Top 10 most influential James Bond movies.

Absolutely_Cart

Not judging based on quality of personal preference, but rather the influence I think it had on the film industry and the series itself.

1 - Goldfinger

Pretty much established the formula for many future Bond movies.

2 - From Russia With Love

Showed that the series can be a serious portrayal of history, and convinced many people who may have been skeptics from Dr. No.

3 - Dr. No

Was the one that started it all, and basically established most of the Bond tropes like "Bond, James Bond"

4 - Goldeneye

After a 6 year hiatus and a new Bond (Brosnan), Goldeneye becomes a cultural icon for the series in the modern post Cold War era.

5 - Thunderball

Introduced an emphasis on technology and gadgets to the series.

6 - The Spy Who Loved Me

Turned around the declining trajectory of the series with a detente era classic in the 70's.

7 - Casino Royale

Introduced Bond as a gritty action hero for a new generation in one of its most acclaimed entries.

8 - Skyfall

Was the largest grossing (inflation-adjusted) film the series, featuring an original script. 50 years later, Bond is still strong.

9 - You Only Live Twice

Was highly influential at its date of release with memorable scenery and technology.

10 - On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Has recieved polarizing reviews due to Lazenby's performance, but also remains one of the most acclaimed films in the series.

Brosnan_fan

IMO these are the 10 most influential Bond films (in release order) to make their mark on cinema:

1. Dr. No - the first film; introducing James Bond to the world, with Connery's immortal scene.

2. From Russia With Love - firmly establishes the Cold War espionage factor into the series.

3. Goldfinger - the one which started "Bondmania", and features many elements which would later become what many would call "The Bond formula".

4. On Her Majesty's Secret Service - ahhh, yes... the one which starred Lazenby. Considered quite a gem among Bond fans, and a trivia note for casual film buffs.

5. The Spy Who Loved Me - the film which established the public's acceptance of Roger Moore's Bond, and considered by many to be the "Perfect Formula Bond Film".

6. For Your Eyes Only - after many years and films with gadgets, outlandish stories and villains, this one brought everyone back to Flemingesque basics, and it is one of Moore's finest outings.

7. Licence to Kill - an attempt to bring the seriousness of Bond's world to the public with a tough and brutal tone. Entertaining, but rough-going.

8. GoldenEye - after a long hiatus, James Bond is brought back with this energetic entry.

9. Casino Royale (I haven't seen this, but going by what I know) - pretty much the same with GoldenEye (same director!!), this one reboots the Bond franchise and, going by the general consensus, seems to be pretty popular.

10. Skyfall - the highest-grossing Bond film to date.

James Suzuki

1. Dr. No. The first Bond film. Introduces the Bond Girls, the action and the one-liners. Creates a Film-Star out of Connery and shows a new way to make an Action Movie.
2. Goldfinger. Introduces Gadgets in Spy Films, the Meglomaniac and the Bond Formula we know so well.

3. YOLT. The Evil Villain in a swivel chair, the white cat and the volcano are elements, inspiring humour in the Austin Power movies, which have become singed into auidences minds because of this movie.

4. TSWLM. The Pre-titles are famous, Roger Moore is finally accepted as Bond and characters such as Anya and Jaws become known across the world.

5. Skyfall. When Bond reached the level of Batman and Avengers for sheer money-making. Another Golden age of Bond films begin.

6. Casino Royale. Proves that Bond is able to stand in the modern world against Jason Bourne and the rise of technology.

7. Thunderball. The most grossing Bond film adjusted to inflation.

8. Goldeneye. Brosnan is accepted as the new Bond as soon as his face appears int the movie.

9. OHMSS- Lazenby's performance and the film itself has become very popular in the Bond communities. 'Doing a Lazenby" has bceome a common phrase.

10. FYEO- My favourite Bond film. So it influenced me the most, that's why its number ten

MooseWithFleas

Surprised LALD was not mentioned with it's incredible boat stunts and overall proving that Bond can survive and thrive without Connery.

Absolutely_Cart

LALD was going to be at 11.

