The James Bond franchise has long offered memorable opening pre-title sequence and the Daniel Craig-era Bond films are no different: Skyfall opens with a propulsive action sequence climaxing in 007 being shot and falling off the top of a train in Istanbul, and Spectre opens with a single-take action scene set amidst Dia de Los Muertos celebrations in Mexico. Finally, the Casino Royale script is here for all you fans of the Daniel Craig James Bond movie. This puppy is a transcript that was painstakingly transcribed using the screenplay and/or viewings of the movie to get the dialogue.

Opening Scene Of Casino Royale

Maybe the influence was there; beats me. But I'd argue that since the Bond series literally invented quick-cut action editing and may as well have invented the action scene itself, Casino Royale represents Bond reclaiming his action-movie crown. Points awarded (Action/Stunts): 007/007. Don't call it a comeback. Casino Royale’s opening scene is possibly one of the most exciting opening scenes of all time. The chase sequence sees Bond (Daniel Craig’s first appearance as the iconic character) pursuing a Frenchman that has stolen his potatoes.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNvzNWuzI9Y]

Casino Royale Opening Scene Location

After the conceptual bloat of the late Pierce Brosnan films, the coming of Daniel Craig was supposed to be a return to basics: a post-bubble austerity program for a franchise struggling with its longstanding reliance on subprime special effects and gimmicks.

Casino Royale Opening Scene Chase

And the intro sequence here is extremely basic. Gone are the massive action set-pieces, the mind-boggling stunts, the beautiful women, the cars, the gadgets. Instead, we watch, in flashback, the story of how Bond first earned his “00” status — his license to kill.

But what it lacks in flash, it makes up for in film-school artsiness. The whole sequence — in which a crooked MI6 station chief arrives at his Prague office to find Bond waiting for him — is shot in hi-contrast black and white, with Hitchcockian camera angles and stark, shallow-focus closeups. It’s quite beautiful, really. But we didn’t come here for a master class in building cinematic tension; we want to see Bond kick some ass. Which he does, satisfyingly, in a flashback-within-the-flashback—but again, it’s a stripped down fight scene, two guys going mano a mano in a dingy restroom.

The intro manages the nice trick of highlighting that this is not only a new Bond movie but that this is a new Bond, one we haven’t seen before. Pierce Brosnan’s 007 had a family motto, while Roger Moore’s drank espresso and had an exclusive bootmaker. This Bond, however, seems to have no such upper-class pretensions. He’s a cold-eyed killer: tougher, meaner and a lot more rough around the edges.

GRADE: B

NextGoldfinger, 1964