An airplane’s tail fin moves through the clouds to the Jaws theme.
How many takes do you think it took before they got the cat to do everything they wanted in that sequence?
The traffic jam scene at the beginning of Office Space sets a good tone.
Can we not just give our scenes without the “Even though the whole movie sucked” disclaimer?
Waterworld when the globe on the Universal logo filled up with water
Superman Returns Closing in on Krypton with the familiar John Williams music. This caught me by surprise, as I wasn’t expecting his score to be in the movie.
A second vote for Fellowship of the Ring I can remember the giddiness I felt as soon as I realized how close to the books PJ would be. Even though the 10-minute intro was excellent, it reached a crescendo when Hobbiton appeared over the hill.
Oddly enough, I didn’t like the bright bucolic scenery & music starting Return of the King. Plus how it followed the brutal murder of Deagol with a comical Gollum hanging upside down in the cave.
The opening 8 minutes of Desperado are pretty cool… and show that Steve Buscemi may just be the coolest actor on the planet.
Could only find the opening credits on Youtube, but the racing scenes in the first 20 minutes of the film are simply awesome.
The opening of West Side Story was very impressive
The opening scene for Disney’s “The Black Hole” was for a tremendous, powerful, imaginative movie that captured the awe and wonder of of the universe …
after that, it’s turtles all the way down.
The great but little seen Irish Colin Farrell film Intermission has an opening scene with quite a punch.
Even if every other scene in Way of the Gun is total garbage, its hard to argue that the opening scene rocks.
Black screen. Suddenly the earth as seen from not too far in space pops into view, with a cacaophony of noise – radio, TV, satellite, everything we broadcast. Slowly the camera starts moving out through space. As it does, the audible broadcasts become a virtual journey through time. From Spice Girls to Dallas’s theme song to “Funky Town” to Elvis and Kennedy. Beyond the solar system the broadcasts get fainter: Roosevelt’s Pearl Harbor announcement; the opening of the Berlin Olympics; tinny radio shows; static-filled experimental blips. Then silence. Utter silence lost in the vastness of space.
We’ve pulled beyond our nearest stellar neighbors. Beyond the Milky Way. Beyond a point where our galaxy is only one of innumerable other galaxies, indisitinguishable and unidentifiable as something unique. And finally all the millions of galaxies merge together to become points of light in the eye of a single young girl. Ellie Arroway, ten years old, is on a ham radio looking for someone to respond. “CQ W9GFO, come back?”
Contact. Best opening ever, IMO.
I saw Grand Prix the night after it opened here in LA. The movie started the screen was black. As the camera pulled away you realize it was aimed right up the exhaust pipe. The engine fired and reved, and the words Grand Prix appeared inside the black circle of the exhaust pipe. At that moment I knew I was in for something special.
The opening scene of Quick Change where Bill Murray is sat on a subway train dressed as a clown holding a bunch of balloons
The first 5-10 minutes of Buffalo '66 is simply a man who has to pee trying to find a bathroom. It is brilliant.
My favorite movie is Miller’s Crossing. The opening scene does not disappoint.
Bright ORANGE SCREEN!
Synthesizer twangs out “Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary”
Close-up of a man’s eyes, one of them with an underlying false eyelash,
and the rim of a black bowler hat cocked across his forehead.
Camera pans back to show us Alex and his three droogs surrounded by
the porceline neon-haired female moloko dispenses in the Korova Milkbar.
A Clockwork Orange… real 'orrorshow!
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Saving Private Ryan yet.
Regardless of your opinion on the rest of the movie, that opening sequence of the Rangers storming the beaches was breathtaking, and I’ve been told captured the actual experience of being there unbelievably well.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Altman’s The Player with its long tracking shot, including the pitch for the sequel to The Graduate.
2001’s first scene was the title, with the Earth, Moon and Sun lining up to the music of R. Strauss. Now that was impressive in Cinerama. The apes were on for about 20 - 25 minutes, a bit long for an opening.
But Star Wars was indeed the best ever.
It was the first one that came to mind, but you beat me to it.
Agreed, it’s an astonishing sequence, especially on the big screen. Here is a YouTube clip, the first half of which is the opening for “Contact”. It doesn’t do the big-screen original any justice but you get the idea.
“This is the universe - big, isn’t it?”
The opening sequence of A Matter of Life and Death starting from the whole of space and tightening all the way down to one damaged Lancaster bomber that isn’t going to make it home.
Powell and Pressburger at their very best.
I like the start of For a Few Dollars More; there’s a rider on a horse in the distance, and you can hear him whistling a tune, he trots a little further along and then suddenly falls off his steed. There’s a noticeable delay before you hear the crack of the rifle shot as the sound reaches you. Cue twanging jews/mouth harp.