Are all of the James Bond movies connected?
In an age when all of Hollywood’s biggest franchises are tying themselves in narrative knots to ensure all of their chapters tie together into one overarching continuity, James Bond stands alone as a monolithic cinematic saga that’s always played fast and loose with its canonicity.
All anybody really needs to know is that 007 works for MI6, he has a licence to kill, he enjoys a martini that’s better off shaken than stirred, and to accomplish his mission, he’ll require a nifty tuxedo or two, a potential love interest, an array of enticing gadgets and a pithy one-liner to dispense at the right moment.
Those are just some of the factors that make a Bond movie feel like a Bond movie, but does the entire series – which, in chronological order, technically began with 2006’s Casino Royale and most recently ended with 2002’s Die Another Day – tell one continuous story detailing the world-saving life and times of the British super spy? Admittedly, it’s a very complicated web to try and unravel.
What can’t be argued is that Daniel Craig’s five-film tenure that began with Casino Royale and ended with No Time to Die was designed to be viewed as a self-contained arc. Everything that happens after the actor’s first outing informs what comes next, most notably Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd being the shadow that looms over 007. It’s the most serialised Bond has ever been, which causes some issues in trying to view them as one long story.
Since Judi Dench reprised her role as M after serving the same function for Pierce Brosnan in all four of his stints as Bond, then it’s not unreasonable to assume that because the Craig era begins with Bond’s elevation to 00 status, the events of GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, and Die Another Day unfold immediately after Spectre, seeing as No Time to Die throws a big ol’ spanner in the works by killing off the main character and ruining any semblance of continuity. However, it’s not that straightforward.
Even in the early days of Bond, Sean Connery’s From Russia with Love referenced the events of Dr No, which carries through to Goldfinger when 007 mentions Jamaica – the setting of the first film – to Cec Linder’s Felix Leiter, even though Jack Lord played the character in the former. George Lazenby’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service tethers itself to Connery by having Bond say he’d spent two years tracking down Blofeld to no avail, with the villain’s face first revealed in You Only Live Twice, which was released two years beforehand.
Roger Moore’s The Spy Who Loved Me nodded towards Lazenby by referring to Bond’s deceased wife, and he went one step further by visiting her grave in For Your Eyes Only, and again in Timothy Dalton’s Licence to Kill when that man Leiter again (this time played by David Hedison) confirms that this version of Bond was once married, albeit “a long time ago.”
With that in mind, along with the recurring presences of Bernard Lee and Robert Brown sharing the role of M, Lois Maxwell’s Moneypenny enduring for the entire Connery/Lazenby/Moore period before being recast with Caroline Bliss, and the virtually ubiquitous Desmond Llewelyn as Q, it seems safe to say that every Bond flick from Dr No until at least Licence to Kill was intended to be viewed as existing as part of the same timeline.
Then again, Llewelyn did muddy the waters by staying on for the Brosnan years, which also upends the notion of Craig’s films being part of the same world, largely because even by Hollywood’s standards, it’s impossible to imagine Ben Whishaw’s Q working for Dench’s M before he suddenly evolves into an old man when Bond has barely aged a day.
Not that too many longtime Bond supporters are sticklers for this sort of thing, but the easiest way to view the Bond timeline is as two distinctly separate entities. Craig’s quintet pokes too many holes in the logic to be folded into the fabric of what came before. In contrast, enough similarities exist and are acknowledged in the events between Dr No and Die Another Day in a roundabout way that it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine all of these world-ending situations happening to the same 007.
Which actor worked with the most different James Bonds?
Only one actor shared the screen with Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, and Pierce Brosnan in the James Bond franchise, and, unsurprisingly, that also makes them the person to have appeared in more 007 films than anyone else.
He may have sat out the opening instalment, but after being introduced in the sophomore effort From Russia with Love, Desmond Llewelyn eventually became part of the furniture. His tenure spanned 36 years and 17 features, and the only one he missed during that time was 1973’s Live and Let Die.
