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Adapting PTS's (Pre-Title-Sequences) As Future Films?

JWESTBROOKJWESTBROOK
edited December 2011 in Bond Movies Posts: 5,745
I was recently watching my edition of Goldfinger, and listened to the Guy Hamilton commentary. He brought up the point that since the start of Goldfinger, a tradition of PTS's not being relative to the film was started.

The narrator called them "mini-adventures" and made me think of the idea to adapt films from the limited information given by the PTS's.

Goldfinger's PTS almost seems like a film's climax. Anyways, your thoughts?

Comments

  • DoubleOhhSevenDoubleOhhSeven
    edited December 2011 Posts: 1,778
    Great idea for a thread. The one that comes to mind the most as it's own individual adventure is naturally Octopussy. There's literally no tie or reference to the rest of the film at all. Even Goldfinger had that agent telling Bond to head to Miami, which is where we see him after the credits.

    The PTS to Octopussy has a real Cuban flavor to it so I assume Bond would be hanging out with alot of Latin beauties. That fat general seems like he could be a villan.

    For Your Eyes Only seems like it could be the climax to what DAF should've been. Minus the cheesy soundeffect at the end.
  • JWESTBROOKJWESTBROOK
    Posts: 5,745
    I've always been curious why Bond has avoided Cuba so. Even in DAD he was only there chasing ..Koreans.. as silly as that sounds. ESPECIALLY in the 60's and 70's, when the tension between the US and Cuba was at an all time high. Its a very easy country to mimic geographically.

    Modern Cuba, which is still modeled after 60's style, isn't much of a hot topic any longer. It'd be hard having a Cuban-centric film/villain, unless Bond joins the DEA.
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    edited December 2011 Posts: 14,678
    When watching the Moonraker PTS, I've quite often thought "What if a Bond film was adapted from this scene?" (i.e. Moonraker PTS is the end of a new movie.) Bond finishes his mission in Africa, except here's the twist: prior to what we see in the PTS, the girl who says "Any higher, Mr Bond, and my ears will pop" is assumed to be an ally Bond girl for the entire 2nd and 3rd act, but turns out to be working for the baddies, as revealed in the MR PTS. The ensuing fight on the jet is stretched out over a few minutes, and after leaving the girl chuteless to plummet to her death in the jet, Bond falls out of the plane with a henchman, and ends up wrestling with him while trying to grab the remaining chute which is free falling on it's own (no Jaws in this, btw). I think it would be interesting to end the film without Bond bedding a girl i.e. CR/QoS, and after pulling his chute, Bond landing somewhere dangerous. Some place where it'll be hard for anyone to rescue him. So we don't see the landscape until Bond lands. And then the camera zooms out to reveal a desolate, rocky location perhaps. End.
  • VirageVirage
    Posts: 1,856
    Bloodstone and EON's Pretitle sequances should will make good Film pre-titles.

    And for the films CR, What was Drydon selling??
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    edited December 2011 Posts: 14,678
    Virage wrote:
    Bloodstone and EON's Pretitle sequances should will make good Film pre-titles.

    I like your way of thinking.
    Virage wrote:
    And for the films CR, What was Drydon selling??

    Interesting question. Maybe the sold secrets can be the motivation for a villain in a future film.
  • shadowonthesunshadowonthesun Banned
    Posts: 1,894
    DoubleOhhSeven wrote:
    Great idea for a thread. The one that comes to mind the most as it's own individual adventure is naturally Octopussy. There's literally no tie or reference to the rest of the film at all.
    Or better yet: YOLT. Despite being intimately connected to the film - staging Bond's death frees up his maneuverability - but it's never actually explained why it happens since the events of the film take place after the staged assassiantion, and the girl in Hong Kong clearly intends to kill Bond, even if the shooters are planted by MI6. Who she is and why MI6 felt the need to stage Bond's death in front of her are never explained. I can only imagine that it was an exit strategy after Bond was investigating organised crime/a spy ring/whatever operating out of Hong Kong are the target of his investigation wanted payback after he took them down, so the remnants of the syndicate banded together to kill him before MI6 intervened.
  • HASEROTHASEROT has returned like the tedious inevitability of an unloved season---
    Posts: 4,399
    I can only think of a handful of Bond films, where the PTS has no direct connection with the rest of film - at all..

