# Best opening monologue to a movie or tv series **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 3, 2021, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-monologue-to-a-movie-or-tv-series/953728 "2021-11-03T15:12:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-monologue-to-a-movie-or-tv-series/953728/101 "2021-11-05T14:36:09Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > > [@Andy\_L](#): > > > > "The Babylon project was our last best hope for peace. It failed. But in the year of the shadow war, it became something greater, our last best hope for victory. The year is 2260, the place Babylon 5. " > > Especially when the first two seasons started with the same first sentence (“The Babylon project was our last best hope for peace”), followed by an optimistic description of the station. When I heard the Season 3 monologue for the first time, I literally gasped. Then the total shift for Season 4: **Lennier** , “It was the year of fire…” **Zack** , “the year of destruction…” **G’kar** , “the year we took back what was ours.” **Lyta** , “It was the year of rebirth…” **Vir** , “the year of great sadness…” **Marcus** , “the year of pain…” **Delenn** , “and the year of joy.” **Londo** , “It was a new age.” **Franklin** , “It was the end of history.” **Ivanova** , “It was the year everything changed.” **Garibaldi** , “The year is 2261. The place:” **Sheridan** , “Babylon 5.” ---
**Author:** ![anny\_m](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@anny\_m](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anny_m)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-monologue-to-a-movie-or-tv-series/953728/102 "2021-11-05T18:01:33Z")
“The Fugitive. A QM production… starring David Janssen as Dr. Richard Kimble, an innocent victim of blind justice, falsely convicted for the murder of his wife, reprieved by Fate when a train wreck freed him en route to the death house, freed him to hide in lonely desperation; to change his identity, to toil at many jobs; freed him to search for a one-armed man he saw leave the scene of the crime; freed him to run before the relentless pursuit of the police lieutenant obsessed with his capture.” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-monologue-to-a-movie-or-tv-series/953728/103 "2021-11-05T19:46:13Z")
While we’re thinking of Quinn Martin" “The Invaders: alien beings from a dying planet. Their destination: the Earth. Their purpose: to make it _their_ world. David Vincent has seen them. For him, it began one lost night on a lonely country road, looking for a shortcut that he never found. It began with a closed deserted diner, and a man too long without sleep to continue his journey. It began with the landing of a craft from another galaxy. Now, David Vincent knows that the Invaders are here, that they have taken human form. Somehow, he must convince a disbelieving world, that the nightmare has already begun…” ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-monologue-to-a-movie-or-tv-series/953728/104 "2021-11-05T19:51:44Z")
Here’s two: [Sunset Boulevard](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HduXGYkoc_w) [L.A. Confidential](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hAtZLZ7rWQ) ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-monologue-to-a-movie-or-tv-series/953728/105 "2021-11-06T01:22:59Z")
_“My name is H.I. McDunnogh. Call me Hi”_ > [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > My favorite is the prologue to Little Shop of Horrors, because we say it every year on my son’s birthday. Oh, I think I know a secret about you now! ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-monologue-to-a-movie-or-tv-series/953728/106 "2021-11-06T01:56:10Z")
No doubt.😁 ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-monologue-to-a-movie-or-tv-series/953728/107 "2021-11-06T04:06:48Z")
**Mean Streets** > You don’t make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-monologue-to-a-movie-or-tv-series/953728/108 "2021-11-06T06:26:07Z")
> [@Akaj](#): > > _No Country for Old Men_ : was going to be my vote as well. With Roger Deakins giving us the visual and Tommy Lee Jones the laconic drawl it sets the tone of the flim perfectly. There are obvious similarities with Sam Elliot’s monologue in TBL but this matter-of-fact delivery is in service of a whole other nature. “said he knew he was going to hell, be there in about 15 minutes. I don’t know what to make of that” ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-monologue-to-a-movie-or-tv-series/953728/109 "2021-11-06T08:26:52Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > _“My name is H.I. McDunnogh. Call me Hi”_ Yes! Not strictly speaking a monologue, but the whole 11 minute opening gets my vote. That and _B5_ Season 3. