Every Bond Movie Pre-Title Scene Ranked - Worst To Best

15. You Only Live Twice (1967)

Considering the reputation that the Bond franchise has for placing the titular super-spy against megalomaniacs intent on world domination, few films actually involve plots with such high-stakes.

You Only Live Twice definitely qualifies however. When an American NASA spacecraft is ominously gobbled up by an unidentified craft in orbit, the world’s superpowers are set against one another.

The Americans blame the Russians, the Russians hotly deny their involvement, and the world is in peril, on the brink of a destructive war! But never fear, assure the British. Their man in Hong Kong is hot on the case. And what’s he up to, even as we speak?

It was a simpler time when James Bond would simply lay around after fun times with a half-naked girl that everyone knew he’d never see again. “Why do Chinese girls taste different from all other girls?” is a line that certainly wouldn’t be permitted today, but Sean Connery’s Bond didn’t care.

To the great surprise of viewers, Bond is apparently betrayed by his Chinese fling and accosted by gunmen, who riddle his bed with bullets. Is 007 really dead? Of course not, viewers sigh, the film’s about him, so get on with it.

Best moment: John Barry’s score exacerbates the tension and terror of a NASA astronaut dangling in space as the enemy craft closes in. “My lifeline!“

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Chest thumping James Bond and Haruki Murakami fanatic living in China. Once had a fever dream about riding a rowboat with Davos Seaworth. He hasn't updated this section since Game of Thrones was cool, and boy does it show.