Top 10 Pre-Title Sequences in Film History: A Critical Analysis

[00:00:00]I've been thinking about some of my favorite opening scenes in films there's many ways to start a movie traditionally they'd begin with the credits to set you in the mood nowadays they usually end with the credits which is where the full credit scroll would go anyway so I don't get it but whatever the case the main title sequence of a film is an art form of its own it's not just where you show off the names of all the people who worked on it but it's where you express what type of movie it is is it's in the graphics the calligraphy the choice of colors the music I've seen plenty of lists of the all-time best title sequences but surprisingly I haven't found any that talk about the best scenes that come before the credits and that's what I'm going to do and this is the opening scene before this video sponsor it's a brand new year and with that comes a brand new update chock full of new content for the biggest mobile game in the world raid Shadow Legends available on PC and mobile build your team from over 650 unique Champions and battle your way through a campaign filled with ferocious enemies test your medal against other players in PvP Arena or team up with players from around the world to take on massive Clan bosses raid has lots of regular tournaments and events that will allow you to compete against other players to prove you're the best there's always a new challenge to conquer and and not only will you see your name at the top of the letter board but you'll get a ton of in-game rewards for winning it's good to be the king all new players from the US it's time to vote for your favorite starting champion in the Champions elect event download raid Shadow legends from the link in my description below copy your in-game player ID and head to Champion select.

[00:01:52]plarium.com then enter your player ID and vote for your chosen Champion it's that simple vote between now and February 10th for your chance to win awesome in-game prizes like epic and Legendary Champions along with Amazon gift cards worth up to $1,000 don't worry veteran raid players you can still get involved too head to Champion select. plarium.com to get a special promo code for a small in-game gift available to everyone but there's more all new players use my link or the QR code on screen and get a free starter pack with this awesome in-game loot again just click the link in the description below to cast your vote for your favorite Champion today it's a big creative Choice when to show the main title sequence as I've said it can go at the beginning the end or not at all or I like it best when there's an opening scene and then the main titles this pre-title scene establishes the mood and the tone right off the bat gives you a little information and serves as a sample of what the movie is going to be like when done right it gets you hooked making you think oh yeah this is going to be good it's a tradition that became most prominent in the early days of Television often referred to as the cold opening it seems likely the reason based on just an educated guess is that TV networks were competing for ratings and obviously didn't want you to change that channel so they would start with a real good scene to get your attention so that you stay tuned while the titles are playing as just an example Star Trek would always begin with a Captain's Log narration the Enterprise crew will be exploring some Uncharted region of the Galaxy and then be forced into some state of peril and then the titles it seems feature films were much slower at adapting this practice and there's no clear timeline as to when it really took off as we all know today they usually move all the main titles to the end but one of the most famous examples Les was Star Wars how it begins with the title and saves all the credits till the end it wasn't the first to do this citizen C did it decades before but George Lucas was a big Pioneer he felt Star Wars should begin with just the title and then the famous prologue scroll it's hard to imagine it any other way but during Empire Strikes Back he had trouble with the writer's Guild and Director's Guild he ended up having to pay fines and ended up quitting the guilds that's a longer story but the point is he had to fight for his Creative Vision just to put the credits where he wanted and preserve the impact of that opening title going straight into the action nowadays it's so common for everybody's names to just go at the end so it can be said that George Lucas helped pave the way definitely a trend Setter he is do or do not there is no try so now that movies can do whatever they want with the credits the question I have for you is what do you think are some of the best pre-title scenes I'll tell you 10 that come to my mind and then feel free to comment with your own I'm sticking with feature films and simply put it just has to be a scene that cold opens the movie The Credits could come up anywhere in the film as long as the title of the movie appears immediately after this opening scene so let's go and honorable mention goes to Raiders the Lost Arc I mean who could forget that iconic opening where Indiana Jones snatches the idol escapes a bunch of booby traps and runs from a giant boulder but the only problem is the title was already shown at the start so we couldn't call this a pre-title scene another one that should be on here but can't is the first Lord of the Rings right off the bat it gives you all this information that you're going to need to know but it's it's done in a very entertaining way similar to a bedtime story that appeals to your childhood imagination but crap it says Lord the Rings before it gets going even though Fellowship of the Ring comes after what do I do count it as one half of the title oh too bad but here's 10 great ones that qualify as pre-title scenes number 10 Ghostbusters we open with the new York Public Library we see a librarian putting books away if this were any other film you could say this is a very boring way to start things but that wonderful score by Elmer Bernstein lets you know something's about to happen first we see some books moving on their own then the card cataloges start going berserk the librarian slowly starts to notice and then begins running in Terror then she ends up face to face with something so horrifying that it can't even be shown yet what a great choice to only see her reaction and for a movie that's full of great