'GoldenEye' Rewind: Facility Infiltration, 1986

Daniel Kleinman's digital design of the gunbarrel sequence in GOLDENEYE signaled the arrival of the 1990s, yet the new James Bond –Pierce Brosnan– exuded the elegance and charm reminiscent of his predecessors. The plot of the film highlighted the importance of space weapons, the emergence of the World Wide Web and the influence of technology in the battle between 007 and the villains. It also underlined the involvement of technology within the corners of the British Intelligence and similar organizations. This would mark a precedent in future Bond adventures.

Before the main plot of the film, however, we were treated to a prelude set in 1986. This sequence marked the end of an era where Ian Fleming's secret agent faced off against olive-uniformed soldiers loyal to Mother Russia. Instead of immediately presenting a "Bond for the 90s," GOLDENEYE's opening aimed to close one chapter and begin a new one in the franchise.

Bond's mission in Arkhangel, Soviet Russia, brings him back in time. The Cold War concluded in the 1990s, yet numerous novels and movies depicted worst-case scenarios that could reignite tensions: THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, THE RUSSIA HOUSE, CRIMSON TIDE, among others. Since Bond had been stereotyped as a "Cold Warrior," especially during the six-and-a-half-year gap between LICENCE TO KILL and GOLDENEYE, it was a smart decision to portray him as a British spy infiltrating a Soviet installation in the past. This allowed the franchise to focus on the present and future after the main titles.

It all begins with a Pilatus patrol plane sweeping the skies, guiding us to a massive dam, where a familiar black-clad figure executes a daring 640-foot bungee jump. And then we have the first proper look at Brosnan’s Bond: an upside-down shot in a toilet stall, where he catches a Soviet guard off guard with a swift punch. But then, cinematographer Phil Méheux captures a striking close-up of the new 007 stepping out from behind a dull green door, exuding determination and confidence. Bond cautiously emerges, aiming his silenced Walther PPK in both directions, ready to discreetly neutralise any threat to his mission. He descends the stairs, and we see another close-up of the secret agent, now with his gun drawn. Outside the bathroom, the facility's atmosphere is bleak, with dimly lit green and brown walls. Bond's only potential hindrance is a chef carrying a large piece of meat for the troops, whose white outfit contrasts with the otherwise dim setting. Bond lets him pass and heads towards a room with a metallic grey door. 

The following shots exemplify Phil Méheux’s chiaroscuro techniques: the scene is mostly dark, with a subtle glimmer of light partially illuminating Bond’s face as he stays hidden, ever ready with his gun. Light streams through small windows, showing soldiers having lunch, unaware of the events happening behind them. Bond continues to search the room, and Martin Campbell surprises the audience—a figure suddenly aims a silenced gun at 007's face, speaking rapidly in Russian. Has Bond been found out? He seems remarkably calm. The threatening figure stays out of sight.

The shadowy man with the gun is actually the film’s main villain, though Bond is –for now– unaware of this. If we haven't read the film’s synopsis or watched the trailers, we wouldn't know either. "I'm alone," Bond responds, unaware that he is indeed truly alone on this mission. The menacing Alec Trevelyan, agent 006, emerges from the shadows. Instead of a stone-faced Russian guard, we see a friendly middle-aged British blonde man who greets his fellow spy with a smile. We are being unofficially introduced to the two faces of Janus. "Ready to save the world again?" asks 006. The two men then share an oath "For England," as stealthy music plays while they navigate through a deep subterranean vent leading to the core of the chemical plant. According to the soundtrack’s official listing, this piece is titled "The GoldenEye Overture."

In this scene, England is portrayed as the world's saviour against the sinister plans of the Soviets, who have created a potentially devastating arsenal. We see 007's perspective as he emerges from a vent into another floor, where a scientist is walking indistinctly. A close-up reveals Bond's blue eyes as he hides. Both men, dressed in identical black tactical gear, draw their guns. Interestingly, Campbell already foreshadows some of Trevelyan's dark side: as Bond proceeds to unlock an electronic door, bypassing the distracted scientist who has entered a room to continue his work, 006 enters the room and shoots him in cold blood. A faint agonising cry is heard from Alec's victim, though his death is not shown. The shot was removed from the final cut to avoid higher age restrictions from German censors, who might object to a cold-blooded killing early in the story.

