Unofficial parodies Matt Helm First published in 1960,
Matt Helm is a fictional character created by author
Donald Hamilton. The character is not meant to be a spoof of James Bond, rather having attributes of an homage, but not in the strict sense. Film versions of Matt Helm, as played by
Dean Martin, were meant to spoof the 007 movies as well as the character James Bond. The four movies made took their titles from Hamilton's novels, though the movies had little in common with the books of the same name.
The Silencers and ''
Murderers' Row were released in 1966. The Ambushers in 1967 and The Wrecking Crew'' in 1968.
Austin Powers Austin Powers is a film series created by Canadian comedian
Mike Myers. Many of the characters throughout the franchise are parodies of Bond characters, including Myers'
character of the same name. Myers has said that
Sean Connery was the inspiration for his character, especially Powers' thick chest hair. In addition, the names of the films are also parodies of Bond novels and films.
Films •
International Man of Mystery (1997) •
The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) is a parody of
The Spy Who Loved Me. •
Goldmember (2002) is a parody of
Goldfinger. The title of the film led to legal action being taken by
MGM, the distributors of the
James Bond film franchise, that briefly led to the film's title being removed from promotional material and trailers. During the period when the film had no official title, it was unofficially being called
Never Say Member Again, a reference to the non-canon Bond film
Never Say Never Again. The dispute was quickly resolved and the original film title remained. Although MGM most likely would have lost a court case against the makers of
Goldmember (see:
Copyright information on parodies), MGM did secure a spot for the trailer to 2002's Bond film
Die Another Day in settlement.
Characters •
Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the head of
SPECTRE and Bond's archenemy, is parodied in all three
Austin Powers films as
Dr. Evil (Mike Myers). Like Blofeld in
You Only Live Twice, Dr. Evil has a facial scar over his eye and wears either a white or a grey
Nehru jacket which is also worn by the first Bond villain,
Dr. Julius No (
Joseph Wiseman). Both characters also possess white
Persian cats. Dr. Evil's cat Mr. Bigglesworth, however, loses its hair due to a side-effect of the
cryogenic freezing process which preserved Dr. Evil for 30 years. Dr. Evil is a parody of
Donald Pleasence's Blofeld. • Basil Exposition (Michael York), the head of Powers' organisation is meant to be a combined parody of both
M (as portrayed by
Bernard Lee and
Robert Brown) and
Q (
Desmond Llewelyn). •
Alotta Fagina (
Fabiana Udenio) is a parody, in name, of the
Bond girl Pussy Galore (
Honor Blackman). • Goldmember (Mike Myers), like
Auric Goldfinger (
Gert Fröbe), also had a passion for gold; he also possessed a golden gun similar to that used by
Francisco Scaramanga (
Christopher Lee), the villain of
The Man with the Golden Gun. • Colonel
Rosa Klebb (
Lotte Lenya) in the Bond film
From Russia with Love and Irma Bunt (
Ilse Steppat) from ''
On Her Majesty's Secret Service'' are said to be the prototypes of
Frau Greta Farbissina (
Mindy Sterling), a top villain in Dr. Evil's organisation. •
Emilio Largo (
Adolfo Celi), the SPECTRE
villain from
Thunderball is parodied in every
Austin Powers film as Number Two (
Robert Wagner). • Random Task (
Joe Son) is identical to Goldfinger's henchman,
Oddjob (
Harold Sakata), except he throws a shoe instead of a bowler hat.
Daniel Craig cameo in Star Wars In the 2015 movie
Star Wars: The Force Awakens directed by
J. J. Abrams, after the main character,
Rey (
Daisy Ridley), is captured by the
First Order, she uses
the Force to convince a
stormtrooper into setting her free. The actor who played the stormtrooper was
Daniel Craig, and the crew of
The Force Awakens unofficially dubbed the character "FN-007", in reference to Craig's role as James Bond. Fans adopted this name, as well as "JB-007", for the character. However, the 2016 video game
Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens identified the character as FN-1824, which is now considered his official name.
