6. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
The saddest, different, most stand-alone of all the Bonds, On Her Majesty's Secret Service is truly a franchise anomaly - not only because it marks Australian actor George Lazenby's only outing as 007, but also because in terms of narrative, execution, style, and ending, there's nothing else in the canon like it. From the opening fight sequence on the beach, which seems to have taken lessons in editing from the French New Wave, to the devastating, emotionally shattering ending, which sees Bond's wife gunned down by SPECTRE moments after their wedding, OHMSS sets its self out as something deeper and more personal than most Bond fare. The film is much more of a straight spy thriller, with little in the way of gadgets or gimmickry, and Lazenby is decent as a Bond who seems much more the everyman than the superman. It's the ending that marks OHMSS as truly special, though, with Bond holding Diana Rigg's Tracy in his arms, stroking her face, telling her it's going to be okay (Lazenby wanted to cry to make the scene more believable, but was instructed not to - Bond doesn't cry). It's a stark ending to a Bond film wholly unrecognisable to what had been before it, and it marks the series' most melancholy moment to date.