Every Bond Movie Pre-Title Scene Ranked - Worst To Best

23. Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

Viewers could’ve been forgiven for expecting Diamonds Are Forever to open with a vengeful 007 hell-bent on making Ernst Stavro Blofeld pay for the murder of his beloved wife in the previous film. If Bond was indeed supposed to be burning with rage, it was hard to tell from Sean Connery’s utterly bored and markedly aged appearance.

Lured back to the role only by an incredibly lavish (for the time) fee, Connery can all-but stifle a yawn as Bond pummels various goons around the world and strangles a woman with her own bra in his quest to find Blofeld.

It all comes to a bafflingly light and low-key head as Bond locates the weakest iteration of Blofeld yet (played by Charles Gray) and, after enduring the lamest of quips (“making mud pies, 007?”), pushes him into a pool of steaming, well, mud.

Dated terribly by modern expectations of serialised storytelling and continuity, the slapstick nature of the action and laughable acting by all involved reduces what should be a proud and bombastic cinematic segment to a joke.

Best moment: Bond uses a conveniently placed mousetrap to get the better of a mutton-chopped henchman in the midst of frisking him. A sophisticated device straight from Q Branch!