Ranking Every James Bond Opening Scene From Worst To Best
18. You Only Live Twice
You Only Live Twice begins in outer space as an unidentified spacecraft swallows a NASA ship. The United States immediately accuses the Soviet Union of controlling the mysterious ship, and the British decide to investigate the situation before war breaks out. Mi6 assures the United States that they have their best agent on the job... 007. But then the unexpected occurs; Bond is killed!
This opening is basically a cop out: obviously Bond wasn't going to die five minuets into the movie, and his supposed death was only included in this film to justify its name.
Although the title "You Only Live Twice" led to Nancy Sinatra's classic Bond theme and Blofeld's memorable line "you only live twice Mr. Bond", but its actual narrative origin is clumsy. Bond's fake murder wasn't tense, it just sort of happened, and audiences immediately (and accurately) doubted that it was genuine.
The outer space portion on this opening feels very dated, but it actually gives the scene some charm. The limited effects of You Only Live Twice triggers fond remembrances of a time before CGI. Unfortunately, that is the extent of this scene's charm.