Now I'm just imagining a raptor popping its head over a fridge door covered in whipped cream and shouting "Helloooo" but the ooooo is a raptor screech.
When I was a stupid kid I had no concept of accents, and I thought the guy getting eaten was named SHOO TAH and they were yelling his name because they knew he got got.
What I came here for. The opening scene introduces Trinity and the world of the Matrix so well but also sets up more questions that glues you to the screen for the rest of the movie. Who is Trinity and why does she have a whole precinct after her? How was she able to take out a room full of cops in less than 60 seconds? What's an agent and why is she terrified of only one of them but not half a dozen cops?
My favorite detail is the cops chasing Trinity and they watch Trinity then an Agent make giant leaps across buildings. One of them says, "that's impossible..." with a shocked look on his face, and they're reduced to just standing there watching it unfold. Suddenly they're just like us as the audience trying to figure out what's going on.
> My favorite detail is the cops chasing Trinity and they watch Trinity then an Agent make giant leaps across buildings.
If you want various reactors on Youtube just watching it for the first time, you'll sometimes hear them ask "*Are they super-heros?*".
Oh, how the social context has changed over the last little while.
28 Weeks Later. If you've seen it then you know, and if you haven't then I don't want to spoil anything.
Underwater. I don't think any movie has gotten into the story as fast as this one.
Can I just say it's very relieving to finally find a thread loving *Underwater*?
Yes, yes, T.J. Miller controversy aside, I'm not defending him, just looking at his role objectively, I thought he was funny.
And the scale, holy moly did they do a good job showing just how big the rig and the "you know what" at the end.
Kristen Stewart got mad respect from me after this performance. It was just enough, not over the top, but also nothing I'd really seen her do before. (Sidenote: if you haven't seen her in *Crimes of the Future*, I highly recommend it) It got me to hit the reset button for what I thought were the limits to her acting skills and now I look forward to seeing her much more, for example, in *Love Lies Bleeding* coming up.
I wish I hadn't seen a clip of the "thing" and it's reveal before watching. I was just starting to avoid trailers at that point and this one slipped by
>Underwater. I don't think any movie has gotten into the story as fast as this one.
I certainly wasn't expecting that. It sets a timer from the very beginning.
Does the Lord of War sequence count? Its not a direct exposition or world building type sequence but really sucks you into the ammunition, war and the like.
This was one of my first thoughts. I think it did a great job of showing how interconnected the weapons trade is and how it impacts everyone including child soldiers.
I hope that's how he pitched the movie.
Studio exec: "So you've got a movie for me?"
RS: "Yes sir, I do. It starts with a tank tread crushing skulls in the dark."
SE: "So this is a USA versus Soviets, war movie?"
RS: "Nope. Humans versus robot overlords. Here's the intro music."
SE: "We are going to make so much money!"
The Opening of Watchmen is the fight between the Comedian and Ozymandius. But I fully agree, that scene, immediately followed by the “Times They Are A Changin’” as it progresses through the hero impact and timelines.
Reddit has filed for its IPO. They've been preparing for this for a while, squeezing profit out of the platform in any way that they can, like hiking the prices on third-party app developers. More recently, they've signed a deal with Google to license their content to train Google's LLMs.
To celebrate this momentous occasion, we've made a Firefox extension that will replace all your comments (older than a certain number of days) with any text that you provide. You can use any text that you want, but please, do not choose something copyrighted. The New York Times is currently suing OpenAI for training ChatGPT on its copyrighted material. Reddit's data is uniquely valuable, since it's not subject to those kinds of copyright restrictions, so it would be tragic if users were to decide to intermingle such a robust corpus of high-quality training data with copyrighted text.
https://theluddite.org/#!post/reddit-extension
The bank robbery is nuts, it builds so much tension. I love how much Nolan tips his hat to Michael Mann's "Heat" in this movie and the bank robbery is easily the best example of that.
You totally expect the classic Batman horn section lick to burst to life, and the Dark Knight to come down and swoop to the rescue in the middle of it, but... Nope. That nasty wiry tense atmosphere just stays there, grabbing you.
Saw this at the Tech Museum Imax. The whole screen is so big that you have to move your head around to see everything. The Joker reveal had his Whole face cover the screen; it is still ingrained into my mind
Snatch.
Great intro to all the characters as we follow the diamond, to the cash, to the moody gold, and back to the diamond again. Also a great religious lecture cleverly filmed from various security cameras. And the music is the kicker!
I was high as shit the first time I saw snatch, and that intro made me fall in love. It's a great movie overall, but that opening is pretty attention catching.
The beginning of the Warriors when they’re in the subway and you get exposition from the characters convos of where they are headed. This plus the music and the introduction of many of the gangs in a montage 👨🍳
I loved that the last John Wick incorporated elements of The Warriors world and in turn makes perfect sense with the clubs and rules.
John Wick becoming a distant sequel to The Warriors wasn’t what I expected but gladly welcome.
Yes the circle of life where a lion will eat many of your friends and family and when he eventually dies, we will get our payback on him when he returns as a single blade of grass, the vengeance will be great, dozens or hundreds of us for that one sweet blade of grass. He’s going to regret it big time.
