Do we like James Bond?
A character from James Bond films (Eon series) (1962–2021)
Our score: 7 out of 10. Charming, brave and very good at saving the world. He also leaves a trail of wrecked cars, hotel rooms and hearts. We'd back him, but we wouldn't lend him our car.
James Bond is a British Secret Intelligence Service officer, code number 007. The 00 section gives him a licence to kill. Ian Fleming introduced him in the 1953 novel Casino Royale. The film series began with Dr. No in 1962 and has had several actors in the role. Each mission sends him around the world, usually after a villain with an elaborate plan, and he's armed with gadgets, a tuxedo and a dry line in humour.
His strengths are obvious: he's courageous, quick-thinking, well trained and hard to rattle. He's also intensely solitary. For all the glamour and the women around him, he has few real friends. He's loyal to his service and, in his own way, to the people he works with. He often puts a mission, or a personal hunch, ahead of orders.
Against that, he's reckless and a notorious womanizer. He leaves chaos behind him, and the people who get close to him often pay for it. The different actors tilt him in different directions. Connery's Bond is cold-blooded, Moore's is playful, and Craig's is bruised and more vulnerable. He's still the one you want standing between the world and a supervillain.
In Daniel Craig's final film, No Time to Die (2021), Bond's story reaches a definitive end and he doesn't get to walk off into the sunset. Craig's films play out as one long arc of a spy learning what his job costs him, which is why this version earns a bit more sympathy than the swaggering earlier ones.