10 Unforgettable Movie Openings That Hook Audiences Instantly

A great film hooks the audience within those first few moments. It’s the time to capture an audience’s attention and compel them to keep watching or risk losing their attention to another task—like folding laundry half tuning out the rest of the film, or worse, mindlessly scrolling through their social media feed. With so many options in today’s digital world, it’s imperative a story hooks the audience into its journey within the first few minutes.

The opening scenes of the films that follow reveal a great deal of what the stories will entail and what the audience is in for. The mood/tone is set, genres are revealed and the swift introduction of the protagonist, or antagonist, doesn’t delay.

The films chosen to examine are, at the most recent, decades-old films that have withstood the passage of time. The list has been curated with careful thought, along with the writer’s familiarity and reaction to these films and are worthy of consideration and study. Of course, there are more recent films that are captivating. However, these films are well-known, resonate across multiple generations, and grip attention spans from the start.

1.The Wizard Of Oz (1939)

In one of the most well-known movies of all time, The Wizard of Oz (1939), the opening scene reveals the main character, Dorothy, as she runs down a dirt road with her dog, Toto. It’s clear Dorothy is protective of Toto and, despite her pleas, her family largely ignores her, and leaves her while telling her to “find a place where she won’t get into any trouble.”

Dorothy is endearing, charming, playful and empathetic, making her a character the audience immediately likes and will happily join on a journey. Who doesn’t want to root for a character who loves her dog? And before long, she and Toto are swept away by a tornado into the Land of Oz.

2.Interstellar (2014)

Interstellar (2014) begins with a subdued firsthand account of the past, retold by the elderly Murphy “Murph” Cooper. The visual cues, such as the spaceship resting on the dusty bookcase, signal this will be a story where modern technology meets the nature of organics on Earth.

The audience is jarred from the safety of Murph’s story of the past, with a flashback of her father, the protagonist Joseph Cooper, as he pilots a futuristic jet suffering a mayday situation. He wakes from the nightmare as a young Murph asks if he is dreaming of the crash again.

The characters’ further retelling of history reveal that the past Earth is in disarray, illustrated by the man’s story of placing the dishware upside down, and we know there was an evolution at some point to the present day.

The emotional scenes of authenticity from the characters paired with the chaotic scene of Cooper’s crash are enough to grab the audience’s attention.

From its opening, Interstellar feels like a cowboy movie, with the setting in a cornfield full of dust, and the audience knows this will position into an adventure epic where they will learn what happened to the past world and how it was saved.

3.Titanic (1997)

One of the biggest blockbusters of the century, Titanic (1997), opens with interspersed images of the ocean liner’s historic past, shortly met with a modernized underwater sub diving into the deep.

The audience knows they are on a journey, and soon enough, the audience is met with real footage of a sunken ship. A once-functioning ocean liner, as we saw in the opening, has met its demise. The scene connects the audience to the human nature of curiosity—What happened? Why? How?

When an elderly Rose appears onscreen later, the audience has been watching, and given a tragic peek into the Titanic’s history ensuring they are ready to listen to the firsthand account from the protagonist.

4.Goodfellas (1990)

In Goodfellas (1990) style, the film opens with the discovery of a body in the trunk of a sedan. But before this, there is a slow build of the man knocking in the trunk with the characters arguing about what the noise is.

This scene quickly introduces the protagonist, mobster Henry Hill, and supporting characters, Tommy DeVito and Jimmy Conway in a way where the audience gets a good feel about what type of people they are. Their language is crude, violent and argumentative to each other, tensions are high, and the handling of the discovery of the man still alive in the trunk shows the audience these are violent mobsters, lacking remorse.

The tone and mood of the film are set—dark and violent. The crew pulls the sedan off the road into a remote area, just as the audience is pulled more into the story to see what’s actually going on.

When the trunk is opened, the audience isn’t too shocked, the characters’ actions and dialogue up to this point have exuded the vibe these are mobsters. However, the harshness of these mobsters is revealed with Tommy immediately stabbing the man in the trunk when BANG, BANG, BANG, Jimmy shoots the man with Henry on standby.

The opening action is shocking, it grips the audience and, continually even more shocking, are the individual actions taken, which show the audience who these characters are within only a few minutes.

The film then cuts to a flashback of Henry with a dialogue line that hints this film will be about his journey to the mob.

5.Saving Private Ryan (1998)

In one of the most heart-wrenching war dramas, Saving Private Ryan (1998) opens with an elderly James Ryan as he walks through a military cemetery lined with crosses and star of David headstones with his family before he collapses in front of a grave—Captain Miller.

