Best action sequence in a James Bond film

Live And Let Die- Bond runs overtop a bunch of aligators.

Was that before or after he swung on a vine and did a tarzan yell?

My favorite fight sequence has got to be the Shaw-Connery fight in the train in From Russia With Love. One of the best hand-to-hand fights in all of cinema.

LICENCE TO KILL and it's big tanker chase. Ludicrous, but so so fun.

Second the From Russia With Love train fight. From the same film, the girl on girl gypsy catfight...

Third vote for the train sequence fight in From Russia with Love. Watched this again recently and was blown away. (Also loved how Bond is a properly depicted as a cold-blooded assassin.)

The ski chase in For Your Eyes Only stands out in my memory, but I haven't seen the film for awhile so I have no idea how well it holds up.

For me, the single coolest shot in any Bond flick is when that speedboat shoots out of the back of the mega oil tanker in 'The Spy Who Loved Me'. It shoots out the back, dropping it's protective shell, and dives into the water going full blast (with the lovely Barbara Bach onboard). It isn't really an action sequence, but I dig it.

The train fight in 'From Russia With Love' gets my vote as well. I personally also dug the opening sequence in 'Goldeneye', especially that jump off of the dam at the beginning of it.

Easily one of the worst.

Now we're talking.

I'll also second the finale of "Licence to Kill". I really enjoyed the parking garage car BMW battle in "Tomorrow Never Dies" as well. The downhill ski chase in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was good too.

The Pot needs to watch some Connery, apparently.

I (whatever number we're up to) the train fight in From Russia With Love. Although I think the Moore films are comparitively weak, The Spy Who Loved Me has some great stuff, including the afformentioned opening ski sequence. And although A View to a Kill is an awful film, watching Roger Moore and Christopher Walken have an axe fight on top of the Golden Gate Bridge can't be passed up. Or maybe I just love John Barry's music for the sequence. I believe that was his last Bond score, too.

The worst has to be Moonraker. Space Marines? Christ.

I like the scene from Goldeneye where Brosnan skydives into the airplane.

When I saw this in the theater? I had to pee. HELD IT.

Not quite a sequence, but the spinning bridge jump in The Man with the Golden Gun.

The cello ski slope escape in Living Daylights.

The opening boat chase in The World is Not Enough.

The urine fight in the hospital in Never Say Never Again.

That would have worked a little better without the fucking slide whistle sound effect, not to mention Sheriff Pepper, who should die with festering boils. I don't know who sat through Live and Let Die and said "You know what the best part was? That tobacco-spittin' southern sheriff stereotype that was thrown in as a cheap cash-in on the popularity of Smokey and the Bandit. We've got to put him in the next one."

Aw, come on. That's classic Moore camp. And the jump still looks awesome.

I think the director discusses this move in the commentary (which is a great one), but I don't remember the specifics. That dude is an eyesore, but the midget's not much better. I still like the movie, but imagine how cool it would have been for Christopher Lee to play the villain in one of the more serious films like For Your Eyes Only. And Walken too for that matter.

I've never listened to the commentary, but I am curious. I think the reason that I hate the goofy bits of that movie so much is that it's otherwise such a good entry. If it weren't for those moments, it would easily be a high point of the Moore years. It's darker, has less reliance on awful puns, and it has Christopher Lee with an extraneous nipple.

Watch it again. And then in Slo-Mo. Straight out of Thunderbirds (The TV Series)!!!

And though For Your Eyes Only ski chase is a bit overlong (gotta love Charles Dance as the ski tobogan assassin though!), the flick has great action sequences in Bond's foot chase after Locque -and then pushing his Mercedes over that cliff, Moore's greatest Connery moment, IMO- and the amazingly shitstopping St.Cyril's rock climbing scene, largely silent for the most of it.

Before the yell and after he flips a car and it makes a cartoon "Beeeee-yoop!" sound as it spins through the air.
And wasn't there a southern tourist who recognized him as "that world famous spy"?

You mean Smokey and the Bandit that came out a full FOUR YEARS after Live and Let Die?

Some of Moore's films run together with me, but I believe it is "The Spy Who Loved Me". Anyway, the opening fight on the airplane, and then they freefall with Jaws in this action sequence in the air, culminating in the Union Jack flag unfurling. Classic Bond. And some really amazing and real stunt work.

