Glen's overdone jump scares

I wan't sure where to put this as it continually happens in all five films John Glen helmed; but I'm referring to all the times a various animal, item, or noise was used in a punched up sudden manner to jolt the audience. Most notable are all the usages of birds getting spooked; from Max in FYEO, the bird on the Metora cliff in FYEO, the bird on the Monsoon Palace, the bird on the Casino de Isthmus...the monkey in TLD, the tiger in OP, the shark from out of nowhere in FYEO, and the cat on the stairs in AVTAK. Heck, even some of the edits do this to varying degrees-but these aren't so jump inducing and some are even odd jokes such as the "you may need this to play with your asp" transition to a woman's behind around the pool at the hotel check in in OP.

These still drive me bonkers every time despite knowing exactly where they are. The sound levels are punched up to be super loud for that single instant as if they want to make sure we're awake...does anyone else hate these as much as I do? I can't stand jumps and these are always the sore thumbs that stick out of what are otherwise incredibly well put together pieces.

Never really took notice of those, to be honest. Yes, they're a bit hokey in hindsight.

I don't mind the John Glen trademark. I think the most effective use is in FYEO during the climb and the cat on the stairs in AVTAK. Adds to an already tense/suspenseful situation and never fails to make me jump as the editing is quite clever - they occur off beat.

No, I think they add something and are one of John Glen's trademarks as a director. I suppose now you've listed them they do come up a lot, but I'd single out death by falling from cliffs or planes as far more prevalent in Glen's record five Bond films as director.

I think the cat in AVTAK - like everything else in the film - was obvious, unnecessary and badly timed.

There was a cat in AVTAK?

Only pussy I remember is the one in the bubble bath.

It doesn't help that I switched to tower speakers for my mains...
Stacey's cat on the stairs is arguably the one I hate the most as it is punched up far too many decibels for merely being a cat on the stairs. But of course the bird screeches are loud, and the TLD monkey is loud etc.

Even when John Glen wasn't in the director's chair, he still used his trademark jump scares when editing the films that he worked on.

The first time i watched OHMSS,TSWLM and Moonraker, Irma Bunt surprising Bond in Ruby's bed, Jaws in the wardrobe and Chang coming out of nowhere in a Kendo outfit and screaming, caught me off guard the first time i watched those films.

I'm okay with a jump scare, but I do think they are a bit of a cheap shot.  What ALWAYS annoys me, though, is what was mentioned up thread - the jump in volume! It makes me resentful. The action of a jump scare is believable - birds do fly out of crevices, monsters do hide in tiny closets, but the bump in volume is not natural and it feels like cheating. It's insulting, in all movies, not just Bond.

However, I love the Jaws-in-the-closet shot.  The way his head is tilted with his mouth partly open, those dead eyes.  That is the most legitimately scary and creepy Jaws moment for me.

I do think that when you've seen the films loads of times and you know what's coming,the effectiveness of the jump scare wears off.

That cat in AVTAK always manages to catch me off guard.

^^^ Apparently Richard Kiel jumped when watching the scene in TSWLM with Jaws in the wardrobe. He thought Barbara was just going to open the wardrobe and that was it.

No one has mentioned the one in FYEO, with Gonzales's goon jumping down from the tree and grabbing Bond.

I only really consider the Glen Trademark Jump Scare as those that incorporate an animal.

They really take off and start in TSWLM with Glen editing. I think it's extremely well edited as a film but the wardrobe/train roar is too much and so is the shock reappearance of Jaws around behind Bond in the Atlantis corridor.

Watching these with large speakers or a sound system makes them jump out far more. I never got hit by the shark in the side of the St Georges in FYEO until I upgraded my home theater and now every time that and the AVTAK cat of the TLD screeching monkey are WAY up in the mix just like the danged pigeons!

Who could forget the man in the polar bear suit that abruptly takes a flash photo of Bond and the movie keeps cutting back and forth between Bond and the MANIACALLY LAUGHING polar bear for over a minute? It's so bizarre, you have to not be right in the head to make such a creative decision when making a film during what's supposed to be a tense moment. And yet it works. It's one of those strange little oddities that makes OHMSS so enduring and colorful. Only a few of the relatively straightforward Bond films like GE and SF have that sort of quality.

As well as the monkey in TLD, don't we also get a startled pigeon again as Bond waits to infiltrate Whittaker's lair near the end?

Indeed we do, BI. That one always seems to fall flat for me, though.

MP wrote:

Who could forget the man in the polar bear suit that abruptly takes a flash photo of Bond and the movie keeps cutting back and forth between Bond and the MANIACALLY LAUGHING polar bear for over a minute? It's so bizarre, you have to not be right in the head to make such a creative decision when making a film during what's supposed to be a tense moment. And yet it works. It's one of those strange little oddities that makes OHMSS so enduring and colorful. Only a few of the relatively straightforward Bond films like GE and SF have that sort of quality.

I love that moment in OHMSS. So much vulnerability in Lazenby's Bond and captures the spirit of Fleming's Bond efficiently, even if the polar bear doesn't feature in the book at this point in the story.

The polar bear man is a direct reprise of the man Bond runs into right outside the Kiss Kiss Club in TB so I always saw it as Peter Hunt reworking that idea and making it work better than it did originally.

You're right. It's good in TB but it's great in OHMSS.

I thought it was awkward in TB because Bond gets startled by someone he would have noticed given that he was looking forward. I get it, it's more of a filmmaking tactic to startle the audience with someone who jumps in the frame, but I never found it all that startling.

Exactly. It's a device to shake concentration and allow for some alleviation of suspense as in OHMSS so Bond can have time to get across the rink and in TB as a sort of punctuation to close the street chase sequence.