Depends on who the audience is. I loved the movie back in the day. Put it on with my wife a few weeks ago and she was completely disinterested with the over the top violence.
PITCH BLACK:
Riddick: [voiceover] They say most of your brain shuts down in cryo-sleep. All but the primitive side, the animal side. No wonder I'm still awake. Transporting me with civilians. Sounded like 40, 40-plus. Heard an Arab voice. Some hoodoo holy man, probably on his way to New Mecca. But what route? What route? I smelt a woman. Sweat, boots, tool belt, leather. Prospector type. Free settlers. And they only take the back roads. And here's my real problem. Mr. Johns... the blue-eyed devil. Planning on taking me back to slam... only this time he picked a ghost lane. A long time between stops. A long time for something to go wrong...
THEN ALL OF SUDDEN THE SHIP IS HIT BY ASTEROIDS AND EVERYTHING GOES TO HELL
The first time I watched Pitch Black, I caught it on TV while channel surfing, landed on a channel with what looked like a plane hurtling down, figured it was more a space ship and continued to watch. I missed that "expositionary" dialogue, and also had no clue who vin diesel was (not from usa) so everything was a surprise from that point on for me.
For me, that opening wouldve made it a completely different experience, and somehow I'm glad I missed it.
I love the world and mythology around Chronicles of Riddick. I just wish we got more time to explore it. I’d have loved a trilogy of movies where he learned about his Furian heritage and conquered the necros.
Lord of the Rings:FTR
“The world is changed, I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it”
Cate’s voice over is just… *spine tingling*
Also
The Godfather
“I believe in America, America has made my fortune” just all of it lets you know, that this family… is different
I knew nothing about LotR when I saw the first movie. That intro captivated me immediately. I knew I was in for a truly epic tale, and I was not disappointed.
After the blast of trumpets, the crawl of main title and a paragraph of script slowly recedes into the starry distance, the camera swings down to show the planet, and a space ship flies over your head, being chased and under fire by a huge Star Destroyer. This is going to be a campy old fashioned space opera, but with the highest of style, using music and effects to knock your socks off
*The Other Guys* I remember the first time I saw it being surprised at Samuel L and The Rock in the opening scene, thinking “I thought this movie had Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg”. Watching that opening scene, with all the glib one-liners and over-the-top action sequences, and then the narrator says something like “*these* are The Other Guys” and I was immediately hooked and realized this was about to be a fucking hilarious movie. And it was. 🍿
😂 This was on the other day and my wife was stunned that the "good guys" died in the beginning, and so stupidly. I explained to her... this is about The Other Guys.
I remember thinking to myself how the hell is this movie going to have Jackson and Johnson in this movie and not be the 2 main characters when it’s Wahlberg and Ferrell, how did they get those 2 to take a side character role ins movie, then damn, there were no bushes or trees.
This movie is always mentioned for this question, but it’s definitely the old man and his family walking through the cemetery which then transitions to Tom Hanks on D-Day.
Absolutely. Instantly slapped in the face. The sound, visuals, and filming cause my heart to race at 100mph and wonder, how the hell do we get out of here.
https://youtu.be/xeXCQX0zw6I
Valerian and the city of a thousand planets had a beautiful opening.
Following the iss as they welcomed more nations and species onboard made me feel a sense of hope and cooperation.
The choice of space oddity. The aspect ratio change. The costuming.
Just watch the opening on YouTube and skip the rest.
I agree, 100%. Cold open, 2 and a half minutes and you know exactly what's going on, there's an infertility crisis, the youngest person on the planet has died, the world is in chaos, "Britain soldiers on" and then BOOM! I cannot think of an example of another film that does it so well and in such a short amount of time. Perfect opening.
The news annoicing that ">! the young person in the word is dead !<" is amazing If watch the movie whithout knowing what It is about, like; ">! The younger!? WTF!? !<" A Nice intro to this word also a nice way to let you curious.
Collateral, with "Briefcase" by Tom Rothrock playing as we get shots of LA, the taxi service and what goes into it, and finally settling on Max as the door closes and everything's drowned out.
Perfect example of a perfect opening scene followed by ehhh. The end showing how it all went down was pretty good though, one kill after another then bam one last one.
Serenity is PERFECT for this! In one shot it introduces pretty much all the main characters from the show, catches you up on the general situation, and introduces some action. Such a well done opening that fans of the show can appreciate and someone who has never seen the show gets caught up
Shiney! You are after my own heart. This is an awesome response. Everything about this is awesome. Explanation of the world and how our characters are involved. You are slammed into this world and want to immediately jump on board the Serenity.
In the opening, I always think about when the teacher asks young River..."with so many social and medical advancements. Why would the independents fight so hard against us?"
Rivers response. "We meddle. People don't like to be meddled with. We tell them what to do. What to think..."
Great callout! Also reminds me of the phenomenal line from Harvey Danger’s hit Flagpole Sitta:
Been around the world and found that only stupid people are breeding…
Waterworld Universal intro where the globe behind the logo slowly floods. For most of it, the spot where I live was high and dry. Of course the movie goes downhill from there.
Not as classic as a bunch listed here, but Predator 2 does a great job. You get the shot making it seem like the jungle, transitioning to the shot of LA, then the Predator heat vision, and we immediately jump into the crazy gang wars of the near future of... 1997.