The audience sees the emotional pain in Ryan’s eyes as he appears to be overtaken by a memory before the scene cuts to Omaha Beach, June 6, 1944—D-Day.

The peaceful, yet emotional, walk in the cemetery now leads to the chaotic, immersive battle scene with Captain Miller aboard a Higgins boat during the Normandy invasion. The scene is gut-wrenching, emotional and full of gunfire, where the characters’ action and quick-witted dialogue reveal their leadership qualities and ability to handle their current circumstances.

The scene is hard to turn away from, as the audience is invested in whether Captain Miller will survive this battle. The audience sees the grim cost of war, unfiltered, and the tragedies James Ryan has probably endured within the first few scenes.

Opening Cemetery Scene

Omaha Beach, June 6, 1944 Scene

6.Shawshank Redemption (1994)

The prison-centered film Shawshank Redemption (1994) begins with a scene of protagonist Andy Dufresne as he sits in a car late at night fumbling with a pistol.

The scene pivots to Andy on trial in a courtroom, as he is questioned by an attorney, and asked if he killed his wife. The dialogue reveals Andy’s wife has been murdered, Andy is a suspect, and the killer has not been found yet. The circumstances lead the audience to assume Andy may be guilty, but there is no hard evidence to show Andy is guilty, or innocent—only Andy’s claim of innocence.

Andy’s demeanor on trial is captivating; he neither shouts nor cries, which piques interest in his character’s psyche. He is likable in his smart responses to the attorney, and the audience wants Andy to be innocent, but they must stay with the story to find the truth of things. Is Andy innocent? If he didn’t do it, who did? Is he guilty of anything for the thought of killing his wife?

“I find it decidingly inconvenient the gun was never found.” -Andy Dufresne

7.Lord Of The Rings (2001)

The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001) is the first installment in an epic trilogy, that has been adapted from a novel series, and begins with an in-depth voice-over that lets the audience in on the action from the beginning.

Within the first few minutes, the audience knows there is a great battle between good and evil, Middle Earth is in jeopardy, and there is an all-powerful ring that can corrupt all of man.

Sauron has been defeated, but the legacy of his evil, power and his ring remain. The audience senses this ancient evil has been awakened and will make an attempt to overpower Middle Earth once again.

The audience is given the details inviting the audience to join the fight in good versus evil.

8.Jurassic Park (1993)

During the epic start of the dinosaur thriller Jurassic Park (1993), a crate is lowered into a jungle late at night. The setting suggests the tone of the scene—it’s late, it’s dark, a layer of fog surrounds this operation in secrecy. This isn’t an operation that is done with a crowd—only a shaken group of workers who are just as apprehensive about what is in the crate as the audience.

The scene is terrifying, and that is reflected in the workers’ faces in the scene. Something bad is about to unfold, and the audience is about to discover the mystery along with the workers.

A worker is quickly grabbed by the unknown creature, dragged into its crate, as workers shout and an urgent command is heard to “Shoot her!” Even after the command is given, the creature isn’t revealed, the audience must keep watching to find out what exactly went down and is going on in Jurassic Park.

9.JAWS (1975)

Just like the opening in Jurassic Park (1993), the legendary horror film Jaws (1975) taps into the audience’s fear of the unknown in the opening scene.

A group of adolescents joyfully party in the sand dunes of Martha’s Vineyard, before a couple runs off and a woman heads into the ocean water at dusk. The water is dark, but the woman playfully swims out to a buoy before the audience sees an invisible danger lurking below her.

The suspenseful build of the unknown predator beneath her, combined with her carefree attitude, grips the audience as they are keyed into the danger beneath the woman, emotionally inviting them into hoping the swimmer escapes her fate.

Before long, she is pulled underwater by the predator as she screams. However, no one sees the attack, except the audience, setting the premise that there is a deadly monster in the waters lurking around this island and the audience will watch the horror unfold helplessly, until the characters are aware of the danger.

10.Dumb And Dumber (1994)

In a comedic take, the opening of the buddy comedy Dumb and Dumber (1994) introduces its protagonists immediately. Lloyd Christmas drives a limo when he picks up a passenger en route to the airport, while Harry Dunne drives his on-the-go dog grooming truck.

Both characters are the drivers, a role demanding situational awareness and attention, but their actions reveal they are oblivious, in over their heads and basket cases, setting up a comedic duo worthy of attention.

The comedy of the situation brings the audience into the lives of Harry and Lloyd in an idiotic, hilarious way, where they know anything this duo attempts will likely somehow be successful, but not without outrageous antics along the way.