All 25 James Bond movies ranked only by their cars

There is no shortage of lists ranking the best James Bond movies. Ditto lists about the best or worst James Bond cars. I know, I've written some of them. As such, why not combine the two ideas into one new list that ranks all 25 official James Bond movies based exclusively on their cars, or more accurately their car content. I would then pull from my 25 years of James Bond nerddom plus the excellent "Bond Cars: The Definitive History" and our interview with long-time Bond special effects supervisor Chris Corbould to provide tidbits and factoids about the cars and their roles in the movies. And yes(!), this list now includes "No Time to Die," which impresses by adding plenty of car content to the series. It's now available on Blu-ray and download.

To determine the list, I considered the inherent coolness of the cars as well as their importance to Bond, film and car history. I considered their importance to the story as well as the quality/excitement of the chases and scenes they participated in. Finally, I tried my best to divorce the car content from my opinions about the movies in general. That my personal list of best James movies looks nothing like this shows I was at least partially successful.

25. 'Moonraker'

There are virtually no cars in "Moonraker." None. Oh, there's a gondola on wheels that makes a pigeon do a double-take, but that's not the same thing as a car. Neither is a golf cart. Or an ambulance. Or a space shuttle.

24. 'From Russia With Love'

The literary James Bond mostly drove an ancient Bentley, and "From Russia with Love" is the only film in which it appears. It stays parked and the coolest thing that happens (by 1962 standards) is 007 answers its car phone. Thereafter, we get some old cars (even by 1962 standards) driving around Istanbul and a yellow truck. So yeah. Classic Bond film, a must-watch, just not for its car content.

23. 'Dr. No'

History records that the first "Bond car" is the Sunbeam Alpine in "Dr. No." The car itself was literally borrowed from a Miss Jennifer Jackson of 53 Lady Musgrave Road in Jamaica for 10 pounds per day for two days during filming. Also, the stunt where it drove under an excavator blocking the road was entirely conceived because the filmmakers showed up to the road they intended to film on and discovered an excavator blocking the thing. Sadly, those are really the only two things interesting about the Alpine, which is a pretty small and dainty thing by Bond car standards. It just doesn't fit. There's also some truly terrible old-timey sawing-at-the-wheel driving from Mr. Connery while a hilarious rear-projected film of the chase goes on behind him.

22. 'Licence to Kill'

Our vehicle classification board has determined that a Kenworth big rig is not a car, and therefore, "Licence to Kill's" truly impressive, climactic big-rig chase does not count toward its overall score. Too bad. As such, this film must rely on the Maserati Biturbo 425 driven by the bad guys (dude, drug dealers could afford something way better), a blue Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow II driven by Q (I mean, it's not a bad car) and the Lincoln Continental Mark VII LSC driven by Bond in the Florida Keys. The latter was actually a pretty cool car for its day and packed the Mustang's 5.0-liter V8, but it just isn't right for Bond. It was like he opted for something from the Hertz Premium collection.

21. 'Live and Let Die'

Once again, those persnickety fellows have dictated that a boat is also not the same thing as a car, so no points for having the coolest boat chase of all time. Also no points for the double-decker bus chase. Now, some points do go to the collection of nifty Pimpmobiles on display early in the movie along with the entire Eastside Highway in New York exclusively and conspicuously populated by the same two or three General Motors models.

20. 'Thunderball'

This would be the lowest-ranking movie featuring the Aston Martin DB5. Yes, it's in the movie, yes it shows off a few gadgets like a water sprayer and pop-up bullet shield, but it does so while parked. Later, the Spectre bad guy tailing 007 is blown off the road by fellow Spectre baddy Fiona Volpe before 007 and the DB5 can do anything about it. So, not much action. The classic Aston wasn't the only car in "Thunderball" that showed up after appearances in "Goldfinger": so did the Lincoln Continental, Ford Thunderbird and Ford Mustang. Only the latter did something remotely interesting: Volpe scaring 007 by driving really fast. This always struck me as condescending to women (and a pretty bad-ass one at that), inflating a sense of peril that didn't really exist, and some cheesy editing as the car's speed was obviously increased in post. This movie is about things under water, not on the road.

19. 'A View to a Kill'

The most noteworthy car in this movie is the 1962 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II that was actually owned by Bond producer Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli. Yes, they actually used a different car when Grace Jones rolls it into a pond. There's also a C4 Corvette driven by a Russian spy, a Jeep Cherokee driven by Tanya Roberts, and what is possibly the least James Bond car ever, a Ford LTD. Good grief. However, this movie is buoyed by the fun car chase through Paris where Bond makes off with a Renault 11 taxi to follow a parachutist along the Seine. The taxi flies down stairs, through the air and onto buses, before eventually getting chopped in half … when it just keeps going. So, who-cares cars, neat car chase.

