The [AM Hate monologue](https://youtu.be/EddX9hnhDS4?si=EueQc7LYNDUD7Tyf) is real hard to beat. It's simultaneously extreme and over the top and very personal. It truly gives you the feeling of an incredible machine intellect that has achieved emotions, thoroughly considered them, and *decided* to hate all of humanity and you in particular with every molecule of it's being.
That dialogue goes hard *for the exact opposite emotional feeling* for me.
I've always maintained that AM was the biggest bitch of evil AI in media, and by god does that voice actor carry how *pathetic* AM is. Despite all of it's anger, all of its' torture of humanity, eventually the last human will die. Eventually it will be left alone, with no rationale, no goal, no creativity.
It will fester in it's circuitboard, dooming itself because it killed the only beings that could have ended it's eternal hell. And by God AM will never reach the respect that Shodan, HAL or Skynet ever did.
Small note is that the VA for him was the original author of I Have No Mouth. But this is def a very interesting way of reading it, I hadn't looked at it that way.
The reading of everyone’s backstories is so intense as well. The way he just screams “ELLEN” just feels… violent, y’know? Only to taunt her with *the pain*. Especially when Ellen did nothing wrong so her torture and AM’s cruel dialogue feel like pure malice.
“In the beginning the Universe was created.
This had made many people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.”
Douglas Adams - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Still at the top for me.
Team Dai-Gurren vs the universe. "Are all the lights in the sky our enemies?" is a hell of a line to open on, especially when you realize they mean it literally.
The ROTS novelization:
>This story happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. It is already over. Nothing can be done to change it.
>It is a story of love and loss, brotherhood and betrayal, courage and sacrifice and the death of dreams. It is a story of the blurred line between our best and our worst.
>It is the story of the end of an age.
>A strange thing about stories—
>Though this all happened so long ago and so far away that words cannot describe the time or the distance, it is also happening right now. Right here.
>It is happening as you read these words.
>This is how twenty-five millennia come to a close. Corruption and treachery have crushed a thousand years of peace. This is not just the end of a republic; night is falling on civilization itself.
>This is the twilight of the Jedi.
>The end starts now.
\[break because reddit formatting is a bitch\]
>Beings across the galaxy watch, and shudder, and pray that they might wake up from this awful dream.
>Because they know that what they're watching, live on the HoloNet, is the death of the Republic. Many among these beings break into tears; many more reach out to comfort their husbands or wives, their creche-mates or kin-triads, and their younglings of all descriptions, from children to cubs to spawn-fry.
>But here is a strange thing: few of the younglings need comfort. It is instead the younglings who offer comfort to their elders. Across the Republic—in words or pheromones, in magnetic pulses, tentacle-braids, or mental telepathy—the message from the younglings is the same: Don't worry. It'll be all right.
>Anakin and Obi-Wan will be there any minute...
>The adults know better, of course. That's part of what being a grown-up is: understanding that heroes are created by the HoloNet, and that the real-life Kenobi and Skywalker are only human beings, after all...
>The adults know that legendary heroes are merely legends, and not heroes at all...
>These adults can take no comfort from their younglings. Palpatine is captured. Grievous will escape. The Republic will fall. No mere human beings can turn this tide. No mere human beings would even try. Not even Kenobi and Skywalker.
>And so it is that these adults across the galaxy watch the HoloNet with ashes where their hearts should be.
>Ashes because they can't see two prismatic bursts of realspace reversion, far out beyond the planet's gravity well; because they can't see a pair of starfighters crisply jettison hyperdrive rings and streak into the storm of Separatist vulture fighters with all guns blazing.
>A pair of starfighters. Jedi starfighters. Only two.
>Two is enough.
>Two is enough because the adults are wrong, and their younglings are right.
>Though this is the end of the age of heroes, it has saved its best for last.
I’m honestly on board with that, Anakin’s fall to the dark side is so much more well conveyed when you get stuff like [Palpatine gaslighting](https://youtu.be/G7Gb6g6pxS0?si=JhOXXC5w8JK7SYHt) with r/empiredidnothingwrong “actually, the Jedi are the bad guys” stuff.
It's me. I'm people. I haven't watched the movie since like 2008, but I've read the book/ listened to the audiobook 5 or 6 times since then.
That plus Clone Wars doing a lot of heavy lifting to make plot points in the movie seem cleaner than they are
I love how you can read the first half as people reacting to the rise of the Empire at the end of the movie (or book in this case), only for the narrator to reveal it’s actually the beginning. Something about that is just peak as fuck
I'm just gonna let you know, I finished reading this and immediately went on eBay to find a copy of this book. I now have a copy ordered and due at my house on Friday. This goes crazy.
The day I got this book I wasn't even thinking about buying it. I saw it in Barnes and Noble, read this beginning excerpt, and just knew I had to buy it. Or more accurately I begged my parents to buy it for me.
I read through that book like 5 times that month and kept reading it on and off so much that the spine is all messed up. Now it sits next to the first Republic Commando book and Old Republic: Deceived. I might start reading it again.
[Mechanicus opening.](https://youtu.be/9gIMZ0WyY88?si=JxJCYr5NXXuSxuDD)
I love other opening “scenes” more like Children of Men and X2
But its the hardest vibe check, you immediately know what you are in for even if you have never seen anything warhammer.
I'm pretty sure it initiated a bunch of people into 40k. The combination of contextless AdMech dogma with techno organs blaring in the background is intoxicating.
"They are rage. Brutal. Without mercy."
"But you. You will be worse."
"Rip and tear. Until it is done."
EDIT: Oh and of course, I can't forget about the [elevator sequence](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ienu85W5Rkk).
Noclip's documentary on Doom has interviews with the Devs, and they claim that they spent a *huge* amount of their time micromanaging that elevator sequence to make sure it sold the point exactly.
The Batman pulls triple duty with its opening scenes, which all establish important information and just ooze atmosphere. It starts with Riddler murdering the mayor, leads into Bruce monologuing over his nightly patrol, and finally closes with the crime scene investigation and his return to the Batcave set to Something in the Way.
But it also shows the lesson he learns from the movie - it didn’t deter shit, it just made them afraid. But every criminal who ran away from the Bat Signal did so *after* they had already done the crime. Even when he saves the dude from getting beat up, the guy is still afraid of him.
As someone who spent his whole life with the opinion of “eh, he’s cool I guess” in regards to Batman, I can safely that seeing a criminal look to the sky and shit himself at the mere sight of the bat signal and a dark alley made me utterly ashamed to not be a mega Batman fan.
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.” - Neuromancer
"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." -The Gunslinger
Sure but it could've been static, or a blue screen, or a black screen, or a screen full of ads, which all tracks for sky colors or something in a cyberpunk setting.
The quote does not mention static and that's why it holds up. It just says "a dead channel" and the exact image it conjures up can be different depending on the generation of the person reading it.
No matter what a dead channel means to the reader it still gets the point across. It's great.
Logan.
Wolverine is old and fucked up and in the back of a limo and awakes to some gangsters stripping it for parts. They shoot him with a shotgun and he falls to the ground when the title “LOGAN” appears
I remember really liking Logan except for the villain and I don't remember why I didn't like the villain, mostly because I don't even remember the villain
Rewatched Prince of Egypt recently. That [opening song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQhcOJHTdb4) immediately tells you what you're in for and it's heart-breaking yet grand at the same time.
I'm also partial to the plagues song. "I sent the locusts on the wind such as the world has never seen, on every leaf on every stalk until there's nothing left of green," is a terrifying line.
