Action sequences you want to see in BOND 23 (and beyond)

13

Comments

  • Posts: 7,653
    Can the actionscenes not be edited to death, please.
  • LudsLuds MIA
    Posts: 1,986
    Can the actionscenes not be edited to death, please.
    Seconded. I'd like to be able to see them and understand without having to watch in slow motion.
  • Posts: 1,310
    Can the actionscenes not be edited to death, please.
    Seconded. I'd like to be able to see them and understand without having to watch in slow motion.
    When Lowry and the team digitally remaster Quantum of Solace like they did with the rest of the films, they'll set up a camera, spin it at 120 rotations per minute and replace the action scenes with that. ;-)

    But really, though, when you compare Casino Royale's action sequences to Quantum of Solace's action sequences, CR's is the clear winner. Not only are CR's sequences better in concept, but they are far easier to follow. During Quantum of Solace I constantly found myself giving up following the action and chose to wait and see who was on top/ahead by the time the crazy cuts had ended. I really don't want to have to do that again.
  • edited October 2011 Posts: 5,745
    Can the actionscenes not be edited to death, please.
    I think, considering the fast pace and short life span of a roller ride, my scene would have to be edited very quickly.

    My argument:

    QoS is edited very quickly, but its not the edits that ruin it. Its all the shots they edited together. In the opening car chase, they cut when bond simply looks a different way, or to show the tail light of the car; very unnecessary shot in the first place. They took the Michael Bay way of shooting, point 6 cameras at it and hope one of them works. They just used footage from all their cameras. Its not the cuts, but the overall editing. The HORRIBLY shaky camera, and the fact that most of the cuts are zoomed too close in all of the cuts also adds to the trauma.

    Quick cutting in film wouldn't be bad if it were based on solid cinematography. Limited to (preferably) no camera shake, only a few separate angles within the shots, and shots medium to long range, not close and microscopic, would produce a very effective quickly cut sequence.

    For my scene, the roller coaster action sequence (PTS) above ^^, I would use mounted cameras on the coaster for the majority of the scene. It would give the sequence a very cool look, considering Bond and the villain would appear to be moving with the environment, and the ride appearing stationary. I would also probably do some cuts from the ground to give a bystander's perspective of what the stunts look like on the coaster, and most of these would not be shaky, and be stationary shots.

    I'll try and find some examples on the YouTubes:

    Something like this that would let you see the two rolling around on the coaster and hanging on (for a camera angle):

    And here:

    @ 0:15 a cool fly around shot I would use
    @ 0:50 the mounted shot
    and the misc. shots that keep the moving coaster in center frame.



  • Posts: 1,894
    I'd like to see a chase sequence using vehicles we haven't see before in a Bond film - like a jet ski (yes, Moore had one in TSWLM, but it only appeared briefly), a snowmobile, an ice yacht or catamaran, or an ekranoplan (ground effect vehicle).
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    Posts: 13,355
    Can the actionscenes not be edited to death, please.
    Seconded. I'd like to be able to see them and understand without having to watch in slow motion.
    When Lowry and the team digitally remaster Quantum of Solace like they did with the rest of the films, they'll set up a camera, spin it at 120 rotations per minute and replace the action scenes with that. ;-)

    But really, though, when you compare Casino Royale's action sequences to Quantum of Solace's action sequences, CR's is the clear winner. Not only are CR's sequences better in concept, but they are far easier to follow. During Quantum of Solace I constantly found myself giving up following the action and chose to wait and see who was on top/ahead by the time the crazy cuts had ended. I really don't want to have to do that again.
    We have Tariq Anwar this time and not Matt Chesse and Rick Pearson, so chill. Everything will be fine.
  • Posts: 1,310
    Can the actionscenes not be edited to death, please.
    Seconded. I'd like to be able to see them and understand without having to watch in slow motion.
    When Lowry and the team digitally remaster Quantum of Solace like they did with the rest of the films, they'll set up a camera, spin it at 120 rotations per minute and replace the action scenes with that. ;-)

