What's Your Favorite Cold Open?

ZorinIndustries

James Bond films are historic for their cold opens, or pre-title sequences. What are your most and least favorite cold opens of the franchise?

Mister Greene

I think the best is Goldfinger, I cant think of a better one

Blackleiter

Ditto! Hasn't been topped yet!

Mister Greene wrote:

I think the best is Goldfinger, I cant think of a better one

Sir Miles

Favourite cold open ? Stella of course )

Ah right...PTS.. ;% ..a few are very good....OHMSS....TLD....GE....CR....QoS....and the above mentioned obviously...

Barry Nelson

Some good ones,

DN, outstanding introduction of our favorite character
GF, maybe the best
TB, worthy follow up to GF
TSWLM, great memorable stunt
LTK, Bond and villian meet for the first time
GE, one of my favorite opening, great way to introduce a new Bond
TND, lots of action and M's balls comments.
TWINE, Swiss bank scenes is great drama and clever writing.
DAD, Yes I liked the opening,
CR, movie opens with a great chase.

Bad ones,

LALD Bond seems out of place.
FYEO terrible Blofeld likeness
QOS, if I don't know who is who, if I can't tell what car is ramming what car, if because of the editing I have no idea what is happening, the opening isn't good.

ZorinIndustries

Barry Nelson I agree with your views on QoS. That's what inspired me to make the post actually. I was watching the cold open from Quantum and I was royally confused. Sure there was lots of action, but it could've done without all the quick cuts.

SpectreBlofeld

I really liked the QoS opener. A quiet, scenic scene over water of a gorgeous mountainside... then the camera zooms in as the music creates a sense of tension... then we're dumped head-on into a brutal car chase. It was pretty artistic, the way it was handled.

Then, at the end (before the awful theme song) we're eased back into gentle, beautiful scenery as Bond putters to the interrogation spot in his battered Aston.

Just another day in the life of 007!

SilentSpy

Too many good ones to list. Need to give this some serious thought...

Paperbill

FRWL...the first and the best!

Sidewinder

QOS, certainly. Quite aggressive.

OHMSS. Lazenby's introduction. Spot on.

Goldeneye. The infiltration.... After waiting so long, such an intro for the New Bond movie.

Moonraker. Jaws in the intro, just a great scene.

Goldfinger. From scuba-gear to white suit in a few seconds... acting cool.

DanielCraig007

Casino Royale 2006

"The second is..BAAAAM" ...yes, considerably... B-)

Thunderpussy

I remember as a kid the opening to TSWLM, which was jaw dropping. Also one of my favourites the opening of TLD. -{

Sidewinder

O I forgot! The Living Daylights.. superb!

Matt S

Barry Nelson wrote:

Some good ones,

DN, outstanding introduction of our favorite character
GF, maybe the best
TB, worthy follow up to GF
TSWLM, great memorable stunt
LTK, Bond and villian meet for the first time
GE, one of my favorite opening, great way to introduce a new Bond
TND, lots of action and M's balls comments.
TWINE, Swiss bank scenes is great drama and clever writing.
DAD, Yes I liked the opening,
CR, movie opens with a great chase.

Bad ones,

LALD Bond seems out of place.
FYEO terrible Blofeld likeness
QOS, if I don't know who is who, if I can't tell what car is ramming what car, if because of the editing I have no idea what is happening, the opening isn't good.

DN - doesn't even have one, and Bond only comes in a few scenes into the movie.
LALD - what are you talking about? Bond wasn't even there.
CR - that's after the title sequence
I agree that TWINE has a good one, but it should've ended after the bank escape. It went on way too long. The title sequence broke the flow of the film

TB is my favourite, though I really like TLD a lot too.

What do you all think when the PTS has nothing to do with the rest of the film, like in GF, TB, FYEO, and OP? In those cases it's like the movie only starts after the title sequence.

SilentSpy

I can't decide. It's either Goldfinger or Thunderball for me.