James Bond U.S. Poster Rankings: No. 4

I've finally reached the point where my ranking of the domestic marketing posters for every James Bond film cheats a little bit.  The reason I say that the next poster in my ranking is cheating is because there isn't an official one-sheet poster for United States theaters yet for the upcoming Spectre.  Everything released thus far has been a teaser poster.

 

 

4. Spectre

The above poster is the most recent release of promotional artwork for Craig's fourth outing as 007.  It is the first to show something more than just a single image or person, as you will see below.  Craig is obviously the focal point of the frame in his usual well-fitting suit and Walther PPK at the ready.  Bond girl Lea Seydoux stands behind Craig in an elegant, full-length silver dress.  Both actors have a serious stare as they look directly at the viewer.

 

The final element of the poster is what is in the background.  It is a masked man who is taking part in a Mexican Day of the Dead parade, which will be the setting of the pre-title action sequence.  It is a haunting image and, like the cinematography in Skyfall of Bond approaching the Macau casino surrounded by lanterns on the water, should be one of the visual highlights of the film that audience members take away from the film long after the credits roll.

 

 

This is a variation of the poster at the top.  It changes Craig's outfit to a white tuxedo with a red carnation, which is a throwback to 1963's Goldfinger, starring Sean Connery.  Bond also takes this photograph less seriously as he smirks at the camera and crosses his arms, brandishing a silencer on his Walther PPK.  The other alteration to this poster is the man in the Day of the Dead mask being fainter in the background and there is less color used.  Seydoux doesn't change at all between the two images.

 

There have been two other posters released since the official press conference for Spectre.

 

 

This one was used at the title announcement and looks rather innocuous, but upon further inspection is actually rather interesting.  The shattered glass from a bullet at first seems to be just that, a normal entry hole from a bullet that caused some cracking.  However, if you look a little closer you can see eight cracks that travel downward from the hole.  The entire thing creates the image of an octopus, which is similar to this:

 

 

This is the original symbol for Bond's arch nemesis organization, SPECTRE.  The ring could be found on the fingers of numerous villains and henchmen/women Bond faced during Connery's days as Bond.  The ring will be used in the newest movie, but modernized to fit the universe Craig has created since rebooting the series in 2006's Casino Royale.

 

As you can see, the ring's logo is similar to what is created in the shards of glass on the title announcement poster.  Another connection to the Bond franchise is the fact that the bullet hole is formed in glass.  That may not seem rather important, but, without giving any spoilers away, there is a pivotal scene in On Her Majesty's Secret Service that contains a bullet hole in glass.

 

I absolutely love the poster from the title announcement press conference.  In fact, it has been my desktop image since it was released, which has probably been a little creepy for my co-workers who have seen a bullet hole on my computer screen for several months now.

 

The final teaser poster for Spectre was this.

 

 

Compared to the title announcement poster and the most recent image of Craig and Seydoux, this one is dull and lifeless.  The only real point of interest is that the outfit Craig has on is a reference to Roger Moore's film Live and Let Die.  But other than that, there really isn't much more to say about this poster.

 

Since I don't have an official theatrical one-sheet poster to rate, I will have to go with the latest teaser poster, and it comes in at number four.