Best Movie Opening Scenes

La La Land, seriously.

Scream, Looking for Mr. Goodbar (opening credits), When a Stranger Calls (really the first 20 minutes), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (again, first bit, strange yet hypnotic), Dawn of the Dead remake (the movie is okay but the first 10 minutes are pretty terrifying), Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Suspiria.

How could I forget... All That Jazz!

Intermission, an Irish movie. I think 2005. Collin Farell at his Hollywood finest. Romances the barista in a Dublin airport cafe. He's so honest and touching. The young barista is thinking, "maybe my life got a little better." We are happy for her. Then Farell unloads a jab, connecting with her nose. He lungs across the counter and grabs the money from the til, then races away ahead of the cops. Fantastic.

West Side Story with that long pan up the west side of Manhattan.

Times Square. I'd stay up way too late on schoolnights when this was on The Movie Channel just to watch the first five minutes. I loved how Robin Johnson would play along with Roxy Music without it seeming either self-aware or cutsie.

I'm talkin' about Shaft.

The Matrix and Jaws

Halloween

Saving Private Ryan. Gut wrenching.

Saturday Night Fever.

The Dark Knight.

The Sound of Music

Hard to beat this:

Gotta be The Sound Of Music.

Raising Arizona has a whirlwind 10 or 15 minute opening segment that is amazing.

Bette opens with a bang.

Alien. The Exorcist.

Raiders of the Lost Ark and another vote for Dressed to Kill.

The Bonfire of the Vanities as a killer opening scene/shot. Rest of the movie is terrible.

The opening shot of The Player is a classic.

The opening shot/scene of Absolute Beginners is fabulous. Rest of the movie not so much.

The pre-credit sequence of Charade.

Star Trek (2009)'

Jaws

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Saving Private Ryan

Beauty and the Beast

Scream

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Star Wars IV: A New Hope

The Age of Innocence--the sequence at the Academy of Music during the performance of "Faust"

It would help greatly if some of you reminded us what happened in these introductory sequences. I don't have most of these films memorized.

Wow - some great clips - thank you. Never heard of Times Square before - need to watch. My favorite era - starting with 1972 Shaft - in NYC. Magnolia looks great too. I can’t sit through a Lars von Trier movie but in snippets it is stunning.

Death In Venice

The great opera sequence that opens "The Age of Innocence"

R24, it's better not to know if you haven't seen them. That way you can experience them for yourself.

The opening ten minutes of Magnolia is so audacious and virtuosic it makes me cry.

Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid

The Million Dollar Hotel

Tropic Thunder. Seriously.

Any James Bond movie

Betty Blue

Good one R34

The opening credits of Gone With the Wind are terrific. That score!

Garp. Simply irresistible.

Another vote for Scream

Cabaret

Contact

"Up," tracing the old man's life from childhood to present day.

The opening of Ordinary People captures the mood and the setting of the movie perfectly.

I want to live in Ordinary People town

Lawrence of Arabia (opening credits).

The original MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS. Beautiful opening credits, lush score, and then the creepy rendering of the baby kidnapping.

Also the incredible dance scene that opens THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT. Has to be seen to be believed.

Scream 2. I imagine many DLers fantasize about being Ghostface and filleting Jada Pinkett Smith.

The long heist scene at the beginnng of “Femme Fatale”

The amazing desert sequence at the beginning of Close Encounters of the Third Kind

The opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark

The beginning of Manhattan

Patton’s opening speech

Star Wars opening crawl and Star Destroyer magnificence

2001 first exposure to the Monolith

Raising Arizona's epic screwball setup

Close Encounters of the Third Kind:

In the present day, WW2 planes are found in a Mexico desert in mint condition. When the Feds inspecting the planes stop to talk to an old sunburned man -- who apparently witnessed the planes being left behind by aliens -- we get the chilling translation of his words: "He says the sun came out last night. He says it sang to him."

Sorry, R47. I did not see your post before I posted mine.

Another vote for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

The Phantom of the Opera

That’s ok r49, I do it all the time!

[italic]Breakfast at Tiffany's [/italic]

Pasqualino Settebellezze (Seven Beauties)

Don't Look Now: the upsetting sequence with the daughter drowning in the backyard pond

Raise the Red Lantern

Dunkirk. Quite impressive on Imax screen.

