Quantum Of Solace Intro Analysis

Quantum of Solace begins with a landscaping shot of a long winding road, on the brink of the

mountains. This shot shows that it’s portrayed in a sunny country and creates a sense of positioning

for the films location and the sun connotes a calm and relaxing atmosphere, later in the scene it is

revealed as Italy from the Italian flag in one of the shots and the calmness is soon turned to action.

This location is a stereotypical Bond film location as he regularly goes abroad to remote location

within most of the Bond movies. This is an effective idea because it lets the audience gain a sense of

positioning for the films location.

The beginning of the action starts inside a cliffside tunnel upon a steep cliff. Tension is caused in the

audience with a non-diagetic sound, slowly getting louder informing the audience that something

dangerous is about to happen. Then a quick cut scene appears of a moving car wheel, it is uncertain

what car it would be, but if it would stick to the James Bond tradition, it most likely would be an Aston

Martin. This automatically entices the audience’s attention, and creates anticipation of wanting to

know who could be in the high speed car. The music gets louder and the tempo rises, suggesting we

are closing in on the main action sequence. We then see a shot of another car, showing the audience

that Bond is going to be beginning a car chase, building excitement amongst the audience, and then

the action falls into play, with guns firing, and cars swiftly weaving in and out of civilian cars.

Bond is known for his clever reflexes and thinking, We see an example of this when Bond, slams into

a petrol truck, causing a roadblock, and taking out two of four enemy cars after deliberately colliding

with a large fuel truck. The chase continued out of the tunnel and onto narrow off-roads hundreds of

feet above sea level. This is a level of danger, so it antagonises the audience’s excitement levels,

because they know that someone will get hurt badly at that speed on a bendy road moving in and out

of other vehicles, making the audience use their creativity to accumulate a possible outcome of this

chase scene. The police cars start to pursue Bond’s car, because of props and costumes used, it

instantly lets the audience know that it is the police that are after Bond, as well as the enemy drivers.

This makes the scene very exciting, to see Bond accomplish this. We then see a high angle shot of

the chase occurring below, revealing the extreme heights Bond and his enemies are driving at.

Bond then changes his gears, in the car, a close up shot is used to show this, because it portrays that

Bond is literally turning up the pace, and excitement within the sequence, Bond is then fired upon by

his enemies again, showing the audience the danger that Bond is in, and see if he pulls through to

safety.

After the chase scene, Bond is safe, but his car is really torn up to pieces. Bond then casually drives

through the streets of Vienna, with a torn up car. This is used to show that Bond doesn’t care what

anyone thinks of him, that shows power, and arrogance. Bond then drives into a secret tunnel,

suggesting he’s hiding secrets, and of course he is a spy, so it shows he’s sneaky. Bond then comes

to a stop inside the tunnel, and opens the car boot with another close up shot, the audience is very

unaware what could be inside, and that makes it more exiting. This is also boosting Bond’s power and

aggressive reputation. There is a man tied up in the boot of his car, from the previous film ‘Casino

Royale’, this gives the impression that he’s holding a grudge, and then ends the opening sequence by

saying “Get Out” again reinforcing that he’s aggressive as a medium close up two shot is used to

show the characters in the scene.