From Sean Connery’s brutal train fight inFrom Russia with Loveto Daniel Craig’s intense stairwell fight inCasino Royale,theJames Bondmovies are full of great fight scenes.The Bond franchise has delivered all kinds of action sequencesover the course of its six-decade history. InGoldenEye, Bond chases after the bad guys in a tank. Inthe underratedOctopussy, the climactic action scene takes place on the wing of a plane in mid-air. A bunch of Bond movies culminate in an eye-popping explosion wiping the villain’s lair off the face of the earth.
One of the staples of the Bond series’ action is their fist-pumping fight sequences. Inevery Bond movie, 007 gets into at least one fight, whether it’s with the main villain, one of his henchmen, or a secondary baddie who gets in his way during his mission. From the shark tank fight where Bond feeds Jaws to a hungry aquatic predator inThe Spy Who Loved Meto the Fort Knox fight where Bond has to use his smarts when he’s physically outmatched by Oddjob inGoldfinger,the Bond franchise is jam-packed with unforgettable fight scenes.
10Bond Vs. Patrice
Skyfall (2012)
In the second act ofSkyfall, when Bond is finally back in action, he tracks down Patrice, a sniper who’s been hired to assassinate an art critic in Shanghai. Patrice sets up his rifle in a skyscraper and targets the critic through a window across the street.
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From Moonraker cashing in on the Star Wars hype to Casino Royale borrowing Bourne’s tone, plenty of James Bond movies were influenced by other films.
Bond doesn’t arrive in time to save the critic’s life — Patrice manages to pull the trigger before he gets there — but007 quickly bests Patrice in hand-to-hand combat. This is one of the sleekest fight scenes in the Bond franchise.
9The Death Match At The Kung Fu School
The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)
When Roger Moore played 007,the Bond movies took influence from other popular filmsof the time.Live and Let Diewas inspired by blaxploitation movies,Moonrakerwas inspired by theStar Warscraze, andThe Man with the Golden Gunwasinspired by Bruce Lee’s blockbuster kung fu movies of the 1970s. It’s not a martial arts movie from start to finish, but there’s a mini martial arts movie wedged into the second act.
When Bond is captured and taken to a kung fu academy, the students (who are being trained as living, breathing lethal weapons) are all ordered to kill him.007 has to fight his way out of the school in a death-match sequenceinspired byEnter the Dragon. This is one of the Bond series’ most over-the-top fight scenes, but it’s undeniably thrilling.
8007’s First Kill
Casino Royale (2006)
Inspired by the popularity of theBournefranchise, the usually goofy and far-fetched Bond franchise was injected with a refreshing sense of gritty realism in Daniel Craig’s first outing,Casino Royale.Casino Royalewent back to fill in Bond’s origin story, explaining how he earned 00 status and became such a cold-blooded killer. And in doing so,it brought 007 into the real world with realistically brutal violence.
The grim tone ofCasino Royaleis instantly established inthe chilling opening scene depicting Bond’s first killin stark black-and-white. Since 007 isn’t accustomed to killing yet, it’s not a swift, elegant assassination; it’s horribly messy. It’s a gruesome, drawn-out affair in which Bond callously murders a man in a filthy bathroom, and the high-contrast black-and-white palette gives it the feel of an old-school film noir.
7The Hotel Room Scene
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
George Lazenby made the least Bond movies out of any Bond actor. Even Timothy Dalton outdid Lazenby with his two controversial outings. But one movie was all Lazenby needed to become an icon, becauseOn Her Majesty’s Secret Serviceis one of the finest Bond films ever made.It has gorgeous cinematography that’s inspired Christopher Nolanand Steven Soderbergh, it has a genuinely touching love story that culminates in a tragic final twist, and it’s got one of the franchise’s all-time best fight scenes.
Lazenby’s007 is ambushed in a hotel roomand, despite being caught at a disadvantage, manages to get the upper hand. An unsuspecting Bond is bludgeoned from behind upon entering his hotel room. But instead of reacting with fear or confusion, his immediate response is to throw a chair at the guy.
6Bond Vs. Hinx
Spectre (2015)
On the whole,Spectreis one of Daniel Craig’s weakest Bond movies. Its attempt to retroactively pull all the previous movies into a cohesive Marvel-style continuity was pretty futile, and the twist that Bond is Blofeld’s long-lost brother is so absurd thatAustin Powersdid it first. ButSpectredoes have one of Bond’s best fight scenes whenDave Bautista’s strapping henchman Hinx attacks 007 on a train.
