In The Man With the Golden Gun Bond squared off against Scaramanga, the world’s top assassin, in a hall of mirrors “fun house.” You can spot echoes of it as Christoph Waltz’s Oberhauser lures Bond into the maze-like, booby-trapped remains of MI6’s headquarters.
Bond has had several dustups onboard trains, but none is more iconic than the showdown in From Russia With Love between Sean Connery and Robert Shaw. Spectre’s best action bit homages that scene, when Daniel Craig finally squares off with an opponent—Dave Bautista—who is physically stronger.
Spectre’s bravura opening sequence finds Bond tracking a bad guy through the Day of the Dead festival in Mexico City, but our hero has covered familiar ground before: from running for his life through the Junkanoo parade in Nassau, in Thunderball, to fending off steel-toothed henchman Jaws on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, in Moonraker.
The villain’s lair might be the greatest of all Bond tropes, and the greatest of all Bond lairs was Blofeld’s lavish hideout in You Only Live Twice, a futuristic complex, complete with rocket-launching pad and monorail, fitted inside an extinct Japanese volcano. Spectre pays tribute with a hideaway stashed inside a Moroccan crater. Also watch for the nod to Blofeld’s sleek Swiss Alps lair in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Craig’s run as Bond has often been marked by scenes of 007 being dressed down or suspended by his boss, M, or analyzed by his villains (particularly Javier Bardem in Skyfall) or leading ladies (Eva Green in Casino Royale). Look for more of the same here.
