James Bond: 8 Movies You Need To See To Understand Spectre

5. Diamonds Are Forever

Sean Connery swore that You Only Live Twice would be his final Bond film, but agreed to come back one last time after he was offered a lot of money to set up a charity and backing for two projects of his choice. The film opens with Bond hunting down Blofeld (played by Charles Gray) after the events of On Her Majesty's Secret Service and apparently killing him. He's then sent to infiltrate a diamond smuggling ring. What he finds instead is that Blofeld is alive and well and impersonating a reclusive, Howard Hughes-esque billionaire named Willard Whyte. Blofeld's interest in the diamonds has nothing to do with their monetary value. Instead, he's using the diamonds to create a laser satellite with the goal of destroying the nuclear weapons of the US, USSR, and China and proposing an auction for nuclear supremacy. Connery's final outing in the series was by no means his best and Charles Gray's Blofeld is a far cry from his predecessors; more like the campier villains we'll see in the Moore era. But it was the last full appearance by Blofeld and SPECTRE, so it's worth seeing for that reason alone.