Entertainment
10 Most Perfect Opening Action Scenes of All Time, Ranked
Lots of action movies like to open with a bang. They hit the ground running and get an audience primed and their adrenaline pumping for the roller coaster ride that’s ahead of them. Opening action scenes set the table in the best way possible, and there are few movie-going experiences as thrilling as watching a new film and immediately getting thrust right into the thick of it. The old Hollywood adage is “cut to the chase,” and these are the movies that do just that.
Some franchises are known for their opening sequences. So much so that audiences come in with set expectations for each new installment to thrill them more than the last in the opening minutes. That’s certainly led to an escalation in on-screen spectacle, but sometimes the best opening action scenes aren’t even the most bombastic, though there are quite a few that do blow things up spectacularly. Loud or quiet, expected or not, these ten opening action scenes are the most perfect of all time.
10
‘Blade’ (1998)
Superhero movies love to open with action. In the cinematic eras before origin stories became popular and after they were played out, it’s been a common occurrence to open these adventures watching our caped crusaders and webslingers doing what they do best. X2 opens with a terrific White House attack featuring Nightcrawler, Deadpool breaks the fourth wall and some bad guy faces almost immediately, and the opening sequence of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is the only good scene in that movie. The best, and bloodiest, of these though, comes from a superhero classic made well before the modern era of superheroics had even started; Blade.
As an early prognosticator of the superhero boom that would happen in the 2000s, Blade straddles a line between superhuman action and blood-soaked horror. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the slaughterhouse rave opening action scene. With water sprinklers that spray blood, things are plenty crimson even before Wesley Snipes’ day walking vampire slayer shows up. Once he does, he starts turning his fanged foes into dust while some sick techno beats blare. It’s a scene so good, the rest of the movie actually suffers in comparison. Blade introduces himself so hard that the only direction for him to go was done. Even so, the bloodsoaked vampire rave shootout still slays.
9
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ (2002)
Peter Jackson’s epic The Lord of the Rings saga is packed with outstanding action depicted on a massive scale. Gigantic battle sequences featuring hundreds of extras, groundbreaking CGI and all kinds of fantasy carnage dominate the latter two films in the trilogy. The Fellowship of the Rings, other than a brief prologue, is relatively smaller in scale in its action in comparison, with The Two Towers upping the ante considerably with the Helms Deep finale. That may be the best action scene in all of Middle-earth but the sequel also starts with a pretty spectacular one as well.
Opening with a return to when Gandalf tragically sacrificed himself to save the fellowship from a big ugly Balrog, the movie follows the wizard’s fall as he continues to do battle with the gigantic beast in a midair sword and fiery claw fight. It has some truly astounding visuals and a rousing Howard Shore score that’s guaranteed to get you excited. Fantasy movies don’t often open with bloodthirsty battles, often attempting to ease audiences into their fantasy worlds, but with that worldbuilding already handled, The Two Towers stands out with a wholly unique and utterly awesome fight scene of mythical proportions.
8
‘Drive’ (2011)
Contrary to what you may have heard, size isn’t everything. While some action movies shoot their load in their opening minutes with all the spectacle they can muster, it doesn’t always serve them in terms of maintaining their momentum. Often the best kind of opening action scene is the kind that shows some restraint. Plenty of movies have opened with a car chase, with one of the most frequently cited as the best being the musical getaway in Baby Driver. All due respect to the rhythms of Edgar Wright, but that car chase is ever so slightly bested by the cooler and quieter one in Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive.
With Ryan Gosling as the laconic Driver, the film opens with him acting as wheelman to some would-be robbers. The getaway that follows is less demolition derby or high-speed pursuit and more a sweat-inducing game of hide-and-seek between the Driver and the LAPD. Using side roads and the shadows, the Driver moves with effective efficiency, and we’re all along for the ride as the camera never leaves the car until he does. It’s an incredibly tense and masterfully designed sequence that shows you don’t need a climactic crash or even speeds over 100 MPH to get an audience’s pulse to race.
7
‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation’ (2015)
Every Mission: Impossible film has a memorable opening sequence that kicks off the plot before lighting the fuse for the opening credits and Lalo Schifrin’s iconic theme plays. The shocking flash-forward from Mission: Impossible III featuring the sadistic villain played by Philip Seymour Hoffman is probably the overall best of these. In terms of action, though, it’s hard to top Tom Cruise running down a cargo plane and then getting stuck outside it while it takes off from Rogue Nation.
As with all the iconic stunts in the film franchise, Cruise performed the plane takeoff himself, looking like a stubborn bug on a windshield. The stunt is even more visceral for the minimal amount of digital enhancement done on it, as evidenced by the behind-the-scenes material. It lets the stunt speak for itself as one of the most daring from the entire film series, and it puts the audience right on edge for what is arguably the best Mission: Impossible movie ever made.
6
‘GoldenEye’ (1995)
There’s something about a secret agent trying to catch a plane. More so than any franchise, the James Bond films are known for their iconic opening action sequences. They are a key part of the 007 formula and there’s no shortage of awesome action on display in them. From the car chase leading to a train fight in Skyfall to the iconic snowy mountain pursuit in The Spy Who Loved Me, it’s hard to pick just one. Walther PPK to our head though, it’s got to be the induction of Pierce Brosnan into the franchise in GoldenEye.