It’s not one of the most realistic action sequences in the Bond franchise —it’s bombastic and exaggerated— but it is a thrilling piece of action filmmaking. Bond is massively outmatched by Hinx. Hinx is twice his size and effortlessly hurls him around the train. Bond has no hope of actually winning the fight; he’s just trying to stay alive until a miracle comes along to save him.
5Bond Vs. Oddjob
Goldfinger (1964)
The climactic sequence ofGoldfingertakes place at Fort Knox, where Auric Goldfinger is planning to smelt down the gold supply to increase the value of his own. Before Bond can get to Goldfinger himself and thwart that ludicrous scheme, he has to faceGoldfinger’s top henchman, Oddjob. Up to this point, Oddjob has mostly used his deadly bowler hat in fights. But when he faces Bond, all he needs are his two fists.
Oddjob throws Bond around like a rag doll; his attempts to fight back are futile. This is one of the rare fight scenes in which Bond can’t use his brawn to defeat the baddie, so he has to use his quick wits to outsmart the hulking henchman. It becomes so clear that Bond is outmatched thathe resorts to throwing gold bars at his enemy.
4Bond Vs. Jaws
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Very few Bond movie henchmen are as popular as Jaws. The metal-toothed goon proved to be such a fan-favorite that he was brought back to torment 007 again in the next film,Moonraker, where he found love in one ofBond’s campest moments. But before that,Jaws worked for Karl Stromberg inThe Spy Who Loved Me. When Bond arrives at Stromberg’s base to kill him, he has to go through Jaws first.
This fight scene hilariously exemplifies just how formidable Jaws is.Bond defeats Jaws by tossing him into the water tankwhere Stromberg’s bloodthirsty shark lives. But before the shark can take a bite out of Jaws, Jaws lives up to his name and takes a bite out of the shark. It’s a great slapstick punchline at the end of a fun, pulpy, David-versus-Goliath fight scene.
3Bond Vs. Alec Trevelyan
GoldenEye (1995)
Pierce Brosnan’s tenure as 007peaked in his first movie,GoldenEye. It’s the best action movie of the Brosnan era, but it’s also the most compelling story of the Brosnan era.Alec Trevelyan is no ordinary Bond villain; he’s Bond’s friend and colleague who he thought was dead, but had actually switched sides to join the bad guys. After grieving the loss of his friend, 007 goes through a whole different kind of loss when he finds out his friend betrayed him.
This emotional dynamic makes Bond’s final showdown with Trevelyan much more dramatically engaging than the average Bond fight scene. Andit’s not just compelling on a dramatic level; it’s riveting action cinema, too. Their climactic confrontation starts out as a shootout before devolving into a close-quarters fistfight. They’re confined to a small space, with nowhere to run.
2The Stairwell Scene
The middle act ofCasino Royaledrastically slows down the movie. AfterCasino Royaleopens with Bond killing a man in a bathroom and doing parkour on a sun-drenched construction site, the majority of its second act sees 007 sitting at a poker table, taking part in a high-stakes tournament. But halfway through the poker tournament,Bond is ambushed by a couple of goons in a stairwell, and he has to beat them to death before they can do the same to him.
The violence isn’t cool and stylized; it’s cruel, gruesome, and hauntingly realistic.
This fight scene is a stark contrast from Bond’s usual fisticuffs. Bond usually wins his fights with ease, but this is a desperate battle to the death. The violence isn’t cool and stylized;it’s cruel, gruesome, and hauntingly realistic. When it’s finally over, Vesper’s traumatized response mirrors that of a shocked audience.
1Bond Vs. Red Grant
From Russia With Love (1963)
The greatest fight scene in the Bond franchise arrived in just the second movie,From Russia with Love. All throughout the film, 007 is being hunted by a ruthless assassin named Red Grant. This B-plot culminates inGrant confronting Bond on the Orient Express. Grant initially has Bond at gunpoint, but Bond manages to get the gun out of his hand and engage him in a fair fight.
The setting of a speeding train car gives this fight a chillingly claustrophobic feel.The hand-to-hand combat is so brutalthat it’s almost primal. It’s not a fun, entertaining action set-piece; it’s two men fighting for their lives. This fight is so intense that it successfully makes the audience forget that 007 has plot armor. All these years later, theJames Bondseries still hasn’t topped this fight scene.
