An audience’s first impression of a movie comes from the opening shot, so it's safe to say that it's pretty important. The very best opening shots manage to contain the theme of the entire movie in one image, like how Pan’s Labyrinth plunges moviegoers into Ofelia’s mind to indulge them in her escapist fairy tale fantasy.
From the black-and-white image of the Bride’s bloodied face in Kill Bill: Volume 1 to the beauty pageant reflected in Olive’s glasses in the opening shot of Little Miss Sunshine, there are several notable examples of standout opening shots from 2000s movies.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Inglourious Basterds gets off to an unforgettable start in its opening scene. It’s a masterclass in tension, as S.S. Colonel Hans Landa arrives at a dairy farm harboring Jewish refugees and calmly interrogates the proprietor.
The opening establishing shot of the dairy farm is also a direct reference to the opening shot of Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, in which the sun sets on William Munny and the Old West he knows.
Memento (2000)
The psychological thriller that put Memento opens with a Polaroid picture of a corpse. Nolan plays the sequence in reverse, so we see the photograph un-develop and go back in the camera before the man was killed.
Before the movie flits between color and black-and-white, this shocking opening shot sets up Leonard Shelby’s convoluted quest to solve the mystery of his wife’s murder.
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Fantastic Mr. Fox opens with Mr. Fox standing on a hill, waiting next to a tree for Mrs. Fox. This shot immediately establishes the movie’s gorgeously quirky stop-motion animation style, its warm color palette, and its rural farmyard setting.
When Mrs. Fox finally s him, she brings the joyous news that she’s pregnant with their first child. The Beach Boys’ “Heroes and Villains” is the perfect song to kick off the soundtrack.
Gladiator (2000)
Gladiator opens with an image of a hand in a wheatfield. Throughout Gladiator, Scott uses wheat as a symbol of resurrection, evoking wheat’s representation of the body of Christ in Christianity.
This motif returns in the final scene after Maximus dies, as he sees himself wandering through the same wheatfield toward his family. There’s a pattern of the most memorable opening shots from movies tying into the final shot.
Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
The opening shot of Punch-Drunk Love introduces Adam Sandler’s Barry Egan in his iconic blue suit. He’s on the phone, trying to take advantage of a frequent-flyer program.
The emptiness of Barry’s novelty item warehouse encapsulates the character’s loneliness, which becomes the emotional backbone of the story.
Children Of Men (2006)
Alfonso Cuarón’s bleak sci-fi thriller Children of Men is filled with visceral, meticulously planned long takes and it opens with one of its best.
The bleak dystopian worldbuilding is established via news headlines on TV in the coffee shop where Theo is getting his morning caffeine boost. The horror of the movie’s cynical futuristic world doesn’t truly set in until the coffee shop is bombed by terrorists seconds after Theo leaves with his drink.
Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)
Quentin Tarantino opens his two-part action epic Kill Bill with a black-and-white closeup shot of the Bride’s face, beaten and bloodied. Bill can be heard off-screen asking, “Do you find me sadistic?”
The Bride tries to speak, but Bill shoots her in the head and Nancy Sinatra’s “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” plays in the opening titles. This brutal opening brilliantly sets the stage for the blood-soaked rampage of revenge that follows.
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
Like all the best opening shots, the beginning of Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth sums up the whole movie in one image. Ofelia lies on the ground, bleeding out, as the camera swoops through her pupil into her mind, immersing the audience in her escapist fantasyland.
Del Toro has made a name for himself as one of the greatest filmmakers pushing social commentary through genre stories. Pan’s Labyrinth’s blend of fairy tale iconography and the horrors of Francoist Spain is arguably the pinnacle of that style.
Lord Of War (2005)
The breathtaking opening shot of Andrew Niccol’s Lord of War follows the journey of a bullet from the factory line to a child soldier's head. Buffalo Springfield’s psychedelic hit “For What It’s Worth” is juxtaposed perfectly with the shocking images on-screen.
This sequence succinctly establishes the appalling details of the arms industry exposed by the movie. Lord of War’s powerful anti-war message even earned it an official endorsement from Amnesty International.
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
The opening shot of Little Miss Sunshine tells us everything we need to know about the lead character, Olive, and the story that will follow.
The movie begins with a closeup of Olive’s eyes. As the beauty pageant she’s watching on TV is reflected in her glasses, directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris show us that Olive dreams of one day winning a pageant of her own.
