Let The SKYFALL (Title Sequence Play On Your Computer)

Skyfall Title Sequence - Daniel Kleinman from Brand MKRS creative agency on Vimeo.

Bond fans like making lists. Best Bond Girl. Best Bond theme. Best Bond. Everyone - even folks like me who say they don't make lists - has their Top Ten Bond...whatevers.

And so it is with Bond Title Sequences. A staple since the beginning of the franchise, we've come to expect sexy, surreal imagery at the top of any new Bond film, and everyone has their favorite. The man behind it all was Maurice Binder, a title designer who not only created the trademark gun barrel scene for the film series but, in the course of creating 14 title sequences, also pioneered the use of optical effects, pinhole cameras, trampolines and Sheena Easton. According to many sources Binder was a bit of a control freak and, as is evident from his work, a fan of the female form. Over 26 years, his mini-opuses put writhing female bodies in front of projectors, underwater, cartwheeling off guns and covered in day-glow paint.

He died in 1991, and four years later Daniel Kleinman picked up the mantel in Goldeneye. Whatever you thought of Brosnan's four films, Kleinman's title sequences were lively and fresh and very much continued Binder's tradition. After (regrettably, in my opinion) sitting out Quantum of Solace in 2008, Kleinman is back for Skyfall, and the sequence is my favorite from his run. As much as I loved the rotoscoped fractal shenanigans of Casino Royale, Skyfall's title sequence serves as a purgatorial fever dream as well as a condensation of the film to come. Everyone has a favorite Bond Title Sequence; this one is now mine.