Best Opening & Closing Scenes

Best ending, 2001: A space odyssey...I can't think of any other right now

Must agree, "Dr. Strangelove" tops all the others for opening and closing in same movie. I came across the original screenplay for this movie, and as written, it started on a spaceship with 2 aliens looking down on earth, discussing our species.

I do love how The Searchers has the parralel structure of Ethan in the door at the beginning and the end. One opening to see him in the distance approaching and one closing with him in the middle of it leaving.

Also Last Tango in Paris if I remember has a nice opening and closing shot.

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best opening

Goodfella's
American Beuty

Best Closing

Trainspotting
The Usual Suspects
Pulp Fiction
Scarface
Shawshank Redemption

Best Ending: The Shawshank Redemption

Best Opening: Saving Private Ryan

Hmm... hard a lot of good movies have good openings and endings. I know a good opening and ending scene in the same movie.
Best Opening:Aruther and The Invisibles ( when snoop dog enters his pad )
Best Ending: Very last ending part in the last scene!

'Slightly Honorable' starts out with reading on screen thus;
Eight thousand miles away there is a small island where all is quiet, harmonious and peaceful....
yes BUT THAT's EIGHT THOUSAND MILES AWAY ...boom. bang.
I agree with the ending for 'Dr. Strangelove' I forget the opening.
Yes, 'City Lights' had a touching ending. So mant others!

Ninjas Turtles II, Go NINJA, GO NINJA, GO!!!

Was reminded last night of another great opening and closing in the war film, 12 O'Clock High. The opening was rather extended--starts with Dean Jagger, an American lawyer, buying a hat in post-war London. When he stops to admire his reflection in a neighboring store window, he spots a Robin Hood mug that once was the talisman for the bomber unit he served with during the war. He buys the mug, then takes a train and then a bike to the old abandoned air field. As he looks around at the decay, we hear the faint sounds of songs popular in the war, the wind begins to whip the tall grass like the prop-wash from aircraft engines, and we're transported back to a shot-up bomber squadron returning from a mission. The closing brings us back to Jagger and his bike on the abandoned field.

Blade, really got me in the mood with its sword swinging and butt kicking. It took me years to be bothered to hire the movie and minutes to get me hooked on it.

So you mean the movie finally being over is good? Okay cool.

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“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton

Best opening scene: Touch of Evil

The awesomness of Orson Wells' 3 minute opening shot is known far and wide, going from closeup to crane tracking over credits and back to eye level with dialogue, and this was 1958. Unbelievable.

Best closing scene: High and Low

My personal favorite movie of all time by Akira Kurosawa. I won't ruin it here; the end sequence is like a wrecking ball in the way it wraps up the theme of the movie. See it, then take a look at the many dissertations on why this is one of the simplest yet most poignant endings in movie history.

Best opening credits: Se7en.

Cannot deny the greatness. Somebody had a blast with this one.

Honorable mention: The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)

Hard to believe a crap movie could have such a promising opening. This deserves a mention just for the contrast. Whoever did these opening credits should have just made the whole thing.

Pulp Fiction
Oceans 11
Thomas crown affair

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J. Dsilva

best opening..umm..not sure really...

best closing...
300 - the culmination of the story and the forthcoming battle...awesome!!!
brotherhood (taegukgi) - very emotional ending...

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We live and learn...then die and forget it all...

Openings:

Saving Pvt Ryan
Star Wars
Once Upon a time in the West
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark

Endings:

Dr. Strangelove
The Good the Bad and the Ugly
Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn
Clerks 1 & Clerks 2 (I liked the cheese)
CHEESE aka The Breakfast Club

Closing scene - 6th Sense
Okay, so its been parodied no end, but come on, when it came out it was incredible. There has never been a better twist in a film than that!
As for opening....I'd say 'Stay', just because I love the confusion it brings and its relevance to the whole film despite this.

In my opinion, Christopher Nolan's masterpiece Memento has brilliant opening and ending sequences. It opens rather unexpectedly and curiously with the backwards developing of a photograph to the backwards shooting of Teddy. Talk about a way to set the tone, innit?

The closing sequence is really poignant without being pretentious, aswell. Rather than going for some BIG TWIST, it pretty much makes you question what you have been seeing. Also it's a great nod to the notion of the unreliable narrator. Guy Pearce deserved an oscar as did Britain's finest, Christopher "demi god" Nolan

Best Opening Credits: Casino Royale (2006)

Best Opening: Hmm....I really thought the opening to The Matrix: Reloaded was good...um...Saving Private Ryan FTW.

Best Closing: The Usual Suspects. It's not even close.

I love all of Wes Anderson's ending shots, especially in Tenenbaums. The climactic scene in The Life Aquatic (in the submarine) is one of my favourite scenes ever, and I know it isn't strictly and end scene. Brazil's ending is fantastic depressing.

Children of Men has a good opening, and, er, Transformers: The Movie. Hawsome.

My vote goes to Chicken Little.