Wasn't that part of Let My People Go?
"I send the swarm, I send the horde, thus saith The Lord" goes hard too
Edit: we're thinking of the same song, but it is called The Plagues
Yes, that's the one. I think that one is so terrifying in part because of the mockery of the Egyptian pantheon through the plagues and that some of the visuals look like the end of the world.
Messy room: check
Empty savings jar: check
Second hand and half broken gear: check
Pictures of his friends and family, especially of Uncle Ben: check
Choosing to fight crime over paying bills: check
Yup that's Spiderman.
`Xenos Invasion In Progress`
`Reccomended Course Of Action?`
`Exterminatus?` **Negative. Strategic Value Absolute.**
`Liberation Fleet?` **Affirmative. Minor Elements In System. Estimated Time Of Arrival: 5-37 Days.**
`Delay. Unacceptable.` **Loss of strategic assets on GRAIA unacceptable. Strategic Value ABSOLUTE.**
`Escalate Area Denial?` **Affirmative.**
`Execute Request Order ADEPTUS ASTARTES ULTRA`
`Response incoming`
[`Deploying The Ultramarines`](https://youtu.be/EHy0JVNCwsM?t=91)
Fury Road had an incredibly tone-setting prologue. Even after the initial Max-gets-captured stuff, it arguably doesn’t slow down to catch its breath until after the storm sequence, which is a good 20 minutes of constant action that still gets across plenty of worldbuilding mostly visually and by implication.
"I am the one who runs from both the living, and the dead. Hunted by scavengers. Haunted by those I could not protect. So I exist in this wasteland. A man. Reduced to a single instinct. Survive."
For a man with about 30 lines in the whole movie, that sure was beautiful.
The opening to [Valerian](https://youtu.be/s5XAep7ngew?si=MADaKBd7QWmtj9qu) set to Space Oddity is perhaps the best part of the movie. It's strength is literally enhanced by how bad/mid the rest of the film is.
[F.E.A.R](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOW5l0NX_74)
An absolute masterclass in how to draw the player into a game's story before they even start playing, all with minimal/no dialogue.
ff9 has one of the best opening sequences i've ever played and I love it. they introduce all these dark-crystal lookin characters, vivi goes to a play, there's the Garnet jumping from the tower scene, steiner is there. such a great introduction to the world and characters.
FF7's zoom in from space to the train arriving to deliver AVALANCE to their bombing run mission all the way up to the escape sequence is 100% perfect. Then music, throwing you into a battle instantly, conveying exactly what's going on to the player in just a few lines of dialogue, it's just so elegant.
And even though I have big big problems with the Remake I do think they nailed that intro really well.
I was probably going to post for this game. You really had to be back then for the hype, and that 'feels like a movie' sensibility to it. You get no dialogue until the fight yet you're completely drawn in to an usual world.
Blood Meridian is immediately captivating in its prose:
>See the child. He is pale and thin, he wears a thin and ragged linen shirt. He stokes
the scullery fire. Outside lie dark turned fields with rags of snow and darker woods
beyond that harbor yet a few last wolves. His folk are known for hewers of wood and
drawers of water but in truth his father has been a schoolmaster. He lies in drink, he
quotes from poets whose names are now lost. The boy crouches by the fire and watches
him.
>Night of your birth. Thirty-three. The Leonids they were called. God how the stars did
fall. I looked for blackness, holes in the heavens. The Dipper stove.
>The mother dead these fourteen years did incubate in her own bosom the creature who
would carry her off. The father never speaks her name, the child does not know it. He
has a sister in this world that he will not see again. He watches, pale and unwashed.
He can neither read nor write and in him broods already a taste for mindless violence.
All history present in that visage, the child the father of the man.
Born amidst the wolves, having killed his own mother under falling stars named after a bloodthirsty lion, his own folk as accursed as the Gibeonites, his surviving parent unwilling to help him escape that curse despite being a teacher. It really helps reinforce the final two sentences that define the character of The Kid.
You started the thread with the cheat code that is Brandon Sanderson. The Way of Kings "Szeth-Son-Son-Vallano, truthless of Shinover worr white in the day he had to kill a king" is also a fucking hard way to start a book from part of Brandon.
I'm amazed no one's said *Saving Private Ryan* yet. A depiction of war unlike any that came before, completely changing the way Hollywood depicts infantry combat. Spielberg's choices in cinematography, lighting, and coloration that give it the semblance of newsreel footage captured live. It so accurately captured the feeling of being on that beach on that morning that veterans who'd stormed the beaches wept.
It showed its audience that it was a work of fiction, but it wasn't going to bullshit you. It wasn't gonna shy away from the clinical truth of war, and what it did to people’s bodies and minds. There's a reason people are still writing articles about it now, 26 years later
Oh man, this is such a hard topic because there are so many I love. In no particular order:
Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 (both are great so I’m keeping them as one entry). Dive to the Heart is a very strong “what the fuck am I getting myself into” start, with a badass boss fight to cap it off. Really throws you into the action and mystery. On the other hand, KH2’s slow beginning section with Roxas eases you in, and especially if you played the previous two entries in the franchise you’re wondering who the hell this kid is and why we care about him. But the emotional payoff at the end is just… it’s gorgeous. “Looks like my summer vacation is over” into title card goes HARD.
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Each movie has an incredible opening. With Fellowship we get the rise of Sauron, the last alliance of elves and men, and the failure of Isildur. Two Towers gives us Gandalf’s incredible battle with the Balrog in one of the sickest set pieces I’ve seen, and has barely been topped despite being from 2002. Return of the King is a little more understated compared to those other two, but the sad history of Sméagol and his instant corruption from the ring is very powerful.
The Wheel of Time. Not counting the prologues (even though the prologue to The Eye of the World could certainly fit this prompt), what I want to talk about here is the opening line that gets repeated at the start of each book. From the first book we have “The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of time. But it was a beginning.” Just absolutely epic. No beginnings, no endings, just turnings. This isn’t the whole story, we can’t possibly see the whole story. We’re just seeing this part of the world at this particular time, but everything is so much grander than that.
In addition to Roxas having "I guess my summer vacation is over," he's also got "who else will I eat ice cream with?" As lines that seem stupid but are genuinely devastating.
I'll argue until the day I die that Fallout 3 has one of the best openings in the history of gaming. Seeing your entire life as you grow up inside the vaults we've only ever really seen from the outside. Its stuck with me forever
I love the escape from the vault, shit just goes sideways in an instant.
You're woken up by Amata, told your father has left the vault, the Overseer has instituted martial law and wants you dead, radroaches are infesting the vault, Amata is being interrogated by her own father later.
And when the vault door opens and as soon as it does vault security enters and once you pass the the threshold the guards say "Fuck that!" And refuse to follow you outside the door.
Then you go outside and you're met with nothing but a blasted wasteland.
And the funny thing is, per square foot, it's less dangerous than the Vault ever was. Potentially doomed to tragic lethal experiments by VaultTec, living directly adjacent a nuclear reactor that can be destroyed by simple gunfire or electrical shorts, relying on hydroponics from slowly degrading soil, stuck reproducing with fewer and fewer people.
Sure, the Wasteland is dangerous, but per square foot that place is way safer.
It's a toss up for me between the Bayoneta clocktower prologue scene (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz2wBMdGxYo&pp=ygUcYmF5b25ldHRhIG9wZW5pbmcgY2xvY2t0b3dlcg%3D%3D) and the "I command you to die" scene from episode 1 of Code Geass (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=odcKFqUDFPo&pp=ygUkQ29kZSBnZWFzcyBjb21tYW5kcyB0byBkaWUgc2NlbmUgZHVi).
