Steven Spielberg s 10 Best Opening Shots Ranked

The camera deliberately points down, so we can’t see what’s ahead. A 25-foot great white shark, or any other terror that the ocean has to offer, could be lurking around anywhere. As far as opening title sequences go, this is quite rivet


Then, a wider shot reveals the thing that was ripping through the trees: a large truck, carrying a heavy-duty cage. It slowly becomes apparent that there’s a dinosaur in the cage, and these guys aren’t equipped to handle

Speaking of fantasy, how about an immortal swordfighter? Here's another period drama that flew under your radar. Indeed, Highlander is a period drama and we're not just talking about the medieval scenes. The early 1980s was also an iconic time. This movie opens with a professional wrestling match, after all, cementing its status as a period film from the late 20th cent


The Ark of the Covenant is one of the most iconic MacGuffins in movie history , ranking alongside the Maltese Falcon, the Infinity Stones, and the glowing briefcase from Pulp Fiction . Throughout the movie, characters like Belloq build up a fascinating mystique around the


Munich , Spielberg’s cinematic retelling of Operation Wrath of God, the Israeli government’s response to the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, opens with an intricate tracking shot that frames each of its components perfectly. It opens on a gate, then two hands appear on it and a man climbs up to peer over. When the rest of his group arrives, he drops from the gate to join them. This is all conveyed through camera movements and angles, courtesy of cinematographer Janusz Kamiń


What, you didn't know there was a riveting 1930s period drama hiding under this classic adventure film? The famous Dr. Jones was uncovering ancient mysteries and fighting Nazis before it was cool, and immersion in this time period is what contributes to the status Raiders of the Lost Ark Cheats Ark as a fan and critic favor


What follows is an intense dramatization of the massacre, in which the Black September terrorist group takes 11 members of the Israeli Olympics team hostage before killing them. The carefully planned opening shot reflects the carefully planned attack we’re about to see play


With the masterfully simplistic premise of an elite squad infiltrating a high-rise controlled by a drug kingpin, Gareth Evans kept the focus of The Raid solely on the action. There’s no exposition or unnecessary subplots, just an all-out war between cops and cro


It’s a shame that Steven Spielberg never made more straightforward action movies, because his masterfully crafted action sequences in Raiders instantly solidified him as one of the greatest action directors of all t

If Indy didn’t think fast, they would’ve been stuck down there until some other civilization uncovered the Well of Souls, centuries later. Fortunately, Indy manages to find an opening in one of the walls, so he and Marion are able to escape in the nick of t


It would be in a Cancer's nature to elevate a silly misunderstanding into a lifelong fight to the death, but that's exactly why the crab doesn't enjoy The Duellists. It's too much like real life and the Cancer prefers fantasy to real


According to The Hollywood Reporter , this scene was originally supposed to have a lengthy fight between the swordsman and Indy’s whip, but Harrison Ford wasn’t feeling well, so it was switched to the now-legendary anti-cli


The Cold War thriller Bridge of Spies opens with Rudolf Abel, technically the film’s antagonist, looking at himself in the mirror in his cramped New York apartment. As the camera pans out, we realize he’s trying to capture all of his own features in a self-portrait he’s painting. In a matter of seconds, Spielberg establishes that this is a mild-mannered man with a solitary existe


Here's a situation where a Cancer hasn't seen the movie but can already tell you the whole plot. They know all about it because they pay attention to details, including previews, publicity, and what other people have said about this overexposed period dr


There aren’t a lot of biopics that fall into the martial arts genre, but Ip Man is a prime example of both. The great Donnie Yen stars as Ip Man himself , the legendary Wing Chun grandmaster who taught Bruce Lee how to fi


A huge part of what made him so instantly memorable in Raiders is Lawrence Kasdan’s script, which gave him a bunch of exciting things to do. From outrunning a boulder to climbing underneath a moving truck, these are the coolest things Indy did in Raide


One of the most renowned and influential works of world cinema, Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is notable for its delightfully unrealistic fight choreography. The movie’s gloriously cinematic fight scenes have martial artists floating through trees with the lightness of a baller


Harrison Ford’s stunt double actually had to be dragged through the jungle on the back of a truck. Practical filmmaking techniques always make for more visceral, hard-hitting action than featherlight CG spectac