Alright! Today, in no specific order, I'll be listing what I think are some of the best movie openings of all time. My being 16 does severely limit my taste in movies though - a lot of this list will be after 2000. It's just not easy to find old movies, okay? My library is closed and Blockbuster isn't operating anymore! I'm willing to wager I missed out on a lot of good movies, which is saddening. It's a sad day for cinephiles everywhere.
So if you're looking for some pop culture highlights, a convoluted writing style, and a three attributes structure being used over and over again, do I have the list for you!
The Lion King
Never before has the opening of a movie been so ingrained in the cultural mindset - after all, who can forget the "NYAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!" that plays as the sun rises of the Serengeti?
The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight's intricately choreographed bank heist sequence is five minutes long and a ruthless introduction to the movie's main villain. The brutality of the robbers killing each other for a bigger share of the profit, leading all the way up to a killer introduction of Heath Ledger's Joker is something that cinemas have never quite seen again.
Jaws
Jaws was the very first blockbuster way back when in 1975, and the opening of that has been widely set in the cultural psyche. The backlit silhouettes of the shark's first victims, the iconic score, the shot of the woman swimming in the water while the shark approaches... goosebumps...
Up
No explanation needed here.
The Incredibles
Hear me out - the way The Incredibles starts is actually genius. It sets the tone for the world, introduces us to the characters and their old costumes, and tells us what this world's opinions on superheroes are (They're chill enough to give interviews). We gather so much information about the characters from these
Citizen Kane
From one of the greatest movies of all time comes one of the greatest openings. No surprise.
Cars
Never before has the cinematic landscape been changed as much as it was when the lights dimmed in 2006 and the beautiful "Speed. I am speed." monologue began. It was revolutionary.
Star Wars
It's rumored that one can actually hear the sound of John Williams' score when you see this image. It's not even a hard concept. One of, if not the, most famous movie of all time has one of the best movie openings. It's admittedly an easy pick.
Inception
While the linked clip is admittedly only half of the scene I'm talking about, the opening of Inception (Often called one of the best movies of the 21st century) is set across three different locations and nonchronologically, all while maintaining kinetic action and introducing us to Dom Cobb and the entire dream-within-a-dream gimmick.
The Fellowship of the Ring
It should be apparent by the thousands of fans who can quote the opening monologue by heart, but the slow and epic exposition detailing the creation of the One Ring and the fall of Isildur is, by all accounts, extremely awesome.
Finding Nemo
When people walking into a random kids' movie, were they expecting it to start right off the bat with the brutal murder of 399+ children and their mother. But it happened. And it's heartbreaking.
Shrek
Be it for the memes, the song, or for the extremely subtle yet intricate plotting that begins in frame one, Shrek came out of the gates blasting All-Star.
The Social Network
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2001: A Space Odyssey
2001's opening scene goes on for about 20 minutes. It's about monkeys seeing a monolith and the first "murder" ever committed. It's also completely unrelated to the rest of the movie. It's... a lot. It's distinct. It's bold. It's weird. And yet there's something so involved and strange and distinct in the opening it's hard not to admire. Plus one of the best match cuts of all time. So many questions and implications about humanity raised up here. I'm not even sure what to think. I saw this, like, two years ago and I'm still thinking about it.
Forrest Gump
Another combination of simplicity and a score. Forrest Gump starts out with just a single tracking shot on a feather and a simple piano riff. Move to a shot of a man in a white suit sitting on a bench talking about shoes with a thick Southern drawl. Absolute iconicity gained.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
One may only need to point to the plethora of pop culture references that have been made to it, but the rousing opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark features some of cinema's best. action and characterization. Right off the bat, we get an incredible action scene and a giant boulder (Fun fact! That rock was actually Dwayne Johnson's first film credit).
The Prince of Egypt
When people walked into the second DreamWorks movie in 1998, were they expecting the animated musical to start off with one of the heaviest hitting numbers in film history? I'm going to make the educated guess and say no. I mean, this movie made for children starts off with thousands of slaves singing about how terrible their condition is and that God has abandoned them... I mean... what?
Superman
Like Star Wars, Superman's opening is just shots of the stars with stylized words flying over them, all while a brilliant John Williams score plays. It's the perfect way to start a movie.
In the Heights
Even though it only came out two weeks ago, I feel like In the Heights has one of the best openings in cinema. It's probably my own extremely pleasurable viewing experience and the movie hitting the right spot when I saw it, but man, I really enjoyed the opening number. It's an entire vibe of its own. Maybe this list is just a testament to how much music makes an impact on a movie, because it's applicable to all of these.
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