The best Bond movie moments

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The best Bond movie moments

From dramatic missions to emotional, gut-punching scenes, here are the moments that made James Bond the coolest agent in MI6.

12. The shower scene, Casino Royale (2006)

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Normally, when you hear the words "James Bond shower scene," your mind might drift to a sax solo and "Oh, James" sexy times. But Daniel Craig's Bond isn't that kind of Bond. Especially in his 007 debut, Casino Royale , where a hotel-room shower is a setting for something else — absolution for violence. Eva Green's Vesper Lynd has just witnessed the killing that is Bond's business, and she's rattled. When 007 returns to his room, he finds her sitting in the shower fully clothed, trying to wash away what she's just seen. Bond feels her pain — maybe he even finally feels it himself — as he sits down next to her to comfort her. Bond has never been the most empathetic character, but here's a great moment when Ian Fleming's hard-bitten spy revealed his softer side.

11. The death of Sanchez, Licence to Kill (1989)

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The Timothy Dalton era isn't bursting at the seams with iconic moments. Still, the fireball death of Robert Davi's Latin American drug lord Franz Sanchez in Licence to Kill is a standout just for its sheer over-the-top wildness. As Sanchez waves a machete while battling 007 atop a petrol tanker, the film turns into Steven Spielberg's Duel starring Wile E. Coyote. Davi has certainly played some pretty colorful heavies in his career, but none comes close to this one. Like all Bond villains, he talks as he's about to kill Bond instead of just killing him, thus giving 007 the split-second window he needs to set Sanchez on fire with his lighter.

10. Handcuffed motorcycle mayhem, Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

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By the time Pierce Brosnan took over as 007, the culture had changed. Bond might have limped a bit playing catch-up, but catch up he finally did in Tomorrow Never Dies . In the film, Michelle Yeoh's Wai Lin is more than just your standard arm-candy female lead in need of saving. She's 007's equal. In the movie's highlight — a bonkers motorcycle chase in which she and 007 (her partner, not protector) are handcuffed together while fleeing media baron Elliot Carver's (Jonathan Pryce) machine-gunning goons — Wai Lin is so quick-thinking and alpha, you're left wondering if Bond would've lived to die another day without her.

9. Tracy's death, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

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George Lazenby's Bond tenure came and went in an instant, but his outing contains one of the most poignant moments in the series — the death of the spy's new bride. Watching 007 fall in love with Diana Rigg's Contessa Teresa "Tracy" di Vicenzo, the audience knows that the romance is doomed long before Bond does. Tragedy is inevitable. And yet, Lazenby sells his character's existential heartache and loneliness with just the right amount of pathos after Tracy is gunned down by one of Blofeld's (Telly Savalas) thugs. It was the first time we saw Bond reckoning with loss — and it hurt.

8. Gold-painted corpse, Goldfinger (1964)

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You don't undermine a bullion-obsessed boss like Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe). Because if you do, chances are you'll end up like Shirley Eaton's Jill Masterson: naked, splayed on a bed covered from head to toe in gold paint, and dead from skin suffocation (which, by the way, can't be a quick death). Poor Masterson didn't stick around long enough to get the same precious screen time in this Sean Connery classic as Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman), but her twisted death tableau gave the franchise what's arguably remained its single most visually striking image.

7. Opening fight, Skyfall (2012)

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The opening moments of Skyfall offer a thrilling update. On the outskirts of Istanbul, Daniel Craig's Bond and the newer, more danger-friendly Eve Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) are in hot pursuit of a mercenary named Patrice (Ola Rapace). With its adrenalized, triple-espresso pacing and top-this practical stunts, this is a Bond film that made the case right out of the gate to be considered the new gold standard of 21st-century spectacle.

6. Train fight, From Russia With Love (1963)

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Speaking of action scenes set on speeding trains: A little more than a decade before he played the shark-hunting Quint in Jaws , Robert Shaw made the most of a smallish role as one of SPECTRE's sadistic henchmen in From Russia With Love . In what's arguably the best hand-to-hand fight scene from Bond's '60s period, Shaw's Donald "Red" Grant bruises his knuckles in a brutal, claustrophobically tight brawl with Connery aboard the Orient Express. Windows are smashed, bodies are slammed, chins are kicked, and one of them is garroted to death (Guess who?).

5. The duel with Scaramanga, The Man With the Golden Gun (1974)

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As iconic villains go, a million-dollar contract killer with a golden gun, a superfluous third nipple, and a groovy island lair off the coast of Thailand has to rank pretty high. And, thanks to Christopher Lee, the ruthless Scaramanga is one of the franchise's best. Challenging Roger Moore's Bond to a duel on the beach for possession of the Solex Agitator, Scaramanga vanishes into thin air prior to the agreed-upon 20 paces, escaping long enough to face off with 007 in a funhouse shoot-out that not only nods to Orson Welles' The Lady From Shanghai but is also one of the trippiest delights in Double-O history.

4. Honey Ryder emerges from the surf, Dr. No (1962)

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You might notice more than one moment from Dr. No on this list. It's not because it's such a great film. But it was the first, and, as such, features several essential touchstone scenes that would continue to pop up in each subsequent chapter. Take the first appearance of the "Bond girl." Yes, that phrase is as outdated and retrograde now as the whole notion of a gorgeous damsel who requires saving. Still, Ursula Andress' bikini-clad emergence from the surf (with a dagger strapped around her waist) as Honey Ryder belongs near the top of any list of indelible Bond moments. Throughout the series, it was often imitated but never equaled.

3. "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!", Goldfinger (1964)

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As a rule of thumb, each 007 installment builds to at least one fateful showdown when it seems as if Bond has finally reached the end of his road, where even a well-timed wisecrack won't save him. Still, none is more memorable than the torture scene between Auric Goldfinger and Connery's 007, when our hero is strapped to a table in the Midas-minded villain's lair with a laser aimed at his crown jewels. "Choose your next witticism carefully, Mr. Bond. It may be your last." As the laser starts inching ever-so-precariously northward, the squirming 007 asks, "Do you expect me to talk?" To which Goldfinger offers the wonderfully evil one-liner: "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!"

2. Pre-credit ski chase, The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

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By the time The Spy Who Loved Me reached theaters in 1977, Roger Moore was already two films into his run as 007. But the film's showstopping opening would mark the high point of his turn as Bond. After pulling himself away from a horizontal assignation at a cozy mountaintop cabin, 007 is called into action, strapping on his skis and heading downhill, pursued by goons with rifles. A hair-raising alpine chase ensues, and just when it looks like Bond has run out of trails, he jumps off a cliff, soaring into the snowy abyss...until he pulls a ripcord, opening a parachute emblazoned with the Union Jack. It's a pure hit of giddy escapism that set a new standard for the franchise's razzle-dazzle pre-credit sequences.

1. "Bond, James Bond," Dr. No (1962)

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This isn't just a defining 007 moment, it's the defining 007 moment. And, as movie introductions go, it's perfect in every way. Connery, decked out in a natty, slim-fitting tux, is seated at a swank London casino for a high-stakes game of chemin de fer. All eyes are on him — and how could they not be? The sultry Sylvia Trench (Eunice Gayson) wants to know who this suave international man of mystery is. Connery's cool-as-the-other-side-of-the-pillow reply is one for the ages: "Bond, James Bond." Cue Monty Norman's slinky, surf-guitar 007 theme. This is the exact moment when a legend was born. As icing, 007 wins the hand...and naturally, gets the girl.