat!). We get arguably the best gambling scene of any Bond movie as he and Goldfinger go up against one another in a golf match. There are many unique aspects that make Bond movies so special, and Goldfinger highlights all of them.