    But really, though, when you compare Casino Royale's action sequences to Quantum of Solace's action sequences, CR's is the clear winner. Not only are CR's sequences better in concept, but they are far easier to follow. During Quantum of Solace I constantly found myself giving up following the action and chose to wait and see who was on top/ahead by the time the crazy cuts had ended. I really don't want to have to do that again.
    We have Tariq Anwar this time and not Matt Chesse and Rick Pearson, so chill. Everything will be fine.
    Oh, I'm very confident that Bond 23 will be a great film, and I am not worried at all. All of the news so far has been brilliant, and I could not be more excited.

    The thing is I actually like QOS, it is in my top 10 Bond films, and I hold it in high regards. But for some reason I can always make fun of it and point out its flaws easier than I can with the rest of my top 10 films. But when I sit down and watch it I'm always like, 'Yeah, that was pretty good!'
  • Posts: 42
    If New York were one of the location to shoot Bond 23, I'd like a car chase thru Manhattan Street. It's challenging anyway, chasing thru crowded street. Also, if possible, another plane chase like in Quantum of Solace. That'll be great and also challenging


  • If they can only do half of this they would be doing something special in B23 - check out the horse slide awesome.
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,978
    ThatfellaintheredshirtforBond.com ;-)
  • Posts: 1,894
    I love the way he slides the horse under the semi-trailer. It's completely impossible.
  • Posts: 6,601
    Terrible - whatever stuntwork is involved, I hope they would never get permission to shoot something like this. The Siena horse race was bad enough, as it is known as one of the hardest and most animal threatening there is. Even if you laugh me off, its still true...stunt horses or not, its not their free will to do this - as opposed to people, who get a fairly good pay for risking their lives and health.....
  • i agree those horses in the south indian movie didn't look if they had a good time. but then again 80% of that countries population is treated worse, what chances of the horses being treated any better. having said that, we should give the production team of that film the benefit of the doubt.
  • Posts: 5,767
    I like how the long chase in LALD builds up and goes on seemingly forever, and I don´t mind seeing things that were in other films as long as they are shot properly.

    As @JWESTBROOK pointed out, mounted cameras are one big way to go. I don´t understand why they haven´t been used to death since Mad Max came out. There´s much to exploit here, and I loved the cameras on Bond´s car that moved like 50s robots.

    Another camera style beside mounted ones I would love to see is the old-fashioned but never out-dated total shot that lets the action do the mayhem, not the camera or cutting. I don´t mind cutting, but there´s nothing as powerful as a fight or chase that is choreographed and executed well and just filmed like that.

