In 007 First Light, a game usually reserved for tedious “how to play” lessons is instead shaped like a Bond training montage—interactive, fast, and cinematic. It’s not just another Hollywood-style polish; it adds to a growing exchange where games borrow film l
The most memorable part of 007 First Light isn’t a mission or a set piece. It’s the tutorial—and that’s almost shocking on its own.
In most games. tutorials come like a necessary chore: a slow. disconnected pile of lessons that teach you how to fire. move. or fight while doing nothing to serve the story. 007 First Light takes a different route because it’s centered on a young James Bond. still learning what it means to be a secret agent. The training isn’t delivered like instruction. It’s built like a classic action movie training montage. with months speeding by and Bond mastering the basics in a snappy supercut—everything from firing a gun to parkouring across a building.
Then the key twist hits: because it’s a game, those moments aren’t just something you watch. They’re interactive. You learn the ropes alongside the character, which makes the tutorial feel less like a barrier you have to get through and more like the opening rhythm of the story itself.
That small design choice lands in a much bigger shift. Games borrowing cinematic traditions isn’t new. Donkey Kong has pulled from classic monster movies for decades. and modern franchises like Uncharted and Ghost of Tsushima have long leaned into movie-like pacing and spectacle. Directors such as Hideo Kojima have also been open about love for the idea of bringing Hollywood talent into games. But 007 First Light pushes the idea further by turning a core. gameplay-specific moment—training—into something that looks and feels like it belongs on screen.
It also isn’t pretending to be something it’s not. 007 First Light doesn’t reinvent the entire action-adventure formula. For much of the time. it plays like a cross between Hitman—an assassination franchise also made by First Light developer IO Interactive—and Uncharted. with its action-heavy set pieces. Yet it keeps folding in Bond-flavored film language at the points where players typically only expect mechanics.
After an explosive opening section. the game moves into a classic Bond intro credits sequence. paired with a new song from Lana Del Rey. From there, it keeps leaning on familiar cinematic cues—sometimes in ways that are almost impossible to do in film. In movies, Bond being beaten during an interrogation while tied to a chair is something you witness. In 007 First Light, that kind of moment becomes something you can take part in.
The usual video-game toolkit is there too: dramatic cutscenes, over-the-top action sequences, and fast-paced car chases. Celebrity cameos appear as well, including Lenny Kravitz, who makes a brief appearance as an African pirate boss with an inexplicable American accent.
What makes this moment feel especially telling is how the direction of influence seems to be changing. Inspiration isn’t moving only from film into games anymore.
The Exit 8 film adaptation opened with a first-person sequence that was designed to “blur the lines between video game and cinema. ” while Markiplier’s Iron Lung film plays more like watching someone stream or play through the indie horror game. And The Last of Us’ HBO adaptation is so close to its source that watching it can often feel like a cutscene supercut.
So when 007 First Light treats its tutorial like training montage material, it doesn’t just borrow from movie tradition. It meets the current reality of entertainment where the borders between games. film. and television are already thin—and getting thinner. For a lot of players, that blurring isn’t an abstract question. It’s what you feel the moment the tutorial stops being a lesson and starts being part of the spectacle.
The game’s approach also makes sense in practical terms. 007 First Light is a game developed by a studio with a history in open-ended action games. and with a clear understanding of what makes Bond work on screen—and how some of that can translate into the interactive rhythm players expect. The result is that a tutorial. the most “boring” segment of many games. can end up feeling ripped right out of an action movie.
007 First Light James Bond video games cinematic gaming game tutorials IO Interactive Lana Del Rey Lenny Kravitz The Last of Us HBO Iron Lung film Exit 8 film adaptation Markiplier Hideo Kojima