Every Sean Connery James Bond movie ranked, from worst to best
"Bond. James Bond." With those three words, Sean Connery made movie history and ensured he'd forever be synonymous with British cinema's most universal export. After making his debut in 1962's Dr. No, the Scottish star would go on to play the role a further five times – six if you include his comeback in quasi-Thunderball remake Never Say Never Again – and still regularly tops polls to find the best James Bond.
The Sean Connery James Bond movies also include some of the most memorable adventures in the entire franchise, with the likes of From Russia With Love, Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice establishing a blueprint that's remained more-or-less intact for six decades. The Connery era is also a good place to start any 007 marathon, as you can see in our guide to watching the James Bond movies in order.
Before you dive into our ranking of the six official Sean Connery James Bond movies (including details of where to stream in the US, UK and Australia), we should mention that – because of the time they were made – many of the films below include attitudes towards women and race (among other things) that are unacceptable nowadays. We've flagged up some particularly offensive and troublesome examples but bear in mind that you'll encounter moments that aren't acceptable in the 21st century.
6. Diamonds are Forever
Where to watch: Prime Video, Fubo, MGM Plus (US); available to rent and/or buy on select platforms, including Apple TV and Amazon (UK); Prime Video, Stan (Australia)
By his fifth Bond movie, You Only Live Twice, Sean Connery was becoming increasingly disillusioned with the franchise. So much so, in fact, that he subsequently walked away from the role that had made him a star.
George Lazenby, a comparatively unknown Australian model, played 007 in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but 007’s paymasters made Connery an offer he couldn’t refuse to headline 1971's Diamonds are Forever, which saw him take on the role for the second-to-last time.
Oh how he must have wished he’d said yes to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (now regarded as a Bond classic) and passed on this uninspiring entry in the canon. For most of the movie – a dingy trip through deserts, oil rigs, and Vegas casinos – Connery looks like he’d rather be somewhere else. There’s not a single mention of Tracy, the wife Bond loved and lost in Lazenby's solo outing, while Charles Gray is a bizarre choice as the third Ernst Stavro Blofeld in as many films – it’s almost like he’s an entirely different person.
Ultimately, Diamonds are Forever put a full-stop on Connery’s stint in the famous tuxedo, until he made an unexpected return 12 years later in unofficial Thunderball remake, Never Say Never Again (not included in this list because it's not part of the official James Bond franchise produced by Eon Productions). Interestingly, that one-off comeback was released the same year as Octopussy, but that official, Roger Moore-starring movie trounced Connery's comeback at the box office.
5. Thunderball
Where to watch: Prime Video (US); available to rent and/or buy on select platforms, including Apple TV and Amazon (UK); Prime Video, Stan (Australia)
The Daniel Craig era wasn’t the first time Bond had experimented with serialized storytelling. While they don’t hang together quite so neatly – was canon even a thing in the ’60s? – the Sean Connery movies have a definite throughline based around international extortion specialists SPECTRE. And although we wouldn’t get facetime with big boss Blofeld until You Only Live Twice (he’s essentially a pair of hands stroking a cat here), we do get a proper introduction to his Number Two, Emile Largo.
After the franchise-defining brilliance of Goldfinger, Thunderball is a backwards step. With SPECTRE stealing nuclear weapons and massive underwater battles (an incredible technical achievement), Connery's fourth 007 adventure does its best to give the audience what it thinks they want. However, it loses sight of what makes great Bond movies, well, great. There’s also a particularly unpleasant scene in which Bond forces himself on a nurse who quite clearly says no, which obviously tarnishes it in the eyes of 21st century viewers.
4. Dr. No
Where to stream: Fubo, MGM Plus (US); available to rent and/or buy on select platforms, including Apple TV and Amazon (UK); Prime Video, Stan (Australia)
The United Kingdom may still have been in the throes of post-war austerity, but the world was about to change in a big way. In 1962, the USA and USSR had begun sending people into orbit, the Beatles had released their first single, and a certain secret agent told the world his name.
While Dr. No’s not up there with 007’s best movies, it remains a spectacular statement of intent. A far cry from the stunt-filled blockbusters that would become Bond’s stock-in-trade, it’s a more grounded and smaller scale affair; as much a detective story as a globetrotting spy adventure.
