Sabotage Times, We can't Concentrate so Why Should You?Sabotage Times, We can't Concentrate so Why Should You?

5 Of The Greatest Opening Movie Scenes

by John Anthony Lake
11 August 2014 24 Comments

Five of the most tense and adrenaline filled movie openers to ever appear on celluloid... (Celluloid is film, btw)

Screen Shot 2014-06-27 at 14.18.14

5. Cliffhanger (1993)

Muscle-bound ice sculpture Gabe Walker (Sylvester Stallone) is quick with the ribbing when his mountain-rescue climbing buddy and his girlfriend become stranded at the top of a 4000-foot-high needle of rock. He’s suddenly laughing on the other side of his face though when metal fatigue strikes the equipment transferring the terrified girl to a nearby helicopter. While Sly dangles from the line and the girl clutches at his gloved hand, slipping inch by inch away from life, she begs and pleads for him not to let her fall. All to no avail. Heartrendingly horrible.

4. Star Trek (2009)

Faced with a hostile craft that makes his own starship look like a mouse next to an elephant, acting captain George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth) orders the crew to abandon ship, among them his wife, who’s just gone into labour. To protect the fleeing lifepods he must ram the enemy vessel, but realising that the autopilot is knackered, he can only do it by piloting the ship manually. As the clock counts down to collision and certain death, a legend is born, and they name him James Tiberius Kirk. ‘I love you’ he tells his wife over the coms just before impact. Cue tears and iconic opening title sequence.

3. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

As part two of the trilogy opens, a roving camera takes us back inside the Mines of Moria, where Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen) met his fate in the first film. The incident is recapped, Gandalf holding a bridge against a giant fire demon – the Balrog – while the rest of the Fellowship make their escape. As the bridge crumbles, casting the Balrog towards a fathomless doom, a flick of its whip catches hold of the wizard and drags him down too. What we didn’t see in the first film is what happens next, as Gandalf and the Balrog battle it out mano a mano while freefalling for about ten minutes towards a lake set in a vast chasm deep in the bowels of the earth. Awesome.

2. Predators (2010)

The screen is filled with the sleeping face of Royce (Adrien Brody), an image of gentle slumber and therefore hardly the most thrilling of openers – until we notice that his hair is being ruffled by a strong wind. Gradually his eyes open and look around him with mounting horror as he realises he is falling through the sky. From a very great height. Then he breaks through the cloud cover and sees the ground hurtling up towards him. His hands fumble at what appears to be a parachute but there’s no rip-cord. At the last second he punches a button and the chute opens, breaking what was about to be a very nasty fall. The scene is over in a flash but stays in the mind for a long time afterwards.

1. Blade (1998)

After a fleeting bit of back-story in an A&E room, the pre-credits sequence switches to some dude cruising through the night in an open-top car with hot date Racquel (Traci Lords), who takes him to a secret nightclub in the back room of a meat warehouse. The club is heaving with beautiful young things, and the dude thinks all his Christmases have come at once, until he notices the cold shoulder everyone is giving him. Trancy music is building to a crescendo when he notices something red dripping onto his hand. Then the sprinkler system opens up as the beat kicks in and the DJ box lights up with the word BLOODBATH. Cue lots of blood-soaked strobe-lit bodies and snarling fangs as he realises he’s the only non-vampire in the whole place. If it stopped here, this opener would be good enough already. But the best is yet to come, with the arrival of vamp hunter Blade (Wesley Snipes). For the next five minutes he poops the party by absolutely killing every motherfucker in the room with the exception of the witless dude, who looks on wimpering and shitting himself. Get on.

So what would be your fab five?

If you like it, Pass it on

image descriptionCOMMENTS

rick 3:59 pm, 23-Apr-2011

http://youtu.be/bW-jSa9_k3M you forgot this scene!!

Toh 5:02 pm, 23-Apr-2011

you include 'predators' and leave out saving private ryan?

stanbowles 9:20 pm, 23-Apr-2011

Jaws?

Nigel 10:25 pm, 23-Apr-2011

Kill Bill Vol. 1 "...at this moment, this is me at my most... masochistic.

angsta 12:09 am, 24-Apr-2011

Star trek and not one James Bond film? Good shout for saving private Ryan as well.

John Anthony Lake 10:30 pm, 24-Apr-2011

Originally, it was gonna be 10 and Saving Private Ryan was one of 'em. Also, 007 movies could easily provide 5 on their own - my immediate thoughts would be Casino Royale (the fight in the toilet) Goldeneye and the one that opens with an epic scrap on the Rock of Gibraltar. Keep 'em coming...

Simon 9:17 am, 25-Apr-2011

Welcome to the jungle. A guilty pleasure but the opening scrap in the nightclub is brilliant

Monot 11:43 am, 26-Apr-2011

Menace II Society and Saving Private Ryan, pls.

The Cush 3:55 pm, 27-Apr-2011

The Way of The Gun. Benicio Del Toro and Ryan Phillippe make a nusiance of themselves outside a nightclub. You're not supposed to laugh at a woman getting sucker punched in the face but this one had it coming (and a second one) - and it was friggin hilarious! Gladiator too on a grander scale.

Benno 10:47 pm, 4-May-2011

a bit late to this one but would offer up Wild At Heart - the opening scene of which culminates with Nicholas Cage stotting this blokes head repeatedly on a banister and then a marble floor until blood & brains flow, whilst Laura Dern shouts "sailor". Class

Dave P 9:43 pm, 5-May-2011

'Speed' could of got on there?

Dan 4:27 pm, 21-Jun-2011

Sunset Boulevard

John Rain 4:31 pm, 21-Jun-2011

X Men 2? Trainspotting? Watchmen? JFK? Die Hard with a Vengeance? The Royal Tennenbaums?

John Anthony Lake 4:09 pm, 22-Jun-2011

Ooh, Watchmen! OK, you got me there...

Tim Footman 9:00 pm, 28-Jun-2011

The tracking shot at the beginning of Welles's Touch Of Evil? Or was celluloid invented in 1993?

Neil 9:06 pm, 28-Jun-2011

Intermission...

John Anthony Lake 12:01 pm, 29-Jun-2011

Fair point re Touch of Evil. I've used that opening segment many times in media studies classes.

RB 12:52 am, 3-Nov-2013

I don't mind what else is missing, as long as Two Towers is on there. That scene gives me a massive boner.

John Cafferty 10:20 pm, 3-Nov-2013

Touch of Evil sets a bar none have reached since, but if you only wanted recent films, the first, non-dialogue five minutes of Drive are superb. Special mentions for There Will Be Blood and Up as well.

Ged Carroll 7:23 am, 4-Nov-2013

Intro to Once Upon A Time in The West: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA3rlIHLFco

mike 11:18 am, 7-Nov-2013

betty blue, best start of any film.

James 3:24 am, 8-Nov-2013

Opening scene of Quantum of Solace (2008). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfYC_CBNtiM

Stan Dalglish 9:59 am, 28-Jun-2014

Remains of the day.

Geoff 11:01 pm, 28-Jun-2014

For me it would be saving private Ryan, the bit when the medic is trying to save the wounded man who is then shot through the head is awesome. As an aside the best ending scenes must be the Godfarther, the christening juxtaposed with the assassination of all Michael's rivals, it hurts to watch!

Leave a comment

Film image description SABOTAGE

1