I second that! I really liked Wild Tales though my tastes do tend to go to dark humor, so liking that film was a given.
The Coen brothers’ Blood Simple. Shot from inside a speeding VW in the rain the crime to be done is set forth as the windshield wipers take the credits off the screen/windshield.
Team America World Police was subtly good in the way it opens up with marionettes. I knew the film was done with puppets but when I first saw the opening few seconds I thought - ohhhhh sheeeet this puppet quality SUCKS!, and then it pans back and we see awesome puppets controlling the sucky marionettes, and then even awesomer puppets blowing shit up. Relief swept in. I thought that was a good way to get the audience on your side from the start - lower expectations, then deliver the goods.
Not necessarily an opening “scene”, but the opening, pre-credits sequence from Raising Arizona is one of my favorites.
The very opening of The Sixth Sense is great at getting the viewer into the atmosphere of the movie. As a slightly tipsy Olivia Williams turns to look at whatever is creeping her out and we see her next to her shadow and we get the same creepiness. Turns out to be nothing but wow it really gets you in the mood for a ghost story.
Also, La Dolce Vita.
Sin City was only ok, but the opening scene shocked me, which is an ideal start. " I’ll cash her check in the morning."
Add me to the Star Wars Episode IV bunch… I will never, ever forget sitting there in that dark theater and seeing that opening.
X-Files: The Movie. Opens on a white-out blizzard. Like something you get in the arctic. Two figures gradually materialize out of the snow, clad in heavy fur pelts, running towards the camera. As they get closer, the bottom of the screen finally tells us where we are:
Texas.
Great film and great opening.
“You seen Joe Buck?”
“I believe in America…”
“Zulu Dawn”
“Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely…”
“Top Gun”
“Food Glorious Food!”
“Highlander 1”
“Cliffhanger”
How could people forget “Basic Instinct?”
“The hills are alive…” should be #1