The opening of Contact is one of the best-opening scenes for me. It's rare to get that much silence in a movie and makes it all the more powerful.

Contact is a good one, which reminds me of another opening. It's been awhile since I watched it but isn't the opening twenty minutes of Gravity the one single shot? Or was there something prior to that stretch?

Touch of Evil. The long shot is still amazing. I lived in Venice in the 70s and it still looked a bit like that. My landlord owned a bunch of properties there. He must be rolling in dough now.

The opening of Pixar's 'Up' is pretty moving.

I've always loved the opening scenes of Blade.

+1 for Raiders of the Lost Ark

To add another, the opening scene of The Matrix with Trinity escaping from the Agents. I remember watching it at the theater on opening weekend without any idea what to expect and that scene really blew everyone away.

32 posts in and nobody has said 2001?

I'm surprised at the lack of action in this thread. I think this is one of the better topics of recent memory.

The Kelvin sequence in Star Trek 2009. None of the rest of the three movies ever hit that height and frankly I’d put it up against any of the top set pieces from any other Trek movie or show.

Oh yeah that's a great one! I love that opening scene. It hits it right out of the park and right when they needed to too. It was a completely rebooted Trek with a lot of questions so that scene did a lot of favors for the entire Kelvinverse. It let you know this wasn't your daddy's Star Trek. And it immediately set the groundwork on allowing all of the inconsistencies with previous Trek to occur based on a different timeline. With just 2 minutes of screen time Chris Hemsworth really endeared himself as Kirk's dad. The VFX and SFX were incredible, action, heroics and ending it all with the kick ass new Star Trek theme from Michael Giacchino. It's the perfect opening scene.

The Matrix. Ordinary cops > super powered Trinity easily taking out cops > Trinity fleeing from an agent.

I love the opening of The Player.

Others that came to mind but already mentioned were Up and Touch of Evil.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind



I was already fascinated with war planes and UFOs. I knew the story of the missing flight 19 and the Bermuda Triangle, so this was up my alley even if I was just 9 years old at the time.

I think this scene counts as an opening scene as Chow Yun Fat's character Tequila playing at the Jazz Club flows into the Teahouse shootout in Hard Boiled. If so, yes...one of the all time best movie opening scenes ever. The Teahouse shootout is such an iconic action scene.

Gaspar Noe's Love.
3D version, naturally.
Saw that one in a packed theater.
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if you know.... You know.

The movie is infamously bad but the opening sequence is nothing short of brilliant. One continuous, 5 minute shot, numerous props used, dozens of actors and extras, and even a wardrobe change.

Hitman in the Hand of Buddha- similar to Bolo Yeung, Hwang Jang Lee aka the king of kicks should have been able to be the lead actor in as many movies as he wants. But unfortunately they both had to direct a movie to get their first starring role. God bless them for having confidence in themselves and knowing that this is what fans wanted to see.

Damn I’m off topic already right from the beginning.

Hitman starts out with that evil kickmaster up to no good again. Stealing a man’s money and running off. Then gets attacked by a group of thugs and dispatches them with one of the greatest kick displays you’ll ever see as the opening credits roll. Then gives the man back his money and tells him to be careful carrying all that money and he’s off. One of the greatest fake outs. And really making a point to tell his fans, yep, I’m the hero in this one. Sit back and enjoy.

The Player, A Touch of Evil, and Bonfire of the Vanities all have long opening shots. They're technically exciting, but it doesn't emotionally engage an audience like Joe Pesci borrowing a kitchen knife from mom and using it to stab the guy in the trunk.

I mean, I love the slow pan up the wall at the beginning of Citizen Kane, but most of the world thinks it's a boring start to a boring movie.

Raiders of the Lost Ark cause it’s been voted the best movie of all time. Over 25 billion voted for it.

More recently, I thought the opening sequence to Casino Royale was just about perfect and it’s the best opening of a Bond movie yet.

As much as the overall movie sucks, I love the opening for Terminator Genisys.

The music leading up to the T-800 going through the time machine and the Terminator 1 retro scenes were great.

The Dark Knight has a great opening.

The opening scene in Ace Ventura 2 that spoofed Sylvester Stallone's Cliffhanger. Everyone in the theater was laughing hysterically.

The Spaceballs opening sequence was great too; the very, very long spaceship.

The Rock.