It's important to remember that while 00 agents are licensed to kill, Bond never harms innocents during missions. Villains, however, often target innocents: the destruction of Fort Knox in GOLDFINGER would have killed thousands, Blofeld's kidnapping of a US spacecraft results in an astronaut's death in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, and Franz Sánchez considers shooting down a commercial flight in LICENCE TO KILL if the DEA doesn't drop charges against him. Thus, Trevelyan, while still on the good side, is doing something Bond would never do.

There is pure silence as both agents enter the bottling room and examine the unguarded plant, surprised: not a soul in the huge room surrounded by gas canisters. Steam coming out of a connecting pipe is the only signal of movement in this section. Even Bond observes that this is too easy, and Trevelyan gives credit to the luck they had. The place isn’t as dark as the bathrooms and other areas of the facility, but the main colour scheme is made of depressing stone-grey walls, with the gas barrels in a lighter shade of grey. Once again, we get a second hint of Trevelyan’s hidden agenda when he goes back to the electronic door behind them and uses Bond’s decoder, which he picked before, on the door’s electronic panel. He may be unlocking it again to set an escape route, possibly. But, surprisingly, as Trevelyan connects the decoder and taps a few numbers on the keypad, an alarm goes off.

Trevelyan instructs Bond to set the timers for six minutes. He provides cover for Bond while shooting down Soviet troops attempting to capture them. Eric Serra’s music returns with an up-tempo style, featuring electronic and metallic sounds. 006 courageously eliminates two soldiers with his silenced Browning handgun; one falls through a railing, and the other through some stairs. Editor Terry Rawlings sharply cuts between the scenes to convey a sense of rapid action as Bond set the explosive charges.

Trevelyan grabs an AK-74 machine gun and tosses it to Bond, who is concealed behind the tanks. In a single, seamless shot, the camera tracks 007 as he emerges from his hiding spot and catches the weapon thrown by 006 mid-air, with the precision and timing of basketball players exchanging passes before scoring. Under Campbell's guidance, Rawlings works his magic, executing this scene smoothly and swiftly, capturing the urgency and tension as the MI6 agents race to complete their mission and ensure their survival. The camera then tilts up to reveal a large glass window on the top floor, retracing the path the two men previously took, showing more soldiers approaching. Trevelyan takes cover behind the barrels, and we get another glimpse of the large glass window: Colonel Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov appears, distinguished by a different uniform and a notable hat indicating his rank. He is significantly older than the other soldiers and exudes authority, as emphasised by an electronic sound effect in the music as he makes an entrance. This means trouble. The big boss is here to personally evaluate the situation.

Unfazed, Bond proceeds with setting up the explosives. The colonel commands his men to shoot at the bulletproof glass window and break it with their rifle butts. Trevelyan expresses his concern: "Closing time, James. Last call!" he warns. However, for Bond, it's business as usual: "Buy me a pint!" he responds with a grin, continuing to place explosive charges on the gas tanks.

Trevelyan uses his AK-74 to take down several officers, with the camera capturing a dynamic circular pan over the staircases as they fall. Despite the lack of blood to maintain a PG-13 rating, Campbell's direction makes the scene appear real and dynamic. Phil Méheux's palette features depressing greys and military greens, with red alarm lights flickering. The camera pans effectively from behind gas barrels, pausing as Bond plants an explosive and mocks Ourumov’s surrender warning: “How original!”

Bond is surprised by an explosion blowing up an electronic door. Ourumov is determined to capture the intruders. More troops enter, but 007 remains cheerful, examining an explosive: “Shut the door, Alec. There’s a draught!” Silence follows, broken only by the timers' beeps. Bond calls Alec’s name, receiving no response. With a machine gun, he peers out from behind the barrels, steam partially obscuring him. A new expression of fear and concern appears on his face as Ourumov holds a gun to Alec’s forehead, with soldiers aiming their AKs at Bond. “You have ten seconds,” warns the colonel.