Infiltrating a Soviet military base by way of a record-breaking bungee jump is one hell of a way to open a movie, and from there the sequence delivers on all the Bond hallmarks. Gunfights, witty dialogue and a daring escape all make up the meat of the sequence, which is capped off by Bond jumping a motorcycle off a cliff to intercept a crashing plane. Even if the visual effects of the last part haven’t stood the test of time, the sequence has. It’s vintage Bond with a modern twist, it inspired an awesome video game level, and it leads into the banger that is the Tina Turner title track. It’s an exceptional action sequence that will leave you shaken and stirred.
5
‘Police Story’ (1985)
Jackie Chan has few equals when it comes to nail-biting stunt work and the effortless blending of humor and action. His films, particularly those made in his native Hong Kong, are second to none in the action department, and Police Story is his masterpiece. It’s a film filled with Chan’s unique brand of physical comedy mixed with martial arts, and its book ended with two amazing action sequences. It ends with a blistering mall melee and begins with an equally destructive raid on a shanty town.
Chan plays a police officer who is part of a sting operation to take down a crime boss, an operation that goes south fast and quickly devolves into a shootout. The shootout culminates in a downhill demolition derby as the crime boss flees by driving literally through the shantytown. Chan gives chase and ends up dangling from a bus like the heir apparent to Buster Keaton. It’s a physical feat surrounded by action that could have only come from a talent like Chan, and it’s the perfect opening to one of the best action movies of all time.
4
‘The Matrix’ (1999)
Lana and Lilly Wachowski took clear influence from the likes of Chan and many others for their cyberpunk martial arts thriller The Matrix, which ushered in a new era of action in Hollywood. The film redefined the genre with its artificial reality setting and its combination of gunfights, king fu and its iconic bullet time effects. All of those elements are front and center in the film’s perfect opening action scene.
Carrie Ann Moss, as the leather-clad badass Trinity, is caught between a digital rock and a hard place, with cops and agents swarming on her location. She escapes by the skin of her teeth thanks to some gravity-defying footwork and the first of the film’s landmark 360-degree slow-motion shots. A rooftop chase ensues with more superhuman acrobatics. It’s not only an awesome action sequence, but it perfectly introduces the audience to the world of the Matrix and its reality-bending effects. Anyone who was sitting in the audience in 1999 watching this opening scene knew they were witnessing a game-changing moment in the action genre.
3
‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)
There are few ways to start a movie more enthralling than a high-stakes heist. Bonus points if it doubles down on the action. The standard of this kind of opening was set by Michael Mann’s Heat, and it would get the mention here if it weren’t for the opening action scene that was most directly influenced by it in The Dark Knight. The second part of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy immediately sets itself apart from its more gothic predecessor as an urban action thriller while simultaneously giving Heath Ledger’s Joker a proper villain introduction. It’s a masterclass in action, tone setting, and establishing a character.
Batman is nowhere to be seen in this opening sequence, which focuses solely on a group of clown-masked criminals robbing a bank. The IMAX cinematography used to capture downtown Chicago, standing in for Gotham City, is magnificent, and gives the film an appropriately epic scale. The mounting tension of the sequence is compounded as each member of the robbery crew kills off another in an escalating series of executions that culminates in the final reveal of the Joker. It perfectly illustrates both the expanded scope of the sequel while effectively communicating how clever and ruthless this version of the iconic villain will be. It’s easily one of the best openings in any superhero film ever, and a perfectly executed action sequence.
2
‘Hard Boiled’ (1992)
For pure, unbridled action, there are few filmmakers who can compete with John Woo at the peak of his powers. The director set the action world on fire as one of the founding filmmakers behind the Heroic Bloodshed action movement. These movies coming out of Hong Kong took inspiration from classic crime and noir cinema and exponentially increased the bullet and body count. They had an immeasurable influence on Hollywood’s own action movies, but none of those Hollywood copycats, even the ones directed by Woo himself, came close to the best of the Hong Kong classics. The best of those originals is Woo’s masterpiece Hard Boiled, which begins with a tea house shootout for the ages.
Chow Yun-fat plays the awesomely named inspector Tequila, who is described as a god when he’s given two guns, which he often does in the opening action scene. He dual wields his way through a group of heavily armed gangsters, creating the most dynamic destruction ever put on film. The action is the perfect balance of chaotic and balletic, and the ammo is seemingly infinite. Hard Boiled is as kinetic as action movies get, and the opening shootout announces Woo’s intentions for what would be his Heroic Bloodshed swan song. Bullets fly, blood is spilled, and action movies are forever changed.
1
‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ (1981)
Raiders of the Lost Ark is as perfect an action adventure film as has ever been made. Its flaws, which every movie has, are immediately rendered irrelevant by another iconic and awesome moment. Many of those moments come in the absolutely flawless opening, where there’s not a single frame out of place. From the introduction to Harrison Ford’s greatest hero Indiana Jones, to the unforgettable booby-trap set pieces and the rousing airplane escape set to John Williams’ score, it’s a perfectly constructed action sequence that should be taught in every film class.
Inspired by everything from James Bond movies to adventure serials and Uncle Scrooge comics, the opening tomb raiding action scene synthesizes those core inspirations into their most essential parts. As Jones steals a golden idol from a Peruvian temple, he’s faced with pitfalls, poison darts, tarantulas and, most memorably, the world’s most perfectly spherical boulder. Every singular moment of this opening action scene has been etched into pop culture history. In another hundred years, film scholars will continue to study it like paintings on a cave wall. Just like the artifacts idolized by Jones, the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark belongs in a museum.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Release Date
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June 12, 1981
- Runtime
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115 minutes
- Writers
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Lawrence Kasdan, George Lucas, Philip Kaufman
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