Bond Opening Scenes

dr. evan-gelist

I love the Bond opening scenes. But i have observed that the recent films, have opening scenes that last 9 or10 mins. What does everyone else think?

MY FAVOURITE OPENING SCENES

TSWLM- the whole scene is excellent from beginning to end. enough said

GE- bond escapes orumov and his men by chasing the plane on bike and successfully guides the plane out of a dive and away from the scene

OP- bond once again escapes death by flying his mini-jet away from a missile and manages to blow up the hanger

TLD- daltons first appearance sees him hanging on to an assassins land rover and escape death by parachuting away while the land rover (containing explosives) explodes

MR- a great scene, particularly the sky dive chase of the unnamed villain (played by B.J.Worth)

Barbel

I prefer them when they're short & sweet, and don't relate to the overall plot too much.

Rick Roberts

Barbel wrote:

I prefer them when they're short & sweet, and don't relate to the overall plot too much.

Same here. That is why I love the Goldfinger and Casino Royale pre-title sequences the most. They got too bloated and boring in the 80's and 90's.

blofeld#1

I think TWINE 's was too long

Dan Same

blofeld#1 wrote:

I think TWINE 's was too long

TWINE's could have been perfect, if they ended it the moment Bond escaped from the Swiss banker. That scene; the interplay between Bond and the Swiss banker, the fight and the escape, was was brilliant, however the producers couldn't resist expanding it.

My five favourite PTS's, in chronological order, are FRWL, GF, TB, TSWLM and TWINE (solely due to the Swiss banker sequences.) I don't think it's a coincidence that most of these PTS's are relatively short. Like Barbel and Rick, I prefer them shorter as I don't see the point in having a PTS which is incredibly long, as regardless of its quality, the film may as well not have a PTS if it's extremely long. In regards to how closely linked the PTS should be to the film's overall plot, I'm not fussed either way. To me, a great PTS should be short, either exciting or creative (ideally both) and must not feel as if the producers arbitrarily put the credits after it. How related it is to the overall plot doesn't matter to me.

Napoleon Plural

Well yes DS, but TWINE's would have been a damp scrib, a bad thing, not the damp squid of the Doctor No book, which is quite exciting...

If it had been set against an amazing skyline, with a rooftop escape by Bond, it might have worked.

Alex

GF and TB are my favorites.

And YOLT may be an extremely illogical movie, but the PTS is beautiful.

Dan Same

Napoleon Plural wrote:

Well yes DS, but TWINE's would have been a damp scrib, a bad thing, not the damp squid of the Doctor No book, which is quite exciting....

?:)

Napoleon Plural wrote:

If it had been set against an amazing skyline, with a rooftop escape by Bond, it might have worked

I loved the escape in the PTS. I have no problem with it, other than that the producers should have cut after Bond escaped.

Mr Martini

Dan Same wrote:

Napoleon Plural wrote:

Well yes DS, but TWINE's would have been a damp scrib, a bad thing, not the damp squid of the Doctor No book, which is quite exciting....

?:)

Napoleon Plural wrote:

If it had been set against an amazing skyline, with a rooftop escape by Bond, it might have worked

I loved the escape in the PTS. I have no problem with it, other than that the producers should have cut after Bond escaped.

I have a feeling I'm the only one on here who loved the PTS of TWINE and think it was perfect all around. Had it cut away after Bond escaped how would they have explained Cigar Girls ( :x ) escape? I think it would of been dull to have Bond escape, cut to title sequence then go back to Bond chasing Cigar Girl ( :x ).

Rick Roberts

I think it would have made sense for a good cliff hanger to end with Bond escaping. Also that boat chase was just awful like all the action scenes in TWINE.

hegottheboot

Also prefer short PTS, but cutting right after the bank escape in TWINE would have been too little and not fit well into the theme. I think the PTS as stands is good, but way too long. Love how Bond fails just before the titles-gives the viewer a chance to reflect.
Favorites:
TSWLM: how can we ever repay that lone edge cameraman?
TB:fun, short, and insane. Was that Bob Simmons in drag?
GF:heroin flavored bananas served in a small saloon scored by John Barry.
FRWL:Last Year at Marienbad starring 007 (sort-of )
MR:if only the rest of the film could have been as serious.
TLD:simply for the moment when that synth kicks in with Dalton's murderous glare.
GE:sorry, forgot to knock.
However, there is no PTS that can compare to OHMSS. For me this is just about as definitive as it gets. London completely ineffective (radioactive lint)-searching for 007. Portugal-daybreak: the music swells up as the DBS roars past half-lit palm trees and up the coast road. The cigarette-the hat-the sunglasses. 007 is an enigma-all we get as Tracy passes are grunts of interest-"discipline 007 discipline" has been thrown out the window. I just can't say enough about this one little sequence.

Dan Same

Mr Martini wrote:

I have a feeling I'm the only one on here who loved the PTS of TWINE and think it was perfect all around. Had it cut away after Bond escaped how would they have explained Cigar Girls ( :x ) escape? I think it would of been dull to have Bond escape, cut to title sequence then go back to Bond chasing Cigar Girl ( :x ).

I take it you love Cigar Girl? )

Rick Roberts wrote:

I think it would have made sense for a good cliff hanger to end with Bond escaping. Also that boat chase was just awful like all the action scenes in TWINE.

