After Sean Connery’s groundbreaking initial run as James Bond – and George Lazenby’s brief but critically acclaimed stint in the role – Roger Moore had some big shoes to fill when he was cast as 007. Moore went in a very different direction than Connery, leaning into the silliness and avoiding the inherent darkness of a cold-blooded killer.
Like Connery, Moore’s Bond traveled all over the world on his globetrotting adventures. Since Moore starred in more Bond movies than any of his peers, his Bond explored more exotic, exciting locations than the others, from Austria to Thailand to West .
United States
Moore’s first Bond film, Live and Let Die, established his movies’ tradition of following genre trends. In an homage to then-popular blaxploitation movies, Bond takes on a Harlem drug lord who turns out to lead a double life as the dictator of a Caribbean island. 007’s investigation into Dr. Kananga takes him to New York and New Orleans before the movie culminates in a showdown on the fictional island of San Monique.
Bond goes to California in both Moonraker and A View to a Kill, in which Max Zorin wants to destroy Silicon Valley, leading to a climactic showdown on the Golden Gate Bridge.
Lebanon
In The Man with the Golden Gun, the titular man with the golden gun – Francisco Scaramanga – tries to track down and kill Bond so he can prove once and for all that he’s the best assassin in the world.
Bond’s unofficial pursuit of Scaramanga begins in Lebanon. In Beirut, the capital and largest city of Lebanon, a belly dancer provides 007 with a spent golden bullet from Scaramanga’s eponymous firearm.
China
After being given a golden bullet in Beirut, Bond traces the bullet to a gunmaker in Macau. He interrogates the gunmaker about the shipment of his bullets, then follows one of the shipments to Hong Kong, where Scaramanga’s mistress Andrea Anders is brokering the deal.
Thailand
In keeping with the Moore era’s penchant for following genre trends, The Man with the Golden Gun responded to the Bruce Lee phenomenon with a Bondian martial arts movie.
When 007 goes to Bangkok to meet wealthy Thai entrepreneur Hai Fat under the guise of Scaramanga, his true identity is rumbled and he’s captured at Fat’s martial arts academy. There, much like Lee in Enter the Dragon, Bond has to take part in a martial arts tournament.
Austria
The opening scene of The Spy Who Loved Me has one of the most breathtaking stunts ever captured on film. 007 skis off the edge of a cliff, does a mind-blowing freefall, and deploys a parachute bearing the Union Jack.
This ski chase takes place in Austria. After being called away from a romantic rendezvous, Bond is chased through the snow by a band of gun-toting Soviet agents.
Egypt
The main plot of The Spy Who Loved Me kicks off when Bond arrives in Egypt to recover a stolen microfilm and encounters Major Anya Amasova, KGB agent Triple X, who’s looking for the same microfilm.
As Bond and Amasova travel across Egypt together, the conflict stems from Bond having killed Amasova’s former lover. After all this Egypt-set action, the movie’s finale takes place aboard Stromberg’s hideout in the middle of the ocean.
Italy
Moore’s sci-fi Bond adventure, Moonraker, opens in the sky as Bond is thrown out of a plane by Jaws. Later in the movie, he encounters “Bond girl” Holly Goodhead in Venice before being chased through the canals by Hugo Drax’s henchmen.
This wasn’t the last time that Moore’s Bond went to Italy. In his next movie, For Your Eyes Only, he went to Cortina to find Emile Leopold Locque’s base of operations.
Brazil
Considering the movie’s finale takes place in outer space, Moonraker spends a surprising amount of time on Earth. After his trip to Venice, Bond’s investigation into Drax takes him to Rio de Janeiro.
Bond is attacked by Jaws twice in Rio – both during the Rio Carnival and while he’s riding on the Sugarloaf Cable Car – and the gentleman spy later fights Drax’s forces on the Amazon River.
Spain
At the beginning of For Your Eyes Only, Bond is sent to Spain to find out who hired Cuban hitman Hector Gonzales to kill Melina Havelock’s parents. After Moonraker took 007 to space, For Your Eyes Only was framed as a refreshingly grounded revenge thriller.
Greece
Bond travels to Corfu during his pursuit of Columbo in For Your Eyes Only. A popular vacation spot, Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece along with its satellite islands.
