The continuity of James Bond

BuilderPlumber

As a longterm fan of James Bond, it has been discussed that the series does not aim to be a continuous story most of the time but it can also be argued that there have been elements continued from film to film. Let's take a quick look at who played Bond and when:

1962-1967, 1971, 1983: Sean Connery. His 1983 Bond is a reboot presumably separate to the official Bond.
1969: George Lazenby.
1973-1985: Roger Moore. The connection of Tracy to the Bond character has linked Moore's Bond to the earlier 2.
1986, 1995-2002: Pierce Brosnan. Though of course Brosnan did not become Bond until 1995, part of his first film took place 9 years beforehand. It is implied that this is a man who recently got the order of Lenin from the USSR after taking down Zorin waging war against elements of it. It is not really clarified if that pretitle was Bond taking on official Soviets or dissidents like Orlov and Koskov. The fact that he was called Ouromov hinted at the past and he was like the Octopussy villain. Because Bond had good relations with Gogol and Pushkin in the films before and after this, it is probably true that Ouromov was a dissident in the USSR as well as afterwards as the rest of this film goes on to show.
1987-1989: Timothy Dalton. He was part of the same Bond who married Tracy too as the reference in his second film shows.
2006-: Daniel Craig. The only official reboot and the one set of films that are a true continuum of ideas.

Let's take note of a few important things about James Bond. These things will determine the nature of the films and the relationship with other films:

Connery and Lazenby era: Dr No and FRWL are shown as closely related with references in the second to revenge for Bond killing Dr No and the girl saying that Bond went to Jamaica. Goldfinger was more standalone and did not reference what went before it and Thunderball didn't either, only that Bond was an enemy of SPECTRE. YOLT did not reference what went before it but it was another chapter in the war between Bond and Blofeld. OHMSS continued that and there were many references to things Bond had collected during his previous 5 missions. DAF clearly showed an angry Bond out for revenge and the fact that Bond had spent 2 years chasing Blofeld. While no mention of the death of his wife is made, we ALL know that what we are seeing is revenge for this.

Moore era: By LALD, SPECTRE and Blofeld are gone and no reference is made to former enemies although there are 2 major links to the Connery and Lazenby era: the first is the son of the character from Dr No is Bond's ally and the second is that Bond calls Mrs Bond an incurable romantic when someone poses as her in a hotel. LALD was the last film for some time to feature Felix Leiter, a regular who appeared in most of Connery's films. The actor for the role changed but the guy who played him in LALD would play him again in the Dalton era. TMWTGG references LALD with the JW Pepper character but does not reference anything from further back. TSWLM referenced Bond's dead wife while Moonraker continued with the Jaws character introduced in TSWLM. Both these films introduced us to General Gogol and the Minister character that would see out Moore's era and would come into the Dalton era too. FYEO referenced Tracy and had Blofeld at the start of it. Octopussy broadened the role of Gogol but storywise did not reference any films from before. AVTAK similarly didn't reference any films from the past but continued with the Gogol role.

Brosnan's 1986 set pretitle: between Moore and Dalton, the pretitle of Goldeneye is supposed to have happened. Set between AVTAK and TLD, I am sure that continuity with these 2 films was the furthest from their mind (But Bond dipped in and out of Russia and dealt with Russian enemies before this). Despite this, the pretitle is similar to the one in AVTAK. Like that, Bond is in Russia taking on Russian army members relating to an undisclosed mission. We are not told if they work for the USSR's government or for the private enemy Bond is taking on but we probably assume the latter.

Dalton era: This was the biggest change in the appearance of Bond. From Connery to Lazenby to Moore, we see the Bond character passed from one young man to another. We then watch Moore's Bond age and we see him in relatively late middle age in his last film. He is replaced by the much younger and younger looking Dalton in TLD. But we are made clear that this is not a reboot. Gogol is back and we have the backstory now he has been replaced by Pushkin and Gogol is now in the foreign service. The minister character is also back. So, we have a much younger Bond following on from Moore. LTK then referenced Tracy again and for the last time in the series.

Brosnan era proper: Brosnan was a favourite to play Bond for years. He eventually got to do so in Goldeneye in 1995. The pretitle we already discussed. No direct mention is ever made to the past but the reference to Judi Dench's predecessor implies Robert Brown's M. There was never a mention of a reboot with Brosnan so, it is assumed that he is the same Bond as Dalton and the others. TND, TWINE and DAD clearly all continue the series but make no reference to anything that went before them.

Craig era: Casino Royale introduced us to the first official rebooted Bond. This Bond has nothing at all to do with the one featured from 1962 to 2002. One thing that confused people is Judi Dench is M in both the Brosnan and Craig films. Some then say that Brosnan's films came after Casino and QOS and before Skyfall but that makes no sense. This is again because of the Goldeneye pretitle. This places Brosnan's Bond as the last incarnation of the one Connery started. Afterall, Bond was already 007 in this pretitle. Judi Dench played two identical incarnations of M because she happened to be onboard and established in the role by the time they decided to reboot the franchise. QOS, Skyfall and SPECTRE all continued on elements of the same story set out in Casino. These were the first direct set of sequels in the series.

The assumption is NSNA with Connery is the third incarnation of the character on film. Blofeld is shown and Largo resurfaces.

BuilderPlumber

Forgot one aspect about Goldfinger: Felix Leiter did actually reference him and Bond in Dr No when they meet up at the start in Miami.