The opening sequence of 'Gidget Goes Hawaiian' with all it's surreal foreshadowing.

"Do The Right Thing", with Rosie Perez dancing to Public Enemy:

Had to add another vote for Jaws. Lived waterfront at the time the movie came out.. Did plenty of night swimming. Took a hiatus.

Orson Welles- Citizen Kane. One word- Rosebud.

Bond, James Bond. Goldfinger has my favorite opening.

Hitchcock- Vertigo and Rear Window

In my opinion, the most frightening and best ever- the original 1968 George Romero Night Of The Living Dead- Johnny and BAR-BA-RA in the cemetery.

Lots of other great ones already posted that I love, and some I'm looking forward to checking out.

For me nothing beats the opening of Ken Russell's The Devils.

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

It's got to be surely Dame Julie.

During the overture for FLOWER DRUM SONG, and under the opening credits, there is a series of beautiful Asian-inspired illustrations that unfold as a prologue to the film. They set the mood for the light comic story that follows.

There is a lot of VCR-related bullshit at the top of this vid. The film credits start at about 1:08.

The only good thing about My Best Friend's Wedding is the opening credits. All downhill after that.

Hate Woody - but love opening of Manhattan- a love letter in film

Woody Allen's slideshow of Paris from "Midnight In Paris."

Jennifer Lawrence has never come close to an opening scene as appealing as Elizabeth Shue in Adventures in Babysitting.

Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" -

A very recent movie with an opening I absolutely LOVED was Guardians of the Galaxy 2 — the conceit of focusing on baby groot dancing when this EPIC battle with a space monster was going on is just so charming.

You can skip to 1:35 on the clip

The opening sequence of THE LETTER with Bette Davis capping her lover...doesn't get any better than that.

"Rosemary's Baby," with crazy Rosemary Woodhouse 'singing' its idyllic lyrics (which must have been as a result of Minnie's Chocolate Mousse) -

I always thought the opening to Mommie Dearest was perfectly done, capturing Joan’s maniacal discipline and drive and really building toward the reveal of Joan the *star*. It’s a shame the movie turned out to be Mommie Dearest.

Up. One of the best openings ever.

Saving Private Ryan

The Searchers

All of the above mentioned are excellent. I also vote for--LA DOLCE VITA-sexy, ridiculous, profane, metaphoric. Marcello, paparazzo, the sexy rooftop girls, and christ flying above rome. Everything we're about to see is right there in that opening sequence. BOOGIE NIGHTS--"best of my love" plays loud. the huge lit up title that becomes the nightclub sign as we pan out. then we follow burt and julienne moore's grand entrance into the club. from there we meet the rest of the cast as if we too are on skates in a roller disco. PSYCHO--those amazing zig-zag, disturbing, psycho-titles, coupled with that jarring, now iconic opening music. Right into the shot over downtown Phoenix. Leading us to the window of a hotel room. We get to peep into that private window and they don't we're watching. The first thing we see is Janet Leigh undressed lying on a bed looking up. Her breasts are huge. And pointing straight up. Straight up to the gorgeous John Gavin's crotch. He's shirtless. And it's 1960. Audiences must have been losing their mind! I still lose mine when i see it in 2018! MYSTERIOUS SKIN--the brilliant, haunting, and narcotic opening title sequence with the boy and the cereal falling from above. Into the opening sequence with the 2 lead characters at age 8. Both recalling a memory and a time that they've shared together. Though what we see looks completely different between them.

These are just a few of many great openings in movies that I love.

Best opening titles/credits sequence ever:

In a theater, this is stunning.

This

The opening credits to THE FRONT are terrific - all these great b&w newsreel clips set to Sinatra singing "Young at Heart." The movie is good too.

"Melancholia" was my immediate thought, R14.

I Am Cuba-not the first scene of the movie but the first scene of the first story...perfectly captures the American decadence in pre-Castro Cuba.

The practically wordless opening 10 minutes or so of Suspira is so fabulous, I must've seen it about a dozen times

The opening credits of The Shining are amazing.

