The 20 most iconic opening scenes in movie history

As we get introduced to Daniel Craig as James Bond, we are also introduced to what kind of movies this version of Bond was going to star in. Going back to the beginning, we see Bond becoming a double-0 agent after getting his necessary confirmed kills. The only quibble? The first time we saw it, we thought the black-and-white was a technical glitch.

Before we ever see the titular Ghostbusters, we get a nice introduction to the world of the film. It’s a little funny, a little scary, and a lot of fun. Pity that poor librarian, but she’s vital to setting the tone, and also setting up the killer theme song.

How do you start a revisionist film noir that will see Philip Marlowe going into the world of rich, vain Californians? By having Marlowe scramble to get his cat some cat food in the middle of the nice. Does that sound good? Guess what? It’s absolutely riveting and shows the genius of Elliott Gould as an actor.

Another cold open of an ending that doesn’t feature any of the main characters. A couple of partygoers on the beach sneak off to go skinny dipping. The one guy never enters the water, but the poor woman does. Next thing we know, she’s the first victim of the killer shark that has come to terrorize Amity Island.

One of the most-famous opening vignettes to a horror movie ever. Drew Barrymore was the movie’s biggest star, and the film starts with her. The marketing focused on her. She gets a phone call, scary movies come up, and things go poorly from there. Let’s just say Barrymore’s screen time turns out to be fairly limited.

An animated film can grab you from the opening as well. “The Lion King” wastes no time getting the movie revved up. It opens not just with a song, but with the epic “Circle of Life” number, which features many animals showing up for the reveal of young Simba.

There are so many great set pieces in “Jurassic Park.” There’s a reason it became one of the biggest films ever, and the progenitor of arguably the franchise with the most diminishing returns ever. It begins with the opening scene, though, which sees Muldoon and his crew trying to get a new raptor into the park. Things go poorly, and it immediately sets the scene for this epic action movie.

We bet in 1950, the ending of “Sunset Boulevard” felt even more daring and interesting. The film opens with narration. Police officers and photographers huddle around a pool. A victim floats face down. It belongs to Joe Gillis, who happens to be the aforementioned narrator. The movie opens with our main character dead and then flashes back to tell the rest of the story.

It feels a little weird to be like, “You know what is a great opening scene to a movie? When that Nazi finds a Jewish family and murders them.” That being said, it is a gripping, harrowing scene. Christoph Waltz effectively won his Oscar based on this scene alone. And, fortunately, Shosanna gets away from Hans Landa, which sets into motion the rest of “Inglourious Basterds.”

This is an opening that really sets the stakes. Henry Hill pulls his car over and opens the truck. There’s a body inside. He was supposed to be dead already, and soon he will be. Cut to Ray Liotta’s face and the opening bit of narration: “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.”

Leave it to Stanley Kubrick to start a film with the dawn of man before jumping to literally millions of years into the future from that point. An early, humanlike tribe, is visited by a mysterious monolith. Suddenly, they are using bones as tools…and weapons. The music swells, the bone is tossed in the air, and we are off to outer space.

Want to open a movie with excitement? How about a giant boulder chasing down Indiana Jones? Indiana’s journey to get the idol is a great introduction to the character, as well as his nemesis Belloq, and has so many fun moments to it. Like that boulder, the movie gets on an unstoppable roll.

Like “The Lion King,” this is a musical that opens with a song. Not just any song, though, “The Sound of Music” opens with Julie Andrews singing the titular song. That’s how you put your cards on the table from the opening moments.

Sergio Leone’s epic Western opens with a 10 minute opening scene that is largely silent, but also rich with tension that will explode into violence. Three men are waiting at the train station in effectively the middle of nowhere. It is clear they have ill intent, but they wait, and we wait. Then, Charles Bronson’s “Harmonica,” one of Leone’s men with no names, arrives, and things are about to kick up several notches.

James Gunn sets the tone for his “Guardians of the Galaxy” series right from the opening scene. We meet Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord. We get the needle drop, we get the undercutting of our protagonist, we get laughs, and we also get action. The opening scene doesn’t take itself seriously, but it also isn’t flippant. That becomes the crux of what makes “Guardians of the Galaxy” work.

As a film, “Saturday Night Fever” is a little hit or miss, and much darker than people often expect. It’s not a fun movie about disco dancing, just so you know. The opening, though, is iconic for a reason. Set to the tune of the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive,” we see John Travolta’s Tony Manero, immaculately dressed, walking with purpose down the street. All he’s doing is carrying a bucket of paint, but it remains utterly compelling.

Is it cheating to include a montage in our list of the best opening scenes? Perhaps, but “Up” has one of the most memorable, effective openings since the turn of the millennium, even if it is maybe a stretch to call it a “scene.” It’s the only reason people fondly remember a movie that, frankly, becomes kind of middling after that opening. Ah, but the saga of Carl and Ellie absolutely floors, and usually devastates, setting the table for the rest of the film.

First, we hear Tommy Lee Jones’ Sheriff Ed Tom Bell giving a little monologue about a depraved killer, which sets the tone for the cynicism, or outright nihilism, at the core of the Coen Brothers’ Best Picture-winning movie. This sets up our meeting with Anton Chigurh, played indelibly by Javier Bardem, who also won an Oscar. A poor police officer who has arrested him doesn’t know what he is dealing with. He turns his back on Chigurh for only a couple minutes, but that’s all it takes to seal his fate.

At this point, basically, every moment of the original “Star Wars” trilogy is indelible. While the opening scene to the first film is perhaps not the top moment of the movie, it’s definitely a great opening scene. First, we get the scroll, and then we get thrown right into the action with our droid pals C-3P0 and R2-D2. It’s controlled chaos, and perfectly sets the tone.

The sci-fi world of “The Matrix” is set with an intriguing opening scene. Before we meet Neo, aka Mr. Anderson, we meet Trinity, who is cornered. That is, until she isn’t. Trinity shows powers and abilities beyond what humans can do, runs into some men in suits and sunglasses with similar skills, answers a ringing phone, and then vanishes. With that, a movie that changed cinema begins.

If you like these classic opening lines, be sure to to check out our greatest final lines in film history as well!