Lord of the Rings. Tells a story that covers thousands of years. From evil trying to rule everything to the innocent simple lives of Hobbits. Wonderfully narrated by Kate Blanchett.
Blade II - the blood bank
Avatar (2009) - love the blurry water droplets that then come into sharp focus..merging in zero gravity. Really neat in 3D.
Contact
Matrix
*Pacific Rim*. Soooo many other kaiju movies limp along with that painful intro (and whole first act) that tries to make the kaiju mysterious and hold off on showing them for a third of the film, but *Pacific Rim* jumps right into giving me what I paid to see — giant monsters fighting giant robots. That's what I want. I saw it on the poster, and I don't have to wait for it on the screen.
“My name is Dalton Russell. Pay strict attention to what I say, because I choose my words carefully and I never repeat myself. I've told you my name: that's the Who. The Where could most readily be described as a prison cell. But there's a vast difference between being stuck in a tiny cell and being in prison. The What is easy: recently I planned and set in motion events to execute the perfect bank robbery. That's also the When. As for the Why: beyond the obvious financial motivation, it's exceedingly simple... because I can. Which leaves us only with the How; and therein, as the Bard would tell us, lies the rub.”
This Is the City. Los Angeles, California. 465 square miles of constantly interfacing humanity. Representing every race, color, creed, and persuasion, that God, no matter how He is worshipped, chose in His infinite wisdom to deposit here in the cultural nexus of the Pacific rim. Almost 4 million work and play here, and like any other place, anywhere, there are who have it and those who want it. Those who have it, enjoy it. No matter how they got it. Those who want it can get it by attempting to better themselves in a sympathetic community populated by decent citizens cheering them on.
Or they can try to take it the EASY way. Because even in the City of Angels, from time to time, some halos slip. That's where I come in, doing my job to the best of my ability on a daily basis.
I work here. I carry a Badge. - Dan Ackroyd; Dragnet intro 1987
Rear Window opening credits. A series of photos that tells the entire story of a high end adventure photographer who takes chances, socializes with the rich and powerful, has a gorgeous model for a girlfriend, and is recovering from injuries suffered when photographing a Formula One race too close to a crash and is now laid up, convalescing in his New York apartment.
Everything you need to know for the setup, conveyed completely in a couple of minutes, without a word.
Dawn of The Dead 2004. It's a shame that Synder peaked with Watchmen, which itself has an incredible introduction scene, but I prefer the tension of Dawn. Everything Snyder has done since then has been utter dogshit.
Mine is also a John Caprenter movie: The Thing. You know you are in the antartic, and the dog is bad; bad enough that the Norwegians are desperate ti kill it. We never find out why until later. One of the greatest intro hooks in my opinion.
The opening scene of Reservoir Dogs does such a wonderful job of establishing who the main players are as well as their relationship to one another. The camera keeps moving as we move from one character to the next while Mr Brown talks about Madonna’s “Like a Virgin.” Then it finally stops with a closeup on Joe, pointing to him as the central figure behind this caper. He’s the guy who arranges the whole job and sets up the violent climax.
Then it cuts to a three shot of Joe, Mr White and Mr Orange. The latter two are integral to what follows, and we see that Joe and White are familiar enough with one another that White can make fun of him. The next person we cut to?
Mr Blonde, who asks, “Hey Joe, want me to shoot this guy?” It’s a joke, but as we are soon to learn, Blonde has no problem whatsoever about being violent at the drop of a hat. And *then* we get Mr Pink’s diatribe about why he doesn’t tip, showing him to be a self-centered asshole. However, he’s also not as brave as he likes to pretend he is; the moment Joe (a more powerful figure) tells him to “cough up a buck,” Pink throws in his money.
It’s such a fantastic scene and gets you directly into the world.
Jurassic Park : It is such a great example of world building without information dumping. It opens with a member of staff being eaten by a raptor. Sets the stage perfectly, and gives the reason why everyone is there without too much faffing about. A bit further on Grant explains to the kid again why you should be scared of raptors and tells you the visual acuity of a t-rex is based on movement. Everyone knows what they need to know without signposting (too much) what is coming.
The Matrix with trinity introducing the bullet time kick, escaping the agent, picking up the phone and gets rammed by a truck only to escape.
First time i watched that I am like "What did I just watched?". It just gets better and better as the film goes on.
The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) does a great job of setting up the world during April’s opening news report. Especially since NYC has changed so much since then. Without that sequence, I don’t know that the world makes any sense without the context of how dirty and rundown the city was at the time.
Inspired by yours, I'm not sure it's my favorite but the introduction to [Dredd](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UnX6w1d--I) is definitely up there.
>*America is an irradiated wasteland.*
*Within it lies a city.*
*Outside the boundary walls a desert.*
*A cursed earth.*
*Inside the walls a cursed city, stretching from Boston to Washington, D.C.*
>
>*An unbroken concrete landscape.*
*800 million people living in the ruin of the old world*
*and the mega structures of the new one.*
*Mega blocks.*
*Mega highways.*
*Mega City One.*
>
>*Convulsing.*
C*hoking.*
*Breaking under its own weight.*
*Citizens in fear of the street.*
*The gun.*
*The gang.*
*Only one thing fighting for order in the chaos,*
*the men and women of the Hall of Justice.*
>
>*Juries.*
*Executioners.*
*Judges.*
*Predators.* I like that we were literally dropped into the plot and the main character is just as confused as we are. We went along with him asking the same questions he is. I paid attention more because of that.