Other parodies •
Hot Enough for June, a.k.a.
Agent (1964), a British spy comedy with
Dirk Bogarde. •
Carry On Spying (1964), British parody with
Charles Hawtrey's intended character name James Bind, Agent changed to Charlie Bind, Agent 000 (Double 0, oh!) for copyright reasons. •
That Man from Rio (1964), French adventure spoof of Bond-type films. •
Le Tigre aime la chair fraiche (1964),
Le Tigre se parfume à la dynamite (1965), and
Blue Panther, a.k.a.
Marie Chantal contre Dr. (1965), French trilogy directed by
Claude Chabrol . •
008: Operation Exterminate (1965), featuring MacDonald (
Ingrid Schoeller), Agent 008, female 007 type agent. Directed by
Umberto Lenzi. •
Agent 077: Mission Bloody Mary and
Agent 077 From the Orient with Fury (both 1965), Italian
Eurospy adventures starring
Ken Clark. •
Two Mafiosi Against Goldfinger (1965). One of many Italian Eurospy films that spoof the James Bond formula. Also known as
The Amazing Dr. G. •
Slå først, Frede! aka
Strike First Freddy (1965) and its successor
Slap af, Frede! aka
Relax Freddie (1966) are Danish parodies directed by
Erik Balling. Frede Hansen was played by
Morten Grunwald. •
Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965) and
Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966) satirise the
James Bond films, particularly
Goldfinger. •
The Intelligence Men (1965), broad farce with British comic duo
Eric Morecambe and
Ernie Wise. •
Licensed to Kill (1965),
Where the Bullets Fly (1966) and ''
Somebody's Stolen Our Russian Spy'' (1976), a low budget series featuring Agent Charles Vine (
Tom Adams) is more imitative than satirical. •
Our Man Flint (1966) and
In Like Flint (1967), star
James Coburn as Derek Flint, "an intentionally over-the-top parody of Bond". •
Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die (1966), Italian spoof of the Bond films with
Mike Connors. •
The Last of the Secret Agents? (1966),
Allen & Rossi comedy with
Nancy Sinatra. •
Lucky, the Inscrutable, aka
Lucky, el intrépido (1966), gag-filled Spanish-Italian comedy from
Jesús Franco starring
Ray Danton. •
Modesty Blaise (1966), campy British spy-fi film starring
Monica Vitti. Although based upon a serious action-adventure
comic strip, the film took a camp-comedy approach (similar to that of the Matt Helm films). •
Secret Agent Super Dragon (1966), Italian Eurospy film starring Ray Danton. •
The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966), British parody of secret agent films. •
The Man Called Flintstone (1966), animated film continuation of
The Flintstones TV series, spoofing Bond films. The TV series itself had also spoofed
Goldfinger in the episode "The Stonefinger Caper". •
Casino Royale (1967), satirical adaptation of
Ian Fleming's novel starring
David Niven,
Peter Sellers and
Ursula Andress, amongst others. It is the second of three adaptations of the novel, the first being the
1954 version and the third being the
2006 version. Several aspects of the Bond franchise are parodied, including a reference to Sean Connery's Bond as a "sexual acrobat who leaves a trail of beautiful dead women like blown roses behind him". •
Si muore solo una volta (1967), Italian ("You only die once") starring Ray Danton . •
The End of Agent W4C (1967), Czech parody. Super agent Cyril Juan W4C (
Jan Kačer) has all properties of 007 - artificial gadgets, nice girls and spies everywhere around them. • The Greek film ''
Help! It's Vengos, Overt Agent '000' () (1967) and its sequel Thou-Vou Bald Agent, Operation Havoc'' () (1969). The films follow spy Thou Vou (
Thanasis Veggos) constantly getting involved in comedic situations and failing the missions assigned to him. He also looks up to James Bond as a role model. •
O.K. Connery, 1967, also known as
Operation Kid Brother or
Operation Double 007 stars
Neil Connery,
Daniela Bianchi, Adolfo Celi, Bernard Lee,
Anthony Dawson and
