a Yourlist ranking · the crowd decides the order
From Connery's icy debut to Craig's brutal send-off, which 007 outing truly defines the franchise? Vote up the Bond films that earned their license to thrill.
What counts: Ranked by a blend of critical consensus, cultural impact, and how well each film defines the 'Bond formula.' Box office figures are approximate worldwide unadjusted grosses, and critic scores are rounded approximations of aggregated reviews.
The template for every Bond film that followed: the laser table, the gold-painted corpse, Oddjob's lethal bowler hat, and the Aston Martin DB5 debuting its gadgets. Connery is at his most magnetic, and the line 'No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die' still defines villain banter.
Year: 1964Bond Actor: Critical Reputation: 9.5/10Worldwide Box Office: 125 $M
added by IJRin 2 rankings
Sam Mendes turned 007's 50th anniversary into a meditation on aging and legacy, with Javier Bardem's Silva as a chillingly personal villain and Adele's title song sweeping an Oscar. The Skyfall Lodge finale burns the old Bond down to rebuild him.
Year: 2012Bond Actor: Critical Reputation: 9.2/10Worldwide Box Office: 1,108 $M
added by IJRin 4 rankings
Craig's reboot stripped away the camp and gave Bond a bleeding, brutal humanity, from the free-running Madagascar chase to the torture-chair scene that still makes audiences wince. Vesper Lynd's betrayal gave 007 his first real heartbreak.
Year: 2006Bond Actor: Critical Reputation: 9/10Worldwide Box Office: 599 $M
added by IJRin 4 rankings
A lean, Cold War-soaked espionage thriller built around the legendary train fight with Robert Shaw's Red Grant, widely considered the series' most grounded and grittiest early entry. It proved Bond could work as pure spycraft, not just spectacle.
Year: 1963Bond Actor: Critical Reputation: 8.8/10Worldwide Box Office: 78 $M
added by IJRin 2 rankings
Roger Moore's finest hour pairs him with Jaws, a steel-toothed henchman who became an instant icon, and delivers the underwater Lotus Esprit that remains one of cinema's greatest gadget reveals. The ski jump into a Union Jack parachute is the perfect cold open.
Year: 1977Bond Actor: Critical Reputation: 8/10Worldwide Box Office: 185 $M
added by IJRin 2 rankings
Brosnan's debut resurrected Bond for the '90s with the tank chase through St. Petersburg and a villain, 006, who makes betrayal personal. The N64 game it spawned may be as culturally significant as the film itself.
Year: 1995Bond Actor: Critical Reputation: 8/10Worldwide Box Office: 352 $M
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George Lazenby's lone outing is a critical darling now, giving Bond an actual wife, Tracy, and the gut-punch ending where she's murdered on their wedding day. Its emotional weight has aged better than almost any other entry.
Year: 1969Bond Actor: Critical Reputation: 8.3/10Worldwide Box Office: 82 $M
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Where it all began: Connery striding out of the shadows to say 'Bond, James Bond,' Ursula Andress emerging from the sea in that white bikini, and a nuclear-obsessed villain setting the blueprint for decades of world domination plots.
Year: 1962Bond Actor: Critical Reputation: 7.8/10Worldwide Box Office: 59 $M
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Moore's introduction leans into blaxploitation and voodoo horror, with Baron Samedi's laugh haunting audiences and a speedboat chase through Louisiana bayous. Paul McCartney's title theme is arguably the franchise's best song.
Year: 1973Bond Actor: Critical Reputation: 7/10Worldwide Box Office: 161 $M
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Timothy Dalton's first film pivoted Bond toward hard-edged realism amid actual Cold War politics, with a cello-case sled escape across the Austrian border as its standout set piece. Underrated and overdue for reappraisal.
Year: 1987Bond Actor: Critical Reputation: 7.3/10Worldwide Box Office: 191 $M
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Moore dials back the gadgetry for a grittier revenge-and-espionage story, climaxing in a genuinely tense mountain monastery assault. It's the Roger Moore film critics point to when arguing he could do serious Bond too.
Year: 1981Bond Actor: Critical Reputation: 7.2/10Worldwide Box Office: 195 $M
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Underwater warfare on a massive scale, with SPECTRE's nuclear blackmail plot and the jetpack escape that became instantly iconic. It was the biggest Bond hit of its era, cementing 007 as a global box-office phenomenon.
Year: 1965Bond Actor: Critical Reputation: 7/10Worldwide Box Office: 141 $M
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Craig's five-film arc ends in the only way it could: with Bond dying, a franchise first, after finally finding a family with Madeleine and their daughter. Safin's poison-garden lair and the Cuba party sequence give the send-off real style.
Year: 2021Bond Actor: Critical Reputation: 7.5/10Worldwide Box Office: 774 $M
added by IJRin 2 rankings
Dalton goes rogue for personal vengeance after Felix Leiter is maimed, making this the darkest, most violence-forward Bond before Craig existed. It bombed at the time but is now praised for taking real risks.
Year: 1989Bond Actor: Critical Reputation: 6.8/10Worldwide Box Office: 156 $M
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A media mogul villain manufacturing wars for ratings feels eerily prescient, and the BMW motorcycle chase handcuffed to Michelle Yeoh is a genuine highlight. Brosnan's second outing leaned harder into blockbuster spectacle.
Year: 1997Bond Actor: Critical Reputation: 6.5/10Worldwide Box Office: 339 $M
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Ninjas, a hollowed-out volcano lair, and Blofeld's full reveal make this the most over-the-top Connery entry, directly inspiring the Austin Powers parodies decades later. It's pure Cold War pulp spectacle.
Year: 1967Bond Actor: Critical Reputation: 6.8/10Worldwide Box Office: 111 $M
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Sophie Marceau's Elektra King gave Bond one of its rare female masterminds, and Robert Carlyle's pain-immune villain Renard added a novel threat. The pipeline speedboat chase on the Thames opens things with real energy.
Year: 1999Bond Actor: Critical Reputation: 6/10Worldwide Box Office: 361 $M
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Connery's reluctant return leans campy, with Vegas glitz, a moon-buggy chase, and the flamboyant assassin duo Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd. It's a transitional, uneven film bridging his era into Moore's lighter tone.
Year: 1971Bond Actor: Critical Reputation: 6.2/10Worldwide Box Office: 116 $M
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A circus-troupe villain plot and Bond disguised as a clown to defuse a nuclear bomb sum up the film's wild tonal swings. Maud Adams' Octopussy and her all-female island cult give it a memorable, unusual flavor.
Year: 1983Bond Actor: Critical Reputation: 6/10Worldwide Box Office: 187 $M
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A direct sequel to Casino Royale that traded Bond's emotional grief for relentless, shaky-cam action, dividing fans on its bleak tone. It's remembered mostly for the Bregenz opera-house confrontation and Bond at his coldest.
Year: 2008Bond Actor: Critical Reputation: 5.8/10Worldwide Box Office: 586 $M
added by IJRQuantum of Solace
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