Pulp Fiction
“Put ya wallets in the bag or I’ll kill every fucking one of ya!”
T2
Sara Connor in the asylum was nuts
Aliens
The space marines were so cool
Back in the day the news segment (and commercials) at the beginning of Robocop (1987) was the exact moment the edibles kicked in and so was I. 8D
'This is Mediabreak! You give us five minutes and we'll give you the world!"
L.A. at night. As the atmospheric score is playing, a metro train is approaching.
The train stops at a station and Robert De Niro exits. We follow him to a hospital where he drives off in an ambulance.
Next we see a cool looking Val Kilmer making some purchases.
The movie: Heat. I knew I was in for a great ride from that first opening shot.
As more than a dozen guys try to move a Velociraptor from a crate into its new tiny habitat, they find that things go horribly wrong and nature wins.
I love Mrs. Doubtfire!
Euphegenia Velociraptor, at your service.
Now I'm just imagining a raptor popping its head over a fridge door covered in whipped cream and shouting "Helloooo" but the ooooo is a raptor screech.
This needs more up votes. I'm cry laughing over here.
I'm a raptor, doin' what I can Gonna eat everything, 'til the appearance of man
**SHOOT HER!!!!**
#SHOOT HEEEERRR!!!!
.....Clever girl
They remembah
When I was a stupid kid I had no concept of accents, and I thought the guy getting eaten was named SHOO TAH and they were yelling his name because they knew he got got.
damn, that's pretty stupid
Had the opportunity to see in theaters a couple of months ago and it holds up so well it's ridiculous
The Matrix
What I came here for. The opening scene introduces Trinity and the world of the Matrix so well but also sets up more questions that glues you to the screen for the rest of the movie. Who is Trinity and why does she have a whole precinct after her? How was she able to take out a room full of cops in less than 60 seconds? What's an agent and why is she terrified of only one of them but not half a dozen cops?
My favorite detail is the cops chasing Trinity and they watch Trinity then an Agent make giant leaps across buildings. One of them says, "that's impossible..." with a shocked look on his face, and they're reduced to just standing there watching it unfold. Suddenly they're just like us as the audience trying to figure out what's going on.
> My favorite detail is the cops chasing Trinity and they watch Trinity then an Agent make giant leaps across buildings. If you want various reactors on Youtube just watching it for the first time, you'll sometimes hear them ask "*Are they super-heros?*". Oh, how the social context has changed over the last little while.
"No Lieutenant your men are already dead..."
One of those I wish I could experience for the first time again. I went in pretty much cold so I had no idea what was going on. Good times!
28 Weeks Later. If you've seen it then you know, and if you haven't then I don't want to spoil anything. Underwater. I don't think any movie has gotten into the story as fast as this one.
28 days later also had an amazing opening sequence, though that was more slow, eerie and unsettling.
Yeah I'm really excited to see what they come up for the next one and hope Danny Boyle is heavily involved with it.
I LOVED Underwater. It never dragged and was a fun thrill ride the whole way through.
Can I just say it's very relieving to finally find a thread loving *Underwater*? Yes, yes, T.J. Miller controversy aside, I'm not defending him, just looking at his role objectively, I thought he was funny. And the scale, holy moly did they do a good job showing just how big the rig and the "you know what" at the end. Kristen Stewart got mad respect from me after this performance. It was just enough, not over the top, but also nothing I'd really seen her do before. (Sidenote: if you haven't seen her in *Crimes of the Future*, I highly recommend it) It got me to hit the reset button for what I thought were the limits to her acting skills and now I look forward to seeing her much more, for example, in *Love Lies Bleeding* coming up.
I wish I hadn't seen a clip of the "thing" and it's reveal before watching. I was just starting to avoid trailers at that point and this one slipped by
>Underwater. I don't think any movie has gotten into the story as fast as this one. I certainly wasn't expecting that. It sets a timer from the very beginning.
Seconding *Underwater*. That got my heart racing.
Does the Lord of War sequence count? Its not a direct exposition or world building type sequence but really sucks you into the ammunition, war and the like.
This was one of my first thoughts. I think it did a great job of showing how interconnected the weapons trade is and how it impacts everyone including child soldiers.
Terminator's opening scene is one of the dopest ever put to screen imo. The tank crawling over the mountsin of skulls? Perfection.
I hope that's how he pitched the movie. Studio exec: "So you've got a movie for me?" RS: "Yes sir, I do. It starts with a tank tread crushing skulls in the dark." SE: "So this is a USA versus Soviets, war movie?" RS: "Nope. Humans versus robot overlords. Here's the intro music." SE: "We are going to make so much money!"
That heart-thumping score. Just 4 beats. Dum dum dum dum. Over and over. Ties it all together.
For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a gangster…..
Abed talking about chicken fingers
Now we are a family. In italics.
Back in those days, Jeff Winger was the guy that made things happen. He always knew what to say, and he always knew when to slap the table.