Lois Maxwell. When MI6's top agent becomes unavailable, his lookalike younger brother Neil Connery is hired to thwart an evil organisation. Sean Connery's younger brother Neil Connery stars in this Italian film designed to profit from the spy craze. This film features several actors who had appeared in the real Bond series, including Adolfo Celi and Daniela Bianchi. Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell make cameos parodying their roles as M and
Miss Moneypenny. •
A Man Called Dagger (1967), a low budget American spy film. Future Bond villain
Richard Kiel (
Jaws) co-stars. •
Fathom (1967), stars
Raquel Welch as Fathom Harvill, a female Bond-like agent in a tongue-in-cheek spy caper. •
Come Spy with Me (1967), American spy film featuring a female agent Jill Parsons (
Andrea Dromm) and also starring
Troy Donahue. •
Caprice (1967), American comedy-thriller with
Doris Day. •
Az oroszlán ugrani készül (1969), (English translation:
The Lion Prepares to Jump), a Hungarian comedy spy film starring
István Bujtor. •
The Girl from Rio aka
Future Woman (1969), campy spy-fi starring
Shirley Eaton (from
Goldfinger). •
Zeta One (1969), a British sexploitation spy-fi with
Robin Hawdon as James Word, a womanizing secret agent who investigates criminal mastermind Major Bourdon (
James Robertson Justice) at the behest of W (
Lionel Murton) and discovers a race of barely-clad alien superwoman called Angvians. The film costarred
Carry On veteran Charles Hawtrey and
Dawn Addams (star of
Star Maidens and an occasional leading lady in
Roger Moore's
The Saint) as Zeta. •
Boter Kaas en Eieren (1969), a Dutch student parody with special agent James Klont (Hein van Laarhoven), which has the task to stop an evil organisation to which has his eye on the national aviation laboratory. •
Le Magnifique (1973), French comedy starring
Jean-Paul Belmondo and
Jacqueline Bisset . •
From Hong Kong with Love (1975) starred
les Charlots,
Mickey Rooney,
Clifton James, Lois Maxwell and Bernard Lee. The film is a French spoof featuring the comedy team
Les Charlots ("The Crazy Boys"). In the film, James Bond dies in the gun barrel sequence. After
Queen Elizabeth (Huguette Funfrock) is kidnapped by Marty (Mickey Rooney), a crazed billionaire, Her Majesty's Secret Service replace Bond with a team of goofy French agents, played by the Crazy Boys. Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell briefly appear as M and Moneypenny (their characters remaining unnamed). Originally released as
Bons baisers de Hong Kong. •
The Dragon Lives Again (1977). Starring: Alexander Grand . A Hong Kong movie featuring Bruce Lee (
Bruce Leung Siu-Lung) in the afterlife alongside characters such as
Popeye (
Eric Tsang),
Count Dracula (Hsi Chang), and James Bond (Alexander Grand). Original title:
La Resurrection du Dragon •
Once Upon a Spy (1980), a TV movie co-starring
Ted Danson. •
S*H*E (1980), an American spy parody film starring Cornelia Sharpe and
Omar Sharif and written by regular Bond screenwriter
Richard Maibaum. •
The Cannonball Run (1981) is an American
action-
comedy film that features an all-star
ensemble cast, including
Burt Reynolds,
Dom DeLuise, Roger Moore,
Farrah Fawcett,
Jackie Chan,
Sammy Davis Jr. and
Dean Martin. In the film, Roger Moore plays a parody of both James Bond and himself. He plays Seymour Goldfarb Jr., a rich British playboy who believes himself to be Roger Moore and drives a silver
Aston Martin DB5. He is frequently shown evading police by using various James Bond-type gadgets, such as oil slicks, smoke screens, switchable license plates, all installed in his Aston Martin DB5. •
Nati con la camicia, also known as
Go for It (1983), an Italian comedy spy action film, starring
Terence Hill and
Bud Spencer as Rosco Frazer and Doug O'Riordan, two strangers accidentally mistaken for
CIA operatives. The film features several Bond tropes, including K1 (
