Daniel Craig As James Bond: His 5 Best Pre-Title Movie Sequences, Ranked

Ever since Sean Connery’s 007 blew up a drug laboratory in the opening scene of Goldfinger, every James Bond movie has opened with an action-packed pre-title set-piece to draw fans to the edge of their seats before they’re inundated with opening credits and mission-briefing exposition from M. Traditionally, these pre-title sequences begin with Bond in the middle of a mission and end with a triumphant victory for the gentleman spy.

Daniel Craig’s Bond movies had both traditional Bond openings and unconventional ones that helped to evolve this trope beyond its rigid guidelines. The cold opens of the Craig era saw Bond earning his license to kill, being shot off the roof of a moving train and presumed dead, and nearly crashing a helicopter into a Day of the Dead parade.

5 Quantum Of Solace

Unlike most of the Bond series’ cold opens, the beginning of Quantum of Solace follows on directly from the end of Casino Royale, with Mr. White in the trunk of Bond’s car. After 007 delivers Mr. White to M, he gets into a brutal fight with her double-crossing bodyguard.

This thrilling opening sequence is one of the best parts of the movie, but that’s not saying much about a movie that’s widely regarded to be the lowest point in the Craig era. The pre-title sequence has the same problem as the rest of the movie: it’s exciting, but it’s not very Bondian – it’s more befitting of a generic action thriller than a Bond film.

4 Spectre

Just like Sam Smith’s theme song comes off as an attempt to replicate what worked in Adele’s Oscar-winning Skyfall theme, Spectre’s opening sequence comes off as an attempt to replicate Skyfall’s action-packed everything-but-the-kitchen-sink opening. Set during the Day of the Dead celebrations, this sequence sees a wall falling on Bond, who ends up in a fistfight aboard a helicopter spinning out of control. The action in this sequence is spectacular, but it’s far too CG-heavy. There are so many computer graphics in every frame that the scene plays like a video game.

Bond’s cold opens are traditionally used to show off the impressive work of the stunt team. The Union Jack parachute jump at the beginning of The Spy Who Loved Me is a prime example. In Spectre’s opening, a CG building falls on Bond, then he commandeers a helicopter in front of a CG backdrop.

3 Skyfall

The unforgettable opening scene of Skyfall is one of the only pre-title sequences in which Bond loses. The cold opens usually culminate in a glorious win for 007, like destroying a drug lab (Goldfinger) or dropping Blofeld into a chimney (For Your Eyes Only), but the opening sequence of Skyfall ends with Bond’s supposed death.

On top of being a stunning action sequence, this opening subtly foreshadows the villain twist. M is shown to have a callous disregard for her agents’ lives as she orders Bond to abandon a mortally wounded Ronson and tells Moneypenny to “take the bloody shot” when she’s worried she might hit Bond. M’s attitude throughout this mission establishes that she values MI6’s intelligence goals over the wellbeing of her operatives, which ends up being the reason why she’s targeted by the villainous Raoul Silva.

This sequence has a few great action setups, like a rooftop motorcycle chase and a brutal fight on top of a moving train. Overall, it’s a thrilling set-piece with a subversive climax. Bond plunging into the water below beautifully sets the stage for Adele’s moody, melancholic, Bassey-esque theme song, one of the series’ all-time greatest themes.

2 Casino Royale

A decade after successfully reinventing the Bond franchise with GoldenEye, director Martin Campbell did it again with Casino Royale, a prequel introducing Daniel Craig’s Bond with a captivating origin story. The movie’s pre-title sequence begins with a black-and-white prologue detailing how he got his license to kill. With the visceral hand-to-hand combat and minimalist style of classic old-school spy thrillers, Campbell instantly establishes the rough, gritty tone of the movie in this prologue.

Then, the movie gets into full swing with a breathtaking action sequence. Bond chases a perp across a construction site in Madagascar that sees the duo doing mind-blowing parkour from crane to crane. Moments like Bond crashing through a drywall show his inexperience as a newly recruited 00 agent, a running theme throughout the movie.

1 No Time To Die

At 20 minutes in length, No Time to Die’s pre-title sequence is the longest in the series by far. It even opens with a pre-pre-title sequence, explaining Safin’s motivations through his failed attempted assassination of Mr. White. This cold open acts as a direct sequel to Spectre that ends with Bond mistakenly believing that Madeleine has betrayed him and cutting her out of his life.

Bond’s cold opens usually have one breathtaking action moment, but No Time to Die has a bunch: swinging from a bridge, jumping a motorcycle over a parade, showing off the arsenal of gadgets in Bond’s Aston Martin. Pitting 007 against Spectre’s top assassins was a great way to re-immerse fans in the pure escapism of the Bond franchise.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
(3469 Articles Published)

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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