Your Bond Movie "Head Canon"

We've had a couple wonderful threads about dreaming up the ideal sequence/timeline of the Bond films, with many of us wishing we could've had more or less from a certain actor, and so on. In those threads, we got to basically play God, reinventing, removing, adding, swapping, editing films as we pleased. For example, I was able to rearrange the filming order and completely gut and revise the plot of YOLT in order to give Connery a proper "Blofeld trilogy" that we never got.

This thread is slightly different. No more playing God. I'm interested if any Bond fans have, like me, rearranged certain titles in their heads as to "when" they take place in the overall timeline of 007. Do you have separate timelines for each actor? Do you see the Craig films as a reboot? The Bond films mess with continuity (or disregard it completely) so often that it certainly doesn't matter as a fun experiment. For example, I have always sort of viewed DAF as a sequel to YOLT.

I hope this is all making sense. In other words, chronologically, disregarding the obvious technological advances, where do you see the Bond film chronology with regard to Bond as a character? I, for one, have always sort of slotted CR and QOS before a bunch of the films that came before, which helps to justify SF's "old dog" themes. Etc etc.

Don't be afraid to be stupid here, I'm really curious to see what people come up with. You can only use films that actually already exist, but you can create your head canon however you like (and omit films as well). I'll add my list to the fray once I'm done with some work.

Comments

  • Posts: 9,737
    For the Craig era I include 2 and half of the video games obviosly Spectre makes the OHMSS part of the game not cannon but my feeling is between Quantum of Solace and Skyfall Bond dealt with the events of

    Bloodstone
    Goldeneye
    Goldfinger
    Moonraker
    Licence to Kill
    and
    Die another day


    Which would explain the old dog view point
  • I'm really glad that a thread was started about this, "head canon" is a phrase I've heard used many times before. I suppose mine would be quite simple because it would just be CR and QoS, then the first 20 films and then SF, SP and NTTD. It doesn't make perfect sense, but it makes a lot more sense than SF following QoS.
  • MalloryMallory Do mosquitoes have friends?
    Posts: 2,036
    I’m a traditionalist:

    Timeline 1: Dr No - Die Another Day

    Timeline 2: Casino Royale - No Time to Die

    The whole jump from QoS to SF and Bond being a bit worn in never bothered me, canonically there is 6 years between the two, plenty of time for Bond to do other (unseen) missions.
  • Posts: 1,595
    @Mallory That's understandable. It makes more sense that way, but I will admit that the jump from the two films definitely has bothered me. I would've really liked at least one film to bridge the gap between the two.

    I'll post mine here shortly.
  • Posts: 1,595
    Alright. Here's my head canon, might edit it eventually. This helps me sort of thematically understand things. I'm only including the movies as they actually exist. And since continuity is a farce in Bond anyway, who cares that I have a movie in the 60's come after a newer movie.

    Here's my timeline. Laugh at will:

    Casino Royale
    ** Quantum of Solace (epilogue, optional) **

    Those come first

    Then the rest are fairly in order, but you can make a few tweaks. I think DAF works best when seen as a sequel to YOLT, and OHMSS gets slotted further on, somewhere before FYEO.

    OP, AVTAK, and DAD have a feel of an elder and veteran Bond (as does FYEO) so I'd throw those toward the end of the timeline pre-Skyfall.

    Spectre throws a wrench in everything since it works better actually *before* Skyfall (showing a Bond in peak form), but it's so mired in cruddy continuity issues that it only really works after.

  • Interesting thoughts @ThighsOfXenia, I watched the IGN video about the Bond chronology which only makes partial sense, but one thing I would add is to put TB directly after FRWL to make a somewhat cohesive Blofeld Trilogy (I know it's not perfect) and then throw in GF before that directly after CR and QoS as a standalone adventure.
  • Posts: 1,595
    It's not a bad idea. Nerdy little exercises like this are satisfying to me. They don't have any real weight or bearing on the films' quality.

    YOLT into DAF definitely works better than OHMSS into DAF, in terms of DAF being an enjoyable watch.
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    Posts: 12,916
    Mallory wrote: »
    Timeline 1: Dr No - Die Another Day

    Timeline 2: Casino Royale - No Time to Die
    That's my view as well @Mallory. Plus I'd tag on Never Say Never Again after Die Another Day. And hold The Rock in reserve.

    Additionally, to me the Casino Royale story from Fleming establishes the Bond character and easily applies to ALL the Bond actors. Even if they didn't get to act out the events in their own film.

    Some interesting ideas I've heard suggested.

