The question of who the greatest Bond is will always be a divisive topic, but without a doubt, Daniel Craig is the most successful James Bond ever; the box office doesn’t lie. Craig’s other recent big success is Knives Out — the first of two sequels will drop later this year. This shows that Craig isn’t just defined by Bond. He has also played characters from comedy to horror, to voice-overs, and has managed to play a stormtrooper in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (which almost trumps Bond). So the following movies will help clarify that there's more to Craig than just the famed spy. But if you're still in need of a 007 fix, his final film as Bond, No Time to Die, is now available to watch for free on Amazon Prime Video.
Mikael Blomkvist in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Craig) has been tasked with the investigation into a forty-year-old unsolved disappearance. In exchange, he is to receive valuable information concerning a corrupt CEO, Hans-Erik Wennerström (Ulf Friberg), who, via a libel case, has ended Blomkvist's career. Mickael recruits an antisocial, genius computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), to aid in his research. Together, they uncover Nazi sympathizers, antisemitism, serial killings, and historic child abuse. With their investigation uncovering ever more tragedy and human depravity, can Mikael solve the riddle and clear his name against Wennerström?
Mild-mannered, quietly spoken; Craig, at first glance, may seem like he’s tapping into his Bond behavioral package. However, he clearly plays Mikael without a dangerous edge or any charm which is important because Mikael isn’t necessarily meant to be a likable person. He’s a journalist who will always go too far to get the story, and he will use whoever he can to help him get what he wants. It’s nice to see Craig in a character that viewers are wary of.
XXXX in Layer Cake (2004)
An extremely professional cocaine supplier, XXXX (Daniel Craig), who detests violence and is on the brink of early retirement, is asked to perform two tasks by mob boss Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham). He must oversee the sale of one million ecstasy pills, and find an associate’s drug-addict daughter. However, gangsters seldom tell truths and XXXX is just a pawn in Price’s game supplying information to Scotland Yard. So when the pills turn out to be stolen drugs from Serbian war criminals, a ruthless assassin is sent to deal with things and ultimately, XXXX, which makes the planned early retirement look a lot more permanent.
A stylized, British crime caper, Layer Cake is intrinsic to Craig’s most prestigious role as the super spy 007. He smoulders with charisma and sex-appeal and equally looks cool under fire which undoubtedly produced a ping on the Bond radar. Without this movie, Craig may have never been considered for Bond. It’s the closest you'll see Craig to 007 outside of his Bond films, but don’t forget he’s playing the bad guy in this one. Like Craig says in the movie, pay close attention and listen out for his character’s name … if you can.
Benoit Blanc in Knives Out (2019)
The day after his 85th birthday party, mystery novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is found dead in his mansion. Although it seems to be suicide, private detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is anonymously paid to investigate a possible wrongdoing. The remaining family and house staff are one by one exposed for their greed and lies as Blanc slowly separates the facts from the red herrings. As dysfunctional families go, Blanc really does have his work cut out.
It can sometimes be hard to get a film that is actually funny but also has a clever and intriguing plot. Rian Johnson's Knives Out has both and more. Its ensemble cast who all pitch in to create a Machiavellian, melodramatic, whodunit of deceit and selfishness is sublime. Ana de Armas as Marta Cabrera takes physical comedy to the next level as her character cannot lie without vomiting. Chris Evans is far from Captain America as the spoilt and unscrupulous grandson, and Craig plays up to mystery tropes as a watchful, slightly smarmy but brilliant investigator who will always get his man … or woman.
Will Atenton/Peter Ward in Dream House (2011)
When Will Atenton (Daniel Craig) and his wife, Libby (Rachel Weisz), move with their children into their Dream House, things soon take an unsettling turn. They discover the house’s previous family was murdered by the father, Peter Ward, and that he has recently been released from a mental hospital. Will’s daughters see a man lurking outside, so Will looks to the local police force and neighbors for help but is given the cold shoulder. Instead, he travels to the mental hospital and only then learns of the harsh reality of his situation. That he is Peter Ward.
A brilliantly claustrophobic tale that pushes the boundaries of mental health and how we react as a society to suspected murderers. Craig is the unassuming Atenton/Ward trying to piece his life back together. It’s heartbreaking and compelling with its psychological twists and the use of confusing sympathy for Craig’s character. Craig does drama and plot well, and he needs not a single one of Q’s gadgets to aid him.
Joe Bang in Logan Lucky (2017)
Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) recruits his brother, Clyde (Adam Driver), for an audacious heist at their local Motor Speedway track. Having worked repairing sinkholes underneath the property, Jimmy plans to exploit the track’s underground pneumatic tube system that handles and moves vast amounts of cash. The big problem is that they need the safe cracker, Joe Bang (Daniel Craig), and he is currently incarcerated. So to make things even more complicated, they have to break Joe out for one night and get him back to prison straight after the robbery. It’ll be fine, Jimmy is the man with the plan.
Logan Lucky is a crime comedy, one that every actor involved with gave their best West Virginian accents that unashamedly helped weigh the humour in heavy. Driver and Craig are perfect with their slow and well-placed drawl, and the plot and tone of the movie complements that relaxed pace with humour that never seems forced — it just happens. This movie needs a sequel.
Connor Rooney in Road to Perdition (2002)
Gangsters Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) and Connor Rooney (Daniel Craig) gun down a group of men, but Michael’s son (Tyler Hoechlin) witnesses the killings and triggers a "loose end" that Connor now has to tie up. Fearing for his son’s life, Michael and his boy hit the road, but Harlen Maguire (Jude Law), a gun for hire, has been sent after them. Michael must find a way to save his son, but first, he has to discover what being a father is really all about.
Director Sam Mendes’ exceptionally potent crime drama that explores life and death, and father and son relationships is cinematically sombre with limited dialogue and doused in thick suspenseful revenge. Craig plays the jealous mob boss’s son with the right amount of disdain for anybody he connects with that we cannot help but root for Hanks’s character, even if he is just another murderer. Road to Perdition has a well-balanced plot with equally contrasted themes making it stand out from the less original gangster flicks based on rivalry.
Tuvia Bielski in Defiance (2008)
Nazi death squads are violently hunting down Jews, and Jewish brothers Tuvia (Daniel Craig) and Zus Bielski (Liev Schreiber) take shelter within the vast forests of Belarus. As more and more Jews fleeing systematic slaughter join the brothers’ ranks, the brothers realize they are now leaders of a partisan force. They make a tentative alliance with other Soviet partisans and Zus even joins the Russians, but when Tuvia learns of an imminent German attack, they also learn that the Soviets plan to abandon them to their fate. It is now up to Tuvia to keep the people he has sworn to protect alive.
The horrors of the holocaust have been sanitized, but for a war movie about hope and brotherhood, Defiance hits the mark. Based on the true story of the Bielski brothers, it tries to cover the hardships of survival, starvation, and good people trying to avoid becoming like the enemy. Craig dons yet another accent and gives a dignified portrayal of a difficult part of our history.