The 1980s brought some of the bestJames Bondmovies, likeLicense to Killandthe massively underratedFor Your Eyes Only, but it also brought some of the worst, likeOctopussyandA View to a Kill. The ‘80s were a very hit-and-miss time for Hollywood, as the experimentation of the American New Wave was replaced by flashy big-budget studio fare, and, by extension, it was a hit-and-miss period for the Bond franchise. The decade kicked off with the final years of the Roger Moore era, when many critics were complaining that Moore had aged out of the role.
After Moore’s tenure ended, Timothy Dalton was brought in with a radical reinvention of the character. The goofy, tongue-in-cheek humor of the Moore era was replaced by a darker, more grounded tone more in line with Ian Fleming’s source material.Dalton’s two Bond movieswere the polar opposite of Moore’s record-breaking seven. His cold-blooded take on 007 was more faithful to the original stories, and a precursor to the gritty realism ofCasino Royale. In between all that, Sean Connery returned to the role of Bond for one last unofficial outing. The ‘80s Bond movies were a mixed bag.
6A View To A Kill
Moore’s tenure as 007 ended not with a bang, but with a whimper. The plots of Bond movies don’t need to be 100% realistic, but the nonsensical premise ofA View to a Killreally takes the cake: an industrialist sets out to destroy Silicon Valley so he can monopolize the microchip industry. Christopher Walken’s performance as the villainous industrialist, Max Zorin, is really big, even for this franchise. He makes Dr. No and Auric Goldfinger look understated by comparison. Grace Jones’ May Day is iconic, but that’s not enough to save the movie.
Moore’s Bond movieshad all featured moments of comic relief that elicited more rolled eyes than laughter, butA View to a Killgoes overboard with the humor. In the opening snowboard chase, there’s a bizarre moment in which 007 pretends to surf on the snow and a riff from the Beach Boys’ “California Girls” plays on the soundtrack. That gag would’ve been too stupid forSpy Hard. By that point, Moore and the filmmakers weren’t taking Bond seriously in the slightest. If they’re not taking any of it seriously, they can’t really expect the audience to take it seriously.
5Octopussy
While it’s not quite as terrible asA View to a Kill, Moore’s penultimate Bond outing,Octopussy, exemplifies all the worst qualities of his Bond: silly one-liners, slapstick gags, and needlessly convoluted plotting. The scene in which 007 goes undercover as a clown is symbolic of the biggest problem with the comedic focus of Moore’s tenure: he turned Bond into a joke. The villain, General Orlov, isn’t quite as cartoonish as Zorin, but he is a clichéd, one-dimensional caricature of a Soviet general. It’s about 10 minutes too long and its tone is way too wacky for a Bond movie.
Still,there’s a lot to love inOctopussy. It exhibits the sheer sense of fun and escapism that people love about this franchise. Maud Adams’ performance in the title role received mixed reviews, but it’s undeniably memorable. The climactic set-piece, in which Bond fights a baddie on the outside of a plane in mid-air, is one of the most thrilling action sequences in the entire franchise — it’s reminiscent of the stunts in Christopher Nolan movies. It’s especially impressive that this airplane sequence was pulled off long before the filmmakers could use CGI to digitally remove safety harnesses.
4Never Say Never Again
More than a decade after his last official outing inDiamonds Are Forever(and well into Moore’s tenure), Sean Connery decided to reprise his role as Bond one last time — this time, in an unofficial non-Eon production. Due to a legal loophole with the story rights, producer Jack Schwartzman was able to make a Bond movie outside the official Eon canon by adaptingThunderball. Connery had already adaptedThunderballas his fourth movie for Eon, so he essentiallyremade his own Bond moviewithNever Say Never Againin 1983.
While it borrows the basic plot ofThunderball, since Connery was much older,Never Say Never Againhas a lot of meta jokes about how Bond has aged out of his job (although, ironically, Connery was younger than Moore, who still had two more Bond films in him). But, jokes about Connery’s age aside, he’s still perfectly suited to the role of Bond, andNever Say Never Againis surprisingly strong for a cash-grab built on a loophole. The dialogue is witty, the action scenes are exciting, andThe Empire Strikes Back’s Irvin Kershner does a fine job as director.
