Every James Bond Finale Ranked

When it comes to a Bond film, the ending is one of the most important parts of it. Any successful action film should have a strong, thrilling climax that pays off the preceding events in a satisfying way - and the James Bond films are no exception.

Just like the films themselves, the James Bond finales are a very mixed bag in more ways than one. They've taken on many different forms over the years; often the Bond finale is a big climactic battle in the enemy base, but others are far smaller and more tight-knit affairs involving fewer characters. They also vary in terms of quality.

Many of them pay off in a satisfying way and some of them are the best part of their movie, but quite a few others - including a few from otherwise enjoyable entries - were anticlimactic and dull.

With No Time to Die having arrived at last and bringing with it THAT shocking ending, it's as good a time as any to rank the James Bond climaxes. Which is the best? Which is the worst? And where does No Time to Die rank? It's time to find out...

And the award for 'Worst Bond Finale' goes to... Diamonds are Forever, the disastrous seventh film in the series. Why is it the worst? Because it gets everything wrong, and yes, that means EVERYTHING.

This climactic battle on Blofeld's oil rig fails on two key levels. Firstly, it's an absolutely garbage set-piece on its own; it's a goofy, stupid and shockingly bland battle that seems more focused on idiotic, unfunny gags than providing any sort of thrills, while the film's dreadful lead Bond Girl (Jill St John) and even worse lead villain (Charles Gray) both drag it down even further.

And secondly, it gets even worse when you consider that this is the finale to the movie. A Bond film should never end on something this boring and anticlimactic and given how underwhelming the entire movie is on the action front, it so urgently needed a thrilling ending to cap things off. Instead, it did the opposite.

Oh, and that's not all. Like several other Bond films this has an epilogue action sequence; here, Bond (Sean Connery) faces off against the henchmen Wint and Kidd (Bruce Glover and Putter Smith) - who are arguably the worst Bond henchmen ever - in a completely cringe-worthy, painful-to-watch fight scene that's somehow even worse than what came before.

Truth be told, it's hard to imagine a Bond film ever having a worse finale than this.