5. Judi Dench vs Timothy Dalton
Alright, if one major opportunity was lost when Dalton bowed out of his James Bond Tuxedo in 1994, it was the chance to go head to head with another classically trained actor of the theater. Imagine for a second that key scene in the first act of GoldenEye, where the new M literally makes an ass of 007 as she sips on that bourbon. What we ended up with was a one sided affair in terms of great acting from Judi Dench as she went up one side and the other of pretty boy Pierce Brosnan. The dialogue here was punchy, crisp, but unfortunately this movie sorely missed out on having an actor like Dalton to be able to trade cutthroat barbs back and forth with someone of Dench's acting caliber. If anyone of you don't think Dalton could have handled this kind of scene with ease, look no further than when his version of 007 resigns in License to Kill. He owned that scene just on his grimacing facial expressions alone, and I have no doubt that convincing energy would have made this moment in GoldenEye contain so much more gravitas. If nothing else, the bulk of what M was insulting 007 for here would have made more sense if Dalton had been portraying Bond one last time. Towards the end of this scene when she advises Bond to not go off on some vendetta, this absolutely cements how much more appropriate having Dalton walking out of her office would have been, referring to his revenge mission from the previous film. Not to mention her calling him a relic of the cold war, something audiences could have more easily connected to the late 80s tenure of Dalton, versus Brosnan's fresh face as Bond. Now let's take a look at another dynamic within GoldenEye that could have been made better along with Dalton's involvement, involving 006...