David Lean’s Great Expectations. This is considered to be one of the best ever opening scenes in a film. I believe it’s still a recommended “must see” in film schools.
The opening scene of Highlander was pretty cool. The wrestling event/Queen music/parking garage sword fight. Too bad the rest of the movie was crappy (sorry fanboys).
I also dug the opening of Bladerunner. Leon being questioned by Holden.
“My mother? Let me tell you about my mother.”
I like the opening to “Lethal Weapon 2”. Right off the bat you’re in a high-speed chase through the city.
The most jaw-dropping opening I’ve yet seen was LotR: The Two Towers. No wearisome plot recap for those silly enough to have skipped the first film. No adagio opening for the second movement. Nope. After a few seconds of spectacular scenery the viewer is drawn directly into the single most exciting moment of the first film – Gandalf’s confrontation of the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-Dun. But rather than following the “survivors” out of Moria as was done before, the camera plunges into the abyss and tracks the freefall battle raging on. Wow.
Oh, and glee is referring to Excalibur .
Patton – George C. Scott in front of a huge flag addressing the troops.
Joe vs. the Volcano – Tom Hanks arriving for work at the most depressing factory you’ve ever seen. It’s so soul-crushing it’s hysterical.
Walk on the Wild Side (1962).
Titles by Saul Bass, music by Elmer Bernstein and a catfight near the end. Perfect.
The pre-credits scene to The Stepfather was pretty amazing. It opens with the camera drifting slowly through a suburban street on a beautiful autumn morning. After a while it focuses in on one typical house and zooms in on an upstairs window, to which the blinds are promptly drawn. Inside we a shaggy-haired bespectled man in a plaid flannel shirt and jeans covered in blood in his bathroom. He strips naked and proceeds to wash his hands, cut his hair short, shave off his beard and shower. He throws his bloodied clothes and glasses into a suitcase. He then dresses neatly into a business suit and puts some contacts in his eyes. By this time he looks like a completely different man. He leaves the bathroom and then proceeds to walk downstairs. As he descends the staircase we see the family portraits as he passes them. The first one is hanging perfectly. The second one is slightly crooked. The third one is very askew. The fourth one is missing altogether and has been replaced by a bloody handprint that trails down the rest of the wall. As he reaches the bottom the living room is revealed to be in utter disarray. Soon the camera reveals the bodies of a woman and two small children lying on the floor. The man pauses for a moment and seeing something out of place, he puts the telephone receiver back on the hook. He leaves the house, picks up the newspaper lying on the doorstep and walks down the street with a spring in his step. As the multi-colored fall leaves lazily float down around him, he begins whistling “The Camptown Races.” We see a shot of him on a ferryboat and when no one is looking, he throws his suitcase into the water.
I really enjoyed the opening to X-Men (the first one). I’m not a comic fan, and I had no idea what was going to happen (who they were, what it was about, etc. I went for a friend).
The rain, the mud, the fear and panic, and then, the weirdness.
Very cool, and it hooked me in.
Believe it or not, the opening to Disney’s Dinosaur is awesome and jaw-dropping. When they ran it as a trailer for the film it clocked in at an even five minutes, without any dialogue or narration. Wonderful storytelling, imagination, and detail, with a sweeping score (especially in the Flight of the Pterodactyl section) that I could watch over and over.
I don’t think the movie quite measured up to that intro. There’s no way it could – you couldn’t sustain a whole movie and tell a story that way, but as soon as the beasties started talking you lost big credibility points.
I didn’t like the movie all that much but
Cliffhanger had a gripping opening scene where Sly’s wife slips through his fingers.
Opening to **The Big Easy ** guar-on-tees a good time. “Iko Iko” bopping along, an aerial shot flying down the bayou and ending up at the scene of the first murder. Dennis Quaid turns around with the alligator grin… and it’s on.
It sure as heck sounds like Excaliber, except that the piece they use in the begining is Wagner’s Funeral of Sigmund, not Carmina Burana. Although they do make liberal use of C.B. later in the film.
The words on the screen coincide well with the string crecendos.
“A Wizard, Merlin”
“A King, Arthur”
“And a Sword, Excaliber”
I found the rambling internal thoughts of the protagonist, played by Nicolas Cage, while the screen is blank in Adaptation was most excellent.
Going to second Casino Royale.
I think the opening of Red Dragon was quite good, with Graham figuring out that Lecter was the serial killer he was looking for. I really liked how that was done. The rest of the movie was ok.
I have found the Great Expectations opening scene here on YouTube
One of my favorite openings has always been the original opening to the British release of The Third Man with its light hearted description of Vienna as a hot bed of the black market. It was especially effective because of the contrast between the jolly narrator and both the subject and the images, plus I just love how personable he seems to be with the audience.
The title sequence in The Big Chill is excellent. It’s a series of close up shots of a woman’s hands dressing a man in formal attire and not until you see the stitched wounds on his wrists do you realize that he’s a cadaver being dressed for the funeral.
Also, let me place my vote for Once Upon A Time In The West.
Also, the long tracking shot in Touch of Evil.
Apocalypse Now. The smoke, the synthesized fwok fwok fwok of the slow motion helicopters panning from side to side, then strains of The End fading in, the silent explosion, “This is the end…”.
I was impressed with the opening scene to Boogie Nights, the way the camera flew in from the street and around the club in a single take, introducing most of the main characters in the process.
Another Disney movie with a fantastic opening which the rest of the movie doesn’t live up to is the very overrated The Lion King. (This is even more true about the broadway musical, whose opening is nothing short of magical…)