Any great movie needs a compelling opening scene that hooks the audience right away and gets them to go along for the ride. From Stanley Kubrick filling in humanity’s origin story at the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey to Chrissie Watkins being devoured by a shark in the dead of night at the beginning of Jaws, a memorable opening scene can go a long way toward making a movie a classic.
But sometimes filmmakers can unwittingly shoot themselves in the foot with an opening scene that’s too good. In some cases, the opening scene is better than anything that the rest of the movie has to offer.
10 Inglourious Basterds (2009)
There are a lot of great moments in Quentin Tarantino’s WWII epic Inglourious Basterds, from the bone-chilling introduction of "The Bear Jew" to the historically inaccurate death of Adolf Hitler. But the greatest scene in the movie is the opening sequence in which S.S. Col. Hans Landa interrogates a dairy farmer who’s secretly harboring Jewish refugees under his floorboards.
In an interview on The Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith, Tarantino said that he had always considered True Romance’s iconic Sicilian scene to be the benchmark of his writing career, and that he finally surpassed that benchmark with the opening scene of Inglourious Basterds. The pan under the floorboards uses the Hitchcockian bomb-under-the-table technique to create unbearable tension. Christoph Waltz could’ve earned his Oscar from this scene alone. He nails the unsettling instant switch from Landa’s friendly facade to the sadistic “Jew Hunter” he really is.
9 Scream (1996)
The self-aware satire of Wes Craven’s subversive slasher Scream is established in the opening scene. An unsuspecting teen home alone at night receives a call from a masked killer who asks, “Do you like scary movies?” The casting of Drew Barrymore, one of the biggest movie stars in the world at the time, harks back to A-lister Janet Leigh getting butchered in the shower in the middle of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.
Scream was a breath of fresh air for its upending of familiar horror movie tropes and its characters’ awareness of the kind of horror movie they’re in. With the villain forcing one of his victims to answer horror movie trivia questions to stay alive, Scream says everything it has to say about its own genre in the opening scene. The rest of the movie just offers more of the same meta edge.
8 The Dark Knight (2008)
Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight is the quintessential Batman movie. It has a ton of unforgettable moments, like the hospital explosion, the pencil murder, the truck flip, and the brutal interrogation scene. But the opening bank heist sets a high benchmark that none of those other sequences can top.
Nolan wastes no time with exposition and instead dives right into the action, letting the audience catch up as the heist goes ahead. The IMAX visuals, the rising tension, and the Joker’s haunting introduction make this a perfect opening scene.
7 The Lion King (1994)
The opening sequence of Disney’s animated musical The Lion King sees animals coming out from all over to witness the birth of Simba, the heir to their kingdom, set to Elton John and Tim Rice’s glorious Oscar-nominated gem “Circle of Life.”
The sumptuous colors and gorgeous landscapes make this sequence a flawless work of art in and of itself. The rest of the film is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet set in the animal kingdom, but nothing from that plot is as breathtaking or awe-inspiring as the opening scene.
6 Lord Of War (2005)
Andrew Niccol’s Lord of War is sort of a reimagining of Goodfellas set in the arms trade. But what’s more notable than its shallow imitation of Scorsese’s style is its harrowing opening montage, which follows a bullet’s journey from the factory floor to a warzone and into a child soldier’s head.
Lord of War received an endorsement from Amnesty International for highlighting the problems with international arms trafficking, but the movie’s critique of the arms industry never gets more powerful or poignant than in its opening sequence.
5 28 Weeks Later (2007)
The sequel to 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, is surprisingly dull for a zombie movie. It’s set so much longer after the zombie virus outbreak than its predecessor that most of the characters are already living comfortably in a post-apocalyptic world.
But the opening prologue could be an intense, terrifying horror short on its own. It depicts the tragic backstory of Robert Carlyle’s character, as the undead break into his cottage hideout and he leaves his wife to die so he can narrowly escape the horde on a boat. The movie never comes close to being this scary again.
4 Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)
Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West is a masterpiece in its entirety. The whole three-hour epic is a love letter to westerns, providing a perfect bittersweet swansong for the genre, but its opening scene is so impeccably crafted that it’s impossible for any subsequent sequence to live up to it. The setup couldn’t be simpler – three gunslingers await the arrival of a train – and the scene runs for a good seven minutes. Leone’s unparalleled visual storytelling establishes that the three gunmen at the railway station are planning something awful.
The little details in Tonino Delli Colli’s cinematography, like the men casually playing with their guns, create a sense of dread about what will happen when the train arrives. Nino Baragli’s meticulous editing gradually increases the suspense with tighter closeups and quicker cuts. The climax of the sequence is spectacular, as Charles Bronson steps off the train and stares down his three would-be killers. Then, he eerily plays a harmonica before gunning them all down. The movie has a ton of great moments, but nothing else that reaches those riveting heights.
3 Hancock (2008)
There’s a terrific premise behind Peter Berg’s Hancock and the title character played by Will Smith, but the script completely squanders it. The opening scene establishes John Hancock as an immensely powerful superhuman who drinks heavily and bungles a lot of his crimefighting as a result. Instead of being cheered on by the public, he’s ridiculed and insulted for his drunken antics.
This opening scene sets up a subversive dark comedy about a bitter alcoholic Superman. However, when he teams up with a PR agent to improve his public image and the PR agent’s wife turns out to also have superpowers, it totally loses the plot. After this unnecessary twist, the rest of the movie devolves into a generic superhero story.
2 Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)
Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark is filled with thrilling action sequences, but the opening set piece is by far the most fun part of the whole movie. After perfectly introducing Indy to audiences, the temple escape exemplifies Spielberg’s pulpy old-school style of action filmmaking.
There are booby traps everywhere and a rolling boulder that chases Indy out of the cave. Spielberg creates taut suspense when Indy is nearly trapped in the collapsing temple, trying to pull himself out of a bottomless pit before the closing door seals him in. The scene culminates in Indy fleeing from a spear-wielding tribe all the way back to Jock’s seaplane. Nothing in the rest of the movie – not even the face-melting finale – lives up to the thrill of the opening sequence.
1 Up (2009)
Pixar’s Up, telling the story of a widower fulfilling his wife’s lifelong dream to fly their house to Paradise Falls, is a beautiful portrayal of grief. But the journey to Paradise Falls takes a weird turn that loses sight of these themes when the story becomes a big, extravagant adventure movie with talking dogs and a gun-toting blimp.
The opening montage chronicling Carl and Ellie’s lifetime of happiness followed by the tragedy of Ellie’s death is easily the movie’s greatest sequence, and could be taken on its own as a heartbreaking short film.
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