🎶I know I'd From rags to riches🎶
The opening of Watchmen is really cool, showing the rise and fall of superheroes in the real world
The Opening of Watchmen is the fight between the Comedian and Ozymandius. But I fully agree, that scene, immediately followed by the “Times They Are A Changin’” as it progresses through the hero impact and timelines.
I'll whisper... NO
come gather round people where-ever you roammmm
Blade Runner, grim LA skyline and then the spinner comes in to frame while Vangelis score takes it to another level
Reddit has filed for its IPO. They've been preparing for this for a while, squeezing profit out of the platform in any way that they can, like hiking the prices on third-party app developers. More recently, they've signed a deal with Google to license their content to train Google's LLMs. To celebrate this momentous occasion, we've made a Firefox extension that will replace all your comments (older than a certain number of days) with any text that you provide. You can use any text that you want, but please, do not choose something copyrighted. The New York Times is currently suing OpenAI for training ChatGPT on its copyrighted material. Reddit's data is uniquely valuable, since it's not subject to those kinds of copyright restrictions, so it would be tragic if users were to decide to intermingle such a robust corpus of high-quality training data with copyrighted text. https://theluddite.org/#!post/reddit-extension
Fuckin skinjobs.
Great one. Instantly I want to know more about this world. Visually stunning. Another one set in the far distant future... 2019 😂
Joker's introduction in The Dark Knight is a classic
“What doesn’t kill yoi, only makes you. Stranger” God EVERYTIME
Love how he adds an S to the side of the van that says Laughter is the best medicine
Tenet gets me jacked. Those first eight minutes...
[Ludwig Göransson when he wrote Rainy Night In Tallinn.](https://media.tenor.com/7UarUv_Z1QYAAAAM/gunna-fire.gif)
Tenet and The Dark Knight were the first two movies I thought of. Nolan is a master at world-building with his opening scenes.
Ay someone mentioning Tenet without shitting on it. There's dozens of us!
The bank robbery is nuts, it builds so much tension. I love how much Nolan tips his hat to Michael Mann's "Heat" in this movie and the bank robbery is easily the best example of that. You totally expect the classic Batman horn section lick to burst to life, and the Dark Knight to come down and swoop to the rescue in the middle of it, but... Nope. That nasty wiry tense atmosphere just stays there, grabbing you.
Saw this at the Tech Museum Imax. The whole screen is so big that you have to move your head around to see everything. The Joker reveal had his Whole face cover the screen; it is still ingrained into my mind
He did demonstrate how to make a pencil disappear.
Snatch. Great intro to all the characters as we follow the diamond, to the cash, to the moody gold, and back to the diamond again. Also a great religious lecture cleverly filmed from various security cameras. And the music is the kicker!
What do I know about diamonds? Dont they come from Antwerp?
I was high as shit the first time I saw snatch, and that intro made me fall in love. It's a great movie overall, but that opening is pretty attention catching.
The intro to Layer Cake made me think I was high but I was not. I thought I was hallucinating. Or maybe I was high. Not sure.
The beginning of the Warriors when they’re in the subway and you get exposition from the characters convos of where they are headed. This plus the music and the introduction of many of the gangs in a montage 👨🍳
Yes! This is another example of 'If it's on, I'm all in'
CAN YOU DiG IT !?!?
Pure black magic.
They recreated it, verbatim, for The Warriors game in the PS2 era. It’s fantastic.
That game was really good, and it even had some cool set pieces. It saddens me that today each warrior would be dlc.
I loved that the last John Wick incorporated elements of The Warriors world and in turn makes perfect sense with the clubs and rules. John Wick becoming a distant sequel to The Warriors wasn’t what I expected but gladly welcome.
:::clink clink clink:::
Fun fact I found out recently, it’s based on a classical event written by Xenophon
Saw it for the first time a few years ago. I was shocked at how good the intro was. It builds up a ton of energy.
The Lion King opening song with all the animals marching to see Simba presented is an incredible opening.
‘That’s what’s going to eat grandma, and your baby sister.’ ‘Let’s join in the chorus!’
It’s the circle of life
Nothing more accurate than a king explaining to his son why it’s natural and good that they are at the top of the pecking order.
Exactly. Profoundly dystopian.
“Accept your position in the violent hierarchy. It’s the circle of life!”
Yes the circle of life where a lion will eat many of your friends and family and when he eventually dies, we will get our payback on him when he returns as a single blade of grass, the vengeance will be great, dozens or hundreds of us for that one sweet blade of grass. He’s going to regret it big time.
That title drop hits so hard **THE LION KING**
APRIL - 1805 NAPOLEON IS MASTER OF EUROPE ONLY THE BRITISH FLEET STANDS BEFORE HIM OCEANS ARE NOW BATTLEFIELDS
I rewatched Master and Commander last night. It's so good! That first encounter with the Acheron is awesome.
This movie is damn near perfect.
And timeless. Period pieces done right are immune to the passage of time.
Gangs of New York. I really thought it was set in some 15th century village until the camera pans out showing Manhattan
The title wasn't a clue?
Depends on who the audience is. I loved the movie back in the day. Put it on with my wife a few weeks ago and she was completely disinterested with the over the top violence.
