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Is it better when Bond is chasing or being chased?

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  • GetafixGetafix
    edited April 2020 Posts: 11,425
    Not Bond this time but a great sequence.



    And of course...



    Also have to admit a soft spot for...

  • echoecho 007 in New York
    edited April 2020 Posts: 5,979
    How could you forget this one? The scene that rescued the series.

  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,526
    When Bond uses large machinery (tanks in GE, dozers in CR), it's because of his resourcefulness, a key trait of James Bond IMO.

    I think I prefer when Bond is being chased. Always adds more gravity to the situation, and makes the villany and danger more real, when Bond has to escape.
  • OctopussyOctopussy Piz Gloria, Schilthorn, Switzerland.
    edited April 2020 Posts: 1,081
    I prefer it when Bond is being chased as he's typically in danger. Moments like Bond trying to escape Blofeld's Henchman and Irma Bunt in On Her Majesty's Secret Service or Bond trying to evade Fiona Volpe in Thunderball are highlights in the series, IMO.
  • MakeshiftPythonMakeshiftPython “Baja?!”
    Posts: 8,025
    Seriously though, this is apples and oranges. Stuff like the tank chase was never meant to be perceived as something suspenseful and dangerous like the ski chase in OHMSS. It just doesn't make sense to compare the two at all.
  • GetafixGetafix
    Posts: 11,425
    How does it not make any sense to compare chase sequences?
  • MakeshiftPythonMakeshiftPython “Baja?!”
    Posts: 8,025
    Because they're so conceptually and tonally different from each other. You're not supposed to be in suspense over Bond plowing through the streets of St. Petersburg like you would with the ski chase in OHMSS. Just examine all the components. For example, the music is very different. Where OHMSS is expressing dread with its theme, GE is playing the music on a very triumphant note. In GE you want Bond to conquer the bad guys, whereas in OHMSS you just hope Bond gets out of it alive.

    Both have very different goals from the onset, and both achieve it rather successfully.
  • GetafixGetafix
    Posts: 11,425
    If they are central to Bond's character, why did we never see anything like the tank chase prior to 1995?
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,526
    Getafix wrote: »
    If they are central to Bond's character, why did we never see anything like the tank chase prior to 1995?

    There was a lot of chase-resourcefulness pre Brosnan, a lot comes to mind from Moore (Octopussy, FYEO). Just because it doesn’t feature a tank doesn’t mean Bond isn’t being resourceful while chasing / chased.
  • ThunderballThunderball playing Chemin de Fer in a casino, downing Vespers
    Posts: 776
    I have a preference for Bond being chased. It’s here where he has to depend the most on his cunning (or a gadget I guess).

    My favorite Bond being chased scene just might be the escape from Piz Gloria in OHMSS, truly great, even better in the novel, where there’s an even greater sense of desperation.

  • BT3366BT3366
    Posts: 1,883
    Thunderball wrote: »
    I have a preference for Bond being chased. It’s here where he has to depend the most on his cunning (or a gadget I guess).

    My favorite Bond being chased scene just might be the escape from Piz Gloria in OHMSS, truly great, even better in the novel, where there’s an even greater sense of desperation.


    The beauty of this scene is Hunt and Glen make it feel as if he's really in danger and it doesn't just end with the ski chase, it continues right up until when Tracy and Bond escape SPECTRE after their car crashes. I just can't think of another that comes after that in the series that comes even close.
  • GetafixGetafix
    Posts: 11,425
    It's a great sequence with a real sense of peril. I'm really surprised the Craig era hasn't really given us a Bond being hunted sequence.

    QOS comes closest, where Bond is repeatedly chased in a number of situations. Probably one of the reasons its amongst my favourites from the post Cubby era.
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