10 Movies That Couldn’t Top Their Opening Scene

Summary

• Spectre’s
  opening scene at a Day of the Dead celebration promises a well-crafted espionage adventure, but the movie fails to deliver.
• Saving Private Ryan’s
  unforgettable D-Day invasion scene is a powerful start that remains unmatched throughout the film.
• X2’s
  captivating Nightcrawler White House attack sets a high standard that the rest of the movie struggles to meet.

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Some memorable movies feature opening scenes that are better than everything that happens afterward. Certain opening scenes lie about how good the movie will be, misleading the audience with an opener that is possibly the only good part of the movie. However, other movies are good all the way through, but the first scene still goes above and beyond and emerges as the best part.

A lot of action movies kick things off with an in-media-res sequence, showing the heroes and villains already in the middle of a fight. This is a tried and true way to hook the audience from the beginning, but it challenges the movie to maintain the thrills while telling a compelling story all the way through. Other, slower-paced pictures offer well-planned narrative subversions and powerful montages within the first 10 minutes, setting the stage for character-driven stories.

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Whether they’re introducing iconic characters or setting up a narrative, the first scene is important. Here are the best openings cinema has to offer.

10 Spectre (2015)

Bond walks through a Day of the Dead celebration.

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There are a lot of problems with Spectre as a Bond movie, namely the bungled plot twist concerning Christopher Waltz’s version of Blofeld, delving too much into Bond’s past, and bad pacing. This is an unfortunate turn of events when the opening sequence promises it will be another slick espionage adventure for Bond with creative production choices. At the beginning of Spectre, Bond slips through a Day of the Dead celebration for the purposes of his current mission.

The decor and costumes for the celebration provide one of the most interesting backdrops seen in a Bond movie, while the long tracking shot showcases Bond’s aplomb in the field, moving from one location to the next with ease. Everything from the color palette to the sound to the cinematography comes together in a perfect segue into Bond’s next mission. However, the story then fails after the technically spectacular opening.

Spectre
Thriller
Action
Adventure

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The twenty-fourth installment in Eon’s James Bond series, Spectre follows Bond (Daniel Craig) as he encounters a new threat to global security. After a mission goes wrong, Bond ends up on the trail of a shadowy organization with ties to countless governments and influential figures. With MI6 compromised by those working toward an unknown goal, Bond must rely on his instincts as an agent to root out the truth.

Director Sam Mendes Release Date November 6, 2015 Cast Ben Whishaw , Lea Seydoux , Ralph Fiennes , Monica Bellucci , Christoph Waltz , Daniel Craig , Andrew Scott , Dave Bautista Runtime 158 Minutes

9 Saving Private Ryan (1998)

The D-Day invasion is still one of the best scenes in history.

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Saving Private Ryan is a landmark war movie, which narrowly lost the Oscar for Best Picture, recounting the epic journey of a small unit of U.S. soldiers to find a single private in enemy territory. Technically, the first scene in the movie is of an older Ryan visiting a cemetery with his family. However, many people get Saving Private Ryan’s opening scene wrong because what follows this framing device is the movie’s defining moment.

The D-Day sequence is more than 20 minutes long and is remembered in cinematic history for its accurate and brutal depiction of an active war zone.

The D-Day sequence is more than 20 minutes long and is remembered in cinematic history for its accurate and brutal depiction of an active war zone. The rest of the movie also showcases the horrors of war, making for one of the biggest recognized contributions to the war genre. However, Saving Private Ryan’s D-Day scene still has the biggest impact and scale, making it impossible to top it. The sheer gravitas of this scene is why it is widely remembered as the movie’s opener, with the brief flashforward being a simple prelude.

Saving Private Ryan
War
Drama

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Tom Hanks stars as Captain John Miller in Steven Spielberg’s 1998 WWII film. Saving Private Ryan tells the story of Miller’s command of a company of soldiers who risk their lives in an attempt to extricate Private James Ryan from the fighting in Europe, in order to spare his family from losing all of their sons after Ryan’s brothers are killed in the war. Matt Damon, Edward Burns,  and Tom Sizemore also star. 

