This doesn’t need to be a best pre-title or a worst Bond thread.
There are great Bond movies with even greater pre-titles.
So, what Bond movies reached their zenith before we even heard the theme song?
I will begin…Casino Royale.
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Moonraker
Not a bad Bond film, but it never quite reaches the heights that the PTS does with Bond falling out of the plane without a parachute.
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Diamonds Are Forever.
Bond singularly focused on the hunt for Blofeld, great set (mudbath room), some old school hand to hand combat, classic Barry score, the return of Connery, the seamless transition into the hauntingly beautiful title song.
Every time I watch it, I get pumped for the movie to follow, only to be disappointed by everything post-Amsterdam.
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The World Is Not Enough
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My choice too - particularly as no other set piece from the film matches the opening boat chase. I’m not keen on the general premise of the main narrative either, which has secret agent Bond essentially reduced to being a personal bodyguard for Elektra. My least favourite of the Brosnan era.
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This would be my choice too. Back in the day, MOONRAKER had lots of detractors among fans - but it seems everybody loved the pts idea and execution. Even the silly touch of Jaws trying to wing it at the end couldn’t hurt that thrilling chase after the parachute.
It’s also a perfect example for what Bond can do to audience immersion when played right: we get pulled right into the action without a chance to pause and question events. We just don’t care where the stewardess hid her gun, why the pilot is already in full skydive drag and where the hell Jaws was hidden all the time.
We’re all on the rollercoaster enjoying the ride.
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TSWLM. Certainly not a bad Bond movie with many great scenes and moments, but the parachute opening tops everything.
I still remember when I first saw it – and it was my first Bond movie. I blame everything on this scene: I was instantly hooked.
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Only surpassed by Goldfinger’s PTS
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Thunderball’s drag scrap and rocket pack sets a pretty high bar before thrusting into Tom Jones belting it out. Rest of film is great but that is a very high bar set from the off!
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For me it was the Lotus/Bell Jet Ranger chase and its prominent segment in Carrell’s show. Saw this on the telly and had to see the whole thing in the cinema that summer. Starts about minute 35 of this:
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THANK YOU for posting this.
What a trip down memory lane…
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SPECTRE is the film for me that has the biggest disparity between PTS and post-title quality.
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Same here. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this back in the day, too. Could even be that it was my first exposition to anything that had to do with James Bond. I was eight years old. Was a big fan of the show, I even had the board game… 
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Ive spent time thinking about this. Octopussy. A small fun short film that gives you everything you want in a Bond film.
Spectre is runner up, brilliant set piece, but i love Craig vocally fencing with C, M and Blofled then moving from fencing with Madelline to being a partnership. No, its not perfect, but it is done better than its given credit for.
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SPECTRE’s shortcomings are such that they could have been addressed and fixed in time - but apparently every time somebody pointed to problems in the script somebody else from fifth floor and above threw another $ 15m at the production to shut up the noise. 
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To this day I think this was how James Bond arrived at family mainstream in Germany: prominent slot at the most popular Saturday evening show in the country, lead actor still hugely popular from The Saint/The Persuaders, short clip edited from some of the most spectacular scenes and the toys to the flick in all well-sorted department stores - it felt like we were all lined up in one giant queue in front of the theatres that summer.
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Goldeneye for me
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Definitely a highlight. We have a new Bond, and when we see his face for the first time, he’s hanging upside down, molesting a Russian soldier who’s sitting in a toilet stall at a Russian nuclear factory. 
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Me, too! And I still remember being slightly disappointed that the „laufende Band“ had to be moved by that small handle - and I could not make it run smoothly. 
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Thank you, guys… for saving and free us Dutch for years from Rudi Carrell! Pffff! 
PS: The “laufende Band”, or “lopende band” as we say in The Netherlands, he just stole from another famous Dutch show (presented by the in The Netherlands famous Mies Bouwman) which was called “Eén van de Acht”, or “One of the Eight” in English.
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