Nonetheless, there are a few key indicators of things to come: eponymous bad guy Dr. No has a top-secret island base, his sights set on world domination, and connections to SPECTRE. The film also features a pair of iconic moments in the form of 007’s tuxedoed introduction – "Bond. James Bond" – and Honey Ryder’s famous seaside entrance. Better films followed, but Dr. No was clearly history in the making.
3. You Only Live Twice
Where to stream: Prime Video, Fubo, MGM Plus (US); available to rent and/or buy on select platforms, including Apple TV and Amazon (UK); Prime Video, Stan (Australia)
When Dr. Evil set his heart on a secret volcano lair in the Austin Powers films, this is almost definitely the movie that provided the inspiration.
Based on a script by bestselling children’s author Roald Dahl, You Only Live Twice ups the spectacle on its predecessors, with an utterly bonkers plot about SPECTRE capturing American and Soviet spacecraft in orbit to trigger World War III – a more outlandish and sinister take on the space race that was happening in real life.
This is the movie that launched 007 into outlandishly fantastical territory, a summer blockbuster before the concept had even been invented. You Only Live Twice is notable for giving Bond’s arch-nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld – a faceless puppet master in previous movies – his first proper screen appearance, and this cat-stroking Donald Pleasence incarnation became the quintessential Bond bad guy. It also features a cameo from Little Nellie, the most famous autogyro in history – in case you’re wondering, it’s a small, one-person flying machine.
On the down side, while Japan makes for an ideal 007 location, Bond pretending to be Japanese has not aged well. At all.
2. From Russia with Love
Where to stream: Max (US); available to rent and/or buy on select platforms, including Apple TV and Amazon (UK); Prime Video, Stan (Australia)
With a bigger budget than Dr. No and also more down-to-earth, this Cold War spy thriller brings a Hitchcockian edge to international espionage. Bond is the target as SPECTRE agents deploy ambitious young Soviet intelligence officer Tatiana Romanova to seduce Her Majesty’s finest, and get her hands on a top-secret code machine.
From Russia With Love is a throwback to a time before Bond became a brand, when the filmmakers could concentrate on telling a great story without worrying about tradition. While the film feels sedate by modern standards, there’s a bone-crunching brutality to some of the fist fights, particularly when Bond and Robert Shaw’s unrefined SPECTRE agent Red Grant go at it on a train.
It’s not without its 007-isms – the trademark arty opening credits make their debut, Q shows up with a briefcase full of tricks, and Rosa Klebb kicks out with a poison-spiked shoe – but, Bond or no Bond, From Russia With Love stands up as a classic of the spy genre.
1. Goldfinger
Where to stream: Max (US); available to rent and/or buy on select platforms, including Apple TV and Amazon (UK); Prime Video, Stan (Australia)
The film where many elements of 007’s iconography coalesced for the first time remains one of the best in the entire series. From Shirley Bassey’s never-bettered theme song to Bond’s souped-up Aston Martin DB5 – a car so classic Daniel Craig took it out of storage in Skyfall – this is the movie against which all subsequent Bonds will forever be judged.
Gert Frobe’s Auric Goldfinger is one of the franchise’s most memorable villains – charismatic and odd, but not too arch – and his scheme to irradiate all the gold in Fort Knox hits just the right level of megalomania. Bowler hat-throwing Odd Job is arguably yet to be bettered as a henchman, while Honor Blackman’s Pussy Galore isn’t just there to tell 007 how wonderful he is – a rarity for the time.
The dialogue is also extremely quotable and features – with the possible exception of "The name’s Bond…" – the most famous line in the series: "Do you expect me to talk?" asks Bond, a laser beam ominously approaching his groin. "No, Mr Bond," comes Goldfinger’s jovial reply. "I expect you to die!"
Look too hard and you could argue that Bond is almost completely passive in the movie, that his presence makes very little difference to the final outcome. But that feels like a harsh assessment of arguably the greatest Bond movie of them all.
See how Connery's successors as 007 fared in the role in our rankings of the Roger Moore James Bond movies, Pierce Brosnan James Bond movies and Daniel Craig James Bond movies. You can also check out our thoughts on the best James Bond gadgets in the franchise.