The opening sequence for Company of Wolves. Hypnotic, graceful and ominous.

Another vote for Blade Runner and for Suspiria - also Argento's Phenomena (also known as Creepers); beautiful and gruesome at the same time.

Star Wars A New Hope with the peaceful planet suddenly overshadowed by the two enormous starships.

The opening credits for North by Northwest. Jazzy, angular, abrasive and threatening.

The title sequence for American Psycho. Hilarious and a great score.

The movie is pretty much bilge but the first minute or two of The Informers is jaw-dropping.

Creepshow's titles set the mood perfectly.

The Fog has a great opening scene with John Houseman's morbid old storyteller, his swinging pocket-watch and the final view of the magnificent but sinister coastal town.

Thought this would've been mentioned by now.

Credit to Walter Murch for the sound design/editing.

TWO MOON JUNCTION

Blue Velvet.

Fargo.

Death In Venice Touch of Evil The Letter West Side Story Cabaret Manhattan Vertigo 2001: A Space Odyssey Blade Runner All That Jazz Raiders of the Lost Ark

Boogie Nights

Ditto on Intermission and My Best Friend’s Wedding.

Zach Snyder keeps delivering diminishing returns with each subsequent film, but his opening sequence to Watchmen is brilliant.

If only the rest of his output were of this caliber...

Simple but gloriously melodramatic

Fellucci agreed to HER TERMS

I gotcha all beat - Adrian Lyne's opening for "Foxes" - 1980

(Here's the full movie - my treat!)

Not so fast, R93, I'll see your Foxes with "The Valley of the Dolls"!

R40 I found the opening scene for Contact. So well done. Impressive!

"The Age of Innocence." The credits begin, with the ominous romantic music from "Faust" playing in the background, with the shots of flowers blooming in sped-up motion behind a wall of words handwritten from period letters, suggesting something is being repressed behind the language. Then a dissolve to a bush of daisies, from which one in picked by "Marguerite"--we're on the stage of the old Academy of Music in the 1870s, during an operatic performance of "Faust", and then Scorsese keeps cutting back between the action on stage, the highly dressed-up audience in the stalls, and Newland Archer's box where two of the characters are gossiping that May Welland's family has brought the Countess Olenska out in public.

Nestor Almendros' (cinematographer) "Days of Heaven" - Exquisite

You do know that the opening of Age of Innocence is George Cukor and Max Ophuls don't you?

Thief!

r97 didn't another DP work on that, but not get credit?

I'm embarrassed I forgot that; one of my favourite movies.

Possibly. It's akin to a film Director's being recognized for his/her work, even though there were multiple ADs on the project as well (some of them with an even 'better eye,' perhaps.)

One of the great openings is Busby Berkeley's production number from The Gang's All Here. It starts off with the song Brazil and segue ways into You Find You're in New York. Absolutely sensational.

People love the phallic banana The Lady In the Tutti Frutti Hat but I find it an endless bore.

The first scene of Coppola's The Godfather.

The opening of Godfather Part 2, where we begin to understand what circumstances made the man we met at the beginning of Godfather Part 1.

The first 10 minutes of Danny Boyle's Trance are fantastic. The rest of the movie is crap, but those 10 minutes are worth watching.

There's a lot I don't like about Tarantino and about his later films, but the first chapter of Inglorious Basterds is one of the best things he's done. Perhaps the last great sequence he ever filmed.

Both "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "There Will Be Blood" have twenty minute opening sequences that are wordless. Both brilliant.

Bring It On

The rest of the movie just doesn't compare.

"I'm STILL... Big... Red..."

I'm always surprised this scene doesn't get parodied more (on The Simpsons or on a Seth McFarlane show) because it is so iconic

The opening sequence from the original Star Wars.

That first brief hilarious scene in Hedwig, when she's in the alleyway and throws the umbrella away as she enters Bilgewaters. Gets me every time.

"Mildred Pierce" certainly starts with a bang in gorgeous b/w chiaroscuro.

"The Big Sleep" gets right into the story, with the quirky rich fanily. (Martha Vickers, in the shortest of shorts, tries to sit in Bogart's lap while he's still standing, then he sweats in the green house while interviewed by a wizened invalid.)