    OK.
    Bond investigated the office of a bad guy which is on the top floor of a department store building. He goes down in the elevator, first undetected, but then the elevator stops, and a mean-looking guy enters. The elevator stops again, another mean-looking guy enters, we now know that those guys are bad. But they don´t yet attack Bond. Bond stays cool while te tension goes up. The elevator stops again, none of the three occupants show any reaction. But the moment the doors open, Bond explodes into a run out of the elvator, running over a third bad guy. All three of them of course chase Bond. Now, we´re in a big interior design floor, to be specific, a practical kitchen department. Not just furniture, also kitchen tools of all variety. Lots of shiny furniture and kitchen tools shining with chrome. Bond throws a big kitchen knife at the closest baddie and hits him with such force that the guy is lifted off his feet and drops on his back. The second bad guy is stopped by a bar stool made of massive oak, very beautiful design, thrown by Bond into him.
    The chase is out of the kitchen department, into a living room department full of furniture only the richest people would buy. A lot of furniture is cut up during the fight, especially as more bad guys arrive at the scene, some have knives, some little submachine guns with silencers. Which means the whole fighting so far wasn´t very loud, there are people nearby in other corners of the store who don´t notice it at all.
    Meanwhile Bond has kicked off the socket and lamp off a big halogen lamp, and uses the remaining 6 ft pole as weapon.
    Now Bond has a Q gimmick that is like an airbag. He places the little thing, not bigger than a lighter, underneath a big sofa and activates it. The airbag goes off and katapults the sofa onto a bunch of bad guys, knocking them out of rhythm. Bond uses the short moment until the bad guys got their bearings together again and vanishes like a ninja.
  • Posts: 5,767
    Just a tiny bit, but I saw they have these big air cushions, where one guy sits on one end, and then another guy jumps onto the other end, thus catapulting the first guy into the air.
    What about Bond being in a fight or chase situation, and he somehow ends up on the catapult end of such a cushion. He shoots an opponent, who then falls onto the other end of the cushion and catapults Bond up into the air. Bond has timed the shot so that right now a helicopter flys over the scene, so Bond has himself catapulted towards the helicopter and holds on to it.
    I have to make up my mind wether the helicopter is friend or foe.
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    edited December 2011 Posts: 14,594
    It would be cooler if the chopper was a foe. Bond wrestles with the pilot and ends up piloting the helicopter.
  • Posts: 42
    Another action sequence I'd like to see in Bond 23 is a speed boat chase, like in Moonraker and Quantum of Solace. That boat chase only appears in those two movies. I wanna see another one in Bond 23. Hope the director will film it. :)
  • Posts: 1,894
    One of my favourite writers, Matthew Reilly, has said that a film hero needs to do two things at some point: swing across a wide gap, and go under a moving vehcile (a theory Reilly developed from his favourite film, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK). With that in mind, I've concocted the following:
    Bond and Felix Leiter are in a car when the villains try to kill them using a semi-trailer truck. Bond climbs out of the car and baords the speeding truck, trying to take control of it. However, the driver is prepared for this, and tries to kill Bond with a swan-off shotgun. Bond ends up hanging from the aluminium grille on the front of the truck, which has been damaged from previous contact with the car. After the driver tries to squash Bond between the truck and Felix's car, Bond decides to do something about his situation:

    1) He wrests a piece of the aluminium grille from the front end of the truck, and then drive it into the speeding roadway. This has the effect of shearing the end of the bar off at a forty-five degree angle.

    2) Bond lowers himself under the front end of the truck, and not a moment too soon - the driver rams Felix again, knocking the whole grille loose. It falls under the speeding truck as Bond catches onto the chassis of the cab.

    3) Bond rams the piece of the grille into the steering mechanism. The truck is an old model, using a rack-and-pinion system. Bond wedges his aluminium tube in place on the rack, preventing the pinion from travelling along its full extent.

    4) Bond continues under the cab, working his way down so that he comes out clean at the back of the cab, under the trailer. He then works his way back up onto the cab so that he is standing between the trailer and the cab itself.

    5) He cracks open a box mounted on the rear of the cab. This contains the brake balance controller, a series of hydraulic valves that equalise the pressure to each of the brakes on the truck and trailer. He also tampers with the ABS system; the end result is that all of the pressure that would be spread between eighteen wheels are now directed to the front two.

    6) He unlocks the trailer coupling. The trailer is still in place in its berth in the read of the truck, but it can now move independently. He then climbs up on top of the trailer.

    7a) When the driver attempts to make the next turn, the aluminium bar in the steering system prevents the truck from turning. The rack and pinion become completely separated.

    7b) Naturally, the driver attempts to slow down, but when he squeezes the brake pedal, the front brakes lock. As the brakes in every other wheel have no pressure, nothing happens. This causes the front end of the truck to stop, and everything else to keep going.

    7c) The end result is that the truck jack-knifes. The front end acts like a fulcrum, as the rear end of the truck lifts off the ground. The trailer, now independent of the cab, ploughs into the back of the cab, causing it to burst outwards.

