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Thunderball (1965)
Several times in the history of the James Bond franchise, the cold open entails someone’s death or funeral; with Bond being “killed” several times himself. Thunderball uses a funeral for one Col. Jacques Bouvar as the grist for its adventure mill, as Bond attends the proceedings to bury this particular foe in this pre-credits sequence. However, not only is Col. Bouvar masquerading as his own widow, he gets into one hell of a fist fight with James Bond when he’s revealed to still be alive. Overturning clocks and cabinets, and throwing chairs all over the place, it’s a knock-down, drag-out fight. Throwing in a jetpack escape play, and a particularly inventive countermeasure from Bond’s Aston Martin DB5, only makes this opener all the more exhilarating.