    Goldfinger is one them... For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy - i could throw Moonraker in there as well.. but Jaws is the branching point..

    but other than that, every PTS has some connection to the rest of the film....

    anyways - i've often thought about how CR's PTS would play out as it's own movie, even if it were a short film... sure we know the basic idea of went went on, from deleted scenes and what not - but it would be interesting to expand on that even further
  • PrinceKamalKhanPrinceKamalKhan Monsoon Palace, Udaipur
    Posts: 3,262
    QBranch wrote:
    When watching the Moonraker PTS, I've quite often thought "What if a Bond film was adapted from this scene?" (i.e. Moonraker PTS is the end of a new movie.) Bond finishes his mission in Africa, except here's the twist: prior to what we see in the PTS, the girl who says "Any higher, Mr Bond, and my ears will pop" is assumed to be an ally Bond girl for the entire 2nd and 3rd act, but turns out to be working for the baddies, as revealed in the MR PTS. The ensuing fight on the jet is stretched out over a few minutes, and after leaving the girl chuteless to plummet to her death in the jet, Bond falls out of the plane with a henchman, and ends up wrestling with him while trying to grab the remaining chute which is free falling on it's own (no Jaws in this, btw). I think it would be interesting to end the film without Bond bedding a girl i.e. CR/QoS, and after pulling his chute, Bond landing somewhere dangerous. Some place where it'll be hard for anyone to rescue him. So we don't see the landscape until Bond lands. And then the camera zooms out to reveal a desolate, rocky location perhaps. End.
    shadowonthesun wrote:
    DoubleOhhSeven wrote:
    Great idea for a thread. The one that comes to mind the most as it's own individual adventure is naturally Octopussy. There's literally no tie or reference to the rest of the film at all.
    Or better yet: YOLT. Despite being intimately connected to the film - staging Bond's death frees up his maneuverability - but it's never actually explained why it happens since the events of the film take place after the staged assassiantion, and the girl in Hong Kong clearly intends to kill Bond, even if the shooters are planted by MI6. Who she is and why MI6 felt the need to stage Bond's death in front of her are never explained. I can only imagine that it was an exit strategy after Bond was investigating organised crime/a spy ring/whatever operating out of Hong Kong are the target of his investigation wanted payback after he took them down, so the remnants of the syndicate banded together to kill him before MI6 intervened.

    Both of these are excellent ideas.
    HASEROT wrote:
    I can only think of a handful of Bond films, where the PTS has no direct connection with the rest of film - at all..

    Goldfinger is one them... For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy - i could throw Moonraker in there as well.. but Jaws is the branching point..

    but other than that, every PTS has some connection to the rest of the film....

    I think TB's PTS qualifies since there's only 2 brief references to it shortly after the opening titles. Also, MR's PTS opens with the space shuttle skyjacking.
  • JWESTBROOKJWESTBROOK
    Posts: 5,745
    PrinceKamalKhan wrote:
    I think TB's PTS qualifies since there's only 2 brief references to it shortly after the opening titles.

    Ah, yes. The TB pre-titles is probably one of my top Bond 'moments' in the franchise. Such a perfect conglomeration of everything Bond, summed up short and very, very sweet. Would love to see it grow into something bigger.
  • PrinceKamalKhanPrinceKamalKhan Monsoon Palace, Udaipur
    edited December 2011 Posts: 3,262
    JWESTBROOK wrote:
    PrinceKamalKhan wrote:
    I think TB's PTS qualifies since there's only 2 brief references to it shortly after the opening titles.

    Ah, yes. The TB pre-titles is probably one of my top Bond 'moments' in the franchise. Such a perfect conglomeration of everything Bond, summed up short and very, very sweet. Would love to see it grow into something bigger.

    Indeed. It's my favorite PTS in the series for that reason.



  • Agent007391Agent007391 Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
    Posts: 7,854
    Virage wrote:
    Bloodstone and EON's Pretitle sequances should will make good Film pre-titles.

    Especially Blood Stone. That has the best game PTS in the series, but the opening of Agent Under Fire (from beginning to the end of the BMW Z-8 mission) would make a great long PTS, like TWINE's.
  • OHMSS69OHMSS69
    Posts: 2,341
    I think the motivation was to have PTS unrelated and a mini adventure in its own right. Goldfinger was such a trail blazer for the series. Starting with TSWLM and that fantastic stunt the makers felt that a new standard was set and subsequent films had to have a fantastic stunt to top the previous film might be related to the film or might not be. EON was not gonna lose sleep over this detail. Of course, there are several exceptions.
    LALD , TMWTGG, FYEO...
  • 00Beast00Beast
    Posts: 4,762
    Nice topic!
    I could see these PTS's being evolved into future Bond movies:

    -Goldfinger
    -Thunderball
    -The Spy Who Loved Me
    -Moonraker
    -Octopussy
    -A View to a Kill
    -The Living Daylights
    -Tomorrow Never Dies
    -The World is not Enough
  • JWESTBROOKJWESTBROOK
    Posts: 5,745
    00Beast wrote:
    Nice topic!
    I could see these PTS's being evolved into future Bond movies:

