007: Road to a Million is the rare big franchise spin-off with soul

When Amazon purchased James Bond, to say I was extremely nervous was an understatement. I’m a big fan of the Bond franchise, from Fleming’s original books to Albert R. Broccoli & Harry Saltzman’s cinematic adaptation and beyond. While I know it’s a franchise with baggage, I’ve got a lot of love for 007.

Part of that love has been carefully curated by the people in control of the franchise. Amazon purchased MGM, the Hollywood studio that backs Bond, but the film franchise has been a largely family affair since its inception some six decades ago. The elder ‘Cubby’ Broccoli, who nabbed the Bond movie rights from author Ian Fleming, was succeeded by his granddaughter Barbara and step-son Michael; the pair remain in control of Bond’s cinematic adventures to this day.

Thus my worry when MGM, which ultimately owns the rights to Bond, was acquired by the world’s foremost evil corporation. Sure, the creative element of the Bond franchise remains in the hands of Broccoli’s EON Productions – but now there’d be pressure from above. I figured a battle between executives wanting to ‘extract value’ from the Bond IP and its long-time stewards, who do care about money but have shown surprising restraint over the years, was inevitable.

Questions would be asked. Everybody else has a cinematic universe: why hasn’t 007? Why are they letting five or six years pass between movies? What about a spin-off or two? We spent billions to acquire this franchise; now you must give back more. I know how this works, albeit on a smaller scale, having been through corporate acquisitions myself.

Now, I don’t want to pretend EON has been immune to these thoughts. Like I said, it too loves a bit of profit. Bond is famed for its shameless product placement; I write this bloody article with an Omega Seamaster strapped to my wrist that I definitely wouldn’t even own had I not become enamored with Pierce Brosnan’s laser-firing variant in GoldenEye. And as far as spin-offs go, that’s been talked about, too - including in 2002, when EON mulled over the idea of spinning Halle Berry’s American spy Jinx, who appeared in Die Another Day, off to her own franchise.

But largely, EON has resisted. It’s also taken some pretty creative swings that might’ve given studio execs palpitations, including the ending of the most recent movie. And thus it’s easy to imagine there would’ve been resistance to the idea of expanding the franchise. But corporate demands must also be satiated.

Enter 007: Road to a Million - the best corporate versus creative compromise I think I’ve ever seen. Amazon clearly wanted a James Bond TV show for Prime Streaming, so EON gave them one. But it’s probably not what Jeff Bezos imagined when he okayed the deal.

Road to a Million is, basically, a game show. It puts pairings of normal people into Bond-inspired situations. They have to complete physically daunting tasks inspired by Bond’s feats in the movies to obtain a briefcase, then answer a relatively simple trivia question from inside the briefcase to secure their money. Fail a task or get a question wrong, and your game is over. But the further you get, the more money you’ll leave with. Make it through the complete gauntlet and each pair can walk away with a million pounds.

It’s a simple concept - but in its delivery, it’s still impressively Bondian. The pairings travel the globe to locations that appeared in the films, and often are tasked with directly recreating some of the most daring stunts undertaken in those locations. Just with a lot more safety equipment.

The show gently ramps up over its eight-episode runtime. At first, the contestants are simply given a grueling hike across the Scottish Highlands, evoking the imagery of the surroundings of Bond’s family estate as shown in Skyfall. It’s quite a brave first episode, in fact, as it’s a very slow starter. But pretty soon they’re in the Swiss Alps, the Atacama Desert, or scaling Rio De Janiro’s Sugarloaf Mountain.

Fans are likely to identify each location as being from at least one (or several) Bond films. Sometimes, you’ll spot something and immediately know where this is going. As I watched a pair board Rio’s Cable Cars, I immediately recognized the scene from Moonraker, and knew the sequence would end with the contestants forced to get onto the roof of the cable car mid-descent, just like in the film.

As things progress, the stunts become more demanding, and the questions more devilish. I was frequently impressed by the casual brutality of some of the challenges. In Rio, it wasn’t just that they had to do the cable car stunt. They started miles away, had to follow a clue to be directed to the foot of the mountain, climb up the side of it by hand to reach the peak, and only then board the cable car. By the time they reached the cars, those poor guys were already sweat-drenched and knackered – but they had to keep going. Oh, and they only made it to Rio to begin with after following a trail of clues scattered across a two-day trek through the rainforest. Some of this is hard stuff.

Acting as a sort of connective tissue is Succession’s Brian Cox, who basically plays a Bond villain. There’s no host accompanying the contestants, but from a mysterious lair Cox chews the scenery and keeps track of the progress of each pairing. When people are eliminated, he furiously crosses their names out of his ledger as if they’ve been offed for real. He makes payphones mysteriously ring near unwitting contestants, only to tell them their next prize is hundreds of miles away. It’s a silly little role, but he’s having fun with it – and he does sort of have that archetypal Bond villain flair.

Like I say, it all feels in keeping with the series. This is an action movie franchise, but Bond has also always carried a travel documentary air; beautiful locations, lavishly shot. You’re meant to see Jamaica in Dr. No and I think it looks like a beautiful place to visit. This is carried forth in Road to a Million, which is ultimately a show about normal people traveling to fantastic and beautiful places the world over. It’s a production bankrolled with American money, but all the contestants are from the UK. The prizes are in pounds. It’s as British as Bond himself.

And, of course, there are the stunts and challenges. These directly reference the films - though bizarrely, not one contestant seems to recognize the providence of each challenge’s setup. Nobody references the movies at all, in fact. That is perhaps part of the serious way this is approached; it’s not too cheap about the Bond connection, even though it runs through the show like the lettering through a stick of British seaside ‘rock’ candy.

I’ve seen some criticism of Road to a Million that thinks it’s too cheesy, and the suggestion is that a real Bond universe TV show about some sort of no-name Double-0 or something would be better. But I fundamentally disagree - and I actually think Road to a Million is perfect as a respectful way of bringing the franchise to the small screen while EON sets the table for the next movie, and a new Bond.

It uses 007 as a way to elevate a pretty standard game show format - and also uses Bond to clearly inflate the budget way beyond what shows like this would usually get. But it keeps the trappings, including a delightful focus on the contestants themselves. Each pairing has a different background (the father and son, the siblings, the ex-cops, the married couple, and so on), and thus the dynamic between each is completely different.

You learn about their difficult pasts; they call their parents and it doesn’t just show the call, but cuts away to their parents’ home and shows you their background. You see family members grow closer together. They explain how a horrible incident earlier in their life triggered a phobia in them that the challenges now ask them to confront. Several contestants earnestly express that they don’t want to fail a task or get a question wrong not because of the money but because they want to continue on this incredible journey with a person they love. You get to know them, and begin to root for them.

Faithful to the franchise and surprisingly lacking in the cynicism usually associated with big IP spin-offs, 007: Road to a Million is a Prime Video winner - and well worth your time. And best of all, it gives me hope that even under Amazon, 007 is still in good hands. Now, the wait to learn of Daniel Craig’s successor continues…

007: Road to a Million is available to watch now on Prime Video. If you're not an Amazon Prime subscriber already, you can start your free 30-day Prime trial today.