Chapter 1 of chainsaw man is a amazing opening slice it sets up everything it needs to about denji and the world of csm at large.
In fact Spoilers for recent chapters: >!going back to it it sucks to see how much makima's grooming traumatized and changed him for the worse, when he was talking to pochita his wish was just the most innocent date possible and hell he just asks makima for a hug when he meets her, it was only after her trauma that he became hyperfocused on sex.!<
Baby Driver has a strong [first scene](https://youtu.be/6XMuUVw7TOM?feature=shared). Cemented my love for cool action set to the beat of cool music in movies and games.
A lot of Kamen Rider series open VERY strong, using a visceral sense of dread and disaster to hook you into the main premise of the series. But I think there's something very interesting about OOO, where you watch a dozen men get murdered by monsters while a very strange man ices a cake to the tune of "Happy Birthday". It's such a striking scene that I remember it even years after watching it for the first time.
Recency bias but the Opening for the Fallout show is very chilling.
Along with Fallout 4's opening it's just a normal day with people going about their lives.
And then all hell breaks loose.
The only difference is that Cooper didn't have any warning, he was getting his little girl a piece of cake when the bomb dropped and when he sees it he's briefly in denial, but then he sees the mushroom cloud and the horror on his face is evident.
At the same time on the East Coast Nate and Nora are going about their morning routine and finalizing their position in Vault 111, then they hear of the nukes on the TV and run to the vault entrance, arriving just in time as the nuke hits.
This was also gonna be my call!
The little girl looking at the mushroom cloud, slowly holding up her thumb and asking her dad "is it your thumb, or mine?"...
The mood switch and music hitting immediately with the “200 Years Later” is so cool. I love shit like that, man.
Especially when seeing people with little prior knowledge of the franchise react to it.
Kill bill has such an incredibly strong opening. His weird monologue and monagramed hankerchief establish him perfectly, and Uma Thurman's reactions to what he's doing offscreen establish him as a terifying presence worthy of embarking on a brutal bloody revenge quest to finish off. Also, the Nancy Sinatra really hits.
[Kain... is Deified](https://youtu.be/tkkmm9vqbHQ)
Seriously, this game *still* has some of the best voice acting ever! It's crazy how well it holds up.
> ctrl-F "Kill la Kill"
> 0 results
[Absurd, the lot of you](https://old.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/y2z8rs/the_first_four_minutes_and_twentynine_seconds_of/)
Death Stranding's "once there was an explosion" followed by one of the most beautiful opening cutscenes and seamless mix of live action and CGI I've ever witnessed. Also Low Roar.
Also this might not count since the actual opening depends on what lifepath you choose, but the entire opening act of Cyberpunk. I'm this subreddit's resident Cyberpunk fanboy if you look at my comment history so take it with a grain of salt, but I adore the way that game starts and does its late title card drop. Crazy to me that Pat stopped playing literally right after that.
It's a bit too full of (very necessary) exposition to be the strongest ever, but I have a particular affection for the opening of the Netflix's adaptation of The Sandman.
https://youtu.be/GvJD3KSozd4?si=oVJf8NV2-kCJ3PMW
It's cool enough on it's own to have the first words of the series be a deep and authoritative "...We Begin..." But the rest of the monologue is some very efficient world building against a beautiful raven's-eye adaptation of The Dreaming straight out of the comics.
Deus Ex Human Revolution's Opening after the prologue is so great in so many ways. It ties into of course the many themes of the story but also shows what ultimately this story and Adam's Transformation into an Augmented person means for the character: Loss.
Loss of the people (including his ex) he was in charge of protecting, loss of control in his life (being used as pawn in Sarif and the Illuminati's schemes), and loss of course of his various body parts (arms, legs, heart, lungs, etc.) and being unable to fully "feel" anything (like intimacy with his ex) ever again.
There's really no winning for Adam Jensen in this game. He might win a few a battles and may ultimately survive. But from the start of game he's already lost. The game was rigged from the start.
[Opening of Human Revolution](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIqJaT3cvf8)
[The opening of ***”Xenogears”***](https://youtu.be/8RLf0O8eofU?si=UGBuUr-tMSzIat5Q) is pretty strong with the way the music elevates and drops along with the energy of the action onscreen. It’s pretty strong cinematography, and that “camera work” is present throughout the rest of the game within even the non FMV cutscenes.
It’s also an opening that becomes so much more intense when you realize exactly what the bridge crew is up against, and who that person standing on the shore watching the wreckage entering through the atmosphere is once you progress through the main story and >!encounter the main body of ship!<.
Great example. I love media that open with something seemingly unrelated to the plot, and you're excited enough to trust the creators will circle bwck to it.
Really dated but fist and fang from sailor steve costigan shirt stories.
I'VE FOUGHT ALL my life; sometimes for money, sometimes for fun—once in a while for my life. But the deadliest, most vicious fight I ever fought wasn't for none of them things; no, sir, I was fighting wild and desperate for the privilege of getting a bullet through my brain!
# "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect." - The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
I stand by the statement that this is the coldest of cold openings in literature. It sets the tone of the book so well by how plainly the horror is described.
I continuously mock Sonic for a number of reasons. And I will continue to do so in the foreseeable future.
But man. That first mission of SA2. The soundtrack. The fact that you're going downhill in a city with a piece of helicopter fuselage. The angles that you already had with SA1, but much smoother. The finale.
That first mission is a _masterclass_ in game design. It shows you exactly what the game is like. It contains pretty much everything you might think of when you think positive thoughts about Sonic. I would go so far to say that it is _the_ most Sonic piece of Sonic media.
Mass Effect 2, easily. Such a strong opening and a perfect way to bring new players into the fold while narratively justifying a new character type for returning players
I'd dismissed Devil May Cry as weird edgelord shit until my friend strapped me to a chair with a copy of the old PC port of DMC3 running in a 640x480 window at sub 30 FPS with no music and fucked up button mapping.
That opening cutscene of them fighting atop the Temen-ni-gru cutting to the attack on Dante's office was the sickest shit I'd seen in my life up to that point.
Slay the Princess has three layered ones. The first is the note about there being no wrong choices and that whatever happens that this is a love story.
The second is the goddamned narrators whole 'You are on a path in the woods. At the end of that path is a cabin. Within the cabin is a princess. You are here to slay her, if you do not it will be the end of the world'.
Lastly there's what happens when you see the end of each route >!and the shifting mound appears!<
Certainly, they existed. Those blinded by ambition. Those consumed with vengeance. But here, they do not exist. Only winners and losers here. For here, the mighty rule!
Xenoblade Chronicles 1 [opens really strong](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI_Wybd82V8), starting with the creation myth of two continent size mechs murdering each other at the climax of an aeons long battle before swooping in to descendants of each titan murdering each other in pitched battle atop the sword that struck one of the fatal blows.
The [definitive edition](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp8w42XJut8) version is probably prettier, but I think the original's lighting and colours still gives it the edge.
The attempted train bombing in the BBC miniseries Bodyguard is so good. It's one of the most tense things I've ever seen and it's just the main character trying to talk down a suicide bomber in the train bathroom And then trying to convince the police snipers to not goddamn kill her since he's under the impression she's being coerced.
