Three weeks of training, really?
Contrary to a tenacious popular belief, not all the women who cross path with James Bond just sit around being a Ms. Fanservice and waiting to be rescued.
Heroic Bond Girls & Allies:
- You Only Live Twice: Japanese agent Kissy Suzuki (Mie Hama) doesn't hesitate participating in the Final Battle in SPECTRE's Volcano Lair with a revolver (while still wearing her swimming outfit) after bringing Tiger Tanaka's army. And let's not forget the Badass Driver Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi), whom Kissy replaces as Bond's partner (and fake wedding bride) after her tragic death.
- On Her Majesty's Secret Service: Countess Tracy Draco Di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg) makes up for not demonstrating much fighting skills by being a Badass Driver, rescuing Bond from Blofeld and his SPECTRE henchmen in the Swiss Alps, including through an ice race track. Though she still manages to score some Damsel out of Distress points by dispatching The Brute Grunther while being captive at Piz Gloria in the climax.
- The Man with the Golden Gun: In Thailand, the nieces of Lieutenant Hip (one of them played by Hong Kong actress/martial artist Yuen Qiu) turn out to be very skilled at kung fu (a family thing), and help Bond get rid of a whole school of enemy martial artists.
- Moonraker: CIA agent Dr. Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles) combines brains and brawn. Although she ends up getting captured in Brazil, she manages to hold her own in all of her fight scenes in addition to being appropriately (or conveniently?) trained as an astronaut, which is very useful to sabotage Hugo Drax's Space Station.
- For Your Eyes Only: Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet), the vengeful crossbow-toting Greek-British daughter of a murdered marine archeologist.
- Octopussy: The film's eponymous woman (Maud Adams) doesn't demonstrate all that much by herself, but she's the leader of a whole gang of ass-kicking women, including Magda (Kristina Wayborn), who take it upon themselves to storm the Big Bad's palace in the climax, swiftly neutralizing its guards. Minus the bit where Q's hot air balloon lands on some guards, they don't need any help at it.
- Licence to Kill: CIA agent Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell). Tough-as-nails, sultry and Crazy-Prepared to the extreme, Pam goes through her film in the genuine death trap that is Franz Sanchez's country of Isthmus without ever once really needing Bond's assistance; more than a couple times she saves his ass instead.
- Tomorrow Never Dies: Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh). Chinese government agent, Colonel in the PLA, martial artist and fan of dual-wielding submachine guns.
- Die Another Day: NSA agent Giacinta "Jinx" Johnson (Halle Berry). She kicks ass without much effort when needed, even though she gets caught twice by the enemy. It's not without its fair share of difficulty, but she emerges victorious in the Designated Girl Fight against fencing champion Miranda Frost.
- Skyfall: Eve Moneypenny (Naomie Harris). A Badass Driver, capable field agent (just watch her dispatch bad guys using a suitcase) and no stranger at all to firearms. Though she could perhaps work on her aim a bit.
- Spectre: Although hand-to-hand combat might not be her forte, Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) knows how to use a gun when push comes to shove, even if she doesn't like them.
- No Time to Die: Features the two most prominent examples in recent memory:
- Nomi (Lashana Lynch), who replaces Bond as the new Agent 007, is as skilled as him in combat, be it with firearms or hand-to-hand and helps him storm Safin's island fortress in the climax.
- CIA agent Paloma (Ana de Armas) might be sweet and friendly, but don't let that fool you. She gloriously gets rid of more Spectre henchmen (in rapid succession) than Bond himself without breaking a sweat (and all while wearing a gorgeous party dress) during her painfully short screentime amidst the Cuba fight with either firearms or high kicks. On top of it all, she proudly claims that she had only three weeks of CIA training.
Villainesses:
- Diamonds Are Forever: Bambi (Lola Larson) and Thumper (Trina Parks), the gymnastics-practitioning henchwomen of Blofeld who guard a captive Willard Whyte. They can pull off impractical backflips, unnecessary combat rolls, high kicks and cartwheels, and they give Bond quite the She-Fu thrashing... at least until they fall in the swimming pool of Whyte's house with him.
- A View to a Kill: May Day (Grace Jones). The Brute, Number Two to Max Zorin and a gender-flipped variation of Scary Black Man, a tall and tough woman who can lift a man clean over her head and set up as a ruthless foe who could take Bond himself to the cleaners. She ends up joining Bond's side out of revenge for Zorin's betrayal but, unfortunately, she doesn't make it to the end.
- GoldenEye: Xenia Zaragevna Onatopp (Famke Janssen). An Ax-Crazy and sadistic Blood Knight of a woman who has genuine orgasms when either pumping people full of lead or suffocating them to death between her thighs.
- The World Is Not Enough: The Action Prologue gives us the Professional Killer sent by Renard, who's nicknamed "Cigar Girl" (Maria Grazia Cucinotta). She ends up killing herself out of fear of her boss after sending Bond on a drawn-out boat chase on the Thames in London.
- Die Another Day: Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike), who's revealed to be The Mole working for Big Bad Gustav Graves. She's a champion in fencing, and the climactic Designated Girl Fight between her and Jinx is noticeably more elaborate than the much simpler punch-out between Bond and Graves occurring at the same time.