With its goofy, self-aware humor,Never Say Never Againfeels more like one of Moore’s Bond movies than one of Connery’s. Connery’s Bond films all had fun with the character and never took themselves totally seriously, but they were never as off-the-wall asNever Say Never Again. There’s a scene in this movie in which 007 incapacitates a bad guy by dousing them with his own urine sample, which is a good indicator of what kind of movie this is.
3License To Kill
Dalton’s second and final Bond film,License to Kill, is one of007’s darkest outings. It’s essentially Bond versus Scarface, as it sees 007 pursuing a vendetta against a ruthless drug lord. The plot is more emotionally involving than the average Bond movie, because it doesn’t send 007 on a larger-than-life mission to save the world; it sees him embarking on a personal revenge mission to avenge his friend’s bride.License to Killis the Bond movie equivalent ofDeath WishorFoxy Brown; it’s more of a revenge exploitation movie (and a darn satisfying one) than a spy thriller.
License to Killis one of the most action-packed Bond movies. Since 007 is on a quest for vengeance, the action never stops. It has some of the series’ most impressive stunts, like 007 running from an exploding tanker, and it has a jaw-dropping plane heist sequence. Tonally,License to Killis one of the most faithful Bond movies to Fleming’s source material. Most of the Bond films have watered down the violent content of Fleming’s books, butLicense to Killleans into it. There’s a scene in which a henchman gets fed legs-first into an industrial-sized cocaine grinder.
Frankly, Bond is a more interesting character as a rogue agent. A typical Bond movie sees 007 getting a briefing from M, going on an adventure with the information in his dossier, and taking down a megalomaniacal villain bent on world domination. But that plot template can make the franchise feel like a formulaic procedural following the same cookie-cutter outline. When he left his MI6 assignment behind and went rogue inLicense to Kill, he also left behind the formula and sprung into a much less predictable story.
2For Your Eyes Only
AfterMoonrakerhad taken Bond into outer space (in an attempt to cash in on the then-recent success ofStar Wars), both the fans and the producers agreed that it had gone a bit too far. So, the filmmakers course-corrected by making Moore’s next 007 adventure a darker, more grounded affair harking back to the early Connery films. This refreshing approach resulted in one of the most underappreciated Bond movies:For Your Eyes Only. It has a bonkers cold open cramming every previous iteration of Bond into the same canon, but after that, it launches into a grim revenge story.
For Your Eyes Only’s gritty tone is much closer toCasino RoyaleorFrom Russia with Lovethan the far-fetched absurdity ofOctopussyandMoonraker. There are moments of Moore-era slapstick inFor Your Eyes Only, like a car chase involving a goofy-looking yellow Citroën 2CV, but the comic relief never goes into eye-rolling territory and detracts from the excitement — it’s just a sly wink to the audience. This is Moore’s most faithful performance as Bond by far. He finally captures the seriousness and cold-heartedness of the character that Fleming wrote on the page.
1The Living Daylights
After the disappointment of Moore’s last couple of movies, Dalton’s 007 debut — 1987’sThe Living Daylights— was a welcome return to form for the Bond franchise.The Living Daylightsmight not have a particularly memorable Bond villain, but it makes up for it with a great Bond girl in Kara Milovy, a devilishly debonair performance by Dalton, and wildly original action sequences like a chase down a snowy mountain inside a cello case. The plot is relatively grounded for the Bond franchise, and Dalton’s dark, edgy take on 007 is a perfect adaptation of the source material.
This movie has some of the franchise’s greatest stunts: Bond clings to the roof of a speeding truck during a pursuit and hangs off a bundle of cargo dangling out the back of a plane like Nathan Drake inUncharted 3.The Living Daylightshasa surprisingly sweet love story for a Bond movie. 007’s romantic gesture in the final scene at Kara’s performance wouldn’t be out of place in a sappy romcom. There were a lot of greatJames Bondmovies in the 1980s (and some not-so-great ones), but easily the finest of the bunch isThe Living Daylights.
James Bond
The James Bond franchise follows the adventures of British secret agent 007 as he combats global threats. With a license to kill, Bond faces off against various villains and criminal organizations, employing high-tech gadgets, espionage, and charm. The series spans multiple films, featuring exotic locations, thrilling action sequences, and memorable characters. Bond’s mission to protect the world and uphold justice remains central, making the franchise an enduring icon in the spy genre.
