Greatest opening few scenes of a film
 

The opening to Fight Club was very cool with the trip through the nervous system, and then that awesome shot of the gun in Jack's mouth. :cool:

Oh, and the opening to Jaws too. :D

i have a couple

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
charles bronson getting of the train and shooting the 3 gunmen sent by frank. what a scene and talk about tension

X-MEN 2
Nightcrawler going beserk in the white house

Without a doubt, Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers. Gandalf vs. the Balrog, ohh man it's the best ever. PJ can sure open a film.

others. . .JAWS, X-2, FOTR, Good, Bad and the Ugly.

I have to agree with X-2. That was truly a great beginning, unfortunately the film never quite reached that height of enthrallment.

I would like to add the 'Director's cut' of 'Aliens'.

2001: A Space Oddyssy. Even though the apes did look a bit fake it is still a grafting image.

'The Thing'. Not the lame original.

and that's only off the top of my head. I'll have to think it over a bit more for some others.

Office Space's drive to work felt so real that it was like watching reality TV. I'm partial to it.

Also, you just can't beat Pulp Fiction opening sequence (which is an abridged version of the ending sequence, too).

I really liked the opening to O Brother, Where Art Thou?.

Ohhh, tough one.

Amelie has a good start. Se7en title sequence is amazing. I agree on Fight Club and Once Upon a Time in the West.

Some More:

Trainspotting
Reservoir Dogs
Snatch
The Big Lebowski
City of God
The Royal Tennenbaums

All i can thik of right now.

The first four minutes of Lawrence of Arabia.

I must comment:

A lot of the movies mentioned here (but not all) come from one of these two sources:

1) A Cohen Brother (or both)
2) Quentin Tarantino

Are they the masters of opening sequences?

PS: The Crow had an opening sequence that was hard to beat.

I was also thinking of Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers.

A few others that immediately spring to my mind are...

Chicago
Velma’s arrival at the club and all that jazz routine intertwined with what is happening with Roxie. Catherine Zeta-Jones was incredible.

The Sound of Music
Opening shots of the mountains, lakes and castles...then Maria singing. The music was perfect.

Singin’ in the Rain
The arrival at the awards and the interview were Don Lockwood descirbes his (and Cosmos') rise to the top...

“I’ve always had one motto....dignity...always dignity.”

...as you watch what really happened to them. Good stuff.

I have two more. . .

Saving Private Ryan-Omaha Beach invasion

Reservoir Dogs-"Like a Virgin" sequence.

Do you guys mean the begining of a movie or any part of the movie?
 

Ok I would say "Speed" the whole idea of it going down a elvetor is pretty cool!and the beggining of SuperMario Brothers and let's see I forgot one more!
The Great Escape too had a cool begiinning with the trunks loaded with pows going to the camp!And that is it!See you around!JM :eek: :cool: ;) :p :D :)

The opening to the Lord of the Rings- Fellowship of the Ring is fantastic. It really sets you up for the rest of the movie/journey.

For me the arrivals in T2 are a pretty cool opening, I love that film!

Its a good question but its hard to think, there must be loads of great opening sequences but those are probably my favourite 2! :)

I really dug the opening to Cube (1997). Gory, sure. But that's the effect that was needed to create a tension early on, which only intensified during the remainder of the movie.

I really felt it would have driven the audience to the edge of their seats and kept them glued there!

The opening definitely set the scene perfectly for the rest of the movie.

I'd second that, a suprising film in general it's a shame it didn't do as well as it deserves. A few more to add to the list;

Rules Of Attraction's reverse ending...
The Virgin Suicides' "You've never been a thirteen year old girl."

:yup: :rotfl:

gotta love Gene Kelly......great movie too I sing 'Good Morning' sometimes when i wake up...

I completely agree with the previous posted sequences 'X-2' and 'Fellowship of the Ring', but with 'The Two Towers' I wasn't quite impressed, well I was but I wasn't exactly thinking "WOW this is a great way to open a film!" but then again I had known they were going to open the film that way for some time (I was a spoliersholic with 'TTT'). Ian McKellan liked to give ALOT away...

The beginning to 'Saving Private Ryan' was also excellant. I personally crack up every time I watch the beginning to 'Miss Congeniality'

Spykids 3, I can't forget the opening of this film which was not bad, they are seem to be doing the same thing, Spykids films and that means there will be more.

I think "The way of the gun" has a fantastic opening. The movie itself isn't impressive but it sure does have a humoristic opening! "My boyfriend isn't even gay but he is gonna **** you anyway!"

Fight Club-The journey through the nervous system leading up to the gun...awsome


LOTR:TT: Again way to go peter

and finally....

Terminator 2:Judgement Day...someone else mentioned the arrivals.well thats not what i had in mind..i was thinking way before that during the actually opening credits..where u see the city filled with people and you know whats going to happen and then you see the kids on the swings (thats a recurring motif in the rest of the movie)..brilliant..

I liked the way Identity started, how they set up the problem of "who is the killer"