    8) This has caused a large space to open up under the trailer - large enough for Felix to drive through, avoiding an upcoming obstacle.

    9) Bond drops from the top of the trailer onto Felix's car as Felix comes through. He is just in time, too, because the momentum of the truck and the sudden stop has caused the tyres to blow out. The truck pitches over, coming to rest across the road, and preventing anyone from giving chase to Bond and Felix.
    I'm not sure about the swinging-off-something aspect, though.
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    Posts: 14,594
    @calfex

    Live and Let Die had a lengthy speedboat chase- but yes, I'd like to see more action on the water.
  • Posts: 5,767
    Just a tiny bit, but I saw they have these big air cushions, where one guy sits on one end, and then another guy jumps onto the other end, thus catapulting the first guy into the air.
    What about Bond being in a fight or chase situation, and he somehow ends up on the catapult end of such a cushion. He shoots an opponent, who then falls onto the other end of the cushion and catapults Bond up into the air. Bond has timed the shot so that right now a helicopter flys over the scene, so Bond has himself catapulted towards the helicopter and holds on to it.
    I have to make up my mind wether the helicopter is friend or foe.
    It would be cooler if the chopper was a foe. Bond wrestles with the pilot and ends up piloting the helicopter.
    Ok, so let´s go full circle:
    Bond hangs on the outside of the helicopter and wrestles with one or two dab guys inside it, which leads to the chopper sverving a bit here and there, getting on top of another bad guy who jumped down on the inflateble thing and tries to shoot Bond from below. Bond jumps away from the chopper, onto the end of the big cushion opposite the shooter, catapulting the guy straight into the air. The guy flys into the rotor blades. DOn´t know how this could be filmed without being too gory, but the result is something like in OHMSS, when one of the skiers gets into that snow plowing machine. The helicopter loses control and crashes sideways into the scaffolding from which one is normally supposed to jump onto the cushion. The helicopter explodes, the remains fall into the water. Bond has jumped into the water on the opposite side from the chopper, so the cushion somewhat protects him.

    If the pool is not just a swimming pool but part of some bigger park, we could without further delay get on with a boat chase ;-) .
  • The movies always seem too out there, if he just came across a stranger in need of a government trained operative (lol, sounds funny), and decided to use his skills (say in the middle of a city, or something) that'd be a pretty unique spin.
    Then we arent making a Bond film. Thats more of a Man on Fire film.
  • edited October 2011 Posts: 5,745
    The movies always seem too out there, if he just came across a stranger in need of a government trained operative (lol, sounds funny), and decided to use his skills (say in the middle of a city, or something) that'd be a pretty unique spin.
    Then we arent making a Bond film. Thats more of a Man on Fire film.
    Yeaaaa I was in more of a "Bourne" mood then.

    But I just recently watched You Only Live Twice, and man, I love the climatic ending of the later Connery Bonds.

    To me, that is the perfect bond movie. But I'm sure even that view will change here soon enough :P
  • I would like a chase through a crowded stadium or a foot chase on top of modern buildings.
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    Posts: 6,306
    But I just recently watched You Only Live Twice, and man, I love the climatic ending of the later Connery Bonds.

    To me, that is the perfect bond movie. But I'm sure even that view will change here soon enough :P
    Craig definitely could use a countdown threat in one of his films.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    edited November 2011 Posts: 24,187
    But I just recently watched You Only Live Twice, and man, I love the climatic ending of the later Connery Bonds.

    To me, that is the perfect bond movie. But I'm sure even that view will change here soon enough :P
    Craig definitely could use a countdown threat in one of his films.
    If the script allows it, sure! However, I don't think we have to throw one in just for the sake of it. That said, it's been a while since our last countdown where it came down to the very last seconds. Again, if the script allows it, why not.
  • I think Bond 23 should avoid action scenes that have been done too recently or too redundantly.

