The opening shot is one of the most important shots in any movie. Arguably, the only shot that’s more important is the final one. The opening shot is the audience’s first impression of the movie — it can kick off the story, introduce the main characters, or sum up the themes that the rest of the film will explore in a single image.
There were a bunch of memorable opening shots throughout the 2010s, from the eerie opening tracking shot of Get Out to Michael Keaton floating in mid-air at the beginning of Birdman. These are the decade’s greatest opening shots.
Gone Girl (2014)
Although the novel tells the story a lot more effectively, David Fincher’s Gone Girl was a sharp adaptation of the Gillian Flynn bestseller of the same name. The opening shot encapsulates the Dunnes’ terrible, doomed marriage as Nick strokes Amy’s hair and she looks up at him, then his voiceover narration details his disturbing thoughts.
In Nick’s opening voiceover, he says, “When I think of my wife, I always think of her head. I picture cracking her lovely skull, unspooling her brains, trying to get answers. The primal questions of any marriage: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? What have we done to each other?”
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
The Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis opens on a microphone on the stage of the iconic Gaslight nightclub against a black background. The camera pulls around to reveal Oscar Isaac as fictional '60s folk singer Llewyn Davis, performing at the mic.
Llewyn performs all kinds of songs throughout the movie, but in the opening scene, he sets the mood perfectly with a rendition of “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me.”
Boyhood (2014)
Richard Linklater’s ambitious coming-of-age masterpiece shot over 12 years as its lead actor aged in real time — begins with a shot of the sky over the first couple of opening credits.
Then, the film’s true opening shot sees Mason Evans Jr. lying on the grass, looking up at the clouds. This image was used for all the promotional material when the movie finally made it to theaters.
Get Out (2017)
Inspired by John Carpenter’s minimalist slasher masterpiece Halloween, the opening tracking shot of Jordan Peele’s Oscar-winning horror opus Get Out is suitably unnerving.
Lakeith Stanfield plays Andre, a Black man trying to figure his way around an all-white suburban community in the middle of the night. A mysterious car pulls up alongside him and the driver gets out, knocks him unconscious, throws him in the trunk, and drives away. Cue the opening credits.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
George Miller’s long-awaited Mad Max reboot, Mad Max: Fury Road, is essentially a feature-length action sequence as Max and Furiosa flee from Immortan Joe with his liberated wives.
In the opening shot, Tom Hardy’s Max watches over a post-apocalyptic wasteland as his voiceover narration sets the stage for a high-octane non-stop thrill-ride.
Django Unchained (2012)
The opening shot of Django Unchained tracks Django on a chain gang. Tarantino’s over-the-shoulder framing captures Django’s badly scarred back, indicating his harrowing past.
The title Django Unchained appears over a shot of Django in chains, right before Dr. Schultz intercepts them and frees him, setting him off on a hero’s journey to become the fastest gun in the South and liberate his wife Broomhilda.
Birdman (2014)
Since Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s pitch-black comedy Birdman is edited to look like one continuous take, the opening shot is technically the same as the closing shot and everything in between.
But the first image on-screen is Riggan Thomson, not to trust everything they see, because Riggan is floating in mid-air with no explanation.
The Irishman (2019)
In the opening of Martin Scorsese’s “In the Still of the Night” by the Five Satins on the soundtrack, setting the rhythm for the entire melancholic movie.
This opening shot prefaces a violent crime epic with a poignant reminder — the first of many — that the mafia lifestyle inevitably culminates in misery (if not murder).
Moonlight (2016)
In the opening scene of Moonlight, Mahershala Ali’s drug dealer character Juan pulls up on the corner and checks in with a couple of his associates.
Throughout the scene, the camera glides around each conversation. This opening shot is just one of many beautiful images in Jenkins’ masterpiece.
Lady Bird (2017)
Greta Gerwig’s solo directorial debut Christine “Lady Bird” Mherson and her mother Marion staying away to visit colleges. In the opening shot, they lie asleep in bed in a hotel room, mirroring each other.
Like all the best opening shots, Lady Bird’s first shot sums up the emotional crux of the whole movie in one image. At its heart, Lady Bird is a love story about a mother and daughter.
