Motifs in the James Bond film series that is central to the spy film genre. The gun barrel imagery sometimes carried over to the film posters used to promote Bond films, including as a familiarising element on the introduction of Timothy Dalton for "The Living Daylights". The sequence was traditionally placed at the start of each film until the 2006 instalment "Casino Royale", where it appears after the cold open and is incorporated into the plot; in the 2008 film, "Quantum of Solace", the sequence was placed at the end of the film and incorporates the film's title in its design. For Skyfall, director Sam Mendes had
M (James Bond) relying on statistics and analysis rather than impulse and initiative. Following Pierce Brosnan’s departure from the role, Dench continued playing M for the 2006 film "Casino Royale", which rebooted the series with Daniel Craig playing Bond at the beginning of his career. In this new continuity, M has worked for MI6 for some time, at one point muttering, "Christ, I miss the Cold War". According to "Skyfall", M was previously in charge of MI6's operations in Hong Kong during the 1990s. Her ability to run MI6 has been questioned several times; in "Casino Royale", she is the subject of a