Best Opening Scenes in Movies
The Jaws movie opening scene has had kids imagining sharks in their pools, ocean-goers with that little fear in the backs of their minds during a summer swim, and other people flat out refusing to go in the water for decades. Spielberg knows how to open a film (see Jurassic Park below or any of his Indiana Jones films).
Why Opening Scenes Matter
Screenwriters know you gotta hook a reader in the first ten pages. John August and Craig Mazin host a 3-page challenge on their Scriptnotes podcast. But the greatest films know how to capture their audience within seconds. Let’s talk about some of the best opening scenes in movies and why they work. These iconic film intros grabbed audiences from the get go, set the tone for great storytelling, and have stayed in our imaginations since the first time we saw them.
What Makes an Opening Scene Great
There are a lot of different qualities that make an opening scene great. An emotional film should open with emotional weight — Up breaks your heart before taking you on an uplifting journey. An action film should have suspense and cinematic flair. A romcom should give us insight into our protagonist’s lives and what makes them lovable.
Many great scenes hint at the themes of the film or the central conflict. Jurassic Park opens with a mishap at the park resulting in a dinosaur attack. But did the scientists listen? Nooooooo.
Above all else, a great movie opening scene will contain originality. It will offer something audiences haven’t seen before. Each of the films listed below distinguished itself with creativity, tone, story premise, and character introductions. Let's get to it.
The Most Iconic Opening Scenes in Movie History
Promising Young Woman (2020)
The newest film on the list, Promising Young Woman from Emerald Fennell had such a gripping opener that they used it in the trailer. A man helps an inebriated woman home from a bar and attempts to sexually assault her only to learn that she’s stone cold sober and he’s the prey. One of the most successful rape revenge stories, Fennell’s directorial debut, for which she was also the screenwriter, features a woman fighting back against the violence of men and the complacency of other women.
Jurassic Park (1993)
In Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg proves once again his mastery of adventure films. He opens with a tense and violent interaction with the raptors of the park without actually showing a raptor. It’s the perfect monster-in-the-dark fright fest where the danger is imminent, even against men with weapons and electrified fences. It foreshadows the failure of the park itself, that even with planning and precautions, nature will triumph over the hubris of man.
Scream (1996)
Probably the longest opener on this list, Scream is nevertheless iconic. Wes Craven gave us star Drew Barrymore in what might have normally been a scene for the film’s leading lady — and then he brutally murdered her in an edge-of-your-seat fashion that definitely had me screaming at the screen the first time I saw it. The self-aware slasher film revitalized the horror industry and launched a soon-to-be seven film franchise that is approaching a $1 billion box office, even while teasing horror tropes through its genre-loving characters.
Up (2009)
I will personally never forgive Disney Pixar for the opening to Up. If you haven’t seen it yet, get some tissues and prepare yourself for a masterclass in eliciting an emotional response. In just a few short minutes, Up delivers a heartbreaking backstory for one of its main protagonists, who lives a lifetime with his beloved wife until she passes away in their elder years, leaving him alone and vulnerable. It. Is. Brutal. But don’t worry — an adventure and a happy ever after await Carl in the rest of the now iconic film famous for its visuals of a home carried up and away by a bunch of balloons.
The Dark Knight (2008)
Christopher Nolan really put the dark in Dark Knight. His Batman trilogy did not pull the punches of the tv series or even the 90s films, and while it isn’t often that a sequel can outshine its predecessor, The Dark Knight — and Heath Ledger’s Award-Winning performance as the Joker — is proof that it can happen. The opening scene reveals the Joker’s cunning and brutality with a bank heist built on a scheme of villains betraying one another in a domino effect finally leading to the Joker himself. It sets up the intelligence, viciousness, and capability of Batman’s latest opponent.
Office Space (1999)
The opening scene for Office Space might need to come with a trigger warning for anyone who has felt the pain of a morning commute. Peter Gibbons is stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, impatiently changing lanes only to watch other cars get to advance. Meanwhile someone with a walker is getting where they’re going faster than he is. The scene is irritating as hell and expertly sets the stage for Gibbons’ frustration with his tedious job and humdrum life. Of course, all that is about to change…
Children of Men (2006)
A well-executed long shot is always exciting to watch, and Children of Men managed to introduce the future (2027 – not so far in the future anymore!) while launching protagonist Theo Faron into a world suffering through two decades of infertility and on the brink of societal collapse. The clues to Alfonso Curon’s dystopia are sublime: a somber crowd gathers in a cafe to mourn the murder of the youngest person on the planet, eighteen year-old “Baby Diego” while outside technology has shuttered and smog suffocates the city before a dirty bomb goes off just a few feet away. It’s the kind of imaginative opening that tells audiences that they are in for a unique and detailed story.
Super Troopers (2001)
Super Troopers started out funny and just got better and better. The opening is unforgettable in its introduction to our ignoble state troopers as they mess with a bunch of stoner kids who are tripping balls. It let audiences know right away that while these troopers might be wearing the uniform, they’re not exactly law-abiding citizens. If you haven’t been quoting, “The schnozzberries taste like schnozzberries,” ever since you saw it for the first time, then it’s probably time you consider getting high watch the film and take notes on how to open a comedy.
The Matrix (1999)
The Matrix has so many iconic moments that I could never pick a favorite, but dang does the opening compete for the top slot. It hurls us into the matrix via Trinity, Carrie-Ann Moss’ legendary badass, first with an intriguing phone conversation and then with her gravity-defying evasion of the law — and certain men in suits we will come to know as agents. The subtext is excellent; from how the agents speak about her, we sense that we are in for a treat (“[the two units you sent after her] are already dead.” Her conversation with Morpheus lets us know that the danger is worse than she’d imagined — their mission has been traced and, worse, there are agents at the scene. But then, she comes through with incredible acts of physical prowess until finally she manages to make it to a telephone — a telephone? How intriguing! — for safety. It’s utterly imaginative and compelling and it sets the stage for a film that absolutely rocked audiences who got to see it in theaters for the first time.
What Can Writers Learn from These Openings?
These iconic movie intros should encourage screenwriters to think critically about how their own films begin. You want to set the tone, genre, or theme in minutes by planting clear visual or emotional seeds. The Social Network opening used dialogue to set the pace and tone while revealing Mark’s personality — it managed to make a breakup feel like an action scene. Meanwhile, the opening scene of Pulp Fiction used dialogue to mislead the audience before throwing a fun twist in there — and later it would be revealed that the film is told in a nonlinear structure and that scene will open and end the film in a full circle.
An opening scene can deliver a mini-story, such as the bank heist in The Dark Knight — imagine that as a short film, fully contained and entertaining. But it does so much more: it makes a promise to the audience for what the rest of the film will be.
When writing your next screenplay, take time to rewatch these openings above to study their pacing, stakes, and reveals. You can go further into your particular genre through the years to see how opening scenes have evolved over time. Who knows, maybe your film will be the next one to make this list!