    I think the most overdone action in the Bond films are speedboat chases, ski chases, and skydiving scenes. Those used to be my favorite chase scenes - I'm guessing the favorites of the Bond producers, too, from how often they're used. But they should be avoided in Bond 23.

    How about a dunebuggy chase? The last action scene involving dunebuggies was in FYEO.

    An action scene involving minisubs. I haven't seen any minisubs since LTK.

    An action scene involving an elevator. That hasn't been done much, though the end of CR had a little bit. Maybe a more involved scene around an elevator - like at the beginning of Speed.

    Though i only had time to skim through it, an earlier post had an idea for a cable car scene - also a good idea. Not done since MR.

    I hear they're planning to film an action scene on a train - good too. Though I would have it in a subway. No Bond action scene has ever been done on a subway. Subways scenes managed to add excitement to Speed and Die Hard 3.

    The next time they want to show an aerial chase (not in 23, since one was just done in QOS), maybe they should go with a helicopter chase.

    I once watched a tv special on the making of TWINE (a lot of people didn't like that one, but if I judged by action alone, I'd say it was top-notch). Though I forget his exact words, director Michael Apted said something along the lines of `every type of action scene has already been done, but I'm trying to add new variations, like the sawblades hanging from the helicopters, and the parahawks.' I think he had the right idea.

    The producers could use their imagination more. Instead of cars chasing cars, speedboats chasing speedboats, etc., they could mix the vehicles. Ex: hovercrafts can go over water or land. How about a hovercraft chasing a car? Or a speedboat chasing a hovercraft? Or vice-versa? Yeah, I know my imagination going a little crazy, but I think that's how memorable action scenes are created.

    Have the vehicle switch terrains: a car - or motorcycle - driving inside of a building or lair (DAD) or used in the subway idea, like driving through a subway tunnel, chasing or being chased by a train - i think the only scenes similar to those were in OP and GE.
  • Posts: 1,894
    I think the most overdone action in the Bond films are speedboat chases, ski chases, and skydiving scenes.
    How are these overdone? There have only been four speedboat chases, three ski chases and two skydiving sequences in the films. They're some of the most under-used sequences in the franchise.
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    edited November 2011 Posts: 6,306
    I think Bond 23 should avoid action scenes that have been done too recently or too redundantly.

    An action scene involving an elevator. That hasn't been done much.

    The producers could use their imagination more. Instead of cars chasing cars, speedboats chasing speedboats, etc., they could mix the vehicles. Ex: hovercrafts can go over water or land. How about a hovercraft chasing a car? Or a speedboat chasing a hovercraft? Or vice-versa? Yeah, I know my imagination going a little crazy, but I think that's how memorable action scenes are created.
    Ironically, although I think DAF is a terrible movie, the elevator scene in that film would be hard to surpass.
    I think the most overdone action in the Bond films are speedboat chases, ski chases, and skydiving scenes.
    How are these overdone? There have only been four speedboat chases, three ski chases and two skydiving sequences in the films. They're some of the most under-used sequences in the franchise.
    For me, the action scenes always come back to character. The OHMSS ski scenes were the best because you cared about Bond escaping from Piz Gloria, and later, Bond and Tracy surviving. Who knows what we were supposed to feel about Bond and Elektra in their ski scene? Blah, just poorly written and edited.

    Similarly, the skydiving scene in Moonraker works (until the circus tent) because the stakes are there--even a small character like the pilot, you really feel the impact of his death. Compare that to QoS, where the skydiving scene was too slick, too edited, and over too fast to make much of an impact.

    I wouldn't be at all surprised if Skyfall includes a skydiving sequence. The title could suggest one.
  • Posts: 1,894
    The OHMSS ski scenes were the best because you cared about Bond escaping from Piz Gloria, and later, Bond and Tracy surviving.
    I really didn't. I couldn't stand Lazenby, and I didn't care if he lived or died.
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    Posts: 6,306
    And Rigg?
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