Greatest Opening Scene in a Movie [One More Time]

[GuanoLad]

Pitch Black
UP
Cars 2 (I know, nobody likes this movie. It’s a really cool opening scene, though)

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@I_Know_Nothing

At risk of not being very creative I think the overfly of the star destroyer in Star Wars really can’t be beat. You’re extra lucky if you saw it reshot for IMAX in the special effects doc. What a rush!..

Seconded, thirded, or whatever. Unforgettable.

[Tangent]

@GuanoLad

Pitch Black

Good pick. That whole sequence–with the shots from space of the comet’s tail, and the ship being damaged, and the resulting crash–is just awesome.

[Saint_Cad]

Apparently a contraversial pick IIRC from another thread: Finding Nemo.
Absolutely heartwrenching (you see the baby fish moving in the eggs) and makes Marlin’s motivation obvious for the rest of the film.

Star Wars. I don’t like the current trend of making normal films into 3-d but you can bet that I’ll see the opening in IMAX 3-D.

[Sister_Vigilante]

@Farmer_Jane

Lion King. Duh.

Came in here to say that.

[standingwave]

@Stranger_On_A_Train

Meh, it’s a rip of Eames’Powers of Ten, and the scale (both the visual scale and the radio signals) is completely wrong.

I’ll give them a pass on having been perhaps inspired by Powers of Ten but the lack of attention to detail in that scene was pretty unforgivable. We’re hearing the Moon landing before we even get to Jupiter? Carl probably achieved 7200 rpm when that premiered.

[Mooch]

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - the scene in Club Obi Wan.

[GrandWino]

Ok, how am I the the first (in this thread) to mention Goodfellas and The Dark Knight?

[Robot_Arm]

@standingwave

I’ll give them a pass on having been perhaps inspired by Powers of Ten but the lack of attention to detail in that scene was pretty unforgivable. We’re hearing the Moon landing before we even get to Jupiter? Carl probably achieved 7200 rpm when that premiered.

And if you were travelling fast enough to overtake radio signals, you’d be hearing them backwards.

[Lord_Il_Palazzo]

I’ll give another vote to the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark. It’s quite probably the single most iconic sequence in the entire series and it’s right at the beginning of the first movie.

[lost4life]

I probably posted this in the older threads, but I love the opening desert scenes in The Exorcist.

[meanoldman]

The opening sequences for Blues Brothers. Dark, dismal. Industrial. Everything seems gray. Made me wonder if I was in the right theater. This was supposed to be a comedy, not some dreary prison drama.

Then, Elwood rolls up …the prison gates open … while everything else is still shrouded in gray, the silhouette of a lone dark figure emerges from the prison, bathed in light.

From that moment, I knew I was in for a treat.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

Finding the lost Navy planes of Flight 19, perfectly intact, at the very beginning of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Crank 'em up!

[Elendil_s_Heir]

And Mr. Incredible’s memorable wedding day from The Incredibles. “Officers… Ma’am… Squeaker…”

[GrandWino]

Lost in Translation opens on a close up of Scarlett Johanssen’s ass in see-through panties.

I win.

[TriPolar]

@Robot_Arm

Patton
Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Just Patton. Nothing else is close.

[crypto]

@Zeldar

Notice the background at 3:23.

Second or third the awesomeness of this. I’ve never noticed Travolta before, and I’ve seen that movie quite a bit.

@Dewey_Finn

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.

I have to admit, I did not notice the guy.. I was checking out his incredibly built daughters (or granddaughters) following him. Much more interesting. But when they switch to Hanks in the transport, that’s as close as I’d care to be in the d-day landing at Normandy. Good God that was great film making.

@Elendil_s_Heir

And Mr. Incredible’s memorable wedding day from The Incredibles. “Officers… Ma’am… Squeaker…”

I almost mentioned this, but technically it too, is not the beginning. Isn’t the beginning when the interviews are being conducted? Mr. Frozone - “women are always trying to tell you their secret identity.. they think it’s going to strengthen the relationship or something.” (or something like that).

OK, for my choices: (I am a product of the 70’s and 80’s)

Raiders of the Lost Ark - That was fantastic.
Star Wars - watching that battle cruiser float overhead was an incredible experience.

**Napoleon Dynamite **- just for the sheer stupidity of it (Napoleon throwing the he-man doll tied to fishing line out of the bus window and watching it drag and bounce behind the bus.)

**Payback ** - Mel Gibson lying down on a table in some guy’s apartment getting bullets taken out of his back. I was hooked to see the rest of the movie.

[MonkeyMensch]

@Zebra

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.

That’s not the opening shot either. The opening shot is of the unlit side of the moon sliding downwards in frame. As the music of Strauss’s Thus Sprach Zarathustra is heard, the Sun and crescent Earth appear in alignment with the Moon as the first fanfare of horns sounds.

I know this film well. I went to see it repeatedly in 1968 in Cinerama.

[cmyk]

The opening credits for 2001: A Space Odyssey. Still, I feel it’s part of the movie itself, especially how it bookends with the Starchild. My very favorite of all time.

Runners up are (in no particular order):
Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers
Run Lola Run
Star Wars
Jaws
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Fight Club

[cmyk]

I have to go with Contact as well, and if opening credits count, Se7en.