# Greatest Opening Scene in a Movie \[One More Time\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 13, 2012, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771 "2012-05-13T13:46:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2012, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771/21 "2012-05-13T22:58:06Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Notice the background at 3:23. I give up. I’m paused at 3:23 and what am I looking for? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2012, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771/22 "2012-05-13T23:42:05Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > I give up. I’m paused at 3:23 and what am I looking for? Travolta ---
**Author:** ![iamnotbatman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@iamnotbatman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamnotbatman)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2012, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771/23 "2012-05-13T23:50:41Z")
I submit: **2001: A Space Odyssey** **Once Upon a Time in the West** **Inglorious Basterds** ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771/24 "2012-05-14T00:14:43Z")
> [@Lakai](#): > > My favorite: In fairness, if we are eliminating Saving Private Ryan’s battle scene as not being the first scene, GSgt Hartman berating the recruits isn’t the first scene in that movie, either. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771/25 "2012-05-14T00:24:03Z")
[Melancholia](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQA9lhqqKXI). Beautiful and terrible. ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771/26 "2012-05-14T00:35:27Z")
I think I posted this one in the last thread, but my personal favourite (apart from maybe the SPR scene) is the opening of [Contact](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGyq7d62oPQ) ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771/27 "2012-05-14T00:36:53Z")
> [@GreedySmurf](#): > > I think I posted this one in the last thread, but my personal favourite (apart from maybe the SPR scene) is the opening of [Contact](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGyq7d62oPQ) Oh that’s amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771/28 "2012-05-14T00:38:03Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > I presume you’re actually thinking of the \*second \*scene in SPR. The [opening scene](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBt1W8wm4AM), the old man visiting the military graveyard, is nothing special. Lots of people forget it even exists. I would disqualify this as being a great opening scene. Actually, I found that scene (and the one at the end) quite moviing; the old man is visiting, perhaps for the first time, the grave of someone who died so that he could live. And he’s feeling survivor’s guilt or at least wondering if the life he led since then was worth the sacrifice. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771/29 "2012-05-14T01:28:34Z")
Psycho (1960): The slow pan and zoom of the Phoenix skyline eventually settling on a hotel room and winding up inside of it. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771/30 "2012-05-14T01:32:56Z")
> [@iamnotbatman](#): > > **Inglorious Basterds** Oooh, I agree. I think this is Quentin Tarantino’s best movie and that opening still sends chills down my spine. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771/31 "2012-05-14T01:47:19Z")
> [@GreedySmurf](#): > > I think I posted this one in the last thread, but my personal favourite (apart from maybe the SPR scene) is the opening of [Contact](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGyq7d62oPQ) Meh, it’s a rip of Eames’_[Powers of Ten](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0)_, and the scale (both the visual scale and thte radio signals) is completely wrong. The greatest single opening scene in film is the Sergio Leone’s _Once Upon The Time In The West_, with the three gunmen waiting for “Harmonica” to arrive. It also has one of the best entrances of a villian. “What are we going to do with this one, Frank?” “Now that you’ve called me by name?” Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771/32 "2012-05-14T01:49:43Z")
Robert Altman’s The Player is famous for its [opening shot](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0epB5Z6ijpk), a tracking shot that lasts about eight minutes. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771/33 "2012-05-14T03:15:08Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > The no cut opening shot of Touch of Evil. That’s the one I thought of, and probably what I responded with in earlier threads (if I responded at all). ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771/34 "2012-05-14T03:23:39Z")
I see I’m a little late with my choice of “Once Upon A Time in the West”. Great. (It’s probably easier to have a good beginning for a film than a good ending., I’m thinking. Casablanca being an exception of course.) ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771/35 "2012-05-14T04:06:12Z")
_Raiders of the Lost Ark_ - Indy retrieving the golden idol from the booby-trapped cave. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771/36 "2012-05-14T04:19:03Z")
> [@Ponch8](#): > > _2001: A Space Odyssey,_ with _Also sprach Zarathustra_ playing in the background as the apes discover that monolith That’s not the opening. The Dawn of Man opens and we see the primative humans and they are not doing well. They have no water, they get attacked by the leopard, then the monolith appears and they all freak out to weird ass music and finally one of them touches it. Later the monolith gives one of them the idea for the club to Also sprach Zarathurstra. My nomination is the opening of [The Usual Suspects.](http://youtu.be/t6msq8mgdnE) You don’t know it but it tells you who Soyze is. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771/37 "2012-05-14T04:43:27Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > (It’s probably easier to have a good beginning for a film than a good ending., I’m thinking. Casablanca being an exception of course.) I couldn’t disagree more. There are a lot of great endings. There are only a handful of really great movie beginnings. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771/38 "2012-05-14T04:47:45Z")
_Lion King_. Duh. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![SunSandSuffering](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@SunSandSuffering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunSandSuffering)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771/39 "2012-05-14T10:39:41Z")
Evil Dead 3: Medieval Dead - “My Name is Ash, and I’m a slave…” \ ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771/40 "2012-05-14T12:25:27Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Meh, it’s a rip of Eames’_[Powers of Ten](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0)_, and the scale (both the visual scale and thte radio signals) is completely wrong. Please, a zoom out is ripping off now? The whole point of the Contact scene is to the radio broadcasts, which despite any inaccuracies, is used to show how the noise our species has been making doesn’t get anywhere close to where intelligent life may be. None of which was a part of “Powers of Ten”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greatest-opening-scene-in-a-movie-one-more-time/621771.md?page=3)