Intuitive Bond Continuity

General
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I can already feel your eyes rolling.

I know it is impossible at this point to create a perfect continuity. Savalas messed it up in OHMSS, there are references to past movies in pre-Craig movies which create complications, and there are actors that return as different characters. It’s a haphazard construction zone.

With that in mind, I reworked the film order to show a character progression for Bond. Much of it is intuitive and explaining my reasoning would be difficult. We can’t look at M, Moneypenny, Felix, and Q actors. I attempted to separate Charles Gray, Joe Don Baker, and Maud Adams. I kept Roger out of the first timeline due to his relationship with Gogol. I didn’t get too crazy with the cars aspect but you will see the first series has a through line. I will admit it is far from perfect and I didn’t totally know what to do with NSNA so I excluded it. I initially considered placing it at the end but I can’t see Blofeld get thrown down a stack and then get reintroduced a couple movies later. Your thoughts on where to place it would be very welcome.

DAD and DAF are companion pieces and could likely be moved in the timeline but I haven’t considered it too much.

I originally put LTK at the very end due to the marriage comment but eventually I decided to place it into the first timeline because it gives more meaning to Felix in NTtD.

The x.2 (REBIRTH) series also allows for future movies to be dropped in from #s 12 - 27. The new movies could be period pieces and it wouldn’t matter.

Here it goes:

FIRST SERIES
1, 2 Casino Royale (06) & QoS
3 The Living Daylights
4 License to Kill
5, 6 Goldfinger & Skyfall
7, 8 Spectre and NTtD

LIMBO
At this point, the soul of Bond shatters like a mirror and we get
9.1 Casino Royale (1967).

The mirror reassembles with the next story line and restarts:

REBIRTH
10.2 OHMSS (almost like the car and soundtrack goes in reverse and he is addressing Craig as the other fellow)

Hard 180 turn and BAM

11.2 Die Another Day
During the torture, and escape from the trauma his previous life and loss of Tracy bleeds to create the fever dream OF

12.3 Diamonds are Forever (out of place Connery finds his place in a meta way getting the revenge he wanted)
Return to finish Die Another Day to complete the diamond story (if you can), then:

13.2- 15.2 Goldeneye, TND, TWINE (Brosnan block)
16.2 - 19.2 Dr No, FRWL, Thunderball YOLT (spectre block)
20.2 - 24.2 LaLD, TMWtGG, TSWLM, Moonraker, Octopussy
25.2 For Your Eyes Only (bye bye Blofeld again)
26.2 A View To A Kill

anything can happen at this point.

I find this order satisfying and is now my personal understanding of his story. This has been a passion project for me since Skyfall and has changed after each film. Now, I feel like we are in a place where it will be steady for a while and this system can hold.

Please let me know what you think…or feel.

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I think it‘s good that you feel satisfied.

But the Bond films never wanted to have that kind of continuity. Only within actor’s eras. The rest is just nostalgic easter eggs.

Also: see multiverse.

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There’s someone at Amazon right now wanting Dalton, Brosnan and Craig starring in “Into the Bond-verse”

I don’t know if I’m joking or not.

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Beautifully put, as well as accurate. Your timeline is amazing and intricate, so no rolled eyes here.

Mine would be far more conventional, less detailed, and full of Whitmanesque contradictions (“I am large, I contain multitudes”).

DN to YOLT, where at the end of YOLT, M and Connery Bond #1 have had enough of each other, so Lazenby Bond is born in OHMSS.

Tracy’s death at the conclusion of OHMSS so shatters Lazenby Bond that he cannot continue, and Connery Bond #1 is called out of retirement , but in the interim he has become Connery Bond #2 (as you note, DAF is the most meta entry in the timeline). He and Tiffany do call Willard Whyte, and so remain on that ocean liner steaming around in circles, necessitating the inauguration of Moore Bond in LALD. Moore Bond sticks around until he does not want to be filmed any more, and throws in the towel at the end of AVTAK.

That is as far as I can get on a lazy Saturday morning.