18. 'The World Is Not Enough'

Unlike the Z3 two films prior, the future-classic BMW Z8 actually shows off the toys Q (and R!) says it has, including little missiles that pop out from the car's fender vents. We also see Bond drive it remotely using the key fob, albeit quite slowly on a pier, and quite briefly. It may have been 22 years ago, but I vividly remember the groan that washed through the theater when the Z8 meets those saw blades. Fun fact: BMW could only supply two early production prototypes to the film. The Bond production team had to build three more using BMW-supplied components, a Chevy V8, some Jaguar suspension bits and who knows what else lying around the shop. So all that groaning was for not. It was a fake.

17. 'Quantum of Solace'

As the Aston Martin DBS was featured first in "Casino Royale," much of its cool factor had already been used up by the time it shows up immediately in the "Quantum" pre-titles sequence. It then takes part in a pretty good car chase until you start to realize that Bond is struggling to outrun an Alfa Romeo 159, a car that looks cool but was rubbish to drive. It was no Giulia Quadrifoglio. This is certainly not the only automotive mismatch in Bond history, but it further stunts the DBS' impact in this movie. Later, a Ford Ka and Ford Edge show up and are apparently powered by hydrogen? Because, reason?

16. 'Diamonds are Forever'

In all honesty, I must admit that this is one of my two least favorite James Bond movies (you'll find out the other later). Much of that has to do with how heartlessly it moves on from the emotional cliffhanger of the preceding "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," though I also find it too silly and a bit dull. Nevertheless, it has some pretty good car stuff in it. Director Guy Hamilton thought American cars were terrible, so he took great glee in going out of his way to make sure as many ponderous land yachts were destroyed as possible during the Vegas car chase scene. One American car that was definitely not terrible, though perhaps still a bit ponderous, was the Ford Mustang Mach 1 that's indeed one of the most famous Bond cars. It's also involved in one of the worst continuity errors of all time: It goes into an alley on its two right wheels and comes out on its left. That mistake was already the result of a reshoot, and Hamilton decided it wasn't worth a third go. "Diamonds" is also famous for its Moon Buggy that 007 steals, its ridiculous arms flailing about as it careens across the desert outmaneuvering more hapless land yacht cop cars. It's one of the reasons I think the movie's too silly, but people seem to dig the thing: It sold at auction in 2019 for $512,000.

15. 'The Man with the Golden Gun'

This movie has one of the greatest car-related stunts in film history and possibly THE greatest in Bond history. In short: Car approaches broken bridge, launches into the air over a river, does a full 360-degree rotation in midair, and lands on the other side of the broken bridge. Sensational. Unfortunately, someone had the bright idea to make it slow motion in the film, and most egregiously, played a slide whistle during the rotation. Unforgivable. Now, if you ever wondered why this stunt was performed with an AMC Hornet, the answer was it had to be. The stunt was originally developed using an AMC Javelin using nascent computer modeling. Remember, this was the early 1970s. Computer anything was space age. Perhaps because the Javelin was on its way out of the AMC lineup, the Hornet was used instead and a partnership with AMC was hatched to also include a hideous AMC Matador as baddy Francisco Scaramanga's car. That would end up becoming a "flying car" – basically the wing, tail and engine are plopped on top of the roof. It, or rather an incredibly obvious model, then takes off. Apparently, some audience members thought the flying Matador was real and the Hornet river jump was faked. Can't imagine the slide whistle helped.

14. 'Casino Royale'

The cars in "Casino Royale" play a symbolic role in this origin story that shows Bond becoming Bond. In Britain, the term "Mondeo Man" was used to describe a regular, median-class guy, one who'd drive a regular, median-class car like a Ford Mondeo. It is therefore not just a bit of groan-worthy product placement that leads Daniel Craig to drive a Mondeo early on in "Casino Royale." He's still a regular old agent. But soon enough, he's winning a 1964 Aston Martin DB5 at the poker table, explaining how a government employee could somehow afford a classic grand-touring sports car, as Pierce Brosnan's Bond did (this origin would be totally thrown out the window, and the steering wheel moved back to the British side, in later movies, but no one really cares). Later, Bond says "I love you too, M" as he takes ownership of an Aston Martin DBS. This is his first true "Bond car" — he has arrived, at least vehicularly. Of course, the DBS sees some spectacular, if brief, action. As he swerves to avoid Vesper Lynd lying in the road, the DBS flips a world-record seven times. Behind the camera, that took some extra effort. As the DBS was not yet in production, the stunt team practiced the flip with a BMW 5 Series and an Aston Martin DB9. When the DBS showed up, however, there was so much downforce and stability that the upgraded DBS wouldn't flip despite driving it over progressively larger ramps. Chris Corbould's team had to come up with a novel solution: Install air cannon to fire down into the pavement. Mission accomplished and a world-record inadvertently achieved.