Buffy Dee), a megalomaniac villain (a spoof of Blofeld, petting a Basset Hound dog instead of a white cat) bent on world domination, employing several henchmen, and the agents using various gadgets to fight them. •
Aces Go Places 3: Our Man from Bond street, also known as
Mad Mission 3, a 1984 Hong Kong action comedy featuring a James Bond-like character King Kong (
Sam Hui), as well as various references to the official film series, including appearances by Neil Connery, Richard Kiel and an
Oddjob-like character played by
Tsuneharu Sugiyama. •
James Bone, Agent 001 (1986), a Filipino action comedy starring
Palito, whose emaciated figure gave the film its title. •
Cat City, also known as
Macskafogó (1986), a Hungarian-Canadian-German animated comedy action film which heavily spoofs the Bond movies. The main character is an anthropomorphic mouse secret agent named Grabovsky (voiced by
László Sinkó). As another variation of the Blofeld trope, the main villain of the film is Mr. Fritz Teufel (voiced by
Miklós Benedek), a white cat himself. • Philip (Michael David), Agent 007-11 is a parody of James Bond in the film
Ninja Academy (1990). In the film 007-11 gets his
license to kill temporarily revoked. •
If Looks Could Kill aka
Teen Agent (1991) directed by
William Dear, starring
Richard Grieco and
Linda Hunt is a mistaken-identity caper. •
From Beijing with Love (1994), written by and starring
Stephen Chow as Ling-ling-chat, a Chinese 007 wanna-be searching for a stolen dinosaur skull •
Pub Royale (1996), a parody based on the novel of
Casino Royale starring
Alan Carr. •
Spy Hard (1996), starring
Leslie Nielsen and
Nicollette Sheridan. •
Never Say Never Mind: The Swedish Bikini Team (2001), a British spoof, featuring a team of beautiful women as the Bondian heroines. •
Undercover Brother (2002) •
Rod Steele 0014: You Only Live Until You Die (2002) starring Robert Donavan is a lightly pornographic Bond parody based loosely on
Milo Manara's comics. •
The Tuxedo (2002), a film about a taxi driver called Jimmy Tong (Jackie Chan) who accidentally becomes a spy when he wears a special tuxedo which gives him special skills (martial arts, strength, dancing, singing, sniper skills, etc.). •
Johnny English (2003), a James Bond spoof starring
Rowan Atkinson, and its two sequels,
Johnny English Reborn (2011) and
Johnny English Strikes Again (2018). •
Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) widely parodies James Bond, with a film poster for
Licence to Spy, a parody of
Licence to Kill,
More is Never Enough, parodying either
The World Is Not Enough or
Never Say Never Again and
Codename: Operation Conspiracy. The character of Mother (
Joan Cusack) simultaneously satirizes M and Q, there is a car highly similar to an
Aston Martin DBS loaded with gadgets (which serves
Bugs Bunny (voiced by
Joe Alaskey) a carrot martini
shaken, not stirred), the penultimate scene parodies
Moonraker, and the film character Damian Drake's movies parodying the success of the
James Bond films. Drake is even played by former James Bond actor
Timothy Dalton. The character Dusty Tails (
Heather Locklear) could also be a simultaneous reference to the Bond girl and
Shirley Bassey, who sang three of the
themes to the
James Bond film series. •
The Pink Panther (2006) features a sequence in which Inspector
Jacques Clouseau (
Steve Martin) meets British Agent 006 (played by a tuxedo-clad, uncredited
Clive Owen), to whom Clouseau refers to "one short of the big time". •
Allkopi Royale (2006), a short Bond spoof starring Thomas Milligan and
Quantum for Allkopi (2008), a sequel to
Allkopi Royale, featuring Norwegian celebrities such as
Linni Meister,
Helge Hammelow-Berg and Martin Garfalk. •
Epic Movie (2007),
James Bond (Darko Belgrade), in a parody of
Casino Royale, makes two short appearances in Gnarnia. •
Meet the Spartans (2008),
Le Chiffre (
