The last time I saw it that scene must have been cut, because I remember one or two arriving at the office, Baldwin asking the manager, “Are they all here?” and then going into his bollocking.
This certainly stretches “opening scene” beyond its usual bounds, but the pre-credits vignette of the multi-story Wild Tales is the most mordant and wildly hilarious sequence I can ever recall.
The opening scene in Alien with with the ship slowing waking up and things just feel so quiet and empty.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the Shanghai scene.
Nitpick: they didn’t lose a child, they found out that they were infertile.
For me, it’s The Matrix. The green Warner logo, the cryptic dialogue between Cypher and Trinity, and then Trinity’s escape…into a freaking phone booth. My mind spun from ‘What the hell is happening?’ to ‘This is so fucking cool!’
Quick description? I love the movie but don’t remember the start. Was that the kidnap?
Yup, the cinematography and the build. Fantastic.
Children of Men
Not bad. All of the long, long tracking shots in that are mesmerizing.
I especially like the street-war one, with [del]Jax[/del] the freedom fighter with the blond dreads.
for a great opening scene with a long tracking shot, it’s hard to beat Rouben Mammoulian’s opening for Dr. Jeckyll and Miuster Hyde – it’s a Point-of-View shot of Jeckyll’s hands playing the organ. His butler knocks on the door, and he turns to look, and is told the cab is there, Jeckyll gets up, goes through the door, looks directly into the mirror and his butler puts a cloak on him, turns, and goes to and through the front door.
It’s all done in one unbroken shot, which is pretty amazing by itself. To look directly into the mirror, they built a duplicate mirror-image room on the other side of the wall with the mirror frame, and as Fredric March (as Jeckyll) standard there, the butler (who has obviously run around the wall) comes into the frame to put the cloak on him. (It’s the same method that was used in the scene where the Terminator gets his head chip removed in Terminator 2 in a scene cut from the film, but available on the Special Edition, and which has been in the news lately with the release of Terminator Genesys). It’s gorgeously and flawlessly done.
I love the opening credits for The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Mock me all you want, I am not ashamed! Tell me this isn’t great:
I’d like to nominate Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfont. This is due in no small part to Leonard Bernstain’s stupendous score.
That scene earns all of the points in the world for integrating the iconic gun barrel POV shot organically into the action.
Desperado - Steve Buscemi walks into a Mexican bar, describes in flashbacks how he witnessed Antonio Banderas utterly destroy another Mexican bar.
“Le Magnifique” - absolutely the best opening scene.
Dammit, I was hoping that movie was obscure enough that maybe I’d get to say it.
The gunfight itself is a pretty intense cold open – ambushing the viewer as much as Scott Glenn’s character. But the huge scenic panorama of mountains opening up outside his cabin (backdrop for the opening credits) was just breathtaking.
Strictly speaking it’s the second scene that has the goods, but the OP said ‘opening scenes’ :D, so I’ll mention the opening of The Battle of Britain.
I’m sure I’ve mentioned this in similar threads, but one of my favourite opening scenes is from Contact.
[A funny aside, with any threads on this topic, someone always mentions the SPR beach landings and someone always nitpicks them that it’s not actually the opening scene 
]
The first four minutes or so of Grand Prix, especially for anyone who was ever an open wheel racing fan 40 or 50 years ago. Dazzling, especially on the huge screens of the major movie palaces of the day.
Watch it full screen. And keep an eye on the opening credits for the list of participating drivers, starting at around 2:07
Grrr, forgot one one the finest: Keoma. Outstanding camerawork, a real feast for the eyes right from the start. First glimpse we catch of Franco Nero is in the outer right corner (widescreen, mind you) of a darkened screen through a doorframe swinging in the wind, giving it almost an flip book look and already establishing a feeling of utter loneliness and despair that grows when he procedes through an deserted or rather apocalyptic western town, again very nicely framed through various objects. And then, at not even two and a half minutes in, we’re treated to one of those effortless (cutless, really) flashback scenes the movie is famous for, introduced by death herself! I’ve never seen anything like it and when the opening credits rolled, I was already hooked and later blown away by one of the greatest swan songs to a genre I can think of. In case you want to watch it, please do yourself a favour and stay clear of any copies that are cut either content- or formatwise and pleasepleaseplease don’t even think of using a tablet or a smartphone or its beauty will be lost on you.