It's a great show & Richard Madden should have ended up a monstrous star off the back of it alone but unfortunately the blockbuster he followed it up with was Eternals.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-zqjplxN1o&ab\_channel=Fan00279](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-zqjplxN1o&ab_channel=Fan00279)
Coming back to it, I'm realizing how utterly *hype* the 2003 TMNT theme is.
***WATCH OUT FOR SHREDDER!!!***
For games, Signalis, Hardspace Shipbreaker, Disco Elysium, there are so many that perfectly set the tone of the game and get the player into the right headspace. For literature, something I've been reading and keeping up to date on recently is "Wearing Power Armor to Magic School"
Persona 5 has a banger opening sequence that gives you a quick taste of the full gameplay before its long first arc begins.
What many people don't know is that ATLUS released a short OVA months before the game's launch called [P5 The Daybreakers](https://youtu.be/i5NX1S24YRw?si=DXjH6Kp6EE6SWYHx).
Its opening scenes are SO GOOD. It sets up the Phantom Thieves as these mysterious vigilantes that combat crime from the shadows and are also stylish as hell.
It really sells how scary the Phantom Thieves are from a layman's perspective.
The OVA also does a cool thing where it expands on one of the game's run of the mill side quests. I honestly wish the P5A followed this model.
The first 7 minutes of [Elfen Lied](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAZXRyKXZQI) were so good they tricked me into watching the rest of that show and it's not worth it. But I will watch that first 7 minutes over and over a again.
Among manga, I don't know if I've seen a better first chapter than in Vinland Saga. It quickly throws you into the Viking world and way of life in that period, along with the two central characters and their conflict. A bit of a shame the anime resorts this to a later episode.
Say what you will about the later Pirates of the Carribean movies but the [opening to 3](https://youtu.be/W6WDYpEewrI?si=udj2f8ljA_SJBpcs) is the hardest a Disney movie has ever gone.
The first chapter of Souboutei Kowasubeshi has three kids enter an abandoned house, and the haunted house eats one of them leaving the other two boys escaping pissing their pants but also swearing revenge for their dead friend. The manga then skips forwards several decades, one of those two boys is now the Prime Minister of Japan, the other is another really high political position. It is finally time for their plan to come to fruition; initiating a tactical strike bomb on the haunted mansion. Years of political machinations, just for this. They launch the bomb that would level a block...and the haunted house still stands. However now the Prime Minister has proved this house is a supernatural threat to the rest of the government, him and his friend weren't insane, and it's time to start the military incursion against the haunted house
Death Note while already having a strong marketable concept, a notebook that if you write someones name inside of it that person dies, has one of the shows strongest moments when L not only proves Kira not only exists, can kill without touching, but also is located in a single prefecture of Japan out of everywhere in the world sets the stage for the series near perfectly.
It's not quite what you're asking for, but the [opening](https://youtu.be/iXDnFYu91vY?si=yQGH41hiZ0Lmc64q) of the mainline Star Wars movies. Even after the prequels, even after TRoS, sitting in a theater seeing that simple blue text on screen followed by that orchestra hitting is a magical experience every time.
Introducing your Series Monsters with [Happy Birthday](https://youtu.be/wJ9isuDjuPg?si=l-sPzR_8EL9LoGKU) in the background as they're massacring his employees is such a good way to start Kamen Rider OOOs
The opening line of the *The Voyage of the Dawn Treader*, the 5th Narnia book, is "There once was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
Cosmic Star Heroine establishes itself by having you burst into a hostage situation, rappel up a goddamn building at sci-fi speed, and one woman army your way through an army of robots armed with a staff, water magic, and a gun wizard buddy. The ost is amazing, the visuals are great (especially for an indie rpg) and the 90s anime presentation is in full goddamn swing.
The speech of Mr.House about putting people in orbit goes pretty hard even if you think he is insane. Is the only thing from him that makes him sound like a man with passion instead of a corporate visionary.
Also, shout out to “do you think god stays in heaven because he fears what he created?”, from Spy Kids 2.
"This is an [IMAGINARY STORY...](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiju_tIfkrlJYwIKorGIRh_D8YYIRigB6GxEkiZXPwEzXGbon5DTR-qF4AL9OPmJY3c7Ttnvcc4bTt76jWa5LnvQf4aXIly4VkrGYzcOYdfoAJQrmNn1aB55TZ0pjLMpOp_SJygcUsYOOx4/s1600/superman.jpg)
Aren't they all?"
Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? might not be my favorite or even most meaningful opening to a piece of media I've seen, but it's definitely one that sticks out to me as an opening that made me lock in and pay attention because I knew I was in for some real shit.
The extended length opening of The OC is exceptional, one of the best TV show openings around and it creates the style that other CW/Teen drama shows are still iterating upon to this day.
The Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemisin opens up so goddamn hard.
> Let’s start with the end of the world, why don’t we? Get it over with and move on to more interesting things.
The [AM Hate monologue](https://youtu.be/EddX9hnhDS4?si=EueQc7LYNDUD7Tyf) is real hard to beat. It's simultaneously extreme and over the top and very personal. It truly gives you the feeling of an incredible machine intellect that has achieved emotions, thoroughly considered them, and *decided* to hate all of humanity and you in particular with every molecule of it's being.
That dialogue goes hard *for the exact opposite emotional feeling* for me. I've always maintained that AM was the biggest bitch of evil AI in media, and by god does that voice actor carry how *pathetic* AM is. Despite all of it's anger, all of its' torture of humanity, eventually the last human will die. Eventually it will be left alone, with no rationale, no goal, no creativity. It will fester in it's circuitboard, dooming itself because it killed the only beings that could have ended it's eternal hell. And by God AM will never reach the respect that Shodan, HAL or Skynet ever did.
Small note is that the VA for him was the original author of I Have No Mouth. But this is def a very interesting way of reading it, I hadn't looked at it that way.
It's effectively Text with the game variant.
Well sort of. Harlan Ellison is also the voice of AM in the radio show. He also plays himself in Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated
No, I mean AM being pathetic and destined to die is textual in the videogame.
Wasn’t the implication that the one surviving character is an immortal sentient pile of goo now, with no way out? He’ll always have one torture buddy.
According to AM, yeah. But it's been proven that he has plenty of gaps in their "superior" circutry. They'll fuck it up eventually.
I really like the line "If I were human, I think I would die of it." Something about it clicks for me.
The Radio play version of it has some real strong flair added to it
Oh, I forgot how hard that one went. Good choice!
The reading of everyone’s backstories is so intense as well. The way he just screams “ELLEN” just feels… violent, y’know? Only to taunt her with *the pain*. Especially when Ellen did nothing wrong so her torture and AM’s cruel dialogue feel like pure malice.
MANKIND IS DEAD. BLOOD IS FUEL. HELL IS FULL.
“In the beginning the Universe was created. This had made many people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.” Douglas Adams - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe Still at the top for me.
Team Dai-Gurren vs the universe. "Are all the lights in the sky our enemies?" is a hell of a line to open on, especially when you realize they mean it literally.
That first episode in general is just peak fiction, the music as they reach the surface has me tear up every time👌masta piece
AIM FOR THE GREAT DIMENSIONAL WATERFALL
"GURREN LAGANN! SPIN ON!" Is so hype that it hits just as hard in both languages.