Director Steven Spielberg Release Date July 24, 1998 Cast Tom Sizemore , adam goldberg , Vin Diesel , Tom Hanks , Edward Burns , Matt Damon Runtime 169 minutes

8 Ghost Ship (2002)

An elegant party on a cruise ship takes a horrific turn.

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Ghost Ship failed spectacularly in its mission to be an intense and claustrophobic horror movie primarily set on board a haunted passenger ship from the 1960s. Critics reported that Ghost Ship is nothing but superfluous gore and horror tropes piled on top of each other, with static main characters. Despite this, people have come to appreciate the bloody opening, which could have been a strong, brutal setup if the rest of the movie were more subtle.

Ghost Ship’s opening scene begins with a tone and presentation that feels like a rom-com, with a swirling font used to introduce the movie as the ocean liner and its passengers appear. An elegant party is happening on deck and everything is peaceful. However, the movie quickly and seamlessly transitions into a foreboding score to accompany the bizarre accident that results in the deaths of many of the passengers and crew.

Ghost Ship
Horror
Mystery
Thriller

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Director Steve Beck Release Date October 25, 2002 Cast Gabriel Byrne , Julianna Margulies , Ron Eldard , Desmond Harrington , Isaiah Washington , Alex Dimitriades Runtime 91 minutes

7 X2 (2003)

Nightcrawler launches a riveting attack on the White House.

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Fox’s X-Men movies are average at best contributions to the corpus of live-action superhero movies in the 21st century. However, viewers wouldn’t know this from the opening scene of X2 alone. Nightcrawler is one of Marvel’s most powerful mutants, whose teleportation abilities make him a deadly adversary — and look amazing. The makers of X2 didn’t fail to do something cool with Nightcrawler in the opening scene, depicting his assassination attempt on the president.

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The sequence is well-choreographed, with an interesting, juxtaposing soundtrack; the smoke that Nightcrawler leaves in his wake gives the scene a slightly creepier, more intense feeling. The scene concludes well, with Nightcrawler being forced to flee but leaving his knife adorned with a “Mutant Freedom Now” ribbon behind. X2 set itself an impossible task of living up to the action of this first scene, when few mutants are as interesting to watch in combat as Nightcrawler.

X2: X-Men United
Action
Adventure
Sci-Fi
Superhero

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X2: X-Men United is the follow-up film to Fox’s 2000 X-Men starring Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, and Patrick Stewart. The film features the introduction of Colonel William Stryker (Brian Cox) as he kidnaps Charles Xavier, which leads the X-Men to team up with Magneto. Most of the cast from the original film returned for the sequel, along with the introduction of Alan Cumming’s Nightcrawler.

Director Bryan Singer Release Date May 2, 2003 Cast Hugh Jackman , Ian McKellen , Patrick Stewart , Anna Paquin , Famke Janssen , Halle Berry , James Marsden , Brian Cox , Alan Cumming , Rebecca Romijn Runtime 134 Minutes

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6 Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith (2005)

Anakin and Obi-Wan participate in a thrilling space chase sequence.

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Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith is generally considered the best movie of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, while the arc of its first third is the strongest part. The high-speed chase through space shows off all the benefits of making Star Wars properties in the modern day with modern CGI. Meanwhile, Anakin and Obi-Wan’s dynamic is at its best out of all three prequel movies. It is clear that they are a strong team, even though they are making snide remarks at each other all the way along.

This leads into the tense mission to rescue Chancellor Palpatine from General Grievous’ ship, with multiple crash landings. The whole sequence is fast-paced with great character interactions, far better than what people had come to expect from the Star Wars prequels. The rest of the movie can’t compete with the speed and tone of this first, thrilling action sequence.

Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
Action
Adventure
Sci-Fi
Fantasy

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Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith is the sixth film in the Star Wars franchise and chronologically the third in the Skywalker Saga. Set three years after the events of Attack of the Clones, Anakin Skywalker is tasked with keeping an eye on Chancellor Palpatine while other Jedi battle across the galaxy. In the background, however, a mysterious Sith lord begins to make their move to destroy the Jedi once and for all.