And the airplane fight in "The Living Daylights" is impressive too. The documentary shows just how close the stunt man came to getting his head busted open on the side of the plane, and they leave it in the movie.

That is from MOONRAKER, although the Union Jack flag is also from THE SPY WHO LOVED ME.

For Your Eyes Only, along with The Spy Who Loved Me, are the two Moore films that I think come close to the Connery (pre-Diamonds are Forever) gold standard. The scene of a vengeful Bond kicking the Mercedes is classic. Tellingly, Moore didn't want to do that scene, believing it out of character! Shows how differently Connery and Moore approached the role. Connery saw Bond as a spy. Moore saw Bond as a hero.

One more great action sequence: the "roll in the hay" with Pussy Galore in Goldfinger.

I agree on those two being the best Moore-era Bond films. It was a smart move to do such a serious entry ('For Your Eyes Only') after nearly ruining the franchise (while making a ton of money) with 'Moonraker'. And most of the action sequences in FYEO are done quite well. And any scene in that movie with that Greek chic with the crossbow...AWESOME. Can't remember her name, but she was stunning looking.

The storming of the volcano in You Only Live Twice is always fun to watch. Massive in scale and plenty of action.
I also liked the beginning to A View to a Kill as well as Christopher Walken's psycho massacre of all the miners. Probably one of most violent and extensive scenes of mass murder in any of the Bond flicks.

The pot:

All of the "Inside (insert Bond flick title here)" documentaries are awesome. ALL OF THEM. And that's what scares me with the future Sony Bond DVD re-releases. The sinking suspicion that I'm gonna get double-dipped in 20 titles if they get brand new features and better A/V quality.

Oh, and you wanna check out a cooler feature? Try the Licence to Kill one, with crazy Robert Davi/ Benicio del Toro off set romps, mexican curses and a completely so-creepy-it's-hilarious bit in which The Hand of Satan (tm) emerges from a tanker explosion!

On the other hand, now that I'm back home from work and we, Bond fans, are always eager to express 40+ years of cinematic joy (and unforgivable shit) upon the unsuspecting population, here go my picks. Or at least, part 1 of it. Top of the head of course:

* Dr.No: Tarantula in bed, Prof. Dent execution, car chase and Dr.No fight.

* From Russia with Love: Bond's "murder", gipsy camp shootout and chopper chase. The train fight is classic of course, but sadly little is said of the scene when Bond and Karim Bey ambush that guy with the sniper rifle.

* Goldfinger: fight with Capungo ("shocking"), Aston Martin factory chase and Fort Knox raid & fight with Odd Job.

* Thunderball: widow fight & jetpack escape, Bond trapped to massage machine, carnival chase, Bond's night visit to Palmyra and fight aboard the Disco Volante. The underwater scenes are suposed to be the highlights of the film but are way too long and unevenly paced IMO.

* You Only Live Twice: fight in Osato's office, dock chase, murder by poison drop and volcano raid. And how could I forget Little Nellie.

* On Her Majesty's Secret Service: beach fight, hotel room fight, fight at Draco's office (love that editing & sound effects), night ski chase and final raid & fight on bobsled. Whew, Bond sure makes a good use of his fists in that one...

* Diamonds Are Forever: Surgery base fight, Elevator fight, Whyte House climbing, Dune buggy chase, Vegas night chase and Bambi & Thumper fight. Cause the less said about the Oil Rig climax the better. Oh, and the cruise ship episode is too dumb to forget too.

Yep, thanks, and that's exactly my point. Moore's films just run together for me a lot of the time.

If we're talking Bond action, I have to give special mention to director Lewis Gilbert. He did "You Only Live Twice" and did some really creative things editing and shooting wise to give his Bond films a decidedly un-Bond feel. The helicopter pullback during Bond's roftop fight sequence in YOLT is really impressive IMO, and odd for an action film like this.

Huge Bond fan. Love them all, almost.

"Tomorrow Never Dies" is Brosnan's best entry I think. I adore the remote controlled car chase in the parking garage. Just with Brosnan in the backseat wearing a shit-eating grin, it makes an otherwise routine action seqence a classic.

"Die Another Day" chase on the ice is excellent.

"The Living Daylights" has a great intro for Dalton as 007.

The plane through the hanger in "Octopussy" is fun.

"For Yours Eyes Only" has a great car chase and Moore's best moment by kicking the mercedes over the cliff.

