With Sam Mendes’ Spectre, you get your money’s worth in the first 15 minutes. Daniel Craig’s James Bond is incognito behind a skull mask as he joins the revellers in Mexico’s famed Day of the Dead parade. As you ponder on the significance of the setting given Bond’s chequered history of leaving behind bodies, he enters a hotel room only to swiftly exit.
What follows is a long tracking shot which follows him as he jumps off rooftops, blows up buildings and goes on to depict a rather cushioned escape. Before we can catch our breath, he is off again, fighting inside a wildly careening helicopter as thousands of cowering revellers beneath try to escape the busy town square.
Bond is known for its set pieces and immaculately-designed opening sequences. It is praise indeed when we say this one will find its way into the top three of the heap. You sit back, confident that however the film turns out, there will be this sequence that will be part of every ‘best of James Bond’ list.