    SPECTRE revenge trilogy. 3 Bond actors.
    • From Russia With Love
    • On Her Majesty's Secret Service
    • For Your Eyes Only

    Live and Let Die plus.
    The Felix Leiter double bill with David Hedison. Combines more content from the Fleming novel and then some.
    • Live and Let Die
    • Licence to Kill

    Connery Bond in Japan, mentioned earlier.
    Even with the great Charles Gray on board for both as different characters, I like the idea to re-order Connery's last two with EON.
    • You Only Live Twice
    • Diamonds Are Forever

  • edited July 2021 Posts: 508
    Yes, YOLT does flow into DAF. I think the idea was to ret-con OHMSS and so they started the DAF PTS into a Japanese-looking place. With regard to LALD + LTK I think that works very well, with them both taking from the same novel and with Hedison as Leiter. So if you wanted to do a complete "re-do of the timeline" it could be something like this:
    CR
    QoS
    GF
    DN
    YOLT
    DAF
    FRWL
    TB
    OHMSS
    FYEO (A direct follow-up to OHMSS)
    LALD
    GE PTS
    TLD
    LTK (This way it's a sequel to LALD whilst the mention of Tracy at the start isn't too long after OHMSS)
    Remainder of GE
    TMWTGG
    TSWLM (A more mature Bond, further away from Tracy's death)
    MR
    OP
    AVTAK
    TND
    TWINE
    DAD
    SF
    SP
    NTTD

    Something like that anyway :)
  • edited July 2021 Posts: 631
    Very interesting.

    In my head canon the main sequence runs DN to OHMSS and then jumps to TSWLM which is where Bond next mentions his marriage to Tracy.

    That means that DAF-LALD-TMWTGG form a separate trilogy of films, a different timeline that has no bearing on the main sequence. It helps that those three are all very similar in tone and style.

    After TSWLM it splits again. There’s a ‘serious’ timeline which is only FYEO (Tracy again) and a ‘less serious’ timeline which is the other Moores.

    Personally I’ve always regarded Dalton, Brosnan and Craig as all being reboots.

    So there’s a single character from DN to AVTAK, then TLD, GE and CR all reboot things.

    Easy to rip holes in the sequencing but it’s how I have imagined things for a few years now.

  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    I definitely put several of the games in my personal headcanon. The pre-2006 timeline is the first 20 movies and Everything or Nothing. My Craig timeline includes GoldenEye Reloaded and Blood Stone between QoS and SF.
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    Posts: 13,879
    I put the games in there too.


    Pre-Blofeld missions
    FAAD (prequel to CR)
    CR
    QOS
    BS
    DN
    * (six month gap between DN and FRWL)
    FRWL
    GF
    TM (sequel to GF)
    TB
    SF
    Blofeld era
    SP (Bond is already aware of SPECTRE prior to this mission, but doesn't know of Blofeld)
    NTTD
    YOLT (the Blofeld from SP/NTTD turns out to be a decoy - Bond meets the real Blofeld here)
    Solstice (Christmas-time story that leads into OHMSS)
    OHMSS
    DAF
    FYEO
    Post-Blofeld missions
    LALD
    TMWTGG
    TSWLM
    Solo (Bond's mission in Africa leads into MR's PTS)
    MR
    GE's PTS (set just before TLD)
    TLD
    LTK
    JBjr (007's DB5 from the first episode returns in GE, but without the ability to fly!)
    GE (film proper, including some GE64 extras)
    TND
    JB007 Gameboy (minus Oddjob and Jaws)
    TWINE
    AUF
    NF
    DAD
    EON
    OP
    AVTAK
    NSNA (final mission; no Blofeld here, since he was killed in FYEO)
  • edited July 2021 Posts: 1,595
    @IGotABrudder Yeah, there are holes in any head canon, for sure, but there can be some emotional throughlines or plot/character throughlines. I like your idea about the DAF-TMWTGG trilogy. They share a director, too!

    Thanks everyone for their responses, these are very interesting.

    @Quantum_of_Tomorrow Very interesting. I like how you organize things around how they "play" with OHMSS
  • QBranch wrote: »
    I put the games in there too.