I know it's not a popular choice, but I've always loved "Moonraker" and the opening ski jump is still impressive. Along with the cool spectacle in space. On top of it being one of my favorite teaser posters of all time.

"The Spy Who Loved Me" has some excellent stuff with the Lotus. The fight on top of the building in Egypt when Bond kills the dude grasping onto his necktie.

"You Only Live Twice"- So much cool shit in that.

"Never Say Never Again" is of course the ignored step-child of Bond lore has a cool motorcyle chase.

The tank in Goldeneye was awesome in theaters. The people loved that one. I'll also throw in the Hovercraft chase thingy in Die Another Day. That's good action.

The only good action sequence in "Die Another Day" was the sword fight, which was so good it belonged in a different movie. Everything else was crap.

If you're not joking I'll fall over.

Not the best, but I'll second as a personal fave the plane-through-the-hanger sequence in Octopussy. Because they ACTUALLY FLEW THE PLANE THROUGH THE HANGER.

Also agree about Brosnan's kid-with-toy grin as he remote-controls the BMW through the garage.

But what's going on, no love for Joe Don Baker, with his army men and his submachine-gun-with-a-sneeze-guard?

Joking about what? The ice chase features close-ups of the two drivers, a couple shots of cars spinning on the ice, and one admittedly cool shot of the Aston Martin flipping. There's no sense of surroundings, no continuity to the sequence, nothing. They just trade shots like a Power Rangers episode. The sword fight is actually well choreographed, builds, and features some good acting from the combatants.

This is James Bond we are talking about, realism is irrelevant. Hammy acting from a Bond baddie is part of the package. For fuck's sake "Moonraker' as much as I love that flick, had 007 in space! I don't want realism, I want escapism, tons of hot women, cool cars and even more violence and explosions.

"Die Another Day" isn't terrible because it's unrealistic, it's terrible because within that framework, it has no imagination, it's action sequences suck, its performances largely suck, and the dialogue is atrocious. It's not even cheesy fun, it's that sickening type of film that is so deadly serious in it's shittiness that you can't even have fun with it.

I actually enjoyed Rupert Graves, he was a throwback to the old over-the-top villains that they hadn't had for a long time. But why make him Korean later? It added nothing. I liked his Union Jack entrance, even the ice palace is fine. But he's surrounded by the lamest henchmen of the series.

I have to go with the train fight between Bond and Red Grant in "From Russia With Love". One of the great screen fights.
My Second favorite is the Pre credit sequence from "Goldeneye".

I'm not one of the fans of Licence to Kill, but the sequence in which Bond goes from standing on a boat to being shot at while dangling out of the door of a seaplane in the space of about two minutes was stunning.

I don't know if it's been mentioned yet, but I LOVE the fight between 007 and 006 in that small room on the cradle in Goldeneye. A very short but brutal fight where the two are just kicking the piss out of each other, throwing one another around the room, wrestling for a gun. My favorite part of the movie.

Agreed. Probably Bond's best hand-to-hand fight since FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.

I love many of the action scenes that appear in all 20 (or 21) Bond films. But my favorite is probably the BMW "backseat driver" sequence in TOMORROW NEVER DIES. I can watch that thing over and over again. But to pick just one scene above others doesn't seem fair in a series of films that largely pride themselves on their action scenes.

However, worst Bond action scene? Windsurfing the ice wave in DIE ANOTHER DAY. Easy. No contest.

It's hard to argue that. I couldn't believe how poor the effects were.

However any Moore fistfight in the 80s comes close. And that retarded moon buggy thing.

Excellent pick. I love that fight, brutal, but well choreographed. You truly believed these were two equals. Yet another example of why Campbell is one of the great action directors working today and why I'm more optimistic about his turn on "Casino Royale" than most.

Yes, and it's sad to say that it only narrowly edges out "Cowabunga Bond" surfing in the opening. Both terrible.

I also loved the whole chase/fight thing going on at the end of Goldeneye. Good stuff.

The pre-credit sequence in A VIEW TO A KILL. Ugh.

Aw, come on. The whole theater applauded when the Beach Boys kick in.

The only way it could have been better was if it had been David Lee Roth's version.

Good point. It's surprising they didn't use that, since it was released the same year. Not refined enough for Bond perhaps.

I distinctly recall sitting in the theater as the audience took to booing and maybe hissing when this happened.

I'm a Moore fan, but it was obvious he had grown too old for the role. Besides, I hate the Beach Boys like poison.