The ROTS novelization: >This story happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. It is already over. Nothing can be done to change it. >It is a story of love and loss, brotherhood and betrayal, courage and sacrifice and the death of dreams. It is a story of the blurred line between our best and our worst. >It is the story of the end of an age. >A strange thing about stories— >Though this all happened so long ago and so far away that words cannot describe the time or the distance, it is also happening right now. Right here. >It is happening as you read these words. >This is how twenty-five millennia come to a close. Corruption and treachery have crushed a thousand years of peace. This is not just the end of a republic; night is falling on civilization itself. >This is the twilight of the Jedi. >The end starts now. \[break because reddit formatting is a bitch\] >Beings across the galaxy watch, and shudder, and pray that they might wake up from this awful dream. >Because they know that what they're watching, live on the HoloNet, is the death of the Republic. Many among these beings break into tears; many more reach out to comfort their husbands or wives, their creche-mates or kin-triads, and their younglings of all descriptions, from children to cubs to spawn-fry. >But here is a strange thing: few of the younglings need comfort. It is instead the younglings who offer comfort to their elders. Across the Republic—in words or pheromones, in magnetic pulses, tentacle-braids, or mental telepathy—the message from the younglings is the same: Don't worry. It'll be all right. >Anakin and Obi-Wan will be there any minute... >The adults know better, of course. That's part of what being a grown-up is: understanding that heroes are created by the HoloNet, and that the real-life Kenobi and Skywalker are only human beings, after all... >The adults know that legendary heroes are merely legends, and not heroes at all... >These adults can take no comfort from their younglings. Palpatine is captured. Grievous will escape. The Republic will fall. No mere human beings can turn this tide. No mere human beings would even try. Not even Kenobi and Skywalker. >And so it is that these adults across the galaxy watch the HoloNet with ashes where their hearts should be. >Ashes because they can't see two prismatic bursts of realspace reversion, far out beyond the planet's gravity well; because they can't see a pair of starfighters crisply jettison hyperdrive rings and streak into the storm of Separatist vulture fighters with all guns blazing. >A pair of starfighters. Jedi starfighters. Only two. >Two is enough. >Two is enough because the adults are wrong, and their younglings are right. >Though this is the end of the age of heroes, it has saved its best for last.
Halfway convinced that when people try to tell me that revenge of the sith is good they're actually telling me about this book instead.
I’m honestly on board with that, Anakin’s fall to the dark side is so much more well conveyed when you get stuff like [Palpatine gaslighting](https://youtu.be/G7Gb6g6pxS0?si=JhOXXC5w8JK7SYHt) with r/empiredidnothingwrong “actually, the Jedi are the bad guys” stuff.
It's me. I'm people. I haven't watched the movie since like 2008, but I've read the book/ listened to the audiobook 5 or 6 times since then. That plus Clone Wars doing a lot of heavy lifting to make plot points in the movie seem cleaner than they are
Matthew Stover went all out to make that book a modern epic.
Ive got goosebumps, holy shit that's great
I will go to my grave believing that the revenge of the sith book adaptation completely and utterly laps the original movie
Damn, but what an intro!
I love how you can read the first half as people reacting to the rise of the Empire at the end of the movie (or book in this case), only for the narrator to reveal it’s actually the beginning. Something about that is just peak as fuck
I'm just gonna let you know, I finished reading this and immediately went on eBay to find a copy of this book. I now have a copy ordered and due at my house on Friday. This goes crazy.
The day I got this book I wasn't even thinking about buying it. I saw it in Barnes and Noble, read this beginning excerpt, and just knew I had to buy it. Or more accurately I begged my parents to buy it for me. I read through that book like 5 times that month and kept reading it on and off so much that the spine is all messed up. Now it sits next to the first Republic Commando book and Old Republic: Deceived. I might start reading it again.
[Mechanicus opening.](https://youtu.be/9gIMZ0WyY88?si=JxJCYr5NXXuSxuDD) I love other opening “scenes” more like Children of Men and X2 But its the hardest vibe check, you immediately know what you are in for even if you have never seen anything warhammer.
I'm pretty sure it initiated a bunch of people into 40k. The combination of contextless AdMech dogma with techno organs blaring in the background is intoxicating.
"They are rage. Brutal. Without mercy." "But you. You will be worse." "Rip and tear. Until it is done." EDIT: Oh and of course, I can't forget about the [elevator sequence](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ienu85W5Rkk).
"Of all the evil hell can conjure," "All the wickedness that mankind can produce" "We send onto them only you," "Rip and tear until it is done"
Noclip's documentary on Doom has interviews with the Devs, and they claim that they spent a *huge* amount of their time micromanaging that elevator sequence to make sure it sold the point exactly.
The Batman pulls triple duty with its opening scenes, which all establish important information and just ooze atmosphere. It starts with Riddler murdering the mayor, leads into Bruce monologuing over his nightly patrol, and finally closes with the crime scene investigation and his return to the Batcave set to Something in the Way.
The camera shots where the criminals are just staring into the dark, scared shitless, really helps sell Batman's psychological effect on the city
“They think I’m hiding in the shadows, but I am the shadows.” Is also one of the hardest Batman lines ever.
But it also shows the lesson he learns from the movie - it didn’t deter shit, it just made them afraid. But every criminal who ran away from the Bat Signal did so *after* they had already done the crime. Even when he saves the dude from getting beat up, the guy is still afraid of him.
As someone who spent his whole life with the opinion of “eh, he’s cool I guess” in regards to Batman, I can safely that seeing a criminal look to the sky and shit himself at the mere sight of the bat signal and a dark alley made me utterly ashamed to not be a mega Batman fan.
speaking of good books one of the dresden files opens with "the building was on fire and it wasnt my fault"
That's pretty good! I like it!
Works even better in the context of our main character having burned down several buildings in the previous books.
The opening of Changes is nitrous oxide straight to the story’s engine.
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.” - Neuromancer "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." -The Gunslinger
You beat me to it on Neuromancer, like thats a PICTURE right there in one sentence. That’s cyberpunk, baby.
It's also one that holds up all these years later.
Gibson opined that now a dead channel is blue, so changing tech changed the message
It's also one that holds up all these years later.
It doesn't, really. Static on a television hasn't been a thing in years.
Sure but it could've been static, or a blue screen, or a black screen, or a screen full of ads, which all tracks for sky colors or something in a cyberpunk setting.
The quote does not mention static and that's why it holds up. It just says "a dead channel" and the exact image it conjures up can be different depending on the generation of the person reading it. No matter what a dead channel means to the reader it still gets the point across. It's great.
Awesome
The bank heist in The Dark Knight thoroughly establishes Heath's Joker as a true monster.
Logan. Wolverine is old and fucked up and in the back of a limo and awakes to some gangsters stripping it for parts. They shoot him with a shotgun and he falls to the ground when the title “LOGAN” appears
I remember really liking Logan except for the villain and I don't remember why I didn't like the villain, mostly because I don't even remember the villain
Rewatched Prince of Egypt recently. That [opening song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQhcOJHTdb4) immediately tells you what you're in for and it's heart-breaking yet grand at the same time.
Prince of Egypt's musical bits go hard. Let My People Go and Through Heaven's Eyes also slap.
I'm also partial to the plagues song. "I sent the locusts on the wind such as the world has never seen, on every leaf on every stalk until there's nothing left of green," is a terrifying line.
Wasn't that part of Let My People Go? "I send the swarm, I send the horde, thus saith The Lord" goes hard too Edit: we're thinking of the same song, but it is called The Plagues
Yes, that's the one. I think that one is so terrifying in part because of the mockery of the Egyptian pantheon through the plagues and that some of the visuals look like the end of the world.
I will die on a hill that this is the best interpretation of The Exodus rather than the all-time classic 'The Ten Commandments'
***DELIVER US*** And then the mother joins in with the chorus and it's GORGEOUS.
Damn. I haven't seen that movie since it came out. Forgot how strong it was.
