Scream. When the "star" of the movie is murdered, epic
2
Terminator 2
3
Up - first 10 mins
4
Children of men. Almost jumped out of my seat.
5
The Matrix. That trinity scene really kicked things off
6
Super Troopers. I’ve seen the opening hundreds of times, and the rest of the move maybe 5.
7
The Godfather “I believe in America.”
8
The Dark Knight bank heist scene
9
The Lion King, it always gives me goosebumps.
10
Baby Driver
11
Wall-E is a masterpiece start to finish, but the world building they do in the opening while establishing the character and overall tone is just incredible.
12
Raiders of the Lost Ark. It sets the tone for the film, it has more than one twist, and is just generally entertaining. It's a little slow for the first two minutes but worth the watch.
13
Goodfellas. Brutally shooting and stabbing the guy in the trunk and then smash cutting to the gangster monologue perfectly sets the tone of the film
14
If we're counting the first thing the audience sees, the opening credits to Lord of War tells its own story in a low key horrifying way.
15
28 weeks later
16
Raising Arizona is pretty great
17
It's been a while so I'm not sure if it is actually the opening scene or just very early in the movie, but the storming the beach scene in saving private Ryan is outstanding.
18
Contact. Starting at Earth, then panning out of the solar system, then the galaxy, then out to the edge of the universe, all while listening to older and older radio transmissions. Genius.