The opening sequence is an important event in a Bond film. Ever since the second James Bond film, there has been an action sequence as an introduction to the main feature. These sequences invariably involve dangerous stunts, which are designed to act as eye candy. Since 1977 when Roger Moore skied off a cliff to safety.
The pre-credit sequence has involved aerial stunts. Campbell continues this tradition with not one, but two aerial stunts in his pre-credit sequence including a bungee jump and a preposterous freefall into a plane. The sequence begins with a plane flying but we don’t know who the person is inside. We hear a huge metal gate that opens up, then somebody running. The audience attention is grabbed with the steep dam. The mystery man was running across the dam, he got to the middle and attached a harness to himself. The camera zooms in to show what he is doing. When he jumps off of the dam, there are four shots during the jump and it lasts for 13 seconds. The audience assumes it is Bond because he uses a gadget to hold him to the ground after he jumped over the dam. There are all different types of camera angles such as: high, low, extreme close up, etc. Martin Campbell uses a high camera angle when the person jumps, this is so the audience can see how high he is going to jump. He also uses a close up of the person’s eyes and the harness. This shows something is going to happen, and because of the close up of the harness, the audience know he is going to jump. This has an effect on the audience because they don’t know how high he is going to jump from, and they don’t know where from. At this point the audience should be wondering what going to happen next.
Bond breaks into the weapons facility before descending from the air vent of a toilet and knocking a guard out. He cracks a joke “beg your pardon, I forgot to knock” to keep the audience watching and carries on as nothing has actually happened. We then see a different man come on the screen holding a gun to the other man’s head. The man holding the gun says “you’re late”. The audience are confused with what is going on but they realise that it is 006 and 007. They go into the weapons base, and Bond sets a bomb to go of in the next six minutes. They go to get out but there is an alarm that goes off so they have to find an exit. The Russian grab the audience’s attention when they swarm the base and try to shoot 006 and 007. The audience’s attention is grabbed once again when the Russians have captured Trevelyan. Bond has to come out in the next ten seconds. The chief kills Trevelyan. The part where the chief counted down ten to one, the audience new whatever Bond done 006 would have died. Martin Campbell played music loud on the parts where the audience’s attention was grabbed mostly, he also adds humour in, and it’s always after Bond kills someone. All different kinds of camera angles are used in this scene, mostly mid shot. Trevelyan uses some kind gadget to open the door with activating the alarm. The audience think that 006 and 007 are going to get captured and killed by the Russians.
Bond shouts out for Trevelyan but he doesn’t answer so he moves towards the Russians pointing his gun at them. Bond goes back to alarm the bomb to go off in the next three minutes. The audience’s attention is grabbed by the 3 minutes that are left before the bomb goes off. Bond hides behind a trolley and moves towards a track, the Russians are just laughing. The chief says “you can’t escape” Bond then jumps on the track and presses a button to start it moving, also he shoots a metal fence which has barrels stored behind it, and they all fall down and knock them all over. The audience are very excited at this point because Bond has escaped. Bond runs after a plane to try and get away before the Russians catch him. He gets in the plane but has a bit of a fight with the other man who is in there so they both fall out. Bond escaping from the Russians grabs the audience’s attention. He knocks someone off a motorbike and chases after the plane, he gets back in the plane but it falls of a cliff. Martin Campbell uses a close up off Bonds eyes and the joystick. He does this so you can see the pressure that is on Bond and how hard it is to move the joystick. Bond manages to move the joy stick before the plane crashes. The audience is relieved that Bond has escaped once again from a tricky situation. Martin Campbell uses a high camera angle so we can see how steep the cliff is and uses a low one so we can see the plane coming down. The director keeps us watching by building our tension up and then dropping it.
Conclusion
The pre-credit sequence is a really exciting part of the film. I think it is a really successful and it makes the audience want to carry on watching the rest of the film. Martin Campbell is a great director for the James Bond films. Goldeneye is one of the most popular films that he has directed. This film builds up your tension and then drops it, just like a rollercoaster. Pierce Brosnan plays James Bond in this film, I think he suits this part very well.
