What is the best opening scene/ sequence of any movie? And why is it the animated Lion King?
For the time? A New Hope. Opens with easily the most impressive spaceship battle ever filmed, moves to an exciting battle, introduces an awesome menacing bad guy ("If this is a diplomatic ship, then where is thr ambassador? breaks neck with one hand and throws away the body) and kickstarts the plot.
I am really, really glad that someone else had said this before I got here.
The opening of ANH is a really great demonstration of minimalist storytelling. Not a moment of design - starship, character, action, nothing - is wasted; every interaction conveys something be it emotion or plot points. And after forcing the audience to sit through the opening crawl, I think that deluge of information is needed - anything less would have lost the audience.
Saving private Ryan
Such an incredible scene, and it really brings home the horror the soldiers went through
I mean none of the others even come close to this. And that’s without it being all but true.
I forgot about that. PTSD
Inglorious bastards
This and Drive are the two top answers for opposite reasons.
Kinda, but in essence they’re both about hiding and escaping from an overwhelming foe.
Drinking milk has never been the same.
Good one.
Terrifying performance.
The Matrix
The opening scene blew everyone’s minds in the theater! Nobody had ever seen anything like it before.
Their lead up to release campaign was also great. Just “what is the matrix?” in a bunch of places. Way better than trailers that make watching the movie unnecessary because they include the best jokes and action scenes. Especially since with the Matrix, the whole premise of the plot was the twist, so they couldn’t really give you anything.
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Watchmen film doesn’t get much love but I like it and the intro is fantastic.
I liked the intro to 28 weeks later more than the rest of the movie. Even though it makes little sense how the kid led the infected to them, when they can outrun most people.
Oh that is good.
Zombieland is overall underrated, but the intro is impeccable. Perfectly sets up the rules and the humor the rest of the movie follows.
also, just thinking about the start of cool hand luke makes me giggle uncontrollably.
I remember being very impressed with their use of text, too.
Children of Men (2006) sets the scene perfectly: the future is filthy, the youngest person on the planet has just died, and our protagonist just narrowly survived a terrorist act. Marvellous film.
Weirdly, this is the first movie that came to mind even though I can’t even remember the opening scene. Just the way done of those long shots are filmed, I was like, I bet that had a great opening
2001: A Space Odyssey
Simply the sun rising over the Earth set to Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
On Space Odyssey, I would agree that it’s cool to look at, but it’s terrible at conveying the meaning. You’d know if you read the book.
The book was based on early drafts of the movie, so the movie is not beholden to the novel’s interpretation.
Intro to Lord of War (2005)
Is that Nicholas Cage?
It is!
Contact the movie was almost as good as the book.
It’s Baby Driver for me too, I will always be happy to watch
Up
Most of the James Bond movies, hard to pick one.
Oh mannn the Up opening hits hard :(
Goldeneye sticks out in my mind.
This made me think of the first Austin Powers. That was good.
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It was absolutely perfect.
Anything Goes.
Pretty hard to beat the opening sequence of The Dark Knight. Really sets the tone for the whole movie.
Ghost Ship. The rest of the movie is horrible but the first scene is inspired.
Came here to say this, absolutely the first scene that came to mind. Any fan of campy horror should know this scene second by second.
The Dark Knight and Baby Driver seem to be the favorites so far.
