9. The World Is Not Enough For Christopher Nolan
For all their comparably epic status, Christopher Nolans films sit at a structural right-angle to the Bond series in their sense of place. Whereas, as we all know, James Bond has harassed the better part of the worlds population in his time, Nolans films are fundamentally internal. Those jaunts to Hong Kong (The Dark Knight) or Mombassa (Inception) are mere sideshows and, in story terms, only perform minor narrative housekeeping (in both cases finding elusive characterstheyre a notional somewhere far away, which the location boys probably figure out based on the exchange rate). Nolan generally prefers architecture and construction, and perhaps the world-weariness of Bruce Wayne or Cobb is fundamentally incompatible with the glamour of an old-fashioned travelogue (How I miss Marion Cotillard and my kids but ooh look, does anyone else want to do a cruise across the Rhine?!). However, travelogue remains an important part of the Bond series appeal. Ian Fleming got angry letters when he confined the action of Moonraker (1955) to Kentand nearly fifty years later, audiences (especially those endlessly sun-craving Britons) could riot if Nolan has 007 follow Batman to Pittsburgh.