10 Best James Bond Movies That Are Also Great Thrillers, Ranked

James Bond is a franchise that has been popular for over sixty years, and it is largely because of the saga’s willingness to innovate. While there is certainly a formula that ensures that each Bond film has certain recurring elements, the series would not have the same longevity if it did not show a willingness to crossover with other genres. More often than not, Bond films tend to work as standalone thrillers that are accessible by a wide audience, even if they are not familiar with the other installments in the series.

Many of the best Bond films are also excellent psychological thrillers, as that is always what the original author, Ian Fleming, intended for them to be. While Bond is often associated with a more cheesy sensibility, it is easy to forget that Fleming’s novels were a series of dark stories about a cold-blooded assassin. Here are the ten best James Bond movies that are also great thrillers.

10 ‘Licence to Kill’ (1989)

Directed by John Glen

Licence to Kill is without a doubt one of the darkest installments in the Bond franchise, as it is not focused on a mission for the British government at all. In his second appearance as 007, Timothy Dalton showed how Bond was forced to go on a personal revenge mission after a friend was brutally attacked at his wedding.

Licence to Kill delved into the psychology behind Bond, and questioned whether he was willing to become a vigilante in order to achieve justice that MI6 was not willing to invest in. Although the strong violence, which felt not dissimilar from the darker 1980s action cinema at the time, was quite shocking to audiences at the time, it did help the Bond franchise make a transition; previously, the series had begun to become too over-the-top with cheesy installments like Octopussy and A View To A Kill.

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9 ‘Dr. No’ (1962)

Directed by Terence Young

Dr. No doesn’t get enough credit for being the first installment in the Bond franchise, as it set some of the most important precedents of the series. There were obviously some aspects of the franchise that were beyond reality, but for the most part, Dr. No presented a fairly plausible scenario about a terrorist organization trying to spark a nuclear conflict.

Dr. No avoided many of the trappings of the cheesier installments in the series, as it lacked the silly gadgets, over-the-top action, and relentless campy humor. Although a film from 1962 that was so focused on spectacle may not have aged very well, Dr. No still holds up as an essential Bond film because of its worldbuilding; despite some notable differences, Terence Young created a version of reality that viewers could recognize, and can even be instructive for future generations.

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8 ‘GoldenEye’ (1995)

Directed by Martin Campbell

GoldenEye was a successful relaunch of the Bond franchise that helped it stand out amidst the renaissance of action cinema in the 1990s; while GoldenEye may not have had the same level of spectacle as ‘90s action epics like Die Hard With A Vengeance or Independence Day, the film became particularly thrilling thanks to the excellent villainous performance by Sean Bean.

Bean’s character is set up to be a former ally of Bond who once took on the codename of “006,” but decided to choose a path of villainy when he felt that MI6 had betrayed him. Bond has faced off with multiple crazed terrorists, vindictive evildoers, and other cartoonish villains across the full arc of the franchise, but making his main antagonist in GoldenEye be a former ally made the stakes of the film even more personal and thrilling.

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7 ‘Live and Let Die’ (1973)

Directed by Guy Hamilton

Live and Let Die was one of the more experimental entries in the Bond franchise, as it worked hard to show that Roger Moore’s era of the franchise would be radically different from the films that Sean Connery had starred in. While many of the films starring Connery had delved into international espionage and the Cold War, Live and Let Die sent Bond to New Orleans in an adventure that felt inspired by blacksploitation classics like Dolemite and Shaft.

Live and Let Die felt closer to a crime thriller than an espionage adventure, which only made the stakes of the film feel more personal. The film also benefited from a terrifying performance by the great Yaphet Kotto, who appeared as the particularly spooky villain known as “Mr. Big.” While the rest of Moore’s films grew more comedic, Live and Let Die remains a standout.

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6 ‘From Russia With Love’ (1964)

Directed by Terence Young

From Russia With Love is one of the most grounded Bond films because of how relevant it felt to what was going on in the real world. As the first installment in the series released after the assassination of the United States President John F. Kennedy, From Russia With Love was able to delve into the tensions between democratic nations and the Soviet Union whilst conspiracy theories were becoming more common.

