After the success of the first three Bond films, Bond was no longer a film sensation, but another representation of the growing popularity of British culture worldwide. In the same invasion that brought The Beatles and The Kinks overseas, Bond was creating a fervor as the forefront of British Cinema.

The next four films, Thunderball; You Only Live Twice; On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Diamonds are Forever, abandon the harder edge of the character found in Connery’s earlier films in favor of a Bond whom exudes charm and mass appeal.

The gigantic success of Goldfinger led to massive budgets for these next few films and longer running times (Chapman). Groundbreaking technology was used to film classic set pieces, which would become a marquis of the franchise. The films elected to adopt a more episodic nature for these films. Instead of singular narrative threads, Bond is whisked from one locale to the locale until the entire plot is revealed.

The inclusion of technology represented the growing cultural fascination with the growing STEM fields. President Kennedy described any kind of technological innovation as a “new frontier.” Film Professor James Chapman contends, “The Bond films, from Goldfinger onwards, contributed to the obsession with technology by fetishising it.” The opening scene of Thunderball ends with said obsession:

The films repositions the world structure to allow for Britain to have a much larger prominence on the world stage. All four of the films pertain to a terrorist plot by SPECTRE to attack the US, Russia or both. In all of these films, James Bond thwarts the villains and saves the day. Bond stands as the British Ambassador on the world stage representing the power and status of the British Empire in these films.

Despite the casting of George Lazenby in On Her Majesty’s, all of these films tonally and structurally fit together. The longer, looser and more episodic narratives distance these films from the tighter narratives of Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Goldfinger. The more serious tone of early Connery is abandoned in favor of more humor and fun. Connery flies with a jetpack and defeats gay henchmen. He even stops a plot based upon hypnosis. In many ways, James Bond had become a superhero.

The British Ambassador Bond gave Britain a strong presence across seas in America and was the culmination of Ian Fleming’s goal to get Bond to film. Adjusting for inflation, this is the most successful era of James Bond (‘James Bond’ Box Office Mojo). The Bond of this era defined many of the tropes of the franchise as a whole. The uni-colored henchmen, animal pits of death and the bizarre, colorful gadgetry all originated from this era. In securing Britain’s identity, Bond had found his own.

After Connery’s return to the franchise in Diamonds are Forever, the Bond series was forced to reevaluate Bond. Many critics laughed at the aging Scotsman attempting to save the world. “His style resembled an elder statesman of espionage with an implanted pace-maker,” wrote Alexander Walker. Bondmania had come and gone. The British Invasion was over.

A new identity had to be created for Bond. A seasoned actor, Roger Moore, was cast to replace Connery, but that was only part of the problem. Many complaints had been raised about the staleness of the franchise. Despite the success of the series, questions arose about the longevity of a Bond still entrenched in the 1960s. Bond needed to be updated to modern audiences.

Harry Saltzman and Albert Broccoli, the producers of the franchise, disagreed. Saltzman and Broccoli believed that the continual success of James Bond was due to the large-scale setpieces shown on screen. Broccoli believed that, “With Each new Bond Picture we have to be bigger, better, more exciting more surprising than the previous ones.” This resulted in an era of Bond films, which parodies Hollywood and the films that came before it. Enter The Hollywood Cannibal!