Gun barrel sequence

[b] With a few exemptions, the gun barrel either moves from side-to-side across the screen (towards the end of the blood washing) then dissolves to a white dot, which typically settles in the corner,[c] or simply fades to black.

[1] Binder described the genesis of the gun barrel sequence in the last interview he recorded before his death in 1991: That was something I did in a hurry, because I had to get to a meeting with the producers in twenty minutes.

"[4] The media historian James Chapman observed that the sequence recalls the gun fired at the audience at the end of The Great Train Robbery (1903).

[3] Because Binder had designed the gun barrel sequence to feature Bond only in silhouette, with a non-widescreen aspect ratio, he used stunt man Bob Simmons, rather than Sean Connery, to film the scene.

[4] Simmons hops slightly as he pivots to assume the firing position and, following the blood wash, the dot becomes smaller and jumps to the lower right-hand corner of the frame before simply vanishing.

The sequence is accompanied by a soundtrack of electronic noises and then numerous notes that sound like they are being plinked from a wind-up jack in the box; the latter is cut short by the gunshot.

The gun barrel sequence in Dr. No segues directly into the credits, a grid matrix of large-scale, bright and rapidly changing coloured circular dots against a black background.

This version, without the electronic noises or the Saltzman–Broccoli credit line, was also used in From Russia with Love with more red-coloured blood and Goldfinger which fades into the pre-credit sequence.

For Thunderball, the aspect ratio of the films was changed to a Panavision anamorphic format and so the gun barrel sequence had to be reshot, this time with Sean Connery in the role.

This is also the gun barrel which moves the least amount of seconds, for the point of Bond's final stance and the opening shot (the fake coffin of SPECTRE's Colonel Jacques Bouvar) almost completely overlap each other.

In this rendering, the white dot stops mid-screen and the credit line "Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli Present" appears, much as it did in Dr. No (albeit spelling out "and" instead of using the ampersand).

As the barrel begins to move and when it stops centre-screen, Bond is walking to position for around a second before turning and shooting as the camera tracks with him, resulting in a "treadmill" effect.

Additional footage of this sequence was shot of Bond shooting with both hands, then walking straight towards the camera with his gun drawn, putting his face into view, as seen in theatrical trailers from Live and Let Die through The Spy Who Loved Me.

In this version of the sequence, unlike previous and later incarnations, the prop gun held by the actor is never actually fired until Octopussy, as can be determined by the lack of gunsmoke in the freeze-frame.

An alternate gun barrel sequence appears in The Living Daylights trailer, showing Dalton hopping as he fires, similar to Bob Simmons.

Having seemingly committed the first kill on his way to becoming a Double-O agent, Bond stops to pick up his gun from the floor but his victim, Fisher, who is a henchman of rogue MI6 section chief Dryden, recovers and seizes his own weapon.

It reverts to a more traditional style, although the sequence was placed at the end of the film to start the closing credits, due to a final cliffhanger scene being cut by Marc Forster.

The white circle also spins into the centre of the Q in the title graphic for Quantum of Solace, and in the Q, Bond is shown walking away after firing for the first time in the sequence.

Daniel Craig moves at an average speed (again swinging both of his arms as he walks, but this time resulting in his gun being made much more prominently visible), before spinning, facing the camera and firing, to which the lighting grows darker: it silhouettes Bond's figure and the blood runs down the screen, looking similar but noticeably slower than in Quantum of Solace and Skyfall.

The sequence omits the running blood for the very first time fading to white (possibly foreshadowing Bond's death),[12] and instead zooms into the first scene through the middle.

A scene during the climax of the film pays homage to the sequence when Bond enters a cylindrical corridor from the side and quickly spins 90° anti-clockwise in response to a henchman shooting at him, firing towards the camera.

From Dr. No to Diamonds Are Forever, the gun barrel sequences by Bob Simmons, Sean Connery, and George Lazenby feature James Bond in a business suit and trilby.

The following films, from The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) through Die Another Day (2002), feature Bond in black tie, wearing a dinner suit (tuxedo).

In Casino Royale, Daniel Craig's James Bond is the first shown wearing a more casual ensemble and an open-necked shirt; his attire reverts to a business suit in Quantum of Solace, which is retained for Skyfall and Spectre.

Others, while retaining them, have felt free to noticeably alter the usual rendition, e.g. Michael Kamen and Éric Serra, who scored Licence to Kill and GoldenEye respectively.

Casino Royale has the only gun barrel sequence which omits the "James Bond Theme" completely, instead featuring the opening bars of "You Know My Name" by Chris Cornell.

Because the gun barrel sequence is copyrighted by Eon, the non-Eon Bond film Never Say Never Again, released by rival Warner Bros., instead employed a frame filled with 007's, with the camera zooming into the one in the middle of the screen.

A commercial for The World Is Not Enough parodied the gun-barrel by replacing Bond with a man who resembled Valentin Zukovsky; he was shot at with a machine-gun before diving off-screen.

The sequence has been spoofed in films, sitcoms, cartoons and in advertisements, including: Bons Baisers de Hong Kong, Dave Allen at Large, Teen Titans Go!, The Simpsons, SpongeBob SquarePants, Family Guy, American Dad!, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Logorama, Garfield and Friends, Yogi's Treasure Hunt, Ozzy & Drix and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.

In the 1986 horror/comedy film Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, the opening credits show Jason Voorhees, the main antagonist in the series, emulating the gun barrel sequence by walking across the screen in a Bond-like fashion and then turning to face the camera whilst swinging his signature machete, drenching the screen with blood in a similar manner to the original Bond sequences.