Gun barrel sequence
The James Bond gun barrel sequence is an iconic opening to every official (EON Productions) James Bond film beginning with the first, Dr. No in 1962. The sequence is credited to Maurice Binder, a famous title designer who worked on 14 Bond films. The look of the sequence was achieved with a pin hole camera shooting through a real gun barrel until the mid-1990s when it became computer-generated.
In the sequence, a series of flashing white dots scrolls across the screen from (the viewer's perspective) left to right. Upon reaching the extreme right of the screen, the dot changes to the view down the barrel of a gun (the rifling within forming a distinctive spiral pattern). The gun barrel is seen from the assassin's perspective—looking directly at a walking (right to left) James Bond against a plain white background. Bond quickly turns and shoots at the viewer; the scene reddens signifying the spilling of the gunman's blood from above. The gun barrel dissolves to a circle, which again often then roves around, and the film begins with the first scene generally appearing within it as it expands.
Evolution of the sequence
The first person to portray the role of James Bond in the sequence was not Sean Connery, but rather Bob Simmons, a stuntman who filled in for the role of agent 007 in the sequence shot and used for the first three films' gun barrels (Dr. No, From Russia with Love, and Goldfinger). In 1965, when the series began to be shot in the 'letterbox' format, Panavision, a new version of the sequence was required. For this, the producers used Sean Connery for the first time. Since then, every actor to portray Bond has been filmed in the scene.
From Dr. No to Diamonds Are Forever, the sequence, filmed by Simmons, Connery, and George Lazenby, featured Bond wearing a hat. This was dropped when Roger Moore played the role in Live and Let Die in 1973, although the character continued to wear a hat occasionally within the films into the 1980s. Notably, Lazenby, Moore, Timothy Dalton, and Pierce Brosnan all wore dinner jackets for their renditions.
Beginning with 1995's GoldenEye, the gun barrel was computer-generated, allowing for variations in the spiral rifling pattern as the light reflection alters with the movement of the barrel. Die Another Day introduced a CG bullet zooming from Bond's gun towards the viewer and disappearing, suggesting that 007 has shot straight up his opponent's gun. This sequence is a one-time only effect to commemorate the release of the 20th James Bond film as well as the 40th anniversary of James Bond on screen.
The sequence will change once again for Daniel Craig's first outing as 007 in the 2006 film Casino Royale. It will differ from every previous film by not opening the film with the sequence, but instead ending the pre-title sequence with it where the viewer actually sees the assassin about to shoot Bond before he turns to fire on the assassin. Casino Royale is a reboot of the official franchise and is supposed to be Bond's first mission. Like the previous iteration of the sequence, it is expected to only occur this one-time.
Trivia
- In Dr. No, ahead of Monty Norman's Bond theme, during the white circles a beeping sound (reminiscent of the sound effects in the film's nuclear-HQ climax) is heard. This sound can be heard in the gun barrel sequence during Die Another Day as well as during the track "Kiss of Life", in homage.
- The first time that the full "James Bond Theme" was used with the sequence was in From Russia with Love. Dr No is also the only film to feature the circular motif at both the beginning and end (as a still shot).
- George Lazenby, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), is the only Bond who completely drops to one knee to fire the deadly shot.
- Roger Moore was the only Bond to film the sequence twice, as his first two films reverted to a less widescreen format, while Panavision was brought back for The Spy Who Loved Me, necessitating a fifth version of the gun barrel.
- During the opening of Dr. No and On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the white dot stops roughly in the middle of the screen and the line "Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli Present" appears surrounding the dot. The text then wipes away and the dot continues on with the rest of the sequence.
- The main action of the first three films opens with the dot, white once more, simply disappearing – in the cases of From Russia with Love and Goldfinger it become smaller in jumps to the top right, effectively becoming the moon as these films open with a night shot. For all subsequent films, the opening shot materialises in the circle, which stops in the centre of the screen. With the exception of For Your Eyes Only (1981), where the whole frame suddenly disappears with a musical sting, the circle then grows larger until the moving shot it contains fills the screen.
Other uses
The iconic gun barrel shot is copyright to EON Productions and used widely for advertisement and merchandising purposes. References to its circular motif make regular appearances within the musical title sequences of the films themselves (For Your Eyes Only, for example) and in trailers, notably that for Tomorrow Never Dies where the view moves into the gun and down the barrel until Bond turns and shoots. GoldenEye's trailer also replicates the sequence, where Bond walks out and shoots several shots at the wording "[But You Can Still Depend] On One Man" until it transforms into into the number "007" (leaving the two O's and making the M into a 7).
The sequence has also been parodied a number of times since making its first appearance in 1962. It was used as an opening couch gag in the episode "And Maggie Makes Three" on The Simpsons where Homer Simpson performs the scene in his living room. The film From Hong Kong With Love (released as Bons baisers de Hong Kong in 1975) is about the British Secret Service replacing Bond who dies while performing the sequence; it notably stars Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell who played M and Miss Moneypenny respectively in the Bond film series.