Visual Review: Bond Title Sequence

For this week’s visual review, I decided to write about the title sequence for the movie Skyfall. Skyfall is one of the many movies in the James Bond Series. This was the third Bond film Daniel Craig starred in. The title sequence starts off with Bond in a large body of water, unconscious and beginning to drown. After falling down a waterfall, he sinks into another large body of water and is dragged deeper by an abnormally large hand. Bond is dragged into what looks like a sink hole of blood and shooting practice targets that all looks like him. What I love about this title sequence is that it flows very nicely. The camera zooms into a bullet hole of one of the practice targets and in that hole is another scene. It shows a nude woman underwater. If you haven’t seen the Bond Series, one could be confused as to who she represents. In my opinion, the nude woman represented the bond girl. In each Bond film, there’s always a Bond girl that has some form of a romantic relationship with him. I truly believe this woman was put in the title sequence to represent the romance portion of the James Bond series.

As the sequence continues, you’re led to a graveyard of guns and knives representing the gravestones. The camera zooms into one of the gravestones, leading to what looks like an abandoned home. As the camera zooms in on the house, a pair of eyes show through, revealing Daniel Craig’s (James Bond) eyes. The camera then zooms into his eyes, which leads to an animation of Bond in an empty room, shooting at his shadows. You can tell there’s a feel of uncertainty, which is one of the underlying messages in the film. The camera zooms in once again to one of the bullet holes and leads to a room of underwater blood. At one point, the blood begins to form a shape, revealing a skull. A good portion of this movie was filmed in Mexico, including the opening scene. During this scene, Mexico City is celebrating their annual day of the dead. I think the skull in the title sequence is meant to represent those scenes filmed in Mexico.

As the sequence continues, the skull turns into another woman with a gun pointing at the camera. As the camera zooms in, you’re led to a room of shooting targets that appear to look just like Bond (once again). Over time, these flames turn into fire breathing dragons. In a portion of the film, the movie takes place in Asia. For this reason, I believe the dragon was used to symbolize Bond’s time in Asia. By the end of the title sequence, it wraps up with Bond inside the abandoned house. I think the entire title sequence gives audience members a clue of what the film is going to be about. It summarizes the entire movie very well and makes people more curious about what the movie is about.

To view the Skyfall Title Sequence, click the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uto3lp-ewkU