Action scenes warrant praise, but introductory action scenes are in a category of their own. Kicking off a movie with an adrenaline shot is the perfect way to draw the audience in and keep them watching in anticipation.
From Star Wars to Gladiator, these flicks kicked off their two-hour endeavor with a lust for bloodshed. And, with CGI there’s no shortage of large scale battle sequences directors and can’t create. With that, here are the 10 Most Epic Opening Battle Sequences.
Revenge of the Sith
The prequels get a bad rap, but Revenge of the Sith is considered the strongest of the three movies. For the concluding chapter, Lucas kicked it all of with Obi-Wan and Anakin weaving through space ships and crossfire. Fighting off droids, shooting down enemy ships, everything from the first few minutes of the movie was great for Star Wars fans and action fans alike.
The CGI superb, the music was intense, and the dialogue between master and apprentice was everything fans wanted. The Battle of Coruscant deserves praise as one of the best scenes from the Star Wars prequels.
Gladiator
The glory of Rome is justified, just look at the opening scene of Ridley Scott’s 2000 masterpiece, Gladiator. With the tribes of Germania in their grip, the Roman empire slaughters the barbarians with one swift stroke.
The fight was intense from start to finish, not to mention Russell Crowe’s speech before his assault on the remaining barbarians. Much like Lord of the Rings, Gladiator brings to life the thrill of horseback charges and swordfights from years past.
Enemy at the Gates
A lesser-known WWII flick, Enemy at the Gates follows two soldiers during the Battle of Stalingrad. As one of them plays cat and mouse with a German sniper, the other works with the Soviet public relations department. Looking at the introductory scene, this movie highlights the futility of Soviet efforts against the superior German war machine.
Charging head-on into machine-gun fire, the scene follows a disorganized battalion of Soviet soldiers as they attempt to reclaim their city.
Kingsman: The Secret Service
Kingsman: The Secret Service jumpstarted Taron Edgarton’s career, and for good reason. His performance was spot on offering a perfect balance of humor and charisma.
But the opening scene which depicted Egsy’s father was just as good as the rest of the movie. Hanging below a helicopter by a rope alongside Colin Firth, the two takedown foreign terrorists while Money for Nothing roars in the background. Simply awesome.
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
Each Mission Impossible is better than the last with the action intensifying with each entry. Rogue Nation took the series in a new direction with this opening scene showing Tom Cruise hanging off the side of a C-130. Yes, you read that correctly.
Just this shot alone is enough to have fans on the edge of their seats, fearing they’ll fall off too. The scene picks up where things left off, with agent Ethan Hunt in the middle of some death-defying stunt.
Lord of the Rings: Two Towers
Even if you didn’t read the books, the Lord of the Rings still has a place in movie lovers’ hearts, especially those who grew up watching these. The continued battle between Gandalf and the Balrog was epic, claustrophobic and oddly beautiful.
The music that accompanied it all made us wish we were alongside Gandalf, wielding the secret fire and flame of Undun and shouting “You cannot pass!”.
Dunkirk
Christopher Nolan has a knack for rolling out blockbuster hits left and right, and Dunkirk was no exception. What stuck out from this was the sound and confusion that filled the air as the audience followed a single soldier through the streets.
It’s the lack of context and dialogue that does it all, with machine-gun fire screaming during it all. War movies don’t have to be filled with blood and battlefields, sometimes it’s the fear of the unknown that’s the scariest.
Goldeneye
Poor Sean Bean dies in almost all his movies, and Goldeneye made sure it’d be another entry on his list. Looking at the introductory scene, Goldeneye is a Bond fan dream with 007 narrowly escaping a Russian Nuclear facility all the while he evades gunfire left and right.
It also was the perfect introduction for Pierce Brosnan as he took on the role of James Bond for the late 90s and early 2000s.
Mad Max: Fury Road
Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the best movies of the past decade, an homage to the action genre with death-defying stunts and a roller-coaster ride of a story narrative. The beginning puts fans in the middle of it all with Max running from a band of marauders, only to be captured by them later.
This movie had more of a chase than a battle in its intro., but it possesses the thrill of one and presents itself as a genre-defining movie with battle sequences like no other.
Saving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan is often considered one of the greatest war movies of all time, mainly because of its realistic and disturbing depiction of the D-Day Landings. Right from the start, the audience is thrown into the crossfire with U.S soldiers dropping left and right. Much like Dunkirk, the sound of it all was relentless and unforgiving, ear-piercing until the beach was finally taken by Captain Miller and co.
This is the most famous scene from the movie and deserves the number spot on this list as the greatest introductory scene. It’s the ability to immersed the audience on the beach is unparalleled, bravo Speilberg. It really goes to show how going the extra mile can make for a great cinematic masterpiece.