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > Maybe I, or someone else, will start a “Best closing monologue” thread. _Raising Arizona_ again, for me, then. > That night I had a dream. I dreamt I was as light as the ether- a floating spirit visiting things to come… …If not Arizona, then a land not too far away. Where all parents are strong and wise and capable and all children are happy and beloved. I don’t know. Maybe it was Utah. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-monologue-to-a-movie-or-tv-series/953728/110 "2021-11-06T09:40:21Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Maybe I, or someone else, will start a “Best closing monologue” thread. How about the best monologue in the middle? @Stanislaus’ mention of Powell and Pressburger reminded me of Anton Wolbrook’s great speech in _The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp_. This must be one of the very best monologues ever in the middle of a movie, delivered by an exceptional actor: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/hcZ6fnRLDLU/hqdefault.jpg "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) - "The Truth" Monologue") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcZ6fnRLDLU) It’s all the more exceptional because the movie was made in 1943, and it has such a sympathetic, intelligent and good German character. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2021, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-monologue-to-a-movie-or-tv-series/953728/111 "2021-11-07T13:13:52Z")
_X-Men_: > Mutation: it is the key to our evolution. It has enabled us to evolve from a single-celled organism into the dominant species on the planet. This process is slow, and normally taking thousands and thousands of years. But every few hundred millennia, evolution leaps forward. ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-monologue-to-a-movie-or-tv-series/953728/112 "2021-11-08T00:31:07Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > With Roger Deakins giving us the visual and Tommy Lee Jones the laconic drawl it sets the tone of the flim perfectly. The closing monologue from Jones is more perplexing but just as powerful. Direct from McCarthy’s book, if I’m not mistaken. That dude can write. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-monologue-to-a-movie-or-tv-series/953728/113 "2021-11-08T07:47:30Z")
> [@Akaj](#): > > The closing monologue from Jones is more perplexing but just as powerful. Direct from McCarthy’s book, if I’m not mistaken. That dude can write. Agreed, it is a great film all round. Is the opening monologue direct from the book as well? It sounds like it might be but given the brother’s love for that style of writing themselves it is very much in their wheelhouse as well. ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-monologue-to-a-movie-or-tv-series/953728/114 "2021-11-08T16:55:50Z")
The book opens with a monologue from Sheriff Bell, but it’s longer than the movie’s and says a lot more about the killer who was executed. It has some of the same lines, though, including the “soul at hazard” line. I’ve long thought this had to be one of the Coens’ easiest scripts. McCarthy wrote everything they needed; all they had to do was whittle it down. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-monologue-to-a-movie-or-tv-series/953728/115 "2021-11-08T17:07:51Z")
One of my favorite shows as a kid, _seaQuest DSV:_ > The 21st century. Mankind has colonized the last unexplored region on earth, the ocean. As captain of the seaQuest and its crew, we are its guardians, for beneath the surface lies the future. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-monologue-to-a-movie-or-tv-series/953728/116 "2021-11-08T18:07:39Z")
> [@Akaj](#): > > I’ve long thought this had to be one of the Coens’ easiest scripts. McCarthy wrote everything they needed; all they had to do was whittle it down. Pretty good whittling I think! The same may be true of “True Grit” in that they stuck far more closely to the ornate language of the book than the John Wayne version did. There is a quality to The Coen’s dialogue that is distinctive but hard to pin down. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are drawn to works that already have some of that quality in there. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-monologue-to-a-movie-or-tv-series/953728/117 "2021-11-08T18:19:08Z")
_Out of Africa_: I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills. The Equator runs across these highlands, a hundred miles to the north, and the farm lay at an altitude of over six thousand feet. In the day-time you felt that you had got high up; near to the sun, but the early mornings and evenings were limpid and restful, and the nights were cold. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-opening-monologue-to-a-movie-or-tv-series/953728.md?page=5)