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I thought we solved this already. Bond is a time lord. Though I’m confused that we didn’t see his regeneration at the end of NTTD. Wait a minute….

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image

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Here’s my suggested viewing order:

  1. Casino Royale (2006)
  2. Quantum of Solace
    (M reassigned to Station H presumably with Sylva)
  3. Goldfinger (since CR and QoS hint at its iconography. But it could also be placed between #s 15-16 in its original order.)
    (Lee’s M continues to lecture Bond on not making it personal, introduces DB5)
  4. GoldenEye
    (Judi’s M returns lecturing Bond on vengeance still, Bond’s explanation of predecessor’s cognac now makes more sense now)
  5. The World Is Not Enough
    (continuing Bond and M’s frosty relationship and Zukovsky returns)
  6. Tomorrow Never Dies
    (M now trusts Bond with doing “his job”, Jack Wade returns)
  7. Skyfall
    (Bond survives fall but has some amnesia, DB5’s existence makes sense)
    Mallory conducts training mission for 00s leading into PTS of …
  8. The Living Daylights (Jack Wade goes bad as Whitaker?)
  9. Octopussy
  10. A View to a Kill
    (Edward Fox plays Mallory as M in …)
  11. Never Say Never Again
    (in place of Thunderball leading into SPECTRE trilogy)
  12. SPECTRE (with NSNA’s cat being the link)
  13. No Time to Die
    (Then the stories Madeleine tells Mathilde about Bond and SPECTRE, allowing for some continuity errors such as Felix Leiter)
    The S.P.E.C.T.R.E. chronicles:
  14. Dr. No
  15. From Russia with Love
  16. Thunderball
  17. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (Madeleine’s retelling of NTTD without violating Official Secrets Act–bioweapon was Blofeld’s idea, not M’s, and this way, Bond and Blofeld never met each other in YOLT, nor are foster brothers)
    The rest of the novels are adapted:
  18. For Your Eyes Only (whose scenes are taken from the novel … )
  19. Live and Let Die (with the rest of novel adapted in …)
  20. Licence to Kill (with David Hedison again as Felix)
  21. The Man with the Golden Gun
    And then the over the top movie adaptations with Bond actors rebooted.
  22. The Spy Who Loved Me (a greatest hits of Bond adventures, with TSWLM referencing QoS instead of the other way around.)
  23. You Only Live Twice (a period piece remake of TSWLM)
    The diamond double feature:
  24. Diamonds Are Forever (Bond in the 70s, on the hunt for Blofeld again)
  25. Die Another Day (maybe Bond is fever dreaming the rest while he was captured and tortured, can’t recall female M’s death, etc.)
  26. Moonraker (Bond sent to space to find those diamond satellites, but … )
  27. Casino Royale 1967* (a sendup of all that came before)
  28. Casino Royale 1954 (in black and white going full circle back to CR06 PTS)

I believe most of the references occur sequentially in this order so that the viewer understands the jokes and character introductions (except Q’s age), though Felix’s ethnicity and age change in GF, TLD and then back in NSNA. YOLT, DAF, and DAD are continuity busters no matter what, along with the DB5 (or GE is with that “relic of the cold war” line.) Entries #22-27 have absolutely nothing to do with the source material other than character names so it’s difficult to imagine them in any continuity with the others. But I think one can trace the development of Bond’s character with this throughline. I’m not arguing all these Bonds are the same man or continuity, but just that his character growth is seen and told through this lens from beginning to end, with each movie having some link via common themes, sets, characters or literary sources from one adventure to the next. Viewers know that Vesper, Tracy, and Madeleine are important to the character of James Bond, representing as they do his first love, his wife, and the mother of his child.

*Yes, I actually do know someone that believes this is the best Bond film ever made. To each his own.

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I need never hang my head again.

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Glad we can rationalize the EON decisions to suit our needs/wants.

I’m not certain if you are suggesting that Bond 1 or 2 are actually different people or aspects of the type of person who could be employed in that line of work…that one side took over to adjust to the situation and pushed out the other.

