I think its clear by now, I’m a pop culture junkie, and I do like to write about them, list them, and enjoy it. I know I did a similar list here years ago, but after doing a movie night, I wanted to look at the opening scenes and credits of a movie. Up to a point in time, most opening credits were simply text, giving credit to the stars, writers and producers, but that changed, especially with 1977’s A New Hope where we got a text scrawl, and a opening scene. At the time this caused chaos and hurt feelings with the Actors and Writers guild. But now it’s become an accepted practice.
The opening credits and scenes can establish a movie for the movie goer who hasn’t even started firing back his or her popcorn, or taken a sip of their overly sugared soft drink. However the primal part of our brain would see these scenes, snuggle into their chair and say “This is gonna be awesome”.
Sometimes the movie lets you down, sometimes it does become utterly awesome, but for now, these are my favourite movie openers.
10) Guardian’s of the Galaxy 1
Guardian’s of the Galaxy is probably in my mind one of the best Marvel movies in what is a faltering galaxy. It opens establishing two things. Chris Pratt is a hero, and that this movie isn’t going to take itself super seriously. With Pratt dancing through a treasure hunt to “Come and Get your love” by Redbone, where he uses a space rat as a microphone, dance kicks a couple of creatures, and casually Indiana Jones the treasure, is such a treat to watch. It was also the first in one of the greatest movie soundtracks ever.
9) Flash Gordon
Anyone who’s watched Flash Gordon realizes quickly that this is a movie about Flash (sorry) over substance. The set design and use of color and costumes is absolutely brilliant. The movie opens with the disembodied voices of Ming the Merciless and Klytus discussing the casual destruction of earth. We then get the opening to Queen’s “Flash Gordon” theme while images from the comic book series play on the screen. This is the rare opener that gets your heart beating. Even though Flash Gordon was a flop in the box office, the artisty and sound track of the movie made it a pop culture hit.
8) Highlander
One of the great under rated movies of all time. The first movie was excellent with an excellent cast, story and Queen makes another appearance with a brilliant sound track, that includes “Princes of the University”. The opening does feature the credits, but takes place at a Wrestling match in Madison Square Gardens where we see the Fabulous free birds entering the ring. The technique used with a flying camera, is brilliant and exceptional, and it spins around the arena til it focuses on our hero Connor McLeod in a really neat shadow spot. Then we flash back to an ancient battle where our modern character takes part in a war long past. Then he stands up in modern times and goes to his destiny.
7) Up (2009)
I put this in here, and I didn’t watch it in the theatres, but my girl friend at the time threatened to revoke my membership to the men’s club. But the montage follows the life of Carl the main character as he goes through life to become a lonely old man who when he was younger fell in love, got married then received devastating news and eventually watched the love of his life die, establishing why Carl is what Carl is. I remember sniffing and looking at the ceiling and feeling like a complete wuss. (I rewatched it as I wrote this and godamn it I'm not crying, you're crying)
6) Saturday Night Fever
Some people misunderstand this movie, its not just a feel good disco dancing movie, there are some really dark moments, but this opener to the brilliant Bee Gee’s staying alive features the strut, as Tony walks with purpose down the street while carrying a bucket of paint, but it sparks your curiosity, and at the same time if you have a soul makes you want to do some strutting yourself.
5) Once upon a time in the old west (1968)
Sergio Leone does not get enough mention, the king of the Spaghetti Western Genre. This is an opening scene that is literally about waiting, and knowing that the violence is coming and when it does its awesome. The scene itself for the most part is silent, and its three men waiting for a train, but when the late great Charles Bronson arrives its literally blam.
4) Raiders of the Lost Ark
Riffed on brilliantly by Guardians of the Galaxy, this opener puts an entire quest in a short 10 minutes and gets your heart pounding and it introduces the main character and sets him up as not only a action hero, but a brilliantly smart action period (look at the sandbag part), it also introduces the villain. Its amazingly fun opener with so many action sequences, and we get the excellent Indiana Jones theme.
3) Conan the Barbarian
No not the remake, not the sequel, but the real start of the Arnold franchise, this is a great opener narrated by the excellent Mako, we get a thundering sound track with a sword being made in the background, then we learn from Conan’s wise father, “The secret of steel”. In a few short minutes we go from calm to slaughter, and we go off on one of the greatest adventure movies of all time.
2) Jaws
One of the most terrifying openers ever made, and there was no surprise, and it was still terrifying. The fact is we knew what the movie was about, and it still made us scared and a bit nauseous. We see the first victim die a brutal death without screams or spurts of blood or body parts flying all over the place or a wise cracking shark. Its primal and brutal and terrifying and we get the awesome Jaws theme.
Honorable mentions before number 1
There were many brilliant movies that I really loved the opening, and they didn’t make the list but that doesn’t make them less awesome. In no particular order, these are 5 honorable mentions.
- Halloween (The theme and Michael Myers putting on the mask to kill his sister)
- Scream (really well done with a major Hollywood star in Drew Barrymore, being phone stalked and murdered. What’s your favorite scary movie?)
- Jurassic Park (We knew what this movie is about. But we see Muldoon (Clever Girl) and a crew at Jurrasic park trying to transport what would be a Raptor, though we didn’t know it, into the park with horrifying results.)
- 2001 a Space Odessy (I might have been high, but the introduction of the Monolith and the advancement of the ape like tribe, the bone gets tossed into space and we are off,)
A New Hope
This changed movies forever, and changed them for me, in 1977 the only place to see movies was in the theatre, with a massive sound system. As mentioned before this was an opener with no names, we jumped straight to the establishing text wall with “A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far Far Away” there was no voice over, you were forced to read of a summary of what happened up to this point. Then we get a ship screaming over our head. It looked cool, but it was small. And then the world changed as for the next several seconds we got the belly view of a Imperial Star Destroyer and you could feel the menace coming off of the screen as it shot at and disable its smaller victim, then swallowed it like it was a tasty morsel. For years, movie openers were judged by the opener of a New Hope. It hits number one for me because of the effects that had never been seen before, the introduction of the story, and frankly the ability of George Lucas to resist the temptation of doing a tried-and-true opener.