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Can you name some Movies that have to include set -ups before the movie starts?

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Can you name some Movies that have to include set -ups before the movie starts?

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Old 04-22-08, 02:51 AM
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Can you name some Movies that have to include set -ups before the movie starts?

What I mean is movies like the incredibles, lotr fotr, plan nine from outerspace, samurai jack( i know not a movie ) where there is sort of a story before the movie takes place that is just the set up what the actual story is about.

Kind of like the twilight zone guy before each episode.
Old 04-22-08, 03:08 AM
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I haven't even seen the movie, but I'm sure Dune does this.
Old 04-22-08, 03:22 AM
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We Were Soldiers
Hellboy
Old 04-22-08, 07:56 AM
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They're also done in a very similar style, which is hilarious considering how completely disparate the movies are.
Old 04-22-08, 08:06 AM
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Didn't that guy Lucas do some films with a bit of prologue to them? I think you may find a Shakespeare adaptation or two that does same.
Old 04-22-08, 08:10 AM
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The Thomas Crown Affair (1968): Steve McQueen & Faye Dunaway.
Old 04-22-08, 08:16 AM
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In television, The Simpsons does this as a standard storytelling device (start with one story, which segue ways into the main story a few minutes in).

In film, the James Bond films always have a pre-credits sequence that is often independent of the film. The first three Indiana Jones movies did this as well.
Old 04-22-08, 08:17 AM
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Serenity probably fits this description.
Old 04-22-08, 08:20 AM
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Would Fight Club fit this criteria?
Old 04-22-08, 08:43 AM
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How about:

Blade Runner
The Chronicles of Riddick
T2: Judgment Day (IIRC)
Resident Evil: Apocalypse (or Extinction, can't remember)
Dark City
Sunshine
The Matrix: Revolutions

(I'm including movies that have a short explanatory set-up, either audio or text, at the beginning, and also sequels that briefly recap the events of the previous film at the start)

Last edited by Yavin; 04-22-08 at 08:46 AM.
Old 04-22-08, 09:27 AM
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This doesn't happen before the action starts, but Titanic had the explanation of the iceberg hit and subsequent sinking.
Old 04-22-08, 10:14 AM
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Probably the clunkiest expositional prologue I've seen in recent years was for Equilibrium.

Overly dramatic narration coupled with redundant title cards means a particularly irritating start to a movie. Luckily, a prologue is just a prologue and is over soon enough, and the movie settled into its own (enjoyable enough, on one viewing at least) paces.
Old 04-22-08, 10:15 AM
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PTA's Hard Eight has a prologue then kicks off the story two years later.
Old 04-22-08, 10:18 AM
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Originally Posted by lukewarmwater

Kind of like the twilight zone guy before each episode.
Old 04-22-08, 10:27 AM
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I want to say Children of Men had a little prolog before the start.
Old 04-22-08, 10:27 AM
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I'm pretty sure thousand of movies are like this. La Règle du Jeu (yes, again) starts out in media res (yes, there's a term for what you are describing) with the completion of Jurieux's transatlantic flight.
Old 04-22-08, 10:34 AM
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Originally Posted by Matthew Ackerly
PTA's Hard Eight has a prologue then kicks off the story two years later.
It's too bad the rest of the movie wasn't as engaging as the prologue. That sequence was crackerjack.
Old 04-22-08, 10:41 AM
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Seven Samurai
Old 04-22-08, 11:01 AM
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Old 04-22-08, 11:21 AM
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Originally Posted by sundog
Probably the clunkiest expositional prologue I've seen in recent years was for Equilibrium.

Overly dramatic narration coupled with redundant title cards means a particularly irritating start to a movie. Luckily, a prologue is just a prologue and is over soon enough, and the movie settled into its own (enjoyable enough, on one viewing at least) paces.
as soon as i saw the thread title, i thought of equilibrium. And I agree with you wholeheartedly. The prologue was AWFUL, just horrible. at least the movie was pretty good.
Old 04-22-08, 11:33 AM
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Didn't Alone in the Dark have 3-4 screens of text in the begining on the movie? All that, and I still didn't believe Tara Reid was a scientist.
Old 04-22-08, 12:16 PM
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Casablanca starts with a wonderful montage explaining the general situation.

2001: A Space Odyssey and Speed start with a stand-alone sequence that are important to the understanding of the main movie.

I seem to remember that several movies that take place in Japanese or Chinese historical times include a text card explaining the situation to American audiences.
Old 04-22-08, 12:29 PM
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Originally Posted by Nick Danger
2001: A Space Odyssey and Speed start with a stand-alone sequence that are important to the understanding of the main movie.
As amusing as it is to see 2001 and Speed in the same sentence...

If you're referring to the Dawn of Man segment, that is hardly a prologue. It's the first act of four (or three, if you want to include the space station and moon scenes within Dawn of Man since that would make 3 distinct title cards [Dawn of Man, Jupiter Mission, Beyond the Infinite])

But the opening shot, of the moon and earth and sun... that could qualify as an important element (since that alignment is referenced again throughout the film), but it's still a stretch.
Old 04-22-08, 12:36 PM
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It's been years since I've seen it but I believe Hudson Hawk has some sort of Da Vinci prologue.

Another Paul Thomas Anderson film that springs to mind is Magnolia. The voice-over by Ricky Jay at the beginning explaining coincidences and such is more interesting than the rest of the movie IMO.
Old 04-22-08, 12:42 PM
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Originally Posted by GoldenJCJ
Another Paul Thomas Anderson film that springs to mind is Magnolia. The voice-over by Ricky Jay at the beginning explaining coincidences and such is more interesting than the rest of the movie IMO.
Especially since there's no payoff. I kept expecting the movie to have all the storylines come together in a clever way -- but it never happened.

Instead we got:
Spoiler:
All the characters doing a sing-a-long to "Wise Up"


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