Roger Moore’s era of Bond movies was defined by a wry, tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, which meant that he ended up with some of the most memorable one-liners. This line provides a hilariously cold-blooded punchline before the opening titles kick in. Bond then quips, “ Shocking, positively shocking,” turning a man’s death into a corny pun. He pushes the assassin into the bathtub, then throws in a lamp to electrocute the water, killing the assassin. After blowing up a drug laboratory, Bond returns to his hotel room, where he’s ambushed by an assassin. This sequence established the gold standard (no pun intended) for the Bond series’ action-packed cold opens. The most memorable one-liner from Connery’s tenure arrived in the cold open of Goldfinger. After killing a bad guy with a spear gun in Thunderball, Connery’s Bond quips, “ I think he got the point.” After tossing a henchman into a fish tank full of hungry piranhas that promptly start tearing him to shreds in You Only Live Twice, he quips, “ Bon appetit!” And, of course, Connery was the first Bond actor to say, “ Bond, James Bond,” turning a mundane character introduction into one of the most iconic moments in movie history.

RELATED: Each James Bond Actor's Defining Scene: 6 Moments That Made 007Īs the very first Bond actor in the official Eon canon, Sean Connery introduced the one-liner tradition to this franchise. Each one has a one-liner that’s more iconic than all the others – and some of those actors’ one-liners are more iconic than those of their peers. From the tongue-in-cheek humor of the Roger Moore era to the self-aware satire of George Lazenby’s brief recasting, every Bond actor has their own comedic sensibility when it comes to the one-liners. Sometimes, he has a double entendre up his sleeve when he’s in bed with a woman. 007 mostly uses his wordplay to punctuate one of his licensed kills. There are a few different occasions that call for a one-liner in a Bond movie. One of the job requirements for the screenwriter of a Bond movie is the ability to write puns about sex and murder. Even the grittier and more realistic portrayals of Bond, like Timothy Dalton and Daniel Craig, had their share of one-liners. The one-liner tradition was introduced with the first on-screen adaptation of the Bond character, played by Sean Connery, and has permeated through every subsequent incarnation of the role. One of James Bond’s most recognizable character traits is his use of quippy one-liners to punctuate his most badass moments, and every 007 actor has had their own unique style of one-liner.

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