From Russia With Love is a very tight and specific story, as a majority of the film takes place on a train; in many ways, it feels inspired by classic films by Alfred Hitchcock, such as The Lady Vanishes and Strangers on a Train. The film got an extra boost of tension thanks to the villainous performance by Robert Shaw, who proved to be one of the few antagonists that could contend with Bond on both a personal and psychological level.

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5 ‘Goldfinger’ (1964)

Directed by Guy Hamilton

Goldfinger is perhaps the most important entry in the Bond franchise, as it established many of the recurring archetypes that are still common in the series today. While Goldfinger is still regarded as one of the most entertaining films ever made, the innovations it made with technology and blocking were particularly groundbreaking in 1964, when action cinema had not been quite as developed.

The scope and scale of Goldfinger is very impressive, as the film features innovative sequences of suspense that remain just as thrilling today. Although the film does have a rather cheeky sense of humor, it is clearly indicated that Bond uses his jokes as a mechanism of self-defense whenever he is under pressure to complete his mission. It’s another example of Connery knowing the character so well that he was able to add even more nuance than what was written.

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4 ‘Casino Royale’ (2006)

Directed by Martin Campbell

Casino Royale changed the Bond franchise forever, as it served as the first proper adaptation of the inaugural novel in Fleming’s series. Daniel Craig made his debut in the film that showed Bond’s origin story as he works with the female agent Vesper Lyn (Eva Green) to infiltrate a high stakes poker tournament in which many of the world’s terrorists have a stake. Mads Mikkelsen’s terrifying villainous performance is one of the series’ best.

Casino Royale was very grounded in its approach, and was clearly influenced by the success of the Bourne trilogy in making realistic spy movies. Although the film is shockingly violent, especially for one that managed to get a PG-13 rating from the MPAA, Casino Royale became particularly thrilling because of the heartbreaking romance at its center; for once, Bond felt like a vulnerable character who was capable of being emotionally wounded.

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3 ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ (1977)

Directed by Lewis Gilbert

The Spy Who Loved Me is one of the most psychologically complex instalments in the Bond series, as it deals with the sad reality that spycraft is an inherently lonely profession. After teaming up with the Soviet Union spy known only as “XXX” (Barbara Bach), Bond realizes that he may have been responsible for the death of her former lover.

The Spy Who Loved Me examined the fact that Bond was inherently a killer, and faced emotional consequences for everything that he did within the service of his country. Moore is often criticized for being too goofy in his approach to the character; while he did lean into camp in films like The Man With The Golden Gun and Moonraker, The Spy Who Loved Me proved that he could be a truly great dramatic actor if he was given the right material.

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2 ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ (1969)

Directed by Peter R. Hunt

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is the biggest outlier within the Bond franchise, as it was the only entry starring George Lazenby as Bond, and essentially takes place within its own continuity. Although it does feature some of the best action within the entire franchise, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is actually more of a love story than anything else, as it focuses on the romance that blossoms between Bond and his future fiancee Tracy (Diana Rigg) as they go on a mission within the Swiss Alps.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service dealt with the heartbreaking reality of 007, as Bond is forced to choose between staying loyal to MI6 and having a normal, happy life with Tracy. Although there is certainly a lot of fun to be had within their early adventures, the ending of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service may be the most devastating in the entire franchise.

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1 ‘Skyfall’ (2012)

Directed by Sam Mendes

Skyfall was a grandiose tribute to the legacy of Bond that paid tribute to every single iteration of the saga. The film examined the relationship that Bond had to his longtime employer, MI6, as the agency is at the risk of being shut down thanks to the relentless series of cyberattacks by the villain Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem), who aims at getting revenge on M (Judi Dench).

M is just as important of a character as Bond, so seeing them forced to work together to protect the organization they’ve dedicated their entire lives to was quite thrilling. Skyfall features the most elaborate action scenes ever for a Bond film, but it was the film’s willingness to engage with the characters’ faults that made it such a compelling new spin on the franchise, which ensured that it would be just as successful in the years to come.

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