007 immediately resets the timers to three minutes and surrenders, but Ourumov continues the countdown. "For England, James" are 006's last words before being shot in the head. To avoid issues with US and UK censors, the scene showing the Colonel directly shooting Trevelyan was omitted. Instead, we see Alec's body staggering and falling as Russian troops fire at Bond. Ourumov warns his men about the risk of hitting the tanks and causing chaos. Always a risk-taker, 007 now understands his enemy's vulnerability. He considers using the machine gun he discarded earlier, but after Ourumov's comment, he chooses a better strategy: Bond grabs a metal cart holding several small gas canisters. The Colonel is visibly tense and concerned as 007 moves across the room, with guards following him with their Kalashnikovs. The tension is heightened by Méheux's visual techniques, including bird’s-eye and ground-level shots, giving a full view of the situation: Bond is moving towards a side of the compound with no apparent exit, but he has the dangerous canisters marked with the word опасно (Dangerous!). A close-up shows Bond appearing worried—only he knows the explosives were reset to half the original time—and another shows Ourumov with a faint smile: Bond is trapped, with no escape and surrounded by his men. The suspense of this scene is strengthened by its silence, a silence which is only broken by the squeak of the cart wheels as Bond moves it. Then, a soldier is shown in close-up, his face partly obscured by his rifle, his right eye aligned with the sight. Sweat is visible as the camera focuses on the weapon. The soldier fires a burst that shatters the silence, hitting the side of the metal cart but missing Bond and the canisters. Ourumov immediately shoots him in the heart, a nod to 1969's THE WILD BUNCH, providing a brief release of tension similar to the jab to the soldier in the stall.

Bond reaches the end of the room, finding a conveyor belt right beside him. With no escape routes and Russian soldiers aiming their weapons at him, Ourumov declares, "You can't win." Intense action music plays as 007 presses a green button. The camera swiftly pans diagonally from the activated conveyor to Bond's face behind the carriage. Ourumov looks surprised, and in a flash, the secret agent leaps onto the conveyor, firing his AK47 towards the ceiling. A quick detail shot shows a lock being cut, causing metal canisters to tumble down onto the Soviet troops. Multiple camera angles capture these heavy objects striking the officers, allowing Bond to create an improvised escape route.

The subsequent shot directly connects to the film's opening scene: a small Pilatus Porter aeroplane moves along the snowy runway outside. The scene then transitions to Bond rolling down a ramp where the conveyor had led, followed by a close-up of him aiming his AK-47. As the plane passes by, he sprints to catch it, with dynamic music playing, featuring the electronic sounds typical of the 1990s. More troops chase Bond as he runs toward the plane, including some of Ourumov’s men on Cagiva motorbikes. Occasionally, 007 fires back, sending bursts of snow flying from the impact of the AK-47. Campbell includes an aerial shot to intensify the danger: the runway ends at a cliff. If the plane takes off, it's over for 007. However, Bond reaches the aircraft and grapples with the pilot. Using the pilot's weapon, Bond shoots down a pursuing biker, but the struggle is so intense that both men fall from the plane, which continues on its path, uncontrolled.

Méheux delivers a powerful shot: a bike heads straight for the pilot just as Bond manages to move aside. Everything occurs in microseconds, skillfully edited by Rawlings. In another series of quick shots, Bond grabs the bike, accelerates, and sends snow flying toward the screen. We see Ourumov and his men, who stop in their tracks. He smiles again, believing there's no way the intruder can survive. But Bond keeps speeding up, refusing to give up.

A distant shot against the blue sky confirms this: the plane plummets, and Bond follows with the bike, spreading his arms as if trying to fly. An eerie sound replaces the dynamic music we heard earlier. Bond is just a small black dot in the vast sky. That dot directs itself toward the plane, diving 90 degrees toward the rocky ground. Bond reaches the cockpit, but there's more: he must level the machine. The camera again focuses on details: the wheel, Bond's eyes and panicked expressions, all shown repeatedly in a fraction of a second... and the plane vanishes below one of the snowy peaks... but then it reappears and levels off, triumphantly flying over them.

The facility is reduced to rubble as the charges explode one after another, adding vibrant yellow and orange hues to the otherwise subdued palette of brown, white, and grey. The plane makes a taunting pass over the flaming ruins, with the fire reaching skyward—a perfect depiction of James Bond's triumph over the Soviet Union, once again saving the world. This scene, brought to life by Derek Meddings’ expertise with miniatures, echoes the film's opening moments with a plane flying away, but this time, a victorious Bond is inside: he completed the mission and escaped certain death, both represented in a visual masterstroke.

Read more scene analysis like this one in FOR ENGLAND, JAMES: NOTES ON THE VISUAL IMPACT OF GOLDENEYE, which is available here.