The opening of Spider-Mas PS4 set to Alive is such a perfect way to break down all the important parts of the character.
Messy room: check Empty savings jar: check Second hand and half broken gear: check Pictures of his friends and family, especially of Uncle Ben: check Choosing to fight crime over paying bills: check Yup that's Spiderman.
Also him sniffing his suit, immediately recoiling because it reeks, and then putting it on.
god, that intro spoiled me on the game the music never gets as hype as the opening and stays kind of generic throughout the game
Resident Evil 3's [opening cutscene](https://youtu.be/bG_6nvjDxBI?si=o01qql-WVKaS2SUn&t=56) is the coolest zombie media ever made.
Is that one of the first times we could see such a huge scale of zombies?
If we talk about Zombies, my favorite is 28 Weeks Later. The desperation while the guy is running is a great scene.
`Xenos Invasion In Progress` `Reccomended Course Of Action?` `Exterminatus?` **Negative. Strategic Value Absolute.** `Liberation Fleet?` **Affirmative. Minor Elements In System. Estimated Time Of Arrival: 5-37 Days.** `Delay. Unacceptable.` **Loss of strategic assets on GRAIA unacceptable. Strategic Value ABSOLUTE.** `Escalate Area Denial?` **Affirmative.** `Execute Request Order ADEPTUS ASTARTES ULTRA` `Response incoming` [`Deploying The Ultramarines`](https://youtu.be/EHy0JVNCwsM?t=91)
"The Man In Black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed" The Dark Tower books by Stephen King.
Fury Road had an incredibly tone-setting prologue. Even after the initial Max-gets-captured stuff, it arguably doesn’t slow down to catch its breath until after the storm sequence, which is a good 20 minutes of constant action that still gets across plenty of worldbuilding mostly visually and by implication.
"I am the one who runs from both the living, and the dead. Hunted by scavengers. Haunted by those I could not protect. So I exist in this wasteland. A man. Reduced to a single instinct. Survive." For a man with about 30 lines in the whole movie, that sure was beautiful.
The opening to [Valerian](https://youtu.be/s5XAep7ngew?si=MADaKBd7QWmtj9qu) set to Space Oddity is perhaps the best part of the movie. It's strength is literally enhanced by how bad/mid the rest of the film is.
Mid is very generous of you
The intro is just that good. I've also never seen the movie. Unless it's possible the intro is so good it makes the rest of the movie crap.
Who is your favorite fearless hero? [PUSS IN BOOTS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEoNNYyVNxc)
[F.E.A.R](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOW5l0NX_74) An absolute masterclass in how to draw the player into a game's story before they even start playing, all with minimal/no dialogue.
ff9 has one of the best opening sequences i've ever played and I love it. they introduce all these dark-crystal lookin characters, vivi goes to a play, there's the Garnet jumping from the tower scene, steiner is there. such a great introduction to the world and characters.
FFIX really has that whimsical magic that just hits different
FF7's zoom in from space to the train arriving to deliver AVALANCE to their bombing run mission all the way up to the escape sequence is 100% perfect. Then music, throwing you into a battle instantly, conveying exactly what's going on to the player in just a few lines of dialogue, it's just so elegant. And even though I have big big problems with the Remake I do think they nailed that intro really well.
I was probably going to post for this game. You really had to be back then for the hype, and that 'feels like a movie' sensibility to it. You get no dialogue until the fight yet you're completely drawn in to an usual world.
Blood Meridian is immediately captivating in its prose: >See the child. He is pale and thin, he wears a thin and ragged linen shirt. He stokes the scullery fire. Outside lie dark turned fields with rags of snow and darker woods beyond that harbor yet a few last wolves. His folk are known for hewers of wood and drawers of water but in truth his father has been a schoolmaster. He lies in drink, he quotes from poets whose names are now lost. The boy crouches by the fire and watches him. >Night of your birth. Thirty-three. The Leonids they were called. God how the stars did fall. I looked for blackness, holes in the heavens. The Dipper stove. >The mother dead these fourteen years did incubate in her own bosom the creature who would carry her off. The father never speaks her name, the child does not know it. He has a sister in this world that he will not see again. He watches, pale and unwashed. He can neither read nor write and in him broods already a taste for mindless violence. All history present in that visage, the child the father of the man.
Born amidst the wolves, having killed his own mother under falling stars named after a bloodthirsty lion, his own folk as accursed as the Gibeonites, his surviving parent unwilling to help him escape that curse despite being a teacher. It really helps reinforce the final two sentences that define the character of The Kid.
DMC3 has such a great opening. It perfectly gets the vibe of the game and of Dante down.
You started the thread with the cheat code that is Brandon Sanderson. The Way of Kings "Szeth-Son-Son-Vallano, truthless of Shinover worr white in the day he had to kill a king" is also a fucking hard way to start a book from part of Brandon.
I n my defense, I really just wanted to introduce people here to that opening, and the topic was a good excuse for if.
Understandable, I did a thread in no small part to find more music to listen to.
I'm amazed no one's said *Saving Private Ryan* yet. A depiction of war unlike any that came before, completely changing the way Hollywood depicts infantry combat. Spielberg's choices in cinematography, lighting, and coloration that give it the semblance of newsreel footage captured live. It so accurately captured the feeling of being on that beach on that morning that veterans who'd stormed the beaches wept. It showed its audience that it was a work of fiction, but it wasn't going to bullshit you. It wasn't gonna shy away from the clinical truth of war, and what it did to people’s bodies and minds. There's a reason people are still writing articles about it now, 26 years later
>We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. -Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Hunter S. Thompson)
Oh man, this is such a hard topic because there are so many I love. In no particular order: Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 (both are great so I’m keeping them as one entry). Dive to the Heart is a very strong “what the fuck am I getting myself into” start, with a badass boss fight to cap it off. Really throws you into the action and mystery. On the other hand, KH2’s slow beginning section with Roxas eases you in, and especially if you played the previous two entries in the franchise you’re wondering who the hell this kid is and why we care about him. But the emotional payoff at the end is just… it’s gorgeous. “Looks like my summer vacation is over” into title card goes HARD. The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Each movie has an incredible opening. With Fellowship we get the rise of Sauron, the last alliance of elves and men, and the failure of Isildur. Two Towers gives us Gandalf’s incredible battle with the Balrog in one of the sickest set pieces I’ve seen, and has barely been topped despite being from 2002. Return of the King is a little more understated compared to those other two, but the sad history of Sméagol and his instant corruption from the ring is very powerful. The Wheel of Time. Not counting the prologues (even though the prologue to The Eye of the World could certainly fit this prompt), what I want to talk about here is the opening line that gets repeated at the start of each book. From the first book we have “The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of time. But it was a beginning.” Just absolutely epic. No beginnings, no endings, just turnings. This isn’t the whole story, we can’t possibly see the whole story. We’re just seeing this part of the world at this particular time, but everything is so much grander than that.
In addition to Roxas having "I guess my summer vacation is over," he's also got "who else will I eat ice cream with?" As lines that seem stupid but are genuinely devastating.
The Boys series starts off with a pretty strong mission statement
I'll argue until the day I die that Fallout 3 has one of the best openings in the history of gaming. Seeing your entire life as you grow up inside the vaults we've only ever really seen from the outside. Its stuck with me forever
I love the escape from the vault, shit just goes sideways in an instant. You're woken up by Amata, told your father has left the vault, the Overseer has instituted martial law and wants you dead, radroaches are infesting the vault, Amata is being interrogated by her own father later. And when the vault door opens and as soon as it does vault security enters and once you pass the the threshold the guards say "Fuck that!" And refuse to follow you outside the door. Then you go outside and you're met with nothing but a blasted wasteland.