Another vote for Bring it On. That opening always makes me laugh.

Apocalypse Now

It’s an absolute love it or hate it opening, but Melancholia takes the best opening ever award as far as I am concerned.

Love the opening, r114. Shame the rest of the movie is so disappointing.

R115 I love the movie soooo much. As soon as I rejected the confusion of setting and character and dialect and overall senselessness, it resonated with me on a deep level.

It took me at least three tries to get through without falling asleep, r116. But I'm finding that to be a fairly constant problem as I get older.

"The Hunger," with Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie stalking their prey. An incredible opening sequence:

"The Best of Everything "--the song (Johnny Mathis!), then the shot of Hope Lange walking up to Lever House on Park. Ready to be a career girl!

The Big Chill

The Social Network.

Beverly Hills Cop

PURPLE RAIN

WORKING GIRL

R18 is very smart. We had an amazing talk about the opening scenes (and later scenes) from 'The Exorcist'. I've never known a movie opening that glued me to the seat, but scared the shit out of me, in that same way.

The scene itself.

Sorry, better version

The beginning of Dr. Zhivago (the original from 1965 with Omar Sharif) during the Russian Orthodox funeral scene where I think Dr. Zhivago as a boy watches his mother's coffin being nailed shut, placed into the grave and dirt quickly shoveled into it with autumn winds blowing through the trees and dead leaves being scattered through the air--beautiful and poignant all at once. The kid they got to play that part did a perfect job.

I always enoy the start of Butterfield 8 when Taylor wakes up and wanders around the apartment.

The opening visual of Tarantino’s Hateful Eight (zooming out from what turns out to be a weathered wooded crucifix to an empty landscape with an approaching coach) is the only good thing about that movie.

Surprised they haven’t been mentioned yet, but the credits/ opening of the Coens’ 1990 gangster film Miller’s Crossing – a man’s hat blowing endlessly through the woods -- is mesmerizing

It’s hard to find, but Orson Welles’s deeply flawed Othello film has a stunning opening sequence, in which the camera follows a caged Iago being carried through and along the parapets and corridors of a castle.

Hitchcock, Welles and the Coens (who, frankly, are really just pastiching their idols) all pay/ paid great attention to opening sequences.

Another directormill who did surprisingly great scenes, opening and otherwise, was Eric von Stroheim.

^wooden

^another director

[quote] I Am Cuba-not the first scene of the movie but the first scene of the first story...perfectly captures the American decadence in pre-Castro Cuba.

R81 Jaw-dropping choreographed single take. Another spectacular long take in Soy Cuba is the aerial shot coming into the island. Ends in the pool, I'm trying to recall.

[quote] Hitchcock, Welles and the Coens (who, frankly, are really just pastiching their idols) all pay/ paid great attention to opening sequences.

Any director worth his salt does. It's like the opening sentence of a novel.

The Godfather, Part2- where we see the little boy placed in a lonely room and he sits downs and starts singing to himself for comfort. That scene always gets me.

Meet Me In St. Louis- we see a neighborhood, and all the people in it- it's so detailed that it fills the senses and you are instantly in the film.

And Lawrence of Arabia- with O'Toole getting ready to ride his bike and that great music by Jarre playing.

I agree that The Letter and The Searchers both have great openings.

So does Shane. A beautiful scene as Joey watches Shane ride into his world. And then the scene is mirrored at the end when he rides out.

"JAWS"!

The Court Jester. Somebody please post it.

R135 - Your wish is my command.

I loved the Age of Innocence's opening too. For opera buffs, the Faust performance was done in Italian because at that time NYC opera patrons were only used to Italian operas, so the whole thing was transcribed specially for NYC performances. (It's a French opera of course) I found it so charming in Italian, with such obviously "French" music, it is so interesting. I actually wish that someone would do a revival of it. Anyway this was an actual historical tidbit from Wharton's novel and I'm so glad they made the effort to include it, which was some effort I'm sure.

The Lion King. A Shakespearean tragedy await. Hamlet if you will.

This one is legendary:

Wild At Heart

Youtube'd INTERMISSION with Colin Farrell. OMG that was funny... I will probably go to hell for laughing out loud, but I did!!

Bump