Watching the James Bond films in the right order is a trickier proposition than it sounds.

Yes, obviously, you can watch them in chronological order from Sean Connery's debut in Dr No in 1962 right through to Daniel Craig's missile-assisted farewell in No Time To Die. But it's not exactly that straightforward.

The reboot with Casino Royale causes a bit of a palaver with the continuity, as we see Craig's Bond get his 00 rank for the first time by executing a traitor in Prague, and meet Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Eve Moneypenny and the rest of the MI6 caper crew too.

But Craig's Bond also had Timothy Dalton's Aston Martin V8 Vantage and Connery's DB5, and the MI6 building had pictures of not just Judi Dench's M but Robert Brown's too, who appeared in four films across the Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton.

And! There was that odd bit in Spectre where Blofeld introduces himself as Blofeld and Bond looks all shocked and it's a big thing, but he's never met the guy before. Surely "dunno who you are pal" would be the usual reaction.

Anyway! Anyway. This is the front-to-back vanilla version of the Bond ordering.

How to watch the James Bond moves in order:

  1. Dr No (1962)
  2. From Russia with Love (1963)
  3. Goldfinger (1964)
  4. Thunderball (1965)
  5. You Only Live Twice (1967)
  6. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
  7. Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
  8. Live and Let Die (1973)
  9. The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
  10. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
  11. Moonraker (1979)
  12. For Your Eyes Only (1981)
  13. Octopussy (1983)
  14. A View to a Kill (1985)
  15. The Living Daylights (1987)
  16. Licence to Kill (1989)
  17. GoldenEye (1995)
  18. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
  19. The World is Not Enough (1999)
  20. Die Another Day (2002)
  21. Casino Royale (2006)
  22. Quantum of Solace (2008)
  23. Skyfall (2012)
  24. Spectre (2015)
  25. No Time to Die (2021)

If you're feeling particularly completist you can add Casino Royale (1967) between Thunderball and You Only Live Twice, and Never Say Never Again (1983) between Octopussy and A View To A Kill.

This is not a marathon to leap into without any training. From the start of Dr No to the end of No Time To Die is 55 hours and 39 minutes. Alan Partridge had his Bond-athon planned out to the minute ("11:05 – From Russia With Love. 1:15 – Goldfinger. Strawberry Nesquik, fishcakes. 3:35 – Thunderball, dump. Put question mark. See how I feel after the fishcakes") and he only had to watch up to The World is Not Enough.

how to watch james bond in order
Keith Hamshere//Getty Images

There are a couple of abridged runs you can go on too, if 3,339 minutes of pure Bond feels like a lot more than you can reasonably handle. That's 55 hours and 39 minutes of exploding pens and amphibious gondolas. Take it slow, is our advice.

You might try just the Craig continuity, from Casino Royale (2006) onwards, sure. But if you want something a bit more chewy, pick out just the Bond films that have a thread of Spectre bastardry in them.

The Spectre saga:

  1. Dr No (1962)
  2. From Russia With Love (1963)
  3. Thunderball (1965)
  4. You Only Live Twice (1967)
  5. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
  6. Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
  7. For Your Eyes Only (1981)
  8. Casino Royale (2006)
  9. Quantum of Solace (2008)
  10. Spectre (2015)
  11. No Time To Die (2021)

Given that Skyfall only really fits into the Spectre saga retrospectively you could skip that one, though if you're watching with a newbie you might have to explain where Judi Dench went.

is james bond dead
Universal

There is one other order you can try, if you fancy trying to stitch together the Ian Fleming Cinematic Universe by watching Bond go through his adventures in the order his author put him through them originally.

The novel order:

  1. Casino Royale (2006)
  2. Live and Let Die (1973)
  3. Moonraker (1979)
  4. Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
  5. From Russia With Love (1963)
  6. Dr No (1962)
  7. Goldfinger (1964)
  8. Thunderball (1965)
  9. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
  10. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
  11. You Only Live Twice (1967)
  12. The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

There's one more option too. On Reddit, u/ColonelBrutus came up with this order which tracks Bond as the actor who plays him ages, with some exceptions made for how old the Bond actor looks.

photograph, eyewear, human, sunglasses, landscape, photography, adaptation, vacation, travel, fawn,
Sony Pictures

We go from gorgeous Connery to a Moore who looks like he's ready for a lie down and a cocoa after dispatching Max Zorin.

The ageing Bond order:

  1. Dr No (1962)
  2. From Russia With Love (1963)
  3. Goldfinger (1964)
  4. Thunderball (1965)
  5. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
  6. The Living Daylights (1987)
  7. Licence To Kill (1989)
  8. The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)
  9. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
  10. Moonraker (1979)
  11. Goldeneye (1995)
  12. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
  13. The World is Not Enough (1999)
  14. For Your Eyes Only
  15. Die Another Day (2002)
  16. Octopussy (1983)
  17. A View To A Kill (1985)

Phew. There you have it, but the next question is an even bigger one: who will take over from Daniel Craig as the next Bond? Check out our rundown of the top contenders, the underdogs, and a few actors that don't stand a chance, just for good measure.