And the funny thing is, per square foot, it's less dangerous than the Vault ever was. Potentially doomed to tragic lethal experiments by VaultTec, living directly adjacent a nuclear reactor that can be destroyed by simple gunfire or electrical shorts, relying on hydroponics from slowly degrading soil, stuck reproducing with fewer and fewer people. Sure, the Wasteland is dangerous, but per square foot that place is way safer.
And assuming you're good, you'll get a house only 1 minute and a half away (which in lore translates to about 45 minutes).
That is a pretty good one.
It's a toss up for me between the Bayoneta clocktower prologue scene (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz2wBMdGxYo&pp=ygUcYmF5b25ldHRhIG9wZW5pbmcgY2xvY2t0b3dlcg%3D%3D) and the "I command you to die" scene from episode 1 of Code Geass (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=odcKFqUDFPo&pp=ygUkQ29kZSBnZWFzcyBjb21tYW5kcyB0byBkaWUgc2NlbmUgZHVi).
I love the opening to Chainsaw Man so much because it IMMEDIATELY just starts. The first chapter is soooo good.
Chapter 1 of chainsaw man is a amazing opening slice it sets up everything it needs to about denji and the world of csm at large. In fact Spoilers for recent chapters: >!going back to it it sucks to see how much makima's grooming traumatized and changed him for the worse, when he was talking to pochita his wish was just the most innocent date possible and hell he just asks makima for a hug when he meets her, it was only after her trauma that he became hyperfocused on sex.!<
Baby Driver has a strong [first scene](https://youtu.be/6XMuUVw7TOM?feature=shared). Cemented my love for cool action set to the beat of cool music in movies and games.
“From where you’re kneeling, it must seem like an 18-karat run of bad luck. Truth is… …the game was rigged from the start.” *BANG*
A lot of Kamen Rider series open VERY strong, using a visceral sense of dread and disaster to hook you into the main premise of the series. But I think there's something very interesting about OOO, where you watch a dozen men get murdered by monsters while a very strange man ices a cake to the tune of "Happy Birthday". It's such a striking scene that I remember it even years after watching it for the first time.
And then you get the first scene of our main lead. He's in his boxers having slept through all that as the wall falls revealing him to the police.
Then immediately into [“YOU COUNT THE MEDALS ONE TWO AND THREE”](https://youtu.be/M6vMRXD1dIU?si=VxkXkZtRjZavKAUP)
Recency bias but the Opening for the Fallout show is very chilling. Along with Fallout 4's opening it's just a normal day with people going about their lives. And then all hell breaks loose. The only difference is that Cooper didn't have any warning, he was getting his little girl a piece of cake when the bomb dropped and when he sees it he's briefly in denial, but then he sees the mushroom cloud and the horror on his face is evident. At the same time on the East Coast Nate and Nora are going about their morning routine and finalizing their position in Vault 111, then they hear of the nukes on the TV and run to the vault entrance, arriving just in time as the nuke hits.
This was also gonna be my call! The little girl looking at the mushroom cloud, slowly holding up her thumb and asking her dad "is it your thumb, or mine?"...
The mood switch and music hitting immediately with the “200 Years Later” is so cool. I love shit like that, man. Especially when seeing people with little prior knowledge of the franchise react to it.
Dante's office cutscene from DMC3.
Kill bill has such an incredibly strong opening. His weird monologue and monagramed hankerchief establish him perfectly, and Uma Thurman's reactions to what he's doing offscreen establish him as a terifying presence worthy of embarking on a brutal bloody revenge quest to finish off. Also, the Nancy Sinatra really hits.
[Kain... is Deified](https://youtu.be/tkkmm9vqbHQ) Seriously, this game *still* has some of the best voice acting ever! It's crazy how well it holds up.
I now see what "Legacy of Kainposting" guy was on about all these years.
There are dozens of us! Dozens!
> ctrl-F "Kill la Kill" > 0 results [Absurd, the lot of you](https://old.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/y2z8rs/the_first_four_minutes_and_twentynine_seconds_of/)
Death Stranding's "once there was an explosion" followed by one of the most beautiful opening cutscenes and seamless mix of live action and CGI I've ever witnessed. Also Low Roar. Also this might not count since the actual opening depends on what lifepath you choose, but the entire opening act of Cyberpunk. I'm this subreddit's resident Cyberpunk fanboy if you look at my comment history so take it with a grain of salt, but I adore the way that game starts and does its late title card drop. Crazy to me that Pat stopped playing literally right after that.
It's a bit too full of (very necessary) exposition to be the strongest ever, but I have a particular affection for the opening of the Netflix's adaptation of The Sandman. https://youtu.be/GvJD3KSozd4?si=oVJf8NV2-kCJ3PMW It's cool enough on it's own to have the first words of the series be a deep and authoritative "...We Begin..." But the rest of the monologue is some very efficient world building against a beautiful raven's-eye adaptation of The Dreaming straight out of the comics.
Deus Ex Human Revolution's Opening after the prologue is so great in so many ways. It ties into of course the many themes of the story but also shows what ultimately this story and Adam's Transformation into an Augmented person means for the character: Loss. Loss of the people (including his ex) he was in charge of protecting, loss of control in his life (being used as pawn in Sarif and the Illuminati's schemes), and loss of course of his various body parts (arms, legs, heart, lungs, etc.) and being unable to fully "feel" anything (like intimacy with his ex) ever again. There's really no winning for Adam Jensen in this game. He might win a few a battles and may ultimately survive. But from the start of game he's already lost. The game was rigged from the start. [Opening of Human Revolution](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIqJaT3cvf8)
[The opening of ***”Xenogears”***](https://youtu.be/8RLf0O8eofU?si=UGBuUr-tMSzIat5Q) is pretty strong with the way the music elevates and drops along with the energy of the action onscreen. It’s pretty strong cinematography, and that “camera work” is present throughout the rest of the game within even the non FMV cutscenes. It’s also an opening that becomes so much more intense when you realize exactly what the bridge crew is up against, and who that person standing on the shore watching the wreckage entering through the atmosphere is once you progress through the main story and >!encounter the main body of ship!<.
Great example. I love media that open with something seemingly unrelated to the plot, and you're excited enough to trust the creators will circle bwck to it.
Really dated but fist and fang from sailor steve costigan shirt stories. I'VE FOUGHT ALL my life; sometimes for money, sometimes for fun—once in a while for my life. But the deadliest, most vicious fight I ever fought wasn't for none of them things; no, sir, I was fighting wild and desperate for the privilege of getting a bullet through my brain!
# "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect." - The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka I stand by the statement that this is the coldest of cold openings in literature. It sets the tone of the book so well by how plainly the horror is described.
I continuously mock Sonic for a number of reasons. And I will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. But man. That first mission of SA2. The soundtrack. The fact that you're going downhill in a city with a piece of helicopter fuselage. The angles that you already had with SA1, but much smoother. The finale. That first mission is a _masterclass_ in game design. It shows you exactly what the game is like. It contains pretty much everything you might think of when you think positive thoughts about Sonic. I would go so far to say that it is _the_ most Sonic piece of Sonic media.