    Pre-Blofeld missions
    FAAD (prequel to CR)
    CR
    QOS
    BS
    DN
    * (six month gap between DN and FRWL)
    FRWL
    GF
    TM (sequel to GF)
    TB
    SF
    Blofeld era
    SP (Bond is already aware of SPECTRE prior to this mission, but doesn't know of Blofeld)
    NTTD
    YOLT (the Blofeld from SP/NTTD turns out to be a decoy - Bond meets the real Blofeld here)
    Solstice (Christmas-time story that leads into OHMSS)
    OHMSS
    DAF
    FYEO
    Post-Blofeld missions
    LALD
    TMWTGG
    TSWLM
    Solo (Bond's mission in Africa leads into MR's PTS)
    MR
    GE's PTS (set just before TLD)
    TLD
    LTK
    JBjr (007's DB5 from the first episode returns in GE, but without the ability to fly!)
    GE (film proper, including some GE64 extras)
    TND
    JB007 Gameboy (minus Oddjob and Jaws)
    TWINE
    AUF
    NF
    DAD
    EON
    OP
    AVTAK
    NSNA (final mission; no Blofeld here, since he was killed in FYEO)

    That's interesting @QBranch, I love how you included Forever and a Day (which I'm going to listen to soon) and Solo (which I recently listened to)!
  • @IGotABrudder Yeah, there are holes in any head canon, for sure, but there can be some emotional throughlines or plot/character throughlines. I like your idea about the DAF-TMWTGG trilogy. They share a director, too!

    Thanks everyone for their responses, these are very interesting.

    @Quantum_of_Tomorrow Very interesting. I like how you organize things around how they "play" with OHMSS

    In a sense, the whole franchise revolves around OHMSS, had Tracy survived, Bond would simply have retired therefore it's interesting to see how everything leads into/is a sequel to/completely ignores OHMSS when thinking about head canon.
  • If I were to fit the continuation novels I've read/listened to so far then I would say Licence Renewed would be after LTK, SeaFire would be a Brosnan film (probably post-TND but pre-TWINE) , COLD would be Dalton (maybe post LR), Solo would be Craig and would be post-SF but pre-SP as it's standalone like SF, and I think some Young Bond adaptations could work as well, slotting in before CR.
  • Posts: 1,595
    The novels would be quite an undertaking indeed, to slot in the timeline lol
  • The novels would be quite an undertaking indeed, to slot in the timeline lol

    yes, a Fleming timeline wouldn't be too bad, but with the continuation novels as well, it's very difficult
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    Posts: 13,879
    That's interesting @QBranch, I love how you included Forever and a Day (which I'm going to listen to soon) and Solo (which I recently listened to)!
    Thanks - I could've put the first four Moore films before the 'Blofeld era', but tried to keep the gap between Craig films smaller, because of previous characters/events being mentioned in SP. Also, this way keeps the gap between OHMSS and LTK larger, due to the line, "he was married a long time ago".
  • QBranch wrote: »
    That's interesting @QBranch, I love how you included Forever and a Day (which I'm going to listen to soon) and Solo (which I recently listened to)!
    Thanks - I could've put the first four Moore films before the 'Blofeld era', but tried to keep the gap between Craig films smaller, because of previous characters/events being mentioned in SP. Also, this way keeps the gap between OHMSS and LTK larger, due to the line, "he was married a long time ago".

    Yes, I think with regard to SP it would be a while after the first three Craigs but not at polar opposite ends of the timeline.
  • Posts: 1,595
    I think Moore aged much better than Connery. For his first few films, especially the first two, he looks younger than Connery does for much of his tenure, I've always thought.
  • PrinceKamalKhanPrinceKamalKhan Monsoon Palace, Udaipur
    Posts: 3,262
    My 007 film timeline chronology with regard to Bond as a character would probably go something like this:

    Alternate universe(1954): CR'54

    Official EON timeline(1962-2002):

    DN-YOLT
    DAF-TMWTGG
    OHMSS
    FYEO
    TSWLM-MR
    OP-AVTAK
    The PTS of GE
    TLD-LTK
    The remainder of GE
    TND-DAD

    Alternate universe(1967): CR'67

    Alternate universe(1983): NSNA

    Official EON timeline(2006 forwards):

    CR'06-SP

    Basically traditional with some variety for the DN-DAD time period.

    I've also seen Dalton, Lazenby and Craig essentially playing the same Bond at different phases in his career:

    Craig at the beginning(CR'06)

    Lazenby in the middle(OHMSS)

    Dalton at the end(TLD-LTK)
  • My 007 film timeline chronology with regard to Bond as a character would probably go something like this:

    Alternate universe(1954): CR'54

    Official EON timeline(1962-2002):

    DN-YOLT
    DAF-TMWTGG
    OHMSS
    FYEO
    TSWLM-MR
    OP-AVTAK
    The PTS of GE
    TLD-LTK
    The remainder of GE
    TND-DAD

    Alternate universe(1967): CR'67

    Alternate universe(1983): NSNA

    Official EON timeline(2006 forwards):

    CR'06-SP

    Basically traditional with some variety for the DN-DAD time period.

