Greatest Opening Scene Of A Film

[Quint]

@Stranger On A Train

I had forgotten about Touch of Evil. It still doesn’t quite hit my top 5 but it certainly deserves mention.

It’s not the longest single shot by far; Russian Ark’s 96 minute unbroken shot takes the record, at least as far as commercial films go. But it is a phenomonally long and complex moving shot, another notch in the belt of The Master. (Welles, not Cecil.)

Stranger

Big nitpick here, but Larry Borgia was talking about film history. Russian Ark was shot on tape. I realize that it is still a “film”, but the creators of Russian Ark were not restricted to the 11 minutes of film contained in a 1000 foot magazine. Touch of Evil’s opening may be the longest unbroken shot in the history of 35mm film, and most certainly was at the time it was made.

[meanoldman]

Blues Brothers . Stark images of a smog filled urban landscape. The echoing hallways of prison. Jake, at the prison gates, bathed in light.

Dang fine stuff.

[Anduril]

@Theologue

I was very impressed with the opener of The Two Towers. It’s one of my favorite scenes in the whole trilogy.

As a Christian, it reminded me of the Christus Victor theory of the atonement. “He descended…” and took names while at it.

I like the opening of The Fellowship of the Ring better, with all the elves and Sauron himself fighting in Mordor.

[I_Know_Nothing]

@rexnervous

Surprised no mention of The Matrix. From the phone call/computer screen through the garbage truck smashing the phone booth, that scene perfectly sets the tone for the movie.

I agree. I was pretty wowed when I when I saw bullet time for the first time.

[Kaotic_Newtral]

I’ll have to nominate the opening of The Outlaw Josey Wales it sets up everything nicely so you don’t feel sorry for a single person that Josey kills along the way. You realize that he’s out for revenge and he’s been MADE into the killer he is, he wasn’t always like that.

[Laughing_Hermit]

“Once Upon A Time…” is one of my favorite flicks of all time, so I have to go with the OP on this one…Drives the wife nuts because I watch it everytime it comes on…

Hahahahahaa…

[Laughing_Hermit]

“Once Upon A Time…” is one of my favorite flicks of all time, so I have to go with the OP on this one…Drives the wife nuts because I watch it everytime it comes on…

Hahahahahaa…

[Laughing_Hermit]

“The Matrix” is a good one as well, but only because I liked watching the chick in leather kick all those cops asses…Oooo Baby, come over and kick my ass too…

[Robot_Arm]

Always was just on TV last night. It starts with two guys in their little twelve-foot outboard boat, on a peaceful lake in the mountains, fishing. It’s shot with a long lens, so sizes and depth-of-field distances are exaggerated. Behind them, out of focus, and lowering slowly into the frame, is a PBY Catalina flying boat coming straight at them.

[Max_Carnage]

Another “bad movie, good opening” that has to deal with the Universal logo:

Flintstones: Viva Rock Vegas opened with the Universal logo, except the Earth was in Pangea mode and the Universal letters looked carved out of rock. The letters did their thing where they revolve around the globe, then the camera pans back through a window on Gazoo’s spaceship where he’d been watching the whole thing. He turns to his fellow aliens and asks “Did anybody else just see that???”

And then some other stuff happened and the end credits rolled. I think I might have been asleep.

[Clothahump]

My personal picks:

1. 2001

2. Patton

3. Star Wars

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

I can’t remember whether it was the first or the second scene, but the credits-scene of Shaun of the Dead is brilliant.

Daniel

[Annie-Xmas]

@KSO

The rest of the movie sucked, but the beginning of A Kiss Before Dying with Matt Dillon and Sean Young is fantastic–a happy couple goes to the Philadelphia City Hall for a marriage license but the office is closed for lunch so they go up to the roof to look at the city. She hops up and sits on the wall and suddenly he grabs her legs and flips her off the roof. Nothing else in the movie is worth watching.

Read Ira Levin’s book. One of the best first novels ever.

Casablanca set the stage and main characters beautifully in the first ten minutes.

[Antonius_Block]

@Quint

Big nitpick here, but Larry Borgia was talking about film history. Russian Ark was shot on tape. I realize that it is still a “film”, but the creators of Russian Ark were not restricted to the 11 minutes of film contained in a 1000 foot magazine.

[nitpick of a nitpick]
Russian Ark was filmed with a digital camera, and streamed direct to hard drive, not tape. Your point of the time limitations of film still holds true, of course.
[/nitpick of a nitpick]

[Monstre]

Got to agree that the Star Wars opening is one of the best.

For action and excitement in an opening, I like the start of Lethal Weapon 2 – no slow setup, no extraneous opener that’s unrelated to the plot, no slow murder setup. They just throw you right into the middle of a wild high-speed car chase, which sets up the basis for the plot.

I also like the opening on Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country – after opening credits that are admittedly a bit lengthy, they open with the violent explosion on Praxis, then Sulu’s ship getting smacked by the shock wave. Sulu: “Shields! SHIELDS!!!”

For comedies, I’ll second the vote for Austin Powers 3: Goldmember. That opening parody was comedy gold.

[Large_Marge]

I know this won’t be popular, but I vote for Dances with Wolves. I love the part where he rides the horse over the fence, across the field, head thrown back, arms out.

I don’t care much for Kevin, but I loved that movie.

[flight]

This thread shows what a film is capable of being, which makes those mentioned in this thread seem even worse in comparisson.

[Daylon]

1. Conan
2. Saving Private Ryan
3. Patton
4. Gladiator

[Talon_Karrde]

The Nightmare Before Christmas

I saw this recently for the first time in about ten years, and I loved the opening. The rest of the movie was good, but nothing matched the greatness of the beginning.

[GIGObuster]

@William V.

Yes, the Universal Studios’ logo of the Earth flooding at the beginning of “Waterworld” was cool - the best part of the movie, as a matter of fact.

Before the movie started, I told my brother it would be cool to see the earth/universal logo flood…

We did a high five when we saw it.

Yeah, the movie did go downhill from there…