If we were going with the original film order, I defer to the mole. The mole was the softer bond. If you are talking about Lazenby developing Dissociative Identity Disorder, maybe the mole at the bottom of his cheek disappears for Connery Revenge and reassert itself 2" to the base of Moore’s nose. This is ridiculous of course but moles often

I enjoyed your input

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Character growth for Moore was not bedding the 16-year-old ice skater and then (no strings) takin her for soft serve.

I enjoyed your list because of the thoughtfulness involved.

Developments like quiche prowess should be taken into account. If Moore were in NTtD, he’d have sent Madeline to the store with a shopping list instead of cutting fruit. Quiche would have to be a post-Craig thing.

That’s why your list works.

I would agree with Goldfinger at 16 since you have Judy cloistered anyway. I had made a very similar list after Skyfall but wanted to ease my sanity with a mystical line in the sand where Brosnan was the Bizarro mirror.

I would argue that the last block somehow does show character development due to mental deterioration caused by the binge drinking and head injuries he had sustained over his long, long life

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If Moore were in NTTD, he would’ve banged Paloma in that wine cellar. Thus, allowing Nomi to kidnap Obruchev and then there would’ve been no movie.

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And Felix may have survived…

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Goes to show that “Felix Leiter” is actually a codename.

*** ducks ***

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My thoughts are along the line that Connery’s performances in the first five films follow a trajectory of learning the role, mastering it, and then growing bored with it. He seems checked out by the time of YOLT.

Connery in DAF is re-engaged, but in a more causal way. Andrew Sarris noted that Connery’s Bond had evolved from sexual playboy to louche uncle. Some viewers find Connery’s DAF performance lazy and disconnected, with the additional demerits of Connery being older and fatter.

This is why I distinguish between Connery Bond #1 (the first five films) and Connery Bond #2 (DAF)–same actor in the part, but offering two distinct interpretations of the role. I enjoy the way Connery in DAF obliquely acknowledges what happened to Bond when played by Lazenby, allowing it to inform, but not overwhelm his own performance.

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Glad you posted this makes me feel better about mine! Which is as follows:
1.Casino Royale 1967
2.Casino Royale (I have spliced CR with QOS omitting the closing titles and intro of the respective films, it flows together rather nicely)
3.Live & Let Die, a fresh faced Moore.
4.Moonraker (my rationale being the novel was always intended to be a film so here you go, it’s just that Fleming never got to see Star Wars!
5. Diamonds Are Forever, yes Connery is at the end but he is still younger than Moore in LALD. Also edited out the revenge sequence and gun barrel opens to Blofeld consulting his Doc.
6. Doctor No
7. From Russia with Love. As they mention Dr No had to be this way really, also a return of Miss Trench
8. Goldfinger
9. License to Kill, nice tribute to Leiter. I have edited out the reference to Bond being married before.
10. For Your Eyes Only Have removed that awful Blofeld scene and reference to Tracey. Theme happens after the Haverlock massacre and opens to Moneypenny in her office.
11. Thunderball.
12. Living Daylights I think Timothy blends in rather well to…
13. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
14. You Only Live Twice. DAFs revenge scene opens the film then cut to original PTS.
15. The Man With The Golden Gun
16. The Spy Who Loved Me
17. Octopussy
18. Never Say Never Again
19. A View to a Kill
20. Goldeneye
21. Tomorrow Never Dies
22. The World is not Enough
23. Die Another Day
24. Skyfall
25. Spectre
26. No Time To Die.

So yeah I have edited some of the films to make them fit back into the chronology, Always remember that when watching Bond it didn’t matter who or how old the actor was, guess I was too young to realise this was something that could be a factor. I did try a timeline working through the actors ages but it was a mess and started with OHMSS leading onto Connery’s era with TDalton in the middle then Moore then a hodgepodge of Craig and Brosnan and Moore. NTTD is followed by Moonraker.

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That is a chronology to savor.

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Almost a children’s story Madeleine could tell Mathilde. These are the stories a daughter of an evil sociopath who fell in love with an assassin tells her child!