Gassy Man

This list is mostly about how these films influenced either other films, other Bond films, or both, good or bad:

Dr. No -- Replaced the classic Cary Grant/Gregory Peck hero with a sadistic assassin. Reinvented what a leading man should look and act like. Took B movie serial tropes -- countdowns, megalomaniacal villains, supersecret lairs with deadly traps, Yellow Horde Asian adversaries -- and made them big budget spectacles.

From Russia with Love -- A pastiche of Hitchcock and Lean concepts, it fused the fantasy and real worlds of espionage, upping the kink and violence. One of the few truly grown up Bond films, it is as good or better than some of the harder hitting spy thrillers to come, such as The IPCRESS File, Funeral in Berlin, and The Quiller Memorandum.

Goldfinger -- In addition to creating the formula for many Bonds to come, this outrageous, colorful spoof pushed the boundaries of censorship and accidentally created the now ubiquitous hero's one-liner before dispatching the bad guy. The last Bond film that seems associated with the big band, rat pack era in look and feel, fusing comic book fantasy (the Batmobile-like Aston Martin) with a Playboy Magazine lifestyle.

You Only Live Twice -- The first real Bond epic, a breezy, larger-than-life film that embodies so much of the spirit of the late 1960s in design, fashion, attitude, and music. Predicts where big-budget spectacles will go and gives the Bond series a fairy-tale quality, again relying on even bigger and more expensive B movie serial tropes that Bond imitators like Our Man Flint and Murderer's Row can only imitate on a less convincing scale.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service -- While it was vogue as the 1960s ended and the 1970s began to feature downbeat endings in movies, this Bond outing is more noteworthy for a tone and visual style that makes it closer to the Bond films a decade later than the decade before. In many ways more overt in violence and sexuality than predecessors, it is the only Bond film where the romance seems genuine, despite the now-cliched falling-in-love montage sequence. Signals a shift, too, as Bond's missions start to move from being professional to more personal in nature, and he demonstrates a rebelliousness that mirrors the youth's of the day.

Diamonds are Forever -- The Bond series begins to imitate the imitators, adding much more camp and farce to the mix and setting the stage for the Moore films that follow. But this film also ups the sex and violence again, adding such kink as cross-dressing, flaming homosexuality, and very brief nudity that in the day pushed the envelope. The production starts to seem more spartan, and even the cinematography begins to take on the muted look of many films of the early 1970s.

The Spy Who Loved Me -- Unlike its two predecessors, this Bond film pulls out all the stops and serves a disco version of the 1960s films, temporarily resuscitating interest in the genre a decade after the spy craze ended. Relying on scale more than imagination, the production features some of the most extensive model work of any film production to date, eclipsed only by the runaway hit Star Wars.

Never Say Never Again -- While derided by some fans, Sean Connery's return as Bond reminded audiences that even at 53, he could pull off the masculine cool required for the part. Director Irvin Kershner creates a production that blends the plastic 1980s with the more colorful 1960s, navigating the difficult task of making a Bond film without the traditional trappings -- gunbarrel, Bond theme, familiar cast. Several characterizations seem to become models or predictors for those in later Bond films. Fatima Blush for Xenia Onatopp, Algernon (Q) for R, Bernie Casey's Felix Leiter for Jeffrey Wright's, Klaus Maria Brandauer's unbalanced Largo for Javier Bardem's unbalanced Silva.

The Living Daylights -- The first attempt since the 1960s to marry Bond to his literary roots, this entertaining if uneven Bond adventure also humanizes the character in ways largely unseen, curbing Bond's sexual appetites in the wake of the AIDS epidemic. Though Dalton's tenure will be brief as Bond, he paves the way for later efforts to bring the character in line with modern taste. Like many films of the 1980s, the production wants to please as many audiences as possible, resulting in a mixed bag.

Casino Royale -- Despite following the prequel craze rather than setting it, this is the first Bond film in decades to focus both on establishing Bond as a character (rather than rely on the cinematic cliche) and evoke Fleming-esque concepts. Bond becomes fresh again through a combination of emotional vulnerability and physical invulnerability, a challenging task brought ably to life by Daniel Craig, whose retro masculinity once again redefines the leading man. While set pieces and stunts often take time away from developing a three-dimensional romance, the cast is one of the best assembled for a Bond film in years.

