The James Bond franchise is known for its jaw-dropping stunts, with each actor who takes on the role of 007 having their own memorable moments. James Bond has often been at the forefront of the action genre, creating plenty of memorable stunts that push the boundaries of what’s possible on screen. The best James Bond stunts are among the best in the history of cinema. Few franchises have delivered spectacular thrills with such consistency, even though there have been plenty of changes over the decades.
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Each Bond actor brings their own particular style to the role, and this is reflected in the types of stunts that are seen in their movies. For example, Sean Connery’s Bond is classy and understated, so his stunts aren’t particularly showy. By contrast, Roger Moore’s slightly camper Bond has some of the most outrageous stunts in the franchise. After Daniel Craig’s tenure as Bond, the franchise is looking ahead to a new era. While there will be a lot of focus on the actor who steps into Craig’s shoes, this will also affect the tone of the movies, and the types of stunts that fans can expect to see.
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6 George Lazenby – The Bobsled Chase
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
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On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
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*Availability in US Director Peter R. Hunt Release Date December 19, 1969 Cast George Lazenby , Diana Rigg , Telly Savalas , Gabriele Ferzetti , Ilse Steppat , Angela Scoular
George Lazenby appeared in just one movie as 007, so he doesn’t have as many stunts to choose from as the other contenders. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was a box office disappointment at the time, but it has since been reevaluated, with some Bond fans suggesting that it has been treated unfairly. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was always going to come under extreme scrutiny. Lazenby has the confidence to put his own spin on Bond, rather than trying to imitate Connery’s approach. The movie’s stunts kept in line with the previous Bond movies, doing some solid work without anything too showy or spectacular.
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There aren’t many stunts in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service which stand out. The movie introduces the first James Bond ski chase, something which has become a franchise tradition, but Lazenby wasn’t allowed to do any of the skiing himself for insurance reasons. Tracy’s icy car chase and the bobsled chase with Blofeld are the two other outstanding action sequences. The bobsled chase features a lot of green screen, but the wide shots of stunt performers barreling down the track are real. The single most impressive stunt is probably when Bond is thrown clear of his sled by one of Blofeld’s grenades.
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5 Sean Connery – Driving On Two Wheels
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
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Diamonds Are Forever
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*Availability in US Director Guy Hamilton Release Date December 17, 1971 Cast Sean Connery , Jill St. John , Charles Gray , Jimmy Dean , Bruce Cabot
Sean Connery remains the quintessential James Bond to many fans of the franchise. He set the tone and established many of the franchise’s most recognizable quirks. However, looking back at his Bond movies shows that one thing that was missing was the remarkable stunts that the franchise later became associated with. The early Bond movies have some great action sequences without many particularly splashy stunts. For example, the Aston Martin chase in Goldfinger is a highlight of the film, but it doesn’t really have a single moment that stands out. The ejector seat moment is fun, but it’s relatively small compared to other Bond stunts.
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Diamonds Are Forever came after Sean Connery quit the James Bond franchise briefly. He was persuaded to return after the commercial disappointment of George Lazenby’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Although Diamonds Are Forever doesn’t hit the same heights as Goldfinger or From Russia With Love, it does produce some of the franchise’s biggest stunts yet. There’s a lot to like about the climactic oil rig fight, but the best stunt comes much earlier, while Bond and Tiffany Case are still in Las Vegas. Bond uses a ramp to get his Mustang up on to two wheels so that it can fit through a narrow alley.
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The two-wheeled driving stunt is a turning point for the James Bond franchise, as it’s the first time that the movies use stunt work to create one big splash. Before then, the stunts had all been in service to some neatly plotted action sequences. One eye-catching exception is the helicopter chase in From Russia With Love, although this apes Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest. The fact that the car enters the alley on its right wheels and exits on its left wheels makes no sense whatsoever, but it’s easy to ignore this detail when the stunt is so entertaining. This is the first James Bond stunt that draws attention to itself in such a way.
4 Timothy Dalton – Bond Fights Necros
The Living Daylights (1987)
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The Living Daylights
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*Availability in US Director John Glen Release Date July 31, 1987 Cast Timothy Dalton , Maryam d’Abo , Jeroen Krabbé , Joe Don Baker , John Rhys-Davies , Art Malik , Andreas Wisniewski , Thomas Wheatley , Desmond Llewelyn , Robert Brown , Geoffrey Keen , Walter Gotell , Caroline Bliss , John Terry , Virginia Hey , John Bowe , Julie T. Wallace , Belle Avery , Catherine Rabett , Dulice Liecier , Nadim Sawalha , Alan Talbot , Carl Rigg Expand
Timothy Dalton starred as James Bond in just two movies, The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill, but he had a big impact on the franchise. After the Roger Moore era ramped up the use of megalomaniacal villains, sci-fi gadgets and quips, Dalton pushed the producers to return to a more realistic style. His Bond is more aligned with Sean Connery’s version, but the key is that it’s also much closer to Ian Fleming’s vision for the character. The stunts in The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill aren’t as outlandish as they were in the Moore era, but they can be just as exciting.