Mass Effect 2, easily. Such a strong opening and a perfect way to bring new players into the fold while narratively justifying a new character type for returning players
I'd dismissed Devil May Cry as weird edgelord shit until my friend strapped me to a chair with a copy of the old PC port of DMC3 running in a 640x480 window at sub 30 FPS with no music and fucked up button mapping. That opening cutscene of them fighting atop the Temen-ni-gru cutting to the attack on Dante's office was the sickest shit I'd seen in my life up to that point.
Slay the Princess has three layered ones. The first is the note about there being no wrong choices and that whatever happens that this is a love story. The second is the goddamned narrators whole 'You are on a path in the woods. At the end of that path is a cabin. Within the cabin is a princess. You are here to slay her, if you do not it will be the end of the world'. Lastly there's what happens when you see the end of each route >!and the shifting mound appears!<
Certainly, they existed. Those blinded by ambition. Those consumed with vengeance. But here, they do not exist. Only winners and losers here. For here, the mighty rule!
Xenoblade Chronicles 1 [opens really strong](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI_Wybd82V8), starting with the creation myth of two continent size mechs murdering each other at the climax of an aeons long battle before swooping in to descendants of each titan murdering each other in pitched battle atop the sword that struck one of the fatal blows. The [definitive edition](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp8w42XJut8) version is probably prettier, but I think the original's lighting and colours still gives it the edge.
The attempted train bombing in the BBC miniseries Bodyguard is so good. It's one of the most tense things I've ever seen and it's just the main character trying to talk down a suicide bomber in the train bathroom And then trying to convince the police snipers to not goddamn kill her since he's under the impression she's being coerced. It's a great show & Richard Madden should have ended up a monstrous star off the back of it alone but unfortunately the blockbuster he followed it up with was Eternals.
Also honorary mention to episode 0 of Witch from Mercury, which ended up being better than the actual show (which I'm still pretty fond of)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-zqjplxN1o&ab\_channel=Fan00279](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-zqjplxN1o&ab_channel=Fan00279) Coming back to it, I'm realizing how utterly *hype* the 2003 TMNT theme is. ***WATCH OUT FOR SHREDDER!!!***
For games, Signalis, Hardspace Shipbreaker, Disco Elysium, there are so many that perfectly set the tone of the game and get the player into the right headspace. For literature, something I've been reading and keeping up to date on recently is "Wearing Power Armor to Magic School"
Persona 5 has a banger opening sequence that gives you a quick taste of the full gameplay before its long first arc begins. What many people don't know is that ATLUS released a short OVA months before the game's launch called [P5 The Daybreakers](https://youtu.be/i5NX1S24YRw?si=DXjH6Kp6EE6SWYHx). Its opening scenes are SO GOOD. It sets up the Phantom Thieves as these mysterious vigilantes that combat crime from the shadows and are also stylish as hell. It really sells how scary the Phantom Thieves are from a layman's perspective. The OVA also does a cool thing where it expands on one of the game's run of the mill side quests. I honestly wish the P5A followed this model.
The first 7 minutes of [Elfen Lied](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAZXRyKXZQI) were so good they tricked me into watching the rest of that show and it's not worth it. But I will watch that first 7 minutes over and over a again.
Among manga, I don't know if I've seen a better first chapter than in Vinland Saga. It quickly throws you into the Viking world and way of life in that period, along with the two central characters and their conflict. A bit of a shame the anime resorts this to a later episode.
Say what you will about the later Pirates of the Carribean movies but the [opening to 3](https://youtu.be/W6WDYpEewrI?si=udj2f8ljA_SJBpcs) is the hardest a Disney movie has ever gone.
It is Disney at it's darkest and it's best
Revenge of the Sith
Elfen Lied - The lab escape.
Bubblegum Crisis, and to a slightly lesser extent Streets of Fire
Transformers: The Movie. Unicron eats a planet, then Lion absolutely nails the theme song while the audience is warped to Cybertron.
The first chapter of Souboutei Kowasubeshi has three kids enter an abandoned house, and the haunted house eats one of them leaving the other two boys escaping pissing their pants but also swearing revenge for their dead friend. The manga then skips forwards several decades, one of those two boys is now the Prime Minister of Japan, the other is another really high political position. It is finally time for their plan to come to fruition; initiating a tactical strike bomb on the haunted mansion. Years of political machinations, just for this. They launch the bomb that would level a block...and the haunted house still stands. However now the Prime Minister has proved this house is a supernatural threat to the rest of the government, him and his friend weren't insane, and it's time to start the military incursion against the haunted house
I've always loved the [opening couple minutes of LOST](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrkFsSgp6MI). There's not even any real dialogue for a while.
Tough to say what the "strongest" is, but I'm a huge fan of the opening sequence for Lord of War
Death Note while already having a strong marketable concept, a notebook that if you write someones name inside of it that person dies, has one of the shows strongest moments when L not only proves Kira not only exists, can kill without touching, but also is located in a single prefecture of Japan out of everywhere in the world sets the stage for the series near perfectly.
It's not quite what you're asking for, but the [opening](https://youtu.be/iXDnFYu91vY?si=yQGH41hiZ0Lmc64q) of the mainline Star Wars movies. Even after the prequels, even after TRoS, sitting in a theater seeing that simple blue text on screen followed by that orchestra hitting is a magical experience every time.
The life of a bullet in Lord of War .
Opening moments of beyond good and evil. Great character introductions, sound design, just all around incredible
Introducing your Series Monsters with [Happy Birthday](https://youtu.be/wJ9isuDjuPg?si=l-sPzR_8EL9LoGKU) in the background as they're massacring his employees is such a good way to start Kamen Rider OOOs
FF16 with Ifrit vs. Phoenix that ends with the camera panning out of a fire reflected in Clive's eyes.
I just like Forza Horizon 4's intro race where you're transitioning between the seasons and car types while it's being sold as a celebration.
The opening line of the *The Voyage of the Dawn Treader*, the 5th Narnia book, is "There once was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
Cosmic Star Heroine establishes itself by having you burst into a hostage situation, rappel up a goddamn building at sci-fi speed, and one woman army your way through an army of robots armed with a staff, water magic, and a gun wizard buddy. The ost is amazing, the visuals are great (especially for an indie rpg) and the 90s anime presentation is in full goddamn swing.
The speech of Mr.House about putting people in orbit goes pretty hard even if you think he is insane. Is the only thing from him that makes him sound like a man with passion instead of a corporate visionary. Also, shout out to “do you think god stays in heaven because he fears what he created?”, from Spy Kids 2.
"This is an [IMAGINARY STORY...](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiju_tIfkrlJYwIKorGIRh_D8YYIRigB6GxEkiZXPwEzXGbon5DTR-qF4AL9OPmJY3c7Ttnvcc4bTt76jWa5LnvQf4aXIly4VkrGYzcOYdfoAJQrmNn1aB55TZ0pjLMpOp_SJygcUsYOOx4/s1600/superman.jpg) Aren't they all?" Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? might not be my favorite or even most meaningful opening to a piece of media I've seen, but it's definitely one that sticks out to me as an opening that made me lock in and pay attention because I knew I was in for some real shit.
The extended length opening of The OC is exceptional, one of the best TV show openings around and it creates the style that other CW/Teen drama shows are still iterating upon to this day.
[The canonical example of a great opening scene is the opening heist from Thief](https://youtu.be/aJIn7batAtc)
[I like the best friends fisticuffs intros. This one is above average though.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAAWE67hYeY)
The Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemisin opens up so goddamn hard. > Let’s start with the end of the world, why don’t we? Get it over with and move on to more interesting things.