The opening scene of a movie is the filmmaker’s first and most important opportunity to grab the viewer, establish the rules of the world they are about to enter, and set the emotional baseline for the entire experience. Whether it is an action sequence that immediately throws the protagonist into mortal danger or a character-driven moment that establishes the narrative stakes, these initial minutes are crucial for building a foundation of trust. When executed correctly, a strong opening buys a tremendous amount of goodwill from the audience, convincing those watching that the cinematic journey ahead will justify their investment of time and money.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Unfortunately, that early promise sometimes ends up being nothing more than a frustrating bait-and-switch. There are few cinematic experiences quite as irritating as watching a movie that peaks purely within its first ten minutes, only to steadily decline in quality until the final credits roll. Yet, this phenomenon is more common than we would like. The sheer excellence of these opening moments makes the subsequent mediocrity sting even more, as viewers are left painfully aware of the massive potential that was squandered along the way.
7) Die Another Day
Before it devolved into a cartoonish mess of invisible cars and gene therapy, Die Another Day offered one of the grittiest openings in the James Bond franchise. The pre-title sequence features Pierce Brosnan in top form, surfing giant waves into a fortified North Korean beachhead. The subsequent hovercraft chase through the demilitarized zone is a stunning work of practical stunt work and pyrotechnics, delivering exactly the kind of high-octane thrills fans expect. However, the true shock comes at the end of the sequence when Bond is actually captured. Seeing the untouchable 007 beaten and hauled away to a foreign prison was a genuinely daring subversion of the franchise’s formula. Tragically, the rest of Die Another Day abandons this grounded intensity entirely, favoring goofy gadgets and horrible CGI that make the stellar opening feel like it belongs to a completely different film.
6) Prometheus
Ridley Scott returned to the universe he created with a visually breathtaking opening that posed massive questions about the origins of humanity. The opening sequence of Prometheus shows a lone Engineer standing atop a massive waterfall on prehistoric Earth, drinking a mysterious black goo that causes his body to disintegrate at a cellular level, seeding the planet with the building blocks of life. The scene is a haunting, beautiful, and wordless sequence that immediately establishes a sense of grand cosmic scale, promising a film deeply interested in philosophical questions about creation and sacrifice. While Prometheus remains visually stunning throughout, the rest of the movie gets bogged down by characters making bafflingly stupid decisions and a script that raises far more confusing questions than it ever bothers to answer.
5) Mortal Kombat (2021)
The 2021 reboot of Mortal Kombat peaks before the title card even appears on the screen. The opening prologue, set in 17th-century Japan, depicts the tragic slaughter of Hanzo Hasashi’s (Hiroyuki Sanada) family at the hands of Bi-Han (Joe Taslim), the future Sub-Zero. This sequence is brutal and features incredible martial arts choreography that feels true to the spirit of the games. In addition, Sanada brings unparalleled gravity to the role, selling the devastating loss that eventually transforms him into Scorpion. That scene is a perfect setup that the rest of the modern-day plot fails to live up to. The introduction of the bland original character Cole Young (Lewis Tan) and the clumsy “arcana” explanation for the fighters’ special moves drag the rest of the film down into generic territory. To make matters worse, all the following action seems generic and uninspired, with the titular Mortal Kombat not even being a part of the movie.
4) X-Men Origins: Wolverine
The opening credits montage of X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a brilliant piece of storytelling that covers more than a century of character history in just a few minutes. It shows Logan (Hugh Jackman) and his half-brother Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber) fighting side-by-side through the American Civil War, both World Wars, and Vietnam. The sequence efficiently establishes their healing factors, their growing disillusionment with humanity, and Victor’s slow descent into sadistic madness. It promised a character-driven war epic focused on their complex fraternal bond. Instead, the movie quickly devolves into a messy collection of fan-service cameos, terrible special effects, and a butchered interpretation of Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) that remains infamous to this day.
3) Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
While much of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is mired in convoluted plotting, its opening sequence is a stroke of genius. Director Zack Snyder reframes the city-leveling battle from Man of Steel entirely from the perspective of Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) on the ground. Watching Wayne race helplessly into the choking dust clouds as skyscrapers crumble around him provides a human-scale view of superhero destruction. It validates Batman’s fear and hatred of Superman, setting up the central conflict with genuine emotional weight. Its intense start is sadly squandered by a film that later relies on jarring dream sequences and a poorly designed CGI monster to resolve its central conflict. Plus, Batman v Superman‘s insistence to set up the Justice League instead of focusing on the story at hand drags the story down.
2) Ghost Ship
Ghost Ship is legendary among horror fans almost entirely for its audacious opening scene. The film begins aboard an elegant ocean liner in 1962, with dozens of wealthy passengers enjoying a dance on the deck. The festivities are brutally cut short when a high-tension wire snaps, whipping across the dance floor and slicing through everyone present. The delay before the bodies actually fall apart is a masterstroke of gruesome timing, creating one of the most memorable massacres in horror history, one that promises a relentless horror movie. Regrettably, once the modern-day salvage crew arrives, the film settles into a deeply generic haunted house story that never comes close to matching the sheer creativity of its first five minutes.
1) 28 Weeks Later
Following up on the iconic opening of 28 Days Later was a tall order, but the sequel managed to deliver an introduction that is arguably even more intense. The opening scene of 28 Weeks Later finds Don (Robert Carlyle) and a small group of survivors hiding in a boarded-up country cottage. When the infected break in, Don is forced to make the horrific decision to abandon his wife to save himself. The sight of him sprinting across an open field with hordes of rage-infected violently close behind him, scored by the thumping “In the House, In a Heartbeat,” is terrifying. The rest of the film, while serviceable, never recaptures that visceral terror, eventually settling for a standard action movie that lacks the emotional punch of its prologue.
Which other movie has an opening scene that is vastly superior to the rest of the film? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
Most Viewed
-
Courtesy of Netflix -
Image Courtesy of HBO