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Dalton’s darker and more dangerous take on the character means that his action scenes often feel a little livelier. In the climactic fight with General Koskov’s henchman Necros, there are plenty of wide shots which emphasize the danger of the two men clinging to the plane’s cargo net high above the desert. Stunt performers B. J. Worth and Jake Lombard stepped up to play out the fight scene, and it’s a joy to watch them trading punches at 15,000 feet. There were ropes to keep them secured to the plane, of course, but the stunt is still so exciting that it’s easy to get swept away in the action.
3 Pierce Brosnan – The Dam Bungee Jump
GoldenEye (1995)
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10/10 8/10 GoldenEye
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*Availability in US Director Martin Campbell Release Date November 16, 1995 Cast Pierce Brosnan , Sean Bean , Izabella Scorupco , Famke Janssen , Joe Don Baker , judi dench
GoldenEye was Pierce Brosnan’s first movie as James Bond, and it introduces him with one of the franchise’s most iconic stunts. The boat barrel roll in The World Is Not Enough, the bike chase with Wai Lin in Tomorrow Never Dies and the Aston Martin power sliding on ice are all highlights of the Brosnan years, but none of these scenes are as popular as the dam jump. It’s a relatively simple stunt, without any explosions, guns or pursuers, but this all makes it easier to focus on the sheer audacity of it, as Bond swan dives hundreds of feet over the side of the dam.
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Switzerland’s Verzasca Dam provided the location for the jump, standing in for a Russian base. British stunt performer Wayne Michaels plunged 722 feet to complete the stunt in a single take, and he scooped a Guinness World Record in the process. Almost 30 years later, it remains the highest bungee jump ever seen in a movie. The stunt sticks out from most other famous Bond moments, because it isn’t a chase scene, a fight scene, or anything else that Bond usually does. It’s a standalone moment of brilliance that’s just as breathtaking when it’s completely stripped of its context.
2 Roger Moore – Stepping Over Crocodiles
Live and Let Die (1973)
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Live and Let Die
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*Availability in US Director Guy Hamilton Release Date June 27, 1973 Cast Roger Moore , Yaphet Kotto , Jane Seymour , Clifton James , Julius Harris , Geoffrey Holder
The Roger Moore era is probably the most divisive in the history of the James Bond franchise, with some fans lamenting the campy, goofy turn which the movies took in those years. However, there’s no denying the impact of some of the stunts that came out of Moore’s movies. The corkscrew car flip in The Man With the Golden Gun sums up the Moore era in some ways. It’s an incredible stunt, but it’s accompanied by a whimsical slide whistle sound effect which robs the scene of any sense of danger. The ski jump with the Union Jack parachute in The Spy Who Loved Me is another iconic stunt from the Moore years.
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Possibly the best and most memorable stunt from Roger Moore’s tenure as 007 comes in Live and Let Die, when Bond is left stranded in the middle of a pond filled with crocodiles. He hops across the backs of the crocodiles like stepping stones to get to safety. Stunt performer Ross Kananga – for whom the movie’s villain was renamed – managed to pull off the feat in five takes. Watching the takes that didn’t make it into the final cut of the movie underlines just how dangerous this stunt is, as the crocodiles snap at Kananga’s heels. The result was worth it, however, as Roger Moore’s best James Bond stunt made franchise history.
1 Daniel Craig – The Crane Jump
Casino Royale (2006)
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8/10 7/10 Casino Royale
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*Availability in US Director Martin Campbell Release Date November 14, 2006 Cast Daniel Craig , Eva Green , Mads Mikkelsen , judi dench , Jeffrey Wright , Giancarlo Giannini
Daniel Craig’s James Bond movies have seen many of the best stunts that the franchise has to offer, and it’s hard to pick just one. The bike chase in No Time To Die, the record-breaking cannon roll in Casino Royale and the fight on the roof of a train in Skyfall have all reaffirmed James Bond‘s status as one of the very best action movie franchises ever. In the 21st century, Bond has kicked the stunts up a notch by taking inspiration from Mission: Impossible, the Bourne franchise, Christopher Nolan’s movies and more. The best stunt of Craig’s era could come from the beginning of his first Bond movie, Casino Royale.
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The parkour chase scene is the perfect introduction to a new kind of Bond. It’s hard to imagine some of Craig’s predecessors in such a dynamic and violent foot chase. This early scene signals that this Bond isn’t afraid of getting dirty. The entire chase through the construction site strings together some remarkable stunts, but the best of the lot is the jump between the two cranes. The music hesitates for a moment, as if time is standing still while Bond hangs in midair before coming crashing down once more. The stunts in Casino Royale feel more kinetic and dangerous than some of the franchise’s other big, spectacular stunts.
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Casino Royale inspired a miniature trend of action movies using parkour in the 2000s, but this is far from the first time that the James Bond franchise has set the pace for the genre. Regardless of who is cast as 007 for Bond 26, the franchise will once again be expected to push the boundaries of big-screen stunts and action spectacle. Throughout the 21st century, more and more big-budget action movies have been resorting to CGI for some of their showiest set pieces, but Bond will always get its most exciting thrills from old-fashioned practical stunt work.