James Bond - Watch Order: Lazenby and Dalton Films
This watch list showcases two distinct approaches that brought greater realism and emotional depth to the character. George Lazenby's single film On Her Majesty's Secret Service is often considered the most emotionally complex early Bond entry, while Timothy Dalton returned the character to his literary roots with a harder edge.
Both actors emphasized Bond's vulnerability and humanity over gadgets and quips. These films stand apart from their respective eras by taking the character and his world more seriously, presaging the grounded approach of later decades.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
James Bond tracks his archnemesis, Ernst Blofeld, to a mountaintop retreat in the Swiss alps where he is training an army of beautiful, lethal women. Along the way, Bond falls for Italian contessa Tracy Draco, and marries her in order to get closer to Blofeld.
The Living Daylights
After a defecting Russian general reveals a plot to assassinate foreign spies, James Bond is assigned a secret mission to dispatch the new head of the KGB to prevent an escalation of tensions between the Soviet Union and the West.
Licence to Kill
After capturing the notorious drug lord Franz Sanchez, Bond's close friend and former CIA agent Felix Leiter is left for dead and his wife is murdered. Bond goes rogue and seeks vengeance on those responsible, as he infiltrates Sanchez's organization from the inside.
Other Film Series
Divergent
A dystopian trilogy following Tris Prior as she discovers her Divergent nature and leads a rebellion against the faction system controlling post-apocalyptic Chicago.
Jurassic Park / Jurassic World
The complete dinosaur franchise from Spielberg's original thriller through the modern blockbuster era.
Lethal Weapon
A buddy cop action series following the partnership between unstable detective Martin Riggs and veteran sergeant Roger Murtaugh through four films.
Rambo
Sylvester Stallone stars as John Rambo, a troubled Vietnam War veteran, in this five-film action series spanning from 1982 to 2019.
The Matrix
A groundbreaking sci-fi action series exploring the nature of reality through the story of Neo, a hacker who discovers the world is a computer simulation.
The Terminator
A sci-fi franchise about humanity's war against artificial intelligence and time-traveling cyborgs sent to alter the past.