Director George Lucas Release Date May 19, 2005 Cast Ewan McGregor , Natalie Portman , Hayden Christensen , Ian McDiarmid , Samuel L. Jackson , Christopher Lee , Anthony Daniels , Kenny Baker , Frank Oz , Ahmed Best , Temuera Morrison Runtime 140 Minutes

5 Up (2009)

Carl and Ellie’s life together is summarized in only a few minutes.

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Pixar pulls off an incredible feat with the opening sequence of Up, showing all the joy and heartbreak of a decades-long marriage in only a few minutes. The true opening scene is technically a young Carl watching the newsreel about his idol at the cinema, which is a part of the events that happen immediately afterward when he meets Ellie. Even as children, Carl and Ellie have a palpable dynamic, and the audience can sense the promise of something magical and adventurous between them.

Then there is the famous, bittersweet montage of their marriage, conveying an accurate feeling of the years flying by. The rest of Up is a good movie — it was, after all, nominated for Best Picture — but the first 10 minutes are on another level. Up imparts something heartbreakingly real in that time, with a structure that is incredibly simple yet effective, leaving the rest of the movie (slightly) lacking.

Up
Adventure
Family

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Pixar’s Up follows widower Carl (Ed Asner) who travels to South America with young wilderness explorer Russell (Jordan Nagai) by attaching thousands of balloons to his home after the bank threatens to foreclose on it. Discovering the legendary Paradise Falls, Carl meets his childhood hero, explorer Charles Muntz. However, Muntz isn’t the kind-hearted man Carl hoped he would be, and the grieving widower finds himself pitted against his former idol.

Director Pete Docter Release Date June 11, 2009 Cast Ed Asner , Bob Peterson Runtime 96minutes

4 Nimona (2023)

Nimona’s subversive cold opening includes several plot twists.

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Nimona’s cold opening features a few twists: After setting up a typical medievalist fairy tale setting, the movie skips ahead a few hundred years when the kingdom is very technologically advanced. Ballister is seemingly a typical underdog, but the narrative hits some shocking, dark turns when he is framed for the queen’s murder and his partner acts instinctively, cutting off Ballister’s arm. All this happens, and the movie has not even introduced its title character yet.

Cut to one more brief clip in this opening sequence: A fiendish pink-haired figure sees the newscast about Ballister and declares that he is perfect before the title drops and Dope Saint Jude’s “Grrrl Like” overtakes the moment. Nimona is an underrated adventure and one of the best animated movies of 2023, with a strong story that happens after that. However, the cold opening perfectly sets up the betrayals, partnerships, and subverted fairy tale structure that supports the story.

Nimona
Animation
Action
Adventure

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Nimona is a film adaptation of ND Stevenson’s graphic novel of the same name. Chloë Grace Moretz voices the main character Nimona, a shapeshifter who is being hunted by a former knight named Ballister Blackheart (Riz Ahmed). But things become complicated when Blackheart realizes Nimona may actually be able to help him after he’s unjustly accused of a crime.

Director Nick Bruno , Troy Quane Release Date June 30, 2023 Cast Chloe Grace Moretz , Riz Ahmed , Frances Conroy , Lorraine Toussaint , Beck Bennett , RuPaul , Indya Moore , Julio Torres , Sarah Sherman , Eugene Lee Yang Runtime 101 Minutes

3 The Dark Knight (2009)

The Joker leads a violent and labyrinthine heist.

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Even though The Dark Knight is one of the best superhero movies of all time, it faces the monumental challenge of living up to the first scene, which sets the stage for the movie that will be dominated by the Joker’s schemes. The rest of the movie is visually epic and thematically profound, but the first scene really says it all. Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker is at the center of the story, while the initial bank robbery is the perfect way to introduce the character.

The scene is so brilliantly crafted that even the rest of this amazing movie isn’t quite as good.

Essentially, the Joker leads the robbery without his underlings realizing he is there; he has instructed them all to kill each other until there is only one left, who he kills, taking all the money for himself. Each kill is swift and harsh, leading up to the reveal that the Joker is there after all, with Ledger controlling the movie from that moment onward. The scene is so brilliantly crafted that even the rest of this amazing movie isn’t quite as good.

