No actor has continuously held the role of James Bond for longer than Roger Moore. After Sean Connery defined the character with his initial stint in the role and George Lazenby held his own in a solid single outing, Moore took over playing the gentleman spy starting with Live and Let Die. Moore played Bond in seven movies across the ‘70s and ‘80s, holding the role well into his twilight years.

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From the opening Union Jack parachute jump to the big supertanker finale, 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me is Moore’s greatest 007 outing by far, and one of the franchise’s all-time best installments.

The Opening Parachute Jump Is Breathtaking

James Bond's opening parachute jump in The Spy Who Loved Me.

Any great Bond movie needs to grab its audience’s attention immediately with a stunning opening action scene, like GoldenEye’s Contra Dam jump and Skyfall’s fight on the roof of a moving train.

Perhaps the greatest opening action scene in Bond history can be found at the beginning of The Spy Who Loved Me, in which a ski chase at the top of a mountain culminates in a daring stunt. Bond – or, rather, stuntman Rick Sylvester – skis off the mountain, soars toward the ground and deploys a Union Jack parachute at the last second.

Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does It Better” Is One Of The All-Time Greatest Bond Themes

The opening titles from The Spy Who Loved Me

Ever since Shirley Bassey made movie history with her iconic Goldfinger theme song, the Bond producers have hired a contemporary pop star to sing a theme for each movie.

Carly Simon’s theme from The Spy Who Loved Me, “Nobody Does It Better,” is one of the all-time best. The song feels distinctly Bond-ian without losing Simon’s own unique voice.

Karl Stromberg Is A Memorable Villain

Karl Stromberg with his fingers poised in The Spy Who Loved Me

A Bond movie is only as good as its villain, and while The Spy Who Loved Me’s Karl Stromberg doesn’t rank alongside Blofeld and Goldfinger as one of the franchise’s very best baddies, he’s a lot more memorable than the average Bond foe. And Atlantis is one of the most memorable Bond villain hideouts.

Played by Curd Jürgens, Stromberg is a megalomaniac (as usual) who’s bent on kickstarting World War III so that he can destroy the world and establish an underwater civilization.

It’s A Captivating Ride From Start To Finish

Roger Moore as Bond in a rooftop fight in The Spy Who Loved Me

Some Bond movies aren’t equal to the sum of their parts. They’ll have a great villain or a couple of explosive action sequences, but the elements don’t all tie together for a movie that feels complete. That’s not the case with The Spy Who Loved Me.

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It’s a captivating ride from start to finish. In the movie’s two-hour runtime, there aren’t any lulls where the plot gets boring or long stretches without any action.

The Submersible Lotus Esprit Is One Of Q’s Most Iconic Creations

Bond flees from Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me using his 1976 Lotus Esprit S1

Obviously, none of 007’s cars will ever be more iconic than the Aston Martin DB5, but The Spy Who Loved Me offered a close second. Q gives Bond a Lotus Esprit that turns into a submarine when it’s driven into the ocean.

After using the car’s submarine function to escape from the bad guys, Bond drives the Esprit back onto the beach, where it turns back into a car. Like all of Moore’s best Bond moments, it’s delightfully ludicrous.

Anya Amasova Is One Of The Most Three-Dimensional Bond Girls

Barbara Bach as Anya Amasova talking to Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me

Bond girls are one of the hallmarks of the 007 franchise that have been criticized over the years because they’re usually one-note love interests whose entire function in the plot is to fall in love with Bond and sleep with him. Not only does this get repetitive; it also limits the female roles in Bond movies.

The love interest in The Spy Who Loved Me, Anya Amasova, a KGB agent played by Barbara Bach, is one of the most surprisingly well-developed and three-dimensional Bond girls.

It Keeps The Moore-Era Slapstick To A Minimum

Sky parachute scene in Bond Spy Who Loved Me

A lot of Roger Moore’s Bond movie relied on goofy slapstick comedy like running across the backs of a bunch of alligators or getting into a laser fight in space.

Thankfully, in The Spy Who Loved Me, that slapstick is kept to a minimum. It’s still present in certain scenes, but since it’s in short supply, it actually has charm.

Jaws Is One Of The Franchise’s Best Side Villains

Richard Kiel as Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me

Like Star Wars, James Bond is a franchise with plenty of side villains. There are main antagonists — in Bond’s case, megalomaniacs bent on taking over the world — but they sometimes have a couple of memorable henchmen under their employ.

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In The Spy Who Loved Me, the henchman sent after Bond is arguably the most unforgettable side villain in the whole franchise: Jaws, played by Richard Kiel. He proved to be so popular that he was brought back in the next movie.

The Climactic Supertanker Sequence Is A Suitably Massive Finale

James Bond The Spy Who Loved Me boats

The problem with some action movies is that they open too big. The rest of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation struggled to match the intensity of its opening scene, which saw Tom Cruise hanging off the side of a plane as it took off.

Despite opening with the iconic parachute jump, The Spy Who Loved Me doesn’t manage to outdo itself before its finale, a massive set piece set in a supertanker.

It’s Everything A Bond Movie Can Be

James Bond on a jetski in The Spy Who Loved Me

The best 007 movies are escapist adventures that allow audiences to disappear into Bond’s heightened reality for a couple of hours of delirious entertainment, and that’s The Spy Who Loved Me through and through.

From the globetrotting action sequences to the tongue-in-cheek humor to the large-scale spectacle, The Spy Who Loved Me is everything that a Bond movie can be at the franchise’s very best.

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