23 of the Best Opening Scenes in Movie History

You know how a book has to grab you with the first sentence or you’ll wander off to whatever Colleen Hoover published in the last five minutes? That goes double for movies. We all have 57 streaming services with thousands of titles each and the attention spans of puppies that chewed open a bag of espresso beans, so we’ll give a movie about 30 seconds before screaming “Next!”

Whatever that says about society, it’s been great for opening movie scenes. In fact, we might have learned patience as a result. We’ll sit through a 20-minute Nazi interrogation as long as it’s done well and even happily welcome a Star Wars crawl. That’s right: A good movie will get us to read. Such is the magic of cinema.

So when Redditor Real-Tax-1900 asked r/AskReddit, “What movie has the best opening scene?” it’s no surprise that Redditors had their faves front-loaded in their minds. From perfect scene-setting to jokes packed denser than a black hole to freaking Up, these are the first shots that made a lasting impression.