Daniel Craig just wrapped up the first James Bond actor stint with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Sean Connery’s initial run as 007 was all over the place. Never Say Never Again isn’t an official Eon production – it’s an unofficial remake of Thunderball – and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is canonical in this timeline, but George Lazenby replaced Connery in that movie (it gets pretty complicated).
Connery’s official run consists of Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, and Diamonds Are Forever. These movies brought the globetrotting nature of Ian Fleming’s source novels (one of their main selling points as summer reads) to the screen with breathtaking location shoots.
Jamaica
While most traditional Bond adventures take place across a handful of different countries, the first movie in the franchise – Dr. No – is confined almost entirely to Jamaica (or, more specifically, Crab Key, a fictional island off Jamaica).
007 is sent to Jamaica to investigate the murder of their MI6 station chief, John Strangways, and his secretary. As soon as Bond arrives in Jamaica, he’s accosted by another assassin but manages to survive the encounter.
Turkey
Connery’s second Bond movie, From Russia with Love, sees 007 being lured to Istanbul by SPECTRE. Previously known as Constantinople, Istanbul is famously the largest city in Turkey.
When he arrives in Istanbul, Bond teams up with Ali Kerim Bey, the head of the city’s MI6 branch. They work together while 007 waits to hear from the movie’s primary “Bond girl,” Tatiana Romanova.
Serbia
After his jaunt to Istanbul in From Russia with Love, Bond takes the Orient Express to Belgrade, the capital and largest city of Serbia. There, he delivers the unfortunate news of Kerim’s death to one of his sons.
Bond is told he’ll meet a British agent named Nash, but he encounters Red Grant, an enemy agent who has killed Nash and assumed his identity. Bond’s fight with Grant on the Orient Express is hailed as one of the series’ most brutal and visceral fight scenes.
Croatia
Bond and Romanova’s journey on the Orient Express in From Russia with Love ends in Istria, the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is shared by three countries – Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy – but Croatia encapsulates most of the Istrian peninsula with its Istria County.
Italy
The MacGuffin in From Russia with Love is the Lektor, which SPECTRE steals in order to sell it back to the Russians. Toward the end of the movie, the villainous Rosa Klebb is sent to recover the Lektor and kill Bond.
She tracks down Bond in a hotel room in Venice, Italy, and sneaks into his room to attack him while deviously disguised as a maid.
United States
Connery’s Bond stopped off in America a couple of times throughout his run. After blowing up a drug laboratory in an unnamed Latin American country in the opening scene of Goldfinger, Bond takes a vacation in Miami Beach. Later, Pussy Galore flies Bond to Goldfinger’s stud farm in Kentucky and the movie’s finale takes place in the vault at Fort Knox.
007 later returned to the United States in Diamonds Are Forever, in which he visits both Los Angeles and Las Vegas with his love interest, Tiffany Case.
Switzerland
When Bond is initially sent to figure out how Auric Goldfinger is smuggling gold across borders, he tracks him down in Switzerland. There, he meets the late, gold-painted Jill Masterson’s sister, Tilly, who unsuccessfully tries to assassinate Goldfinger.
The Bahamas
The majority of Thunderball, the first Bond movie to receive mixed reviews from critics, takes place in The Bahamas. 007 initially asks to be assigned to Nassau, so he can contact Domino after recognizing her brother in a photo from the mission briefing.
Nassau is the capital and largest city of The Bahamas. A little more than 70% of the country’s entire population lives in Nassau.
Hong Kong
The titles of Bond movies rarely have any relation to the plot, but the title of You Only Live Twice refers to the opening scene, in which Bond fakes his own death.
Bond’s death is faked so SPECTRE will think he’s no longer a threat, allowing him to investigate the shady organization. The gentleman spy is buried at sea near Japan, where his investigation begins.
Japan
Bond’s investigation to uncover the head honcho of SPECTRE begins in Tokyo. Along the way, he stops off at a fishing village and discovers Blofeld’s secret lair inside a volcano.
According to the book James Bond: The Legacy 007, when screenwriter Roald Dahl was hired to adapt You Only Live Twice into a screenplay, he dismissed the book as a travelogue detailing Japanese hotspots.
The Netherlands
Connery’s last Bond movie, Diamonds Are Forever, culminates in a finale set on an oil rig off the coast of Baja California, Mexico. But long before that, 007 travels to Amsterdam, the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands.
Under the guise of professional smuggler and assassin Peter Franks, Bond goes to Amsterdam to meet the movie’s love interest, Tiffany Case.