    I've also seen Dalton, Lazenby and Craig essentially playing the same Bond at different phases in his career:

    Craig at the beginning(CR'06)

    Lazenby in the middle(OHMSS)

    Dalton at the end(TLD-LTK)

    Interesting how you put the Guy Hamilton films before OHMSS, and I like how you put the less serious Moores next to each other (MR, OP, AVTAK) and having FYEO as a follow up to OHMSS. It works putting the GE PTS pre-Dalton as well, just like it should be with it being 9 years earlier than the rest of the events of GE.
  • Posts: 9,737
    I definitely put several of the games in my personal headcanon. The pre-2006 timeline is the first 20 movies and Everything or Nothing. My Craig timeline includes GoldenEye Reloaded and Blood Stone between QoS and SF.

    I thought I was the only one nice to know there are a few of us that include the games

    When I play Blood Stone and Joss is talking about some big bad I presume it the reformed Quantum now calling itself Spectre

    Oh in my head cannon I use the scripted but never filmed idea that because MI6 found out their name was Quantum they changed it to Spectre because and I have heard this multiple times if you were going to have a secret society then no one except the members should even know the name
  • cwl007cwl007 England
    Posts: 611
    Yes, YOLT does flow into DAF. I think the idea was to ret-con OHMSS and so they started the DAF PTS into a Japanese-looking place. With regard to LALD + LTK I think that works very well, with them both taking from the same novel and with Hedison as Leiter. So if you wanted to do a complete "re-do of the timeline" it could be something like this:
    CR
    QoS
    GF
    DN
    FRWL
    TB
    OHMSS
    FYEO (A direct follow-up to OHMSS)
    YOLT
    DAF
    LALD
    LTK (This way it's a sequel to LALD whilst the mention of Tracy at the start isn't too long after OHMSS)
    TMWTGG
    TSWLM (A more mature Bond, further away from Tracy's death)
    MR
    OP
    AVTAK
    TLD
    Brosnan (in any order really but probably in order of release)
    SF
    SP
    NTTD

    Something like that anyway :)

    I like that, that's good. I'm due a marathon timed to finish before NTTD is released and I might just watch them in that order. 👍
    The only tweak I'd possibly make is put the YOLT/DAF after DN and before FRWL , " revenge for the killing of DR NO" doesn't have to be immediately after for it to still work). Also Blofeld is not introducing himself to Bond for the first time after having already killed Tracy. Bond's line to M about Blofeld being something of a must with him in OHMSS works better having had 2 films with Blofeld. Thinking about it M's reply of having had enough time also works better. Also, and this is really stretching things, Bond's need for a cunning disguise as Hilary Bray narratively works as well. (Of course it does depend on Blofeld being the stupidest person in the world but I'll ignore that)
    I'd also pop GE straight after LTK just to make the "6 years later" timeline work as intended.
  • cwl007 wrote: »
    Yes, YOLT does flow into DAF. I think the idea was to ret-con OHMSS and so they started the DAF PTS into a Japanese-looking place. With regard to LALD + LTK I think that works very well, with them both taking from the same novel and with Hedison as Leiter. So if you wanted to do a complete "re-do of the timeline" it could be something like this:
    CR
    QoS
    GF
    DN
    FRWL
    TB
    OHMSS
    FYEO (A direct follow-up to OHMSS)
    YOLT
    DAF
    LALD
    LTK (This way it's a sequel to LALD whilst the mention of Tracy at the start isn't too long after OHMSS)
    TMWTGG
    TSWLM (A more mature Bond, further away from Tracy's death)
    MR
    OP
    AVTAK
    TLD
    Brosnan (in any order really but probably in order of release)
    SF
    SP
    NTTD

    Something like that anyway :)

    I like that, that's good. I'm due a marathon timed to finish before NTTD is released and I might just watch them in that order. 👍
    The only tweak I'd possibly make is put the YOLT/DAF after DN and before FRWL , " revenge for the killing of DR NO" doesn't have to be immediately after for it to still work). Also Blofeld is not introducing himself to Bond for the first time after having already killed Tracy. Bond's line to M about Blofeld being something of a must with him in OHMSS works better having had 2 films with Blofeld. Thinking about it M's reply of having had enough time also works better. Also, and this is really stretching things, Bond's need for a cunning disguise as Hilary Bray narratively works as well. (Of course it does depend on Blofeld being the stupidest person in the world but I'll ignore that)
    I'd also pop GE straight after LTK just to make the "6 years later" timeline work as intended.
    I'll edit my previous post to fit that then @cwl007 for convenience.
Sign In or Register to comment.