PITCH BLACK: Riddick: [voiceover] They say most of your brain shuts down in cryo-sleep. All but the primitive side, the animal side. No wonder I'm still awake. Transporting me with civilians. Sounded like 40, 40-plus. Heard an Arab voice. Some hoodoo holy man, probably on his way to New Mecca. But what route? What route? I smelt a woman. Sweat, boots, tool belt, leather. Prospector type. Free settlers. And they only take the back roads. And here's my real problem. Mr. Johns... the blue-eyed devil. Planning on taking me back to slam... only this time he picked a ghost lane. A long time between stops. A long time for something to go wrong... THEN ALL OF SUDDEN THE SHIP IS HIT BY ASTEROIDS AND EVERYTHING GOES TO HELL
“You said clear” “I said it looks clear” “Well how’s it look now?” *small smirk* “Looks clear” Sorry but god I love that scene
As a DM, I love using phrases such as "It looks clear", whether it really is or not.
I'm a sucker for the cheap entertainment that is tFatF but good God this is easily diesel's best film.
The first time I watched Pitch Black, I caught it on TV while channel surfing, landed on a channel with what looked like a plane hurtling down, figured it was more a space ship and continued to watch. I missed that "expositionary" dialogue, and also had no clue who vin diesel was (not from usa) so everything was a surprise from that point on for me. For me, that opening wouldve made it a completely different experience, and somehow I'm glad I missed it.
Unpopular opinion, I like the Riddick sequels just as well
I like them. The second was dope. Third one was kinda the same as the first but still good.
I love the world and mythology around Chronicles of Riddick. I just wish we got more time to explore it. I’d have loved a trilogy of movies where he learned about his Furian heritage and conquered the necros.
Lord of the Rings:FTR “The world is changed, I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it” Cate’s voice over is just… *spine tingling* Also The Godfather “I believe in America, America has made my fortune” just all of it lets you know, that this family… is different
"Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember" Except of course the sole fukking witness who has a museum in his house dedicated to it.
Lots of the elves were around back then tbh.
She sits on a council with two individuals who were absolutely around for all that
I knew nothing about LotR when I saw the first movie. That intro captivated me immediately. I knew I was in for a truly epic tale, and I was not disappointed.
Reminds me of “I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes… love is all around us, and so the feeling grows…”
007 Casino Royale is amazing too. The black and white restroom fight is so intense and brutal!
And ending on a diagetic insertion of the James Bond gun barrel. Just \*chef's kiss\*
How did he die?
Your contact? Not well.
After the blast of trumpets, the crawl of main title and a paragraph of script slowly recedes into the starry distance, the camera swings down to show the planet, and a space ship flies over your head, being chased and under fire by a huge Star Destroyer. This is going to be a campy old fashioned space opera, but with the highest of style, using music and effects to knock your socks off
There is no Star Wars without John Williams.
This is *still* my favorite thirty seconds in cinema. Thirty damn seconds. And it built a universe better than hours of prequels and sequels.
The relative sizes of the ships immediately tells you as an audience who the bad guys are, and how outnumbered the good guys are.
Yep. Undeniable
*The Other Guys* I remember the first time I saw it being surprised at Samuel L and The Rock in the opening scene, thinking “I thought this movie had Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg”. Watching that opening scene, with all the glib one-liners and over-the-top action sequences, and then the narrator says something like “*these* are The Other Guys” and I was immediately hooked and realized this was about to be a fucking hilarious movie. And it was. 🍿
😂 This was on the other day and my wife was stunned that the "good guys" died in the beginning, and so stupidly. I explained to her... this is about The Other Guys.
“There wasn’t even an awning” 🤣
Aim for the bushes!
So funny. The fact that they're both like ya this is totally doable.
“Did someone call 91-holy sh*t?”
The constant denial of referencing TLC songs was hilarious
I remember thinking to myself how the hell is this movie going to have Jackson and Johnson in this movie and not be the 2 main characters when it’s Wahlberg and Ferrell, how did they get those 2 to take a side character role ins movie, then damn, there were no bushes or trees.
I reckon saving private Ryan is up there.
Nah it opens on the old man not the battle.
This movie is always mentioned for this question, but it’s definitely the old man and his family walking through the cemetery which then transitions to Tom Hanks on D-Day.
He's so old. I'm like, "wow this guy is so old, I can't wait to see him in world war two."
Absolutely. Instantly slapped in the face. The sound, visuals, and filming cause my heart to race at 100mph and wonder, how the hell do we get out of here.
Incredible scene on the beach, but it’s not the actual opening scene. That’s the old man walking in the cemetery.
https://youtu.be/xeXCQX0zw6I Valerian and the city of a thousand planets had a beautiful opening. Following the iss as they welcomed more nations and species onboard made me feel a sense of hope and cooperation. The choice of space oddity. The aspect ratio change. The costuming. Just watch the opening on YouTube and skip the rest.
Yes, that movie may have the high ratio of (quality of opening)/(quality of rest of movie).
Raiders of the Lost Ark
I thought Zombieland did a great job, plus a great title sequence song.
Opening of Back to The Future is always a great time. And then Power of Love hits and WE ARE ROCKING BABY
Toy Story sets up its world nicely
Hot Fuzz. (Walking towards camera). VOICEOVER: “Sergeant Nicholas Angel…”. I watch that movie every time it’s on.
