Best opening scene ever.

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Star Wars Ep3 (space battle) The only film scene EVER to give me a sense of vertigo.
[youtube]http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=JviHUtHFRYY[/youtube]

Star Wars Ep4 (credits and flyover) - Completely blows me away.

T2 Nuke...

The Spy Who Loved Me ... impressive ski jump.

2001 Yep pretty good.


Quatermass: Trial... Yep brilliant.. sadly the only way forward was ... down. (sigh).

Ouinon... that Shining footage (and offcuts of it) has been reused in sooo many films. Quite naughty of warners really.

Outbreak... where they nuke a village in the opening scenes.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7M7v4nESvg[/youtube]

My favorite openings are:

Underworld
Blade
Seed of Chucky
A History of Violence
The Incredibles
Kill Bill Vol. II
No Country for Old Men
Star Wars: Episode IIII - Revenge of the Sith
The Matrix
Running Scared
Oldboy
Minority Report
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
Sweeney Todd


Most of these are on youtube but I'm too lazy to look up the links.

Gundam 00 Season One Opening along with Season Two

Gundam Wing is a good one as well

I would say a couple of my favirouts are Star Wars ep III, and the first episode of Pokemons, where it starts out like the gameboy's opening then when Nidorino jumps at Gengar they change into anime. And I will say the matrix movies, mostly the 1st and 2nd.

I liked the intro to T2: Judgement Day too. It really sets the tone with the movie well.

My personal favorite openings probably won't top those that were already posted here, but are thought-provoking nontheless.

"Tales From The Hood" circa 1995. After the title sequence, the credits are shown against shots of a skeleton on a black backdrop. But you notice weird things about the skeleton; It is wearing a blue bandana and a pair of shades, holding a gun and lighting up as well as smoking a cigarette. The skeleton is finally revealed from the waist-up and zooms into the skeleton's sunglasses into the opening scene of the film. Although the look of a gangbanging skeleton seems corny, this is also a message about inner-city gang violence and how genocidal it is to the African-American community.

And then, there is 2001's "Baby Boy" starring singer Tyrese Gibson in his debut starring role. First, you see the Columbia Pictures logo, but you hear strange slushing sounds with the logo. After the "Columbia Pictures Presents" message, you see a startling image of Tyrese as a fetus, curled up and floating peacefully inside his mother's womb, still fully-grown as an adult, with umbilical cord and all, right before a violent abortion shakes the womb and wakes him up, causing him to scream out. The message with this startling image is the same idea of this movie; A grown man of 20 years having responsibility that he refuses to take, therefore making him a manchild.

My favorite opening seen is going to be that from Children of Men.

I think the intor scene of There Will Be Blood was fantastic, simply because silent acting seems to be a dying art form.

It may not count but I think the title sequence in To Kill a Mockingbird was gorgeous. I once heard a radio interview where a man proposed that title sequences be given their own category at the Academy Awards (he used TKAM as an example). I for one would love to see this happen.

Got off topic. Sorry.

Watchmen's opening titles were actually quite good.

There is a difference between opening titles and openings. Opening titles is another saying for title sequence, while opening (especially for a film) could mean a pre-credits sequence, the titles themselves, and/or even just after this.

Contact (1997) w/Jodie Foster:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynz1Zhh_Fwg[/youtube]

Star Wars Episode 4.
Wall-E
Cars

The opening scene from Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u0uo0TxS-I[/youtube]

Can we count video games? Zero Wing has the best! "Somebody set up us the bomb!"

For movies, my favorite is Return of the King, where Smeagol strangles Deagol in a fight over the ring.

Yeah, the opening of Curse of Monkey Island, and also Grim Fandango, were both awesome.

I like, of course, the opening of The Fifth Element. Ditto Return of the King. Iron Man has a great start, and is all the more brilliant for rolling straight into the movie, not a shot wasted. Back to the Future, too. And The Nightmare Before Christmas. Let's face it, if you don't start a movie right, you may lose the chance to keep the viewers around for the finish. So a lot of these filmmakers make sure the hook you. Even a quiet movie, like Enchanted April or Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (both in my collection of favorites), can start out in such a way as to make you want to know more. Why is she so upset about that newspaper ad? When is that coin going to come up tails, and why is it not doing it now? But these don't really kick you in the proverbial butt.

But then, The Pirates of the Caribbean had a good start, and look what they did with it. Actually, the first one was a good movie. Not great. But good. They should have stopped there.

On a side note, could anyone help me figure out why all these videos are coming up as lil blank white screens?

If we count video games, basically any Fallout game, what with Ron Perlman going "war never changes"...

I also like the original Star Wars, but what about the opening sequence from Jaws?

I was very impressed with the Normandy invasion in the opening of Saving Private Ryan, too.

Mike