    -Goldfinger
    -Thunderball
    -The Spy Who Loved Me
    -Moonraker
    -Octopussy
    -A View to a Kill
    -The Living Daylights
    -Tomorrow Never Dies
    -The World is not Enough

    One of my all time favorites. So, so good. I'd love to see the buildup movie to the bank. But its such a perfect opening, too. So conflicted, haha.
  • JWESTBROOKJWESTBROOK
    Posts: 5,745
    Dumpity Bump.
  • shadowonthesunshadowonthesun Banned
    edited December 2011 Posts: 1,894
    Alright, here's an idea: we adapt all the pre-title sequences (with a few extra scenes to connect them together) into one film.

    We start off with GOLDFINGER, where Bond is in Mexico and destroys the drug stockpiles. On the flight back to England, he is left for dead during the MOONRAKER sequence. We witness a remake of the FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE pre-titles as an assassin practices killing an agent. M sends Bond to Siberia to recover the body of another Double-Oh Agent, taken from A VIEW TO A KILL. Following the trail, he goes to Spain to confront a Swiss banker over the agent's death, as he does in THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH. The banker is killed, but Bond has an encounter with one of his clients, Tracy di Vincenzo, lifted from ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE. Bond thwarts an attempt on her life in the THUNDERBALL pre-titles, identifying Jacques Bouvier as the culprit (and also as the pilot of the plane in the MOONRAKER sequence). We then go through the DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER pre-titles as Bond searches for Bouvier's employer, Colonel General Sergei Grubozaboyschikov (who has been profiting from the drug trade in Mexico, and only decides to eliminate the Double-Oh Section when Bond takes his stockpiles out). Meanwhile, a string of fellow agents have been killed, as in the pre-titles of THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS. Bond finally gets Grubozaboyschikov's name, using Fischer and Dryden to confirm his identity. It is serious enough that M orders the mock assassination from YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. With the Double-Oh Section shut down, Grubozaboyschikov attacks the St. Georges with a sea mine to make it look like an accident, as in FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. Bond learns what Grubozaboyschikov's end-game is (I have no idea what this might be right now; I'll come up with something). He infiltrates Grubozaboyschikov's lair, borrowed from GOLDENEYE. Finally, he and Tracy retire to a nearby chalet to enjoy their time together, but Grubozaboyschikov learns of his location and comes to kill him, and the film ends with the ski chase from THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, and the final shot of the film is the Union Jack parachute.

    Okay, it's not the best ... but you try fusing each sequence into a coherent film.
  • ZekidkZekidk
    Posts: 3,278
    HASEROT wrote:
    I can only think of a handful of Bond films, where the PTS has no direct connection with the rest of film - at all..

    Goldfinger is one them... For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy - i could throw Moonraker in there as well.. but Jaws is the branching point..

    but other than that, every PTS has some connection to the rest of the film....

    AVTAK?

  • shadowonthesunshadowonthesun Banned
    Posts: 1,894
    In AVTAK, Bond retrieves microchips from 003's body. Those microchips are used to prove that Max Zorin was supplying the KGB with next-genertion technology.
  • ZekidkZekidk
    Posts: 3,278
    Ahh...okay!
  • JWESTBROOKJWESTBROOK
    Posts: 5,745
    WOW! Shadow. Bravo.

    That was astonishing.
  • 00Beast00Beast
    Posts: 4,762
    @shadowonthesun: That's a neat idea! Well done! It'd be neat to try and incorporate all the pre-title sequences, though that'd be a stretch!
  • shadowonthesunshadowonthesun Banned
    Posts: 1,894
    Thanks, guys.

    I'll admit - it's not perfect. There's a few sections that could be fleshed out a little, like exactly what Grubozaboyschikov is planning, what his connection to Mexico is, and how Tracy figures into all of it. But for now, it's just a rough draft.

    I did actually try to write all of the pre-title sequences into one coherent film, but I found that some of them were a bit excessive. Particularly LICENCE TO KILL and OCTOPUSSY.

    That said, I think I could graft GOLDENEYE, TOMORROW NEVER DIES and DIE ANOTHER DAY into one sequence. Bond would assume the identity of Jacques Bouvier to infiltrate the compound (DAD). He would then use his position to explore the compound (GE), but the top brass start getting nervous and fire a cruise missile at the facility (TND).
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,356
    Quite something Shadow! Good work.

    I think each era's PTS would work well together, as you have just shown with Brosnan's.

    Connery's all being very low-key seem to help whereas Moore's are a real mixed bag.
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