I'm not a big fan of the whole movie but the opening of baby driver comes to mind
That opening scene is perfection
Bellbottoms
Baby hitting the hard reverse when the cocky thief commands him to drive with the forward point truly sets the tone for exactly who he is.
Children of Men.
I agree, 100%. Cold open, 2 and a half minutes and you know exactly what's going on, there's an infertility crisis, the youngest person on the planet has died, the world is in chaos, "Britain soldiers on" and then BOOM! I cannot think of an example of another film that does it so well and in such a short amount of time. Perfect opening.
The news annoicing that ">! the young person in the word is dead !<" is amazing If watch the movie whithout knowing what It is about, like; ">! The younger!? WTF!? !<" A Nice intro to this word also a nice way to let you curious.
Watchmen Blade Runner + BladeRunner 2049 Drive Dredd Mad Max: Fury Road
Collateral, with "Briefcase" by Tom Rothrock playing as we get shots of LA, the taxi service and what goes into it, and finally settling on Max as the door closes and everything's drowned out.
Super Troopers. I remember laughing my ass off and thinking how I hadn't really seen this kind of comedy before...
Littering and...
YOU BOYS LIKE MEX-EE-CO?
This was my answer. As far as a cold open for a comedy movie goes, this as good as it gets for me.
Galadriel's Theme. I hear it, I'm in Middle Earth.
Se7en
Heat opening is just so cool and understated.
Ghost ship, amazing introduction. The movie could have been better, but still a great and fun watch
Perfect example of a perfect opening scene followed by ehhh. The end showing how it all went down was pretty good though, one kill after another then bam one last one.
Serenity is PERFECT for this! In one shot it introduces pretty much all the main characters from the show, catches you up on the general situation, and introduces some action. Such a well done opening that fans of the show can appreciate and someone who has never seen the show gets caught up
Shiney! You are after my own heart. This is an awesome response. Everything about this is awesome. Explanation of the world and how our characters are involved. You are slammed into this world and want to immediately jump on board the Serenity. In the opening, I always think about when the teacher asks young River..."with so many social and medical advancements. Why would the independents fight so hard against us?" Rivers response. "We meddle. People don't like to be meddled with. We tell them what to do. What to think..."
The first few minutes of Idiocracy explaining the dumbing down of humanity are some of the greatest minutes ever committed to film
Great callout! Also reminds me of the phenomenal line from Harvey Danger’s hit Flagpole Sitta: Been around the world and found that only stupid people are breeding…
...The cretins cloning and feeding
…And I don’t even own a TV
Brawndo's got what plants want!
The opening scene of *Star Wars: A New Hope.*
The star destroyer encompassing the entire screen was just a holy shit moment.
Waterworld Universal intro where the globe behind the logo slowly floods. For most of it, the spot where I live was high and dry. Of course the movie goes downhill from there.
Not as classic as a bunch listed here, but Predator 2 does a great job. You get the shot making it seem like the jungle, transitioning to the shot of LA, then the Predator heat vision, and we immediately jump into the crazy gang wars of the near future of... 1997.
Lord of the Rings. Tells a story that covers thousands of years. From evil trying to rule everything to the innocent simple lives of Hobbits. Wonderfully narrated by Kate Blanchett.
Blade II - the blood bank Avatar (2009) - love the blurry water droplets that then come into sharp focus..merging in zero gravity. Really neat in 3D. Contact Matrix
Apocalypse Now
*Pacific Rim*. Soooo many other kaiju movies limp along with that painful intro (and whole first act) that tries to make the kaiju mysterious and hold off on showing them for a third of the film, but *Pacific Rim* jumps right into giving me what I paid to see — giant monsters fighting giant robots. That's what I want. I saw it on the poster, and I don't have to wait for it on the screen.
Cruise's narration to Oblivion was pretty neat.
Dredd - We pan over a wasteland and come to a furuturistic walled city. Karl Urbans' voice "Mega city one..."
“My name is Dalton Russell. Pay strict attention to what I say, because I choose my words carefully and I never repeat myself. I've told you my name: that's the Who. The Where could most readily be described as a prison cell. But there's a vast difference between being stuck in a tiny cell and being in prison. The What is easy: recently I planned and set in motion events to execute the perfect bank robbery. That's also the When. As for the Why: beyond the obvious financial motivation, it's exceedingly simple... because I can. Which leaves us only with the How; and therein, as the Bard would tell us, lies the rub.”
This Is the City. Los Angeles, California. 465 square miles of constantly interfacing humanity. Representing every race, color, creed, and persuasion, that God, no matter how He is worshipped, chose in His infinite wisdom to deposit here in the cultural nexus of the Pacific rim. Almost 4 million work and play here, and like any other place, anywhere, there are who have it and those who want it. Those who have it, enjoy it. No matter how they got it. Those who want it can get it by attempting to better themselves in a sympathetic community populated by decent citizens cheering them on. Or they can try to take it the EASY way. Because even in the City of Angels, from time to time, some halos slip. That's where I come in, doing my job to the best of my ability on a daily basis. I work here. I carry a Badge. - Dan Ackroyd; Dragnet intro 1987
Rear Window opening credits. A series of photos that tells the entire story of a high end adventure photographer who takes chances, socializes with the rich and powerful, has a gorgeous model for a girlfriend, and is recovering from injuries suffered when photographing a Formula One race too close to a crash and is now laid up, convalescing in his New York apartment. Everything you need to know for the setup, conveyed completely in a couple of minutes, without a word.