I don't exactly agree with this. Although most of the action scenes were pretty bad, I did however love the ski chase and I also loved the fight scene in the PTS, although that wasn't really an action scene.

Rick Roberts

Dan Same wrote:

I don't exactly agree with this. Although most of the action scenes were pretty bad, I did however love the ski chase and I also loved the fight scene in the PTS, although that wasn't really an action scene.

If you are talking about the black jet skis landing, that was the worst one. It's literally like no one was around to direct and the cameras were left on.

Mr Martini

Dan Same wrote:

I take it you love Cigar Girl? )

How could you not love this?:

Dan Same

Rick Roberts wrote:

If you are talking about the black jet skis landing, that was the worst one. It's literally like no one was around to direct and the cameras were left on.

Possibly. Truth be told, it's been a while since I saw the film; I just remember loving the skiing chase.

Dan Same

Mr Martini wrote:

Dan Same wrote:

I take it you love Cigar Girl? )

How could you not love this?:

{[] You're absolutely right, she is beautiful.

blofeld#1

true dat

dr. evan-gelist

One thing that i have noticed, and find funny in the opening scenes and, indeed, throughout the entire films, is the death screams. these are very amusing, especially the boot scene between Dalton's Bond and Necros.

TLD- Necros falls to his death with Bonds boot in his hands

OP- bond snaps the plane's ariel in gobindas face and he falls to his death, with his sword/ knife in his hand face and

MR- Bond fires a dart into Drax and sends him into space. how can he do the death scream in space?

LALD- after strangling Bond, Tee-Hee get his claw-hand caught and Bond sends him tumbling out of the train.

Higgins

dr. evan-gelist wrote:

One thing that i have noticed, and find funny in the opening scenes and, indeed, throughout the entire films, is the death screams.

OP- bond snaps the plane's ariel in gobindas face and he falls to his death, with his sword/ knife in his hand face and

MR- Bond fires a dart into Drax and sends him into space. how can he do the death scream in space?

LALD- after strangling Bond, Tee-Hee get his claw-hand caught and Bond sends him tumbling out of the train.

opening scenes?? ?:)

Grindelwald

I think there's a LOT of flaws in MR......holy understatment , Batman )

chrisno1

Too much stuff to quote...
however, I also agree with those who support the shorter pts.
the point is, the pts is meant to be a teaser, just a few minutes to get the viewer excited about what happens. This works wonderfully well in the sixties and particularly GF and TB, by the early seventies they weren't so much teasing us as boring us.

Things picked up considerably with TSWLM, MR and FYEO. Even OP teaser is a lot of fun. But I dislike almost all of the teasers from LTK, because they feel like movies within movies... they are not teasers at all.

In this respect TWINE is the worst offender with a teaser in a teaser, then a beginning, middle and end. The stuff in Bilbao was more than enough for me.
I had the problem in that by the time the movie restarted, I'd rather forgotten who was who and what was what.

QOS was bad because I didn't have a clue what the hell was going on.

CR meanwhile was much much better.

for a top 3?
GF, CR, TSWLM.

Mr. Arlington Beech

again, emotional connection reigns

the bungee jump from GE just blew me away as a kid. Even my mom (who took me) said "woah" )

dr. evan-gelist

The opening teasers with the big stunts like in TSWLM, MR and GE were the best but these days they get longer and longer.

hegottheboot

The problem with the modern teasers is their lack of any spark. TND's PTS was extremely flat. TWINE"S was overlong, DAD's was just the beginning of the movie.

Loeffelholz

YOLT is a classic teaser... B-)

dr. evan-gelist

one thing that confuses me in GE is when bond is forcing his way into the enemy building at the rendezvou point with trevelyan, how come he has to go underground, only to come out on the same surface that he was on in the first place. ( this is in the opening teaser).

Mr Martini

dr. evan-gelist wrote:

one thing that confuses me in GE is when bond is forcing his way into the enemy building at the rendezvou point with trevelyan, how come he has to go underground, only to come out on the same surface that he was on in the first place. ( this is in the opening teaser).

I'm just taking a guess, but wasn't it a Chemical Weapons plant? If that's the case, the enemy might have wanted to keep the plant a secret so it was put underground. No overhead plane or satellites could see it.

zebond

Octopussy deserves it in my opinion. It was short and sweet, not relative to the plot at hand, but would go on to set the theme of the piece perfectly. It showed we were still in a more lighthearted humorous era, but at the same time there would be some impressive action sets to bedazzle the senses. Witty and intelligent, but not self-inflated or prolonged.

My wife's watching them all for the first time and we just finished AVTAK - while I'm excited to start the Dalton pictures I was very proud to hear OP was her favorite to date as well.

dr. evan-gelist

yes mr martini i now remember it is a chemical weapons plant. but the building is still in the open.

zaphod

Dr No is fantastic. The skilled way that Bond is introduced is nothing short of iconic. FRWL is also a corker, as is OHMSS. I also liked GE & LTD. Each of these is memorable and very classy, and in my view epitomise 'Bondian- ness' in a way that seperates Bond from it's imitators and detractors. True lies is a great homage in this respect.

dr. evan-gelist

yes i think john barry did the musical score for the opening scenes of true lies.