The Top Ten Movie Opening Scenes Of All Time
Feshti’s back and this time he’s counting down the top 10 movie opening scenes of all time.
10. Trainspotting
Wikipedia | IMDB
“Choose life, choose a job, choose a career, choose a fucking big television..” We all know it, we all quoted it back in ‘96. We all loved it. Ewan McGregor runs down Princes Street of Edinburgh, stolen merchandise scattering out of his pockets. And all to the thumping of Iggy Pops ‘Lust for Life’. Nail on the fucking head.
9. Contact
Wikipedia | IMDB | Official Site
We open on planet Earth, and a buzz of radio and television signals in the background. We pull back, through the Solar System, past the planets, and we hear the signals from further and further back in time. Soon we lose sight of the Solar System and we keep moving through the galaxy and beyond, until the signals have vanished entirely.. and then.. out there in the universe.. we hear the weird pulsing extraterrestrial signal..
8. Betty Blue
Wikipedia | IMDB
Has to be the best sex scene of all time, looks more realistic than the glossy shit any American film maker would shoot. And it’s hot as hell. “I had only known Betty for a week, we made love every night. The forecast was for storms …” Also sets up the two main characters perfectly for their eventual emotional freefall.
7. Touch of Evil
Wikipedia | IMDB
Another famous single-shot opening, which starts with a man placing something in the boot of a car, and then a couple getting into the car and heading down to the US / Mexican border. At the same time we follow the newlywed couple of Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh, out on the town on a romantic walk. The scene ends with the car exploding, and the movie begins.
6. 2001
Wikipedia | IMDB
The Academy Awards overlooked the special costume effects here at the Oscars because they thought Stanley Kubrick was shooting real monkeys. Ha ha. The truth behind mankinds intelligence and brutality is revealed to be a black rectangle that appears overnight somewhere in our primitive past. Ends with THAT cut.
5. Saving Private Ryan
Wikipedia | IMDB | Saving Private Ryan Online Encyclopedia
Actually the second scene of the movie, but for sheer impact it has to be included. Spielberg hits the chaos of modern warfare like nobody else, picking up D-Day and slapping our face with it repeatedly. Drafted teenagers vomit on the boat approaching the beach, fear is everywhere, and then once they hit the shore it’s just carnage.
4. The Player
Wikipedia | IMDB
One continuous shot over the studio parking lot pulls in all the major characters and takes a massive satirical knife to the throat of the Hollywood system, all wrapped up flawlessly and timed to perfection. The best is Fred Ward walking around going ‘I hate all this cut, cut cut, MTV generation shit..’ a joke that could have fallen flat but works perfectly. And the scripts being pitched to Tim Robbins (”What about ‘The Graduate 2?’”), priceless.
3. Blue Velvet
Wikipedia | IMDB
Welcome to white picket fence America. On the outside it looks so normal and friendly. Firemen wave to you. The grass in the front yard is trimmed perfectly. But underneath, you know the whole thing is fucked up. We see a man suffering a heart attack, and then the camera goes down, under the lawn, and we see it’s crawling with… beetles.. or something. The dirty insanity underlying the glossy poster image of suburban life. It’s the perfect cinema metaphor.
2. Apocalypse Now
Wikipedia | IMDB
To the ominous tones of The Doors we open on a fireball in the jungle. Helicopters swarm like wasps through the air. In Saigon, Willard wakes up next to a bottle and a gun in a fever of humidity. The helicopter meshes with the sound of the overhead fan. Willard looks outside. ‘Saigon…’ he says. ‘…..shit.’
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
Wikipedia | IMDB | IndianaJones.com
Peru, 1936. Archeologist Indiana Jones enters an ancient temple with two guides. There’s spear traps, poison darts, pits, closing stone doors, betrayals, hat snatching action, running away from boulders… The best scene in all three Indiana Jones movies is the first one. And, then, after all this, he has the idol taken off his hands by his nemesis Belloq, and is pursued through the jungle by a murderous tribe to an airplane with a snake in it. “I hate snakes, Jock. I hate ‘em!”
Agree or disagree or got one to add to the list? Leave a comment below.
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Yay, Lara Croft in Ireland!
Feshti's back and this time he's counting down the top 10 movie opening scenes of all time.
Is American opinion and culture crowding out all others?
Good List Feshti, I agree on most but haven’t seen em all I’ll admit.
I’d have to put the Matrix opening in there. Police storming the building where Trinity sits at the computer. “I sent two units, they’re bringing her down now” - “No Lieutenant you’re men are already dead.” Trinity hovering mid air, running around walls kills 4 guards without breakin a sweat & then the chase to the phone box. Brilliant
Another one of my favourites is Leon. Opens with the hitman (Leon) drinking his glass of milk getting the details about the Job. He goes to the hotel to give a warning to a drug dealer. He makes his way up to the 20th floor killing all his body guards in a number of ways without hardly being seen, comes out of the black delivers the message and dissappears back into the shadows. great opening for a brilliant film.
