True, but no credits. Technically, the way Welles wanted it edited (and it was re-released this way in 1998) there were neither credits nor score over the opening sequence. And I hope you’re not saying that the rest of the movie was a letdown.
I forget whether the sequence I’m thinking of is the first one or if it’s after some credits. Maybe there’s no opening credits at all. Anyway, there’s a four-minute sequence early in the 2017 movie Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets which shows how the city of a thousand planets originated. It has the city being built by numerous alien races coming together. It’s a great sequence, and the rest of the movie is a disappointment in comparison.
Shortly before he died, John Belushi did one of these as a Mob rat getting the “cement overshoes” treatment. IIRC, he almost drowned for real in the tank of water they used.
The closing credits for “Wild Things” — they showed a ton of unseen footage that answered several questions from the main movie.
Also, the closing credits for Rocky V were pretty good, as they used still pictures telling the entire story from all 5 movies.
Answered, hell. The end credits remade the whole movie!
Sin City was rather dull, but the opening scene, “I’ll never know what she was running from. I’ll cash the check in the morning.” surprised me, a perfect start.
I walked into Fury Road wanting to hate it because Mel Gibson was no longer the Road Warrior, but that opening sequence could not have been more of a roller coaster and a terrific restart to the franchise. Tom Hardy is the Road Warrior now.
Mannequin is an OK romcom (I really like it but more out of sentimentality than anything else) but has great animated opening credits telling the story of the Mannequin through history.
I can’t find a watchable copy on Youtube though, just someone who’s filmed it with their phone but managed to miss most of the TV screen.
The end credits for Buckaroo Banzai always appealed to me.
Brian
Opening to Plan 9. Pants-shitting funny.
Opening credits of Fight Club.
The opening credits are the work of the much-overlooked animator Sally Cruikshank:
She did the “animated cartoon” sequences from the Twilight Zone movie, but most of her stuff (like Quasi at the Quackadero) has been out of the mainstream. You saw her stuff a lot at animation festivals.