The year was 2006, and James Bond fans were eagerly awaiting the release of Casino Royale, the first film featuring Daniel Craig as the iconic character. The movie wasted no time in introducing audiences to a new kind of Bond, one who wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty in a fight.
Just ten minutes into the film, the first major action sequence kicks off – an eight-minute chase scene that sees Bond (Daniel Craig) running through walls and climbing cranes. This was unlike anything seen before in a Bond film, with its blunt style of hand-to-hand combat and realistic fight scenes that shook off the notion that Bond had to be stylish and suave all the time.
According to Casino Royale's stunt coordinator, Gary Powell, the goal was to do something different. They drew inspiration from the Jason Bourne films, which had turned the spy world upside down with their gritty and realistic approach. Powell notes, "We couldn't sit on the Bond tradition and just do what's been done before. We had to match what they did and beat it."
The parkour sequence that features Bond fighting on a crane high above a construction site is a perfect example of this new direction. Working closely with freerunner Sébastian Foucan, who played the guy being chased, Powell recalls, "It was a couple of months of planning and probably six weeks of actual rehearsal in the location."
The opening chase scene set the tone for the rest of the film, which delivered a series of impressive stunts, including a stairwell fight later in the movie that featured a machete and plenty of people being thrown into walls. Powell explains, "With the stair fight, we wanted something that was real. If he was in a fight with someone who had a machete, it's erratic, it's not stylish. You're literally fighting for your life."
The success of Casino Royale's opening scene can be attributed to its willingness to take risks and push the boundaries of what audiences expected from a Bond film. It marked a new era for the franchise, one that was grittier, more realistic, and more willing to get its hands dirty.
As Martin Campbell, the director of Casino Royale, notes, "When you're doing a stunt for Bond, it has to have the wow factor. It has to be spectacular." The opening chase scene certainly delivers on that front, setting the stage for a thrilling ride that would go on to redefine the James Bond franchise.
Casino Royale: A New Era for Bond
The intro sequence of Casino Royale is extremely basic by Bond standards. Gone are the massive action set-pieces, the mind-boggling stunts, the beautiful women, the cars, and the gadgets. Instead, we watch a flashback that tells 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 is shot in high-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