By the way, theres no alien signal in the intro to contact. Still a great opening scene. Keep up the good work.
Comment by dodger — October 28, 2006 @ 12:57 pm
the beginning of inner space.
Comment by krynn — October 31, 2006 @ 1:56 am
WTF … no Blade Runner …. my god…
Comment by Simon — October 31, 2006 @ 2:00 pm
Re:Saving Private Ryan
Wouldn’t I be correct in saying that that photo above is NOT actually from the finished film? According to the story they weren’t able to get the Sherman’s onto the beach until after the initial landing.
Speaking as an extra who was standing beside a Sherman as it came down the beach spitting fire I was quite disgusted that a couple of days worth of filming was scrapped. No Shermans, no 15 minutes of fame for maca. bastards.
Comment by maca — October 31, 2006 @ 2:18 pm
I dunno Maca, it’s the only still from Saving Private Ryan I could pull off the net. 100 points if you’re right tho.
Bladerunner, overrated.
Innerspace… I can’t remember how that began. Hell of a good movie though.
Yeah, Dodger, Leon is a good one. And well spotted about Contact, I haven’t actually seen the flick in about seven years so might have slipped on a detail..
Comment by feshti — October 31, 2006 @ 11:28 pm
the opening sequence of fight club
Comment by rur — November 3, 2006 @ 12:30 pm
wanna put a fiver on it feshti?
Comment by maca — November 4, 2006 @ 6:26 pm
Nope, 100 points or nothing!
Thought of another really good opening. Dead Man, when Johnny Depp is heading south on the train, and the people are getting rougher and more grizzly the further he goes. It’s niice. I like.
Comment by feshti — November 4, 2006 @ 9:07 pm
The Openeing shot of Star Wars, the large blockade runner cruising overhead suddenly dwarved by the Massive Star Destroyer.
Comment by trev — November 22, 2006 @ 4:49 pm
A Touch of Evil would get my top mark, followed by Trainspotting. Saving Private Ryan would get top marks for Most Contrived Opening Scenes!
Comment by Andrew — November 25, 2006 @ 10:12 am
The opening of Children of Men - where Clive Owen walks out of the coffee shop and it explodes….
Comment by dnc — November 25, 2006 @ 10:54 pm
“Bladerunner” - overrated? What!?
Surely a jaw dropping opening if ever ther was one.
Personal favourite - “GhostBusters”
Everything up to (and including) the moment the leave the New York public library after Ray implements his plan to “Get her!”
Comment by Steven Dedalus — December 5, 2006 @ 3:43 pm
What the F**K was I thinking???????? I FORGOT BARBARELLA!!!!!!!!!! Jane Fonda striping in zero gravity to cosmic 70’s music would have to be number ONE.
Comment by Feshti — December 10, 2006 @ 8:18 am
Must be opening of Star Wars and No. 1 and Indy No. 2
The large ship (and sound) thundering, then you understand its been pursued and lasers flying. Finally, this monster of Sci Fi Cruiser tips into screen.
Fastest hair on the back of your next opening I’ve every seen.
Most people can’t appreciate this because of three reasons
Your current age
It was 1977
Needs to be seen in really large cinema with big sound
Comment by Lawdie — December 13, 2006 @ 4:35 pm
Blue Velvet: It’s a beetle (…or something) infested ear. ‘member?
Comment by PeterR — December 14, 2006 @ 9:15 am
Tango by Patrice Leconte
Haven’t seen it since it was first released but I recall it goes something like this:
A woman having an affair watching and waving from the window of her home as her husband flies a bi-plane and skywrites to her while her lover makes love to her from behind. Until she says stop, get out, that’s not his writing and off we go on a chase to the death. Great colour and great fun, and a perfect start to a black comedy.
Comment by Eolaí gan Fhéile — December 22, 2006 @ 10:36 am
Re: Shermans on Omaha Beach in SPR
On D-Day the USA army had a squadron of amphibious tanks with flotation collars all set to go ashore …. unfortunately they were carried off course by currents and none of them made it to the beach. It would have been unhistorical for Spielberg to have shown Sherman tanks in action in the film. Sorry.
Comment by TJ — January 1, 2007 @ 5:58 pm
8 1/2 probably has the best opening I’ve ever seen.
Comment by timoguin — January 7, 2007 @ 1:23 am
[…] What is your favorite opening scene in a film? Check out The Community At Large’s top ten scenes here. […]
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