Ranking Every James Bond Opening Scene From Worst To Best

The main attraction of The Man with the Golden Gun is its climactic duel between renowned assassin Fransisco Scaramanga and Mi6 agent James Bond, and the film efficiently builds towards this bout from its inception. Long before Roger Moore's 007 even meets Christopher Lee's brilliant villain, their inevitable engagement is adequately teased in The Man with the Golden Gun's compelling opening scene.

Knick Knack, Scaramanga's unforgettable henchman played by Herve Villechaize, trains his employer by hiring a hitman to kill him. The duel between Scaramanga and the hitman grants the antagonist an appropriate stage to display his talents, and by the end of the scene Scaramanga and his golden gun are effectively established as worthy adversaries for 007 and his Walther PPK.

This opening scene introduces Scaramanga's funhouse of terror, the setting where Bond ultimately battles this antagonist. Despite the wacky saloon and goofy marionette skeletons, the funhouse is predominantly eerie and atmospheric thanks to its unpredictability, unique design, and unsettling use of lights and mirrors.

Once the renowned assassin disposes of Knick Knack's hitman, the opening scene concludes with him shooting a wax figure of James Bond that is in the funhouse. This ending not only reaffirms Scaramanga's position as a imposing rival to 007, but also subtly sets up the clever way in which Bond defeats the man with the golden gun at the end of the film.