# Films with cold openings **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 13, 2008, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-cold-openings/449195 "2008-05-13T19:37:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-cold-openings/449195/21 "2008-05-14T02:03:40Z")
I know that \*Touch of Evil \* opened with that famous tracking shot without the credts. I can’t remember if the opening credits came later or if it didn’t have them at all. I’m sure someone can come by and give the right answer. ---
**Author:** ![Precambrianmollusc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/precambrianmollusc/32/63_2.png) [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-cold-openings/449195/22 "2008-05-14T02:21:45Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] My favorite cold opening is **Pulp Fiction**. Total WTF, then blackout and Dick Dale. What a rush. [/QUOTE] I could be misremembering, but doesn´t Reservoir Dogs start in a similar way? Straight into the crew all having breakfast and discussing Madonna, the rights and wrongs of tipping and other such issues. After one of them pays, they get up and leave. Que dum dum dum dumdum, dum dum dum da dum dum and the credit sequence for Mr White etc ---
**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:** [May 14, 2008, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-cold-openings/449195/23 "2008-05-14T02:55:11Z")
[QUOTE=NDP] If I may repeat a question from my OP, what’s the earliest use in a movie of a cold opening/extended pre-credit sequence? I noticed they started to be used more frequently in the early 60’s but I’m fairly sure the practice began long before that. I’m also guessing that foreign films used cold openings before Hollywood did but I could be wrong. [/QUOTE] According to the Halliwell Film Guide, it’s generally traced back to **Rommell, Desert Fox** (1951), but he also cites **The Egg and I** (1947) (where Claudette Colbert lectures people about how eggs are not something to take for granted), and **Destry Rides Again** (1939), where there is about a minute of shooting before the credits appear. ---
**Author:** ![Emily\_Litella](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emily_litella/32/3370_2.png) [@Emily\_Litella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emily_Litella)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-cold-openings/449195/24 "2008-05-14T03:11:34Z")
I could be remembering wrong, but didn’t Pitch Black start that way, trying to avoid a crash landing with the ship? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-cold-openings/449195/25 "2008-05-14T03:37:34Z")
The earliest cold opening of a movie that I know of is in [Crime Without Passion](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0025009/) (1934), directed by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, better known as the authors of the venerable stage comedy _The Front Page_. It opens with an extreme close-up of the barrel of a gun, which is fired. Blood drips on the floor. The [three Furies](http://filmfanatic.org/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/crime-passion-camerawork.png) of Greek mythology ascend from the puddle of blood in flowing robes, and fly over a modern metropolis inciting various crimes of passion. [One of the Furies](http://filmfanatic.org/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/crime-passion-opening.png) sweeps her arm over the face of a skyscraper, shattering the window glass, which showers down until it forms the words _Crime Without Passion_. ---
**Author:** ![Pashnish\_Ewing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8797f3/32.png) [@Pashnish\_Ewing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pashnish_Ewing)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-cold-openings/449195/26 "2008-05-14T04:04:57Z")
I believe \*\*Naked Gun \*\* starts with a cold open. Frank Drebin saves the day before the opening title/credits. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-cold-openings/449195/27 "2008-05-14T04:50:53Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] You know I was never really sure and I debated as I wrote it out, but I tought “to perch” was a better match with ‘rocky place’ but I’m probably wrong. [/QUOTE] I was wondering why his seed was seed was looking for [perches](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perch). 🙂 Or maybe he meant [purchase](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/purchase), i.e “a firm grip or grasp, footing, etc., on something.” Definitely an obscure usage, but that was much of the charm of Hi’s (and the rest of the cast’s) flowery dialog. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-cold-openings/449195/28 "2008-05-14T13:07:21Z")
[QUOTE=squeegee] I was wondering why his seed was seed was looking for [perches](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perch). 🙂 Or maybe he meant [purchase](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/purchase), i.e “a firm grip or grasp, footing, etc., on something.” Definitely an obscure usage, but that was much of the charm of Hi’s (and the rest of the cast’s) flowery dialog. [/QUOTE] I always heard it as “purchase.” (Side note: I actually saw this movie before it was released in a review screening at my university. We had to fill out surveys afterwards.) ---
**Author:** ![Engineer\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9fc29f/32.png) [@Engineer\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engineer_Dude)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-cold-openings/449195/29 "2008-05-14T13:27:20Z")
_Super Troopers_ has roughly 10 minutes of action before the opening credits. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-cold-openings/449195/30 "2008-05-14T13:43:34Z")
**Finding Nemo** has the long intro with the mother getting killed by the baracuda and all the eggs gone except one. Then they cue the title screen. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-cold-openings/449195/31 "2008-05-14T13:49:51Z")
_Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World_ has no opening credits. I think I remember hearing on the commentary that they had to pay a fee to some organization for not showing them. ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-cold-openings/449195/32 "2008-05-14T14:07:04Z")
The Lord of the Rings trilogy generally started out with a lengthy prologue with no credits and only a title. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-cold-openings/449195/33 "2008-05-14T14:28:37Z")
[QUOTE=Eleanor of Aquitaine] _Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World_ has no opening credits. I think I remember hearing on the commentary that they had to pay a fee to some organization for not showing them. [/QUOTE] The Directors Guild of America has contracts with the major studios requiring that their members be credited at the beginning of the picture; deviation from that provision imposes a fine. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-cold-openings/449195/34 "2008-05-14T17:02:21Z")
Serenity ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-cold-openings/449195/35 "2008-05-14T17:18:46Z")
> [@H.I. McDunnough](#): > > Edwina’s insides were a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase. [IMDB cite](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093822/quotes) ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-cold-openings/449195/36 "2008-05-14T17:24:55Z")
**The Ring** had no opening or title at all. The Dreamworks logo appeared, and briefly a staticky “ring” appeared over the D in “Dreamworks”, but that was it, straight into the action. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-with-cold-openings/449195.md?page=1)