Ike Barinholtz) appears, torturing
Leonidas (
Sean Maguire) for the account number in a similar manner to the way he did in
Casino Royale. The condition that causes Le Chiffre to weep blood is also parodied, with his tear duct gushing throughout the segment. •
OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006) and
OSS 117: Lost in Rio (2009), two French comedies that parody the original
OSS 117 series by
Jean Bruce. The first film is set in 1955 and the sequel in 1967. Both movies, which star
Jean Dujardin as French secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath a.k.a. OSS 117, parody and recreate the look and style of espionage films from the 1950s and 1960s. •
Danger Mouse (1981 and 2015) is an animation series about a British, gadget-using, flying car-driving secret agent mouse, taking orders from Colonel K (a chinchilla) to counter the dastardly schemes of Baron Silas Greenback (a frog) who pets a fuzzy white caterpillar like Blofeld's Persian cat. •
Cars 2 (2011) is a spy movie starring Finn McMissile, who is the car version of James Bond and is an Aston Martin, the same model that Bond drove in his novels. In addition to the above, there have been literally hundreds of films made around the world parodying the spy film genre of the 1960s, if not directly parodying James Bond. One example is the 1966 film
Modesty Blaise, which was a parody of the spy genre rather than a faithful adaptation of the (generally serious) comic strip.
Imitative films Numerous films have attempted to use the
James Bond formula; some have used the character of James Bond unofficially. •
G-2 (1965), a Filipino movie starring
Tony Ferrer as Tony Falcon:
Agent X44, the Filipino James Bond equivalent. G-2 was the first of 16 Agent X44 movies released in the Philippines. •
Kiss Kiss...Bang Bang (1966), Italian Eurospy film with
Giuliano Gemma. •
Lightning Bolt aka
Operazione Goldman (1966) - one of many low-budget Italian Eurospy films. •
One Spy Too Many (1966), feature film release of 2-part TV episode of
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. •
Secret Agent Fireball (1966), standard Italian Eurospy film of the period. •
Spy in Your Eye (1966), Italian spy-fi espionage tale. •
Agent for H.A.R.M. (1966), failed TV pilot released as a feature film. •
Dimension 5 (1966), derivative spy-fi yarn involving time travel. •
The Venetian Affair (1967), capitalises on star
Robert Vaughn's image from
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. series. •
Hammerhead (1968),
Vince Edwards trades in his
Ben Casey scrubs for a tuxedo in this campy, imitative James Bond knock-off. •
James Bond 777 (1971), low-budget Indian-made 007 movie with
Ghattamaneni Krishna as a pompadoured, moustachioed James Bond. •
Shut Up When You Speak (1981),
Aldo Maccione plays Giacomo ("James" in Italian), who dreams that he is James Bond. Original title:
Tais Toi Quand Tu Parles. •
Agent 000 and the Deadly Curves (1983),
Ilmari Saarelainen plays Joonas G. Breitenfeldt, Agent 000, who attempts to stop the masked villain's organisation (a spoof of
SPECTRE). Original title:
Agentti 000 ja kuoleman kurvit. •
The Mahjong Incident (1987), Chinese thriller concerning a priceless jade
mahjong piece. James Bond (portrayed by
Ron Cohen, an American businessman who just happened to be spotted by director Xiaoyang Yu while on vacation) has a brief cameo. Also known as
The Green Jade Mahjong. •
Mr. Bond (1992), Indian-made musical, starring
Akshay Kumar. As with several other Bond ripoffs, the character is never referred to as "James Bond", remaining simply Mr. Bond throughout the entire movie. •
XXX (2002), borrows heavily from James Bond and includes gadgets and so forth that are similar to some found in a Bond film. Its sequel,
XXX: State of the Union, was directed by
Lee Tamahori, who had previously directed
Die Another Day. ==Internet==