Thunderpussy

The Bond's almost invented the modern action film. You can
See the influences in many films. From Die Hard to Bourne.
Goldfinger, became the template not just for the following Bonds
But many other action/Thrillers. -{

Blackleiter

Gassy Man wrote:

Never Say Never Again -- While derided by some fans, Sean Connery's return as Bond reminded audiences that even at 53, he could pull off the masculine cool required for the part. Director Irvin Kershner creates a production that blends the plastic 1980s with the more colorful 1960s, navigating the difficult task of making a Bond film without the traditional trappings -- gunbarrel, Bond theme, familiar cast. Several characterizations seem to become models or predictors for those in later Bond films. Fatima Blush for Xenia Onatopp, Algernon (Q) for R, Bernie Casey's Felix Leiter for Jeffrey Wright's, Klaus Maria Brandauer's unbalanced Largo for Javier Bardem's unbalanced Silva.

Yep! -{

Gassy Man

Thunderpussy wrote:

The Bond's almost invented the modern action film. You can
See the influences in many films. From Die Hard to Bourne.
Goldfinger, became the template not just for the following Bonds
But many other action/Thrillers. -{

Though Die Hard was adapted from a book, it essentially takes the last act of a Bond film and stretches it out over two hours.

Gassy Man

Blackleiter wrote:

Gassy Man wrote:

Never Say Never Again -- While derided by some fans, Sean Connery's return as Bond reminded audiences that even at 53, he could pull off the masculine cool required for the part. Director Irvin Kershner creates a production that blends the plastic 1980s with the more colorful 1960s, navigating the difficult task of making a Bond film without the traditional trappings -- gunbarrel, Bond theme, familiar cast. Several characterizations seem to become models or predictors for those in later Bond films. Fatima Blush for Xenia Onatopp, Algernon (Q) for R, Bernie Casey's Felix Leiter for Jeffrey Wright's, Klaus Maria Brandauer's unbalanced Largo for Javier Bardem's unbalanced Silva.

Yep! -{

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Thunderpussy

You are correct GM, Die Hard 1 and 2 were taken from books
Die Hard 4 from a magazine article. Sadly guys I can't see what
you see in NSNA, I find it so boring.

Absolutely_Cart

Never Say Never Again wasn't really influential though. Underrated, perhaps? Sure. But something that would shake up the film industry, not at all.

Blackleiter

Thunderpussy wrote:

You are correct GM, Die Hard 1 and 2 were taken from books
Die Hard 4 from a magazine article. Sadly guys I can't see what
you see in NSNA, I find it so boring.

NSNA is not a great Bond film, but any means, but to me there are things to like. Here's what I like about it:

Connery is still the man!
Bernie Casey's Felix Leiter (my namesake!)
Barbara Carrera as Fatima Blush - a great Bond femme fatale!
Klaus Maria-Brandauer makes for a more interesting and multi-dimensional Largo.

Thunderpussy

I can agree with all that but every time I put it on, I end up skipping
Huge sections of it.

Absolutely_Cart

NSNA is a meh Bond film, but a good Connery film. It was his best acting in 007 since Goldfinger.

Gassy Man

NSNA was more retro than AVTAK, and quite a bit of it was lifted for later Bond films. It's not a high-octane actioner, but it wasn't trying to be and was probably the last Bond film to let the character, as embodied so well by Connery, be witty and unflappable rather than jokey and brooding.

chrisisall

Bond movies were influential on cinema at large throughout most of the Sixties, but the single movie that had the greatest effect on film-making (we're talking mainly action films now) was YOLT. It upped the ante with grand set pieces gloriously photographed more lushly than ever before, and as an added bonus it was ahead of its time in introducing ninja & quality martial arts to a public that mainly thought chops to the neck were the genuine article. )
Suddenly all great action fare had a new level to shoot for.

Absolutely_Cart

The Living Daylights did heavily influence future Bond films, shifting them to a much darker tone.

But it had little influence on films in general.

Opposite that are films like You Only Live Twice which are profound in film history but didn't change the Bond trajectory one bit.