The Dark Knight
Action
Thriller
Drama
Crime

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Christian Bale once again embodies the man behind the mask in The Dark Knight, reuniting Bale with Batman Begins director Christopher Nolan. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman has been making headway against local crime—until a rising criminal mastermind known as The Joker unleashes a fresh reign of chaos across Gotham City. To stop this devious new menace—Batman’s most personal and vicious enemy yet—he will have to use every high-tech weapon in his arsenal and confront his beliefs if he hopes to stand a chance against the Clown Prince of Crime.

Director Christopher Nolan Release Date July 18, 2008 Cast Nestor Carbonell , Morgan Freeman , Ritchie Coster , Cillian Murphy , Chin Han , Gary Oldman , Eric Roberts , William Fichtner , Aaron Eckhart , Maggie Gyllenhaal , Christian Bale , David Dastmalchian , Michael Caine , Anthony Michael Hall , Heath Ledger Runtime 152 Minutes

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Famous crime movies including The Godfather, Pulp Fiction, and Baby Driver establish the tone and the theme of the story in amazing opening scenes.

2 Raiders Of The Lost Ark (2008)

Indy’s first expedition of the franchise is one of his best.

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Indiana Jones would go on to undertake many dangerous expeditions, weaving his way through sites protected by various traps. However, the first one in Raiders of the Lost Ark is still a classic, showcasing Indy’s perceptive skills like no other scene in the movie. The audience is introduced to Indy with little context, only seeing his cool attitude as he disables or finds his way around each trap. The scene has a carefully calculated tension before Indy finally slips up and has to run for it.

The most famous aspect of Raiders of the Lost Ark’s opening sequence is, of course, the spherical boulder from which Indy flees. There are also some humorous beats, like the establishment of Indy’s hatred of snakes. Indiana Jones seems even more intrepid when the audience has yet to learn anything about him, and the rise and fall of danger is well-paced throughout the sequence.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
Adventure
Action

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The most popular and well-received film in the Indiana Jones movie franchise, Raiders of the Lost Ark follows Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones in a race against Nazi forces to recover the famed Ark of the Covenant. Aided by his former lover, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), Indy must work to keep the Nazis, led by Dr. Rene Belloq, from obtaining the Ark and thus becoming recipients of its power. The film is widely regarded as one of the all-time greatest movies ever made. 

Director Steven Spielberg Release Date June 12, 1981 Cast Harrison Ford , Karen Allen , Alfred Molina , Paul Freeman , Ronald Lacey , John Rhys-Davies , Denholm Elliott Runtime 115 Minutes

1 Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Shosanna’s family is killed, setting her plan for revenge in motion.

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Like many of Quentin Tarantino’s movies, Inglourious Basterds’ establishes the movie’s characteristic violence right away. This one is even more extreme than some of the others, depicting Nazi colonel Hans Landa inviting himself into a home in the French countryside and coercing the farmer who lives there to admit he is harboring a Jewish family. The Dreyfus family is killed, with only their daughter Shosanna escaping.

Inglourious Basterds immediately demonstrates the movie’s high stakes, as well as the persona of its main villain. Christopher Waltz would go on to win an Oscar for his performance, with the opener being one of his strongest scenes. Landa lets Shosanna escape, famously calling out “Au revoir, Shosanna,” believing that she will die anyway. What follows is an intense story about revenge and insurrectionary warfare, but the murder of Shosanna’s family is still the movie’s most famous and terrifying scene.

Inglourious Basterds
Drama
War
Adventure

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Inglourious Basterds is a Drama and War Film that takes place during World War II. Set in France, the movie stars Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, and Christoph Waltz. A fantastical telling my Quentin Tarantino, the Inglourious Basterds are a U.S. based group sent to destroy the Nazis at a Paris cinema.

Director Quentin Tarantino Release Date August 21, 2009 Cast Christoph Waltz , Michael Fassbender , Brad Pitt , Diane Kruger , Eli Roth Runtime 153 minutes

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Category: Entertainment