5 Best James Bond Movies For Beginners

The James Bond movie franchise is over 60 years old, and encompasses 25 official films as of this writing — not including 1967's weird parody version of "Casino Royale" or 1983's legally complicated "Never Say Never Again." It's overwhelming enough for 007 fans to keep up with it all, to say nothing of people who are looking to jump into the franchise and have no clue where to start. The fact that there isn't a consistent lore across all of the films, and that even within a single actor's era it's not always clear if one movie acknowledges the events of a previous one, makes it all the more difficult for first-timers to know how to tackle the massive franchise.

There are a few different approaches one can take when it comes to an entry point into the 007 movie series. It can be tempting to look at every James Bond movie ranked worst to best, and just start with the best one. We'll definitely explore that option. But digging a bit deeper, there are a few entries that might make for more effective debuts for new viewers — such as the movie that serves as the origin story of the superspy or the one that inspired one of the best video games ever made. Or we can just keep things simple and start with the first Bond movie ever produced. All of those examples will be discussed — as well as another recommendation that was chosen simply because it might be the most fun 007 movie among the popular fan favorites.

It might seem a bit on the obvious side, but sometimes it's best to just keep things simple and start from the beginning. If that's the route you typically like to take when setting off to explore a media property for the first time, then making "Dr. No" your first Bond movie might make the most sense. Released in 1962, it marked Bond's screen debut, with Sean Connery instantly making the character his own. In fact, the actor is responsible for the improvised "Dr. No" moment that shaped the future of the franchise when he ad-libbed his character introducing himself as "Bond ... James Bond."

Ian Fleming had only launched the universe of James Bond a decade earlier with "Casino Royale," the first 007 novel, so the "Dr. No" movie couldn't automatically assume that its audience was fully familiar with the property. With that in mind, the movie had to do a fair amount of setup, introducing Bond's various allies, establishing the universe that Fleming had created, and laying the groundwork for the formula that the films were going to follow for the foreseeable future. Given all this, it's just as effective in that regard for a James Bond newcomer in the 2020s as it was for one in the 1960s. 

As mentioned, "Casino Royale" was the first 007 book, and was first adapted as a spoof in 1967 rather than an official, serious Bond movie. While never recognized as a "real" James Bond movie, there was still a feeling that "Casino Royale" was a lost cause in terms of screen adaptations, and that the franchise was just going to have to settle for never seeing a proper film version of the story that made James Bond a 007 agent to begin with.

That is, until it was time to usher in the Daniel Craig era and revitalize Bond for the 21st century. It felt like the perfect opportunity to do something of a soft reboot of the franchise — even more so than was typically done when a new actor took over the 007 role — and have the Craig era start from the literal beginning with a brand new adaptation of "Casino Royale" in 2006.

Not only does being Bond's origin story make it a great starting point for a newcomer, but "Casino Royale" is just an excellent 007 movie anyway. It also introduces a more modern, less problematic Bond for those who might find that the questionable things we ignore in James Bond films of the past make the older eras difficult to revisit.

Remember how we alluded to starting with the actual best Bond film? For our money, that distinction belongs to "Goldfinger," both the third to star Sean Connery and third 007 entry overall. All of the things that people associate with classic Bond are both present and at their best in "Goldfinger," from the gadgets to the villain to the Bond girls and everything in between. This was the Connery era at the perfect middle ground, when it was just starting to go over the top, but was still just grounded enough to keep things from getting too silly and ridiculous as they'd get over the next couple of entries.

Starting with "Goldfinger" not only makes for a really satisfying introduction to the 007 universe itself, but it's fun to finally see where the decades of jokes, references, and Easter eggs largely came from. The "Austin Powers" films, particularly the first one, drew heavily from "Goldfinger," as did just about any joke made about suave secret agents, villains that are prone to oversharing monologues, femme fatales with sexually punny names, and gadgets seen in every movie, TV show, video game, comic book, and cartoon from the '60s through the '90s and beyond that are conveniently useful to the very specific situation at hand.

While Timothy Dalton's brief stint as 007 is now generally considered to be ahead of its time and has been largely reappraised for the better, there's no denying that it wasn't a huge hit with audiences at the time. The franchise overcorrected a bit after how cartoonishly over the top the Roger Moore era was toward the end, and hit the reset button with a Bond that was a bit too gritty, edgy, and violent for its day. The next Bond era sought to find a better middle ground between modernizing the franchise and still keeping enough of that classic vibe. Thus Pierce Brosnan ushered us into his stint with the incredible "GoldenEye."

With Moore pushing 60 when his era was winding down and Dalton failing to bring new fans into the fold, "GoldenEye" had the difficult task of being the de facto introduction of the character to '80s and '90s kids. So this was a movie that had very clear intentions of hooking a new audience, which made it a great first 007 movie then and a great first 007 movie now — especially for those that want a more modern Bond but don't necessarily want to go as dark as Daniel Craig. 

What also makes "GoldenEye" a perfect first Bond movie is the Nintendo 64 adaptation of the movie, one of the most acclaimed video games of all time and played by millions of people, many of whom never even saw the movie the game was based on. There's a good chance you're already pretty familiar with the main story beats of "GoldenEye" anyway, just through pop culture osmosis. 

We didn't specifically set out to make sure we had every era of Bond represented on this list. In fact, there are no Timothy Dalton movies, nor did we include "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," the sole George Lazenby entry. That being said, the fact that Roger Moore starred in more Bond movies than anyone else made it almost impossible not to include one of his entries as a possible contender for someone's first Bond movie — especially for people who just want to have a really light and fun 007 experience.

Moore's era started off fairly campy and only got more campy as it went on, with his last couple of outings as 007 being some of the worst in the history of the franchise. But his stint had its own "Goldfinger"-esque perfect balance film with 1977's "The Spy Who Loved Me," which is frequently brought up when Bond fans are discussing their pure personal favorite entries and putting aside what they think are the actual best 007 films. 

Moore definitely stayed in the role way too long, and his final stretch tainted his tenure as Bond, but "The Spy Who Loved Me" proves why he was at least initially a great Bond — and, to some, an overall better Bond than Connery was. As the New York Times put it, "Roger Moore was the best Bond because he was the Gen X Bond." If a Gen X Bond seems like your speed, then "The Spy Who Loved Me" should be your first — and might well end up being your favorite — 007 movie.