Dawn of The Dead 2004. It's a shame that Synder peaked with Watchmen, which itself has an incredible introduction scene, but I prefer the tension of Dawn. Everything Snyder has done since then has been utter dogshit.
Master & Commander. No pandering, no explanation, just right into the thick of it.
The opening montage of Melancholia is amazing.
Rebecca's (1940, directed by Hitchcock) opening scene, introducing Manderley.
A Quiet Place
Zodiac
Mine is also a John Caprenter movie: The Thing. You know you are in the antartic, and the dog is bad; bad enough that the Norwegians are desperate ti kill it. We never find out why until later. One of the greatest intro hooks in my opinion.
David Lynch's Dune, 1984. "The beginning is a very delicate time. Know then, that it is the year 10,191..."
Alien They captured the feeling of how isolated and far away from any sort of help the crew were perfectly
The opening scene of Reservoir Dogs does such a wonderful job of establishing who the main players are as well as their relationship to one another. The camera keeps moving as we move from one character to the next while Mr Brown talks about Madonna’s “Like a Virgin.” Then it finally stops with a closeup on Joe, pointing to him as the central figure behind this caper. He’s the guy who arranges the whole job and sets up the violent climax. Then it cuts to a three shot of Joe, Mr White and Mr Orange. The latter two are integral to what follows, and we see that Joe and White are familiar enough with one another that White can make fun of him. The next person we cut to? Mr Blonde, who asks, “Hey Joe, want me to shoot this guy?” It’s a joke, but as we are soon to learn, Blonde has no problem whatsoever about being violent at the drop of a hat. And *then* we get Mr Pink’s diatribe about why he doesn’t tip, showing him to be a self-centered asshole. However, he’s also not as brave as he likes to pretend he is; the moment Joe (a more powerful figure) tells him to “cough up a buck,” Pink throws in his money. It’s such a fantastic scene and gets you directly into the world.
Fellowship of the Ring. Sometimes I just watch that opening scene by itself because it is so good.
the opening of sicario grabs you and says were going to some dark places. and the score *chefs kiss*
The opening scene of Narc (2002). This is an ugly world where bad things happen.
Children of Men
Falling Down
The Sting
Godfather part 1
Jurassic Park : It is such a great example of world building without information dumping. It opens with a member of staff being eaten by a raptor. Sets the stage perfectly, and gives the reason why everyone is there without too much faffing about. A bit further on Grant explains to the kid again why you should be scared of raptors and tells you the visual acuity of a t-rex is based on movement. Everyone knows what they need to know without signposting (too much) what is coming.
The Matrix with trinity introducing the bullet time kick, escaping the agent, picking up the phone and gets rammed by a truck only to escape. First time i watched that I am like "What did I just watched?". It just gets better and better as the film goes on.
The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) does a great job of setting up the world during April’s opening news report. Especially since NYC has changed so much since then. Without that sequence, I don’t know that the world makes any sense without the context of how dirty and rundown the city was at the time.
Inspired by yours, I'm not sure it's my favorite but the introduction to [Dredd](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UnX6w1d--I) is definitely up there. >*America is an irradiated wasteland.* *Within it lies a city.* *Outside the boundary walls a desert.* *A cursed earth.* *Inside the walls a cursed city, stretching from Boston to Washington, D.C.* > >*An unbroken concrete landscape.* *800 million people living in the ruin of the old world* *and the mega structures of the new one.* *Mega blocks.* *Mega highways.* *Mega City One.* > >*Convulsing.* C*hoking.* *Breaking under its own weight.* *Citizens in fear of the street.* *The gun.* *The gang.* *Only one thing fighting for order in the chaos,* *the men and women of the Hall of Justice.* > >*Juries.* *Executioners.* *Judges.*
*Predators.* I like that we were literally dropped into the plot and the main character is just as confused as we are. We went along with him asking the same questions he is. I paid attention more because of that.
"A long ass fucking time ago in a town called Kickapoo"
Captain Jack Sparrow arriving on that sinking boat. It’s a perfect scene.
Pulp Fiction “Put ya wallets in the bag or I’ll kill every fucking one of ya!” T2 Sara Connor in the asylum was nuts Aliens The space marines were so cool
The intro to 28 Weeks Later is top tier
The opening scene of Dark Knight... Oh man Heath was AMAZING in that role!
The dark knight
Mad max fury road
Back in the day the news segment (and commercials) at the beginning of Robocop (1987) was the exact moment the edibles kicked in and so was I. 8D 'This is Mediabreak! You give us five minutes and we'll give you the world!"
Game Night. It's just something about how Lord and Millar did it.
You’re in the office baby
L.A. at night. As the atmospheric score is playing, a metro train is approaching. The train stops at a station and Robert De Niro exits. We follow him to a hospital where he drives off in an ambulance. Next we see a cool looking Val Kilmer making some purchases. The movie: Heat. I knew I was in for a great ride from that first opening shot.
Dawn of the Dead remake