Last year, Daniel Craig’s tenure in the role of James Bond came to an end with the highly anticipated, immensely satisfying No Time to Die. After a total of five movies – some great (Casino Royale, Skyfall), others not so great (Quantum of Solace, Spectre) – Craig brought his Bond era to a truly definitive conclusion in a Logan-style bittersweet swansong (complete with the estranged daughter and extravagant death scene).
From Casino Royale’s parkour chase to Spectre’s train fight to No Time to Die’s opening ambush, Craig’s Bond movies had some of the franchise’s most mind-blowing action sequences to date.
The Stairwell Fight In Casino Royale
Martin Campbell radically reinvented Bond’s on-screen action for a post-Bourne audience in Casino Royale. After Die Another Day saw Pierce Brosnan’s 007 surfing on a CG tidal wave, Casino Royale opened in black-and-white with the brutal, elongated murder that earned Daniel Craig’s Bond his license to kill.
Of all the visceral action sequences in Casino Royale, one of the most thrilling and engaging is the stairwell fight. This relentless dust-up is so intense and traumatic that Vesper takes a clothes-on shower to recover from it.
The Opening Brawl In Quantum Of Solace
After Casino Royale earned the Bond franchise its best reviews in years, Craig’s second Bond film was met with a more mixed response from critics. The most common complaint about Quantum of Solace was that it didn’t really feel like a Bond film and played more like a generic action thriller.
But, at the very least, it has a riveting opening scene. Picking up where Casino Royale left off, Quantum opens with Bond delivering Mr. White to M. During White’s interrogation, M’s bodyguard turns out to be a double agent. The ensuing fight scene is one of the film’s few highlights.
The Final Showdown In No Time To Die
Craig’s final Bond film, No Time to Die, marked a welcome return to the familiar formula. After Spectre meandered through unnecessary Marvel-style worldbuilding, No Time to Die presented a classic 007 adventure with a delusional megalomaniac, a world-ending threat, and a climactic battle at the villain’s secret lair.
Bond teams up with his MI6 replacement, Nomi, in a sort of “buddy cop” pairing as they infiltrate Safin’s lair – an abandoned WWII base on a remote island between Japan and Russia – and take him down. There’s a great single-take shootout and, of course, the finale ends in tragedy as Bond meets a subversively grim fate when the nukes land.
The Tube Chase In Skyfall
Along with The Avengers and The Dark Knight, Skyfall uses the tired “getting caught was part of the plan” blockbuster villain trope. Raoul Silva allows himself to be arrested and detained at MI6’s secret facility, seemingly for a free trip to London. But in this case, the familiar twist gave way to one of the film’s most exciting action sequences.
When Silva inevitably breaks out of his underground cell, Bond narrowly dodges speeding trains as he chases him through London’s network of tube tunnels. Audiences go to Bond movies for the exotic locales, but between Skyfall’s tube chase and The World is Not Enough’s Thames chase, some of the best 007 action has taken place in his Big Smoke hometown.
The Day Of The Dead Parade In Spectre
Craig’s penultimate Bond film, Spectre, was criticized for its muddled storytelling and overlong runtime – but it has some undeniably awesome action sequences. It has one of the most exciting Bond openings of all time.
007 takes out an assassination target, dodges a collapsing building, and hijacks a helicopter all in the midst of a dazzling Day of the Dead parade at the center of Mexico City.
Blofeld’s Birthday Party In No Time To Die
Ana de Armas’ supporting role in No Time to Die is all too brief, but she makes a memorable character out of Paloma with limited screen time. Paloma is an inexperienced CIA agent who teams up with Bond to infiltrate Blofeld’s birthday party in Cuba.
Bond himself has some ice-cool moments in this sequence, like frisbeeing a drinks tray at a henchman’s head and then finishing the drink that was on the tray, but de Armas steals the show by hilariously demonstrating Paloma’s reckless approach to espionage.
Bond’s Near-Death Experience In Skyfall
After Quantum of Solace was criticized for veering too far from Bond movie tradition, Sam Mendes’ Skyfall found a sweet spot between Casino Royale-style gritty realism and classic Connery/Moore-era archetypes. The pre-title sequence pairs these two sensibilities beautifully. Bond pursues a perp across Istanbul, from riding motorcycles atop a bazaar to fighting on the roof of a moving train.
Moneypenny, reinvented as a field agent, is urged to take an unclear shot by M and ends up shooting Bond, setting the stage for his PTSD arc with a harrowing near-death experience. Bond cold opens are usually a victory for 007, but this is a bitter failure (although he is protected by a heavy layer of plot armor).
Bond Fights Mr. Hinx In Spectre
Dave Bautista’s turn as hulking henchman Mr. Hinx is one of the few standout elements that make Spectre watchable. Toward the end of the second act, Hinx confronts Bond on a train and they engage in vicious hand-to-hand combat.
The brutality of this fight – not to mention the railway setting – is a nod to Sean Connery’s iconic, similarly brutal scuffle with Red Grant on the Orient Express in From Russia with Love.
Spectre Assassins Ambush 007 In No Time To Die
No Time to Die has, by far, the longest cold open in Bond movie history. There’s a prologue exploring Safin’s role in Madeleine’s childhood trauma followed by a mini sequel to Spectre that sees Bond and Madeleine being ambushed by SPECTRE assassins while on vacation in Italy.
This jam-packed sequence has some of the Craig era’s greatest action beats, from swinging off a bridge to jumping a motorcycle over a crowd to doing donuts with machine guns poking out of the headlights of a gadget-laden Aston Martin.
The Parkour Chase In Casino Royale
Casino Royale begins with the brutal double murder that earns Bond his license to kill, but the movie’s first big set-piece arrives after the opening credits. With some of the most breathtaking parkour stunts ever put on film, Bond chases a suspect around a construction site.
At first, this parkour chase just offers mindless spectacle. But, as they climb higher and higher and end up jumping from crane to crane, director Martin Campbell creates a real sense of nail-biting tension.