The teaser trailer for Spectre, the 24th James Bond film, was unveiled on Friday evening to a select set of journalists in Mexico City.
The Irish Times and colleagues were driven to a luxury cinema where (though the 90-second spot was due to go online just a few minutes after its launch) they were asked to surrender their mobile phones.
Such is the power of the trailer in contemporary movie marketing.
The promo shows Bond, again played by craggy Daniel Craig, contemplating the future after the grim ending of the enormously successful Skyfall.
Monica Bellucci, the Italian actress who is surely too distinguished to be classed as a "Bond girl", is seen in a state of elegant mourning. Bond is dispatched to an Alpine lair. He meets up with a shadowy figure. The telltale power chords blast out.
Taste buds are duly tantalised.
Earlier in the day, Sony Pictures brought the press to the shooting of the opening scene in Zócalo, the vast square in the Centro Histórico district of the City. Taking place during the festival of the Day of the Dead, the sequence finds 007 leaping from a romantic tryst and chasing a villain through the teaming crowds towards a perilously positioned helicopter.
As many as 1,500 extras had been decked out to play the revellers (following the addition of computer generated imagery, the crowds will swell to a virtual 20,000). Chuck Aaron, the only pilot licensed to perform a 360 flip in a helicopter, was flying the chopper.
Invasions of continents have been attempted with less planning and less expense.
"It is the biggest opening sequence we've ever done," Michael G Wilson, veteran producer of the Bond series, said before the trailer was unveiled. "It might be the biggest ever sequence we've done."
Despite some information leaking out during the Sony computer hack late last year, the producers have managed to keep most details of the plot secret.
Ms Bellucci plays the widow of an assassin killed by Bond. Christoph Waltz looks to be the chief villain. Léa Seydoux, star of Cannes Palme d'Or winner Blue is the Warmest Colour, is the main romantic interest.
Shooting began towards the end of last year at Pinewood Studios and has since moved on to Austria and Rome. Spectre, due for release on October 23rd, has a lot to live up to.
Skyfall, which also had Sam Mendes as director, made over $1 billion worldwide and stands as the highest-grossing film ever in the UK.
No pressure then.