special effects it reserves all those effects for later instead going with the absolute minimum of just a bright light and a fan and just when we reach this Pinnacle moment of horror the tone abruptly shifts the red circle closes in on her face similar to the ending of a Looney Tune short and then a white Mist fades in taking shape into a cartoon ghost and this of course becomes the famous logo but also the O of the title which so happens to be the very center of the word ghost it's beautifully symmetrical and a great way to reveal the title from a graphic standpoint but furthermore it's a clever idea to start with a scary horror tone and then suddenly shift into a fun comedic tone with Ray Parker Jr providing an upbeat theme song that differs drastically from the scene before it like the best of Halloween pranks they give you a scare and then let you know it's safe to laugh number nine The Lion King at the time this came out this was one of the best openings to an animated film I've ever seen the amount of attention and detail was remarkable from the Rippling Sunrise to the rack focusing from the ants to the zebras it all seemed to push the limits of what animation could accomplish it almost seemed it would have been similar to just filming live animals it's clear that they studied how animals move and replicated in a realistic way rather than going for a cartoon style without any spoken words it makes its point clear we're witnessing a sort of ceremony or baptism of a royal lion cub it's a musically driven scene composed by Elden John with lyrics by Tim Rice The Circle of Life tells us everything we need to know but regardless of the words or or the language you speak the scene still makes its impact it reaches the climax as the chief holds up the cub and boom The Lion King the way it just lands on that title gives you the perfect punctuation it didn't make my top five Disney films but that pre-title scene I can't deny number eight Halloween 2 this is a great example of the recap Trope remind the audience how the last movie ended did and then kick things off first we see the ending of Halloween 1 where Dr Lumis shoots Michael Myers off the ledge when he looks down he sees the body is gone one thing I don't like is how they use a different reaction shot of Lumis in the first movie he gives a look as if he's not surprised he knows there's something more to Michael than what anyone else knows that was an acting Choice an idea proposed by Donald Pleasants himself but in the sequel they show him surprised and this is the first indication that they're about to ruin what was one of the greatest Cliffhangers in Horror history but oh it is so worth it for this reason is this some kind of joke I've been trick-or treated to death tonight you don't know what death is wow you don't know what death is then the music starts up and then the opening titles something about that just made makes me smile it's the dialogue that leads into it you don't know what death is I don't know whether it's a good or bad line it doesn't make much sense but it's great you don't know what death is like you have no idea buddy wait till you see the crazy [ __ ] that's about to happen almost like he's offended like you don't talk about death unless you've done your homework fool you better hope you don't find out what death is you don't know what death is oh you don't know what death is oh man it's it's class up until now Lumis has been as calm and in control as possible but this is the movie where he starts to lose it number seven Ninja Turtles this is one that really benefited from seeing it at a young age in the theaters it was the first liveaction Ninja Turtles movie I couldn't even imagine what that would look like or how they would pull it off with costumes and animatronics but the first scene opens with April O'Neal's news report filling Us in painting the picture of New York City over run with crime we see various burglaries being committed by Ninja thieves the music composed by John Dupre sets up a darker tone than what we're used to in the cartoon but still with a fun com comic book Vibe and then things really get started when April is ambushed by the Foot Clan and the turtles show up to help but everything's kept in darkness and we only hear their voices as April Pockets raph's ey we only catch a brief glimpse of his eyes watching from the sewer hole and then he says the unthinkable damn this lets you know that this is the big kids Ninja Turtles upbeat music begins credits start appearing and then we see the turtle Shadows and hear them talking about Major League butt kicking and all that then Leo jumps it freeze frames and the title appears to the sound of an epic monster guitar slide [ __ ] yeah but the clever thing about this title is how it's used to delay Leo's appearance we know we're about to get our first look at the turtles but that title comes in to pause things I can't think of many other films that use a title in that way for the purpose of pacing or milking more SU spense and then Leo lands in the frame all the turtles show up in all their green glory and the movie has officially begun number six From Dusk till Dawn the first time I saw it I didn't know what to make of it I was expecting vampires as I was told it's a vampire film so I popped the tape in my VCR and I met with a 99-minute opening of a sheriff talking to a liquor store clerk about microwave food and this and that and it's all spoken in a low-key h hushed tone I thought this might have been the most boring opening I've ever seen that is until we find out there's a hostage situation in the back but the sheriff doesn't know about it so the suspense keeps building the criminals are the Gecko brothers Seth and Richie played by George cloy and Quinn and Tarantino Seth is more coordinated and plays it tough and cool but Richie is delusional and thinks the clerk signaled for help and I'm pretty sure if you watch the scene over again it never happens which makes the scene so chaotic and unpredictable the sheriff gets shot for no reason whatsoever and that leads to a big bloody shootout with the clerk being set on fire by a roll of alcohol soaked toilet paper next thing the entire store explodes in a beautiful one take tracking shot and as they drive off the shot settles and we hear the song Dark Knight with that swampy southern rock sound and the credits begin as natural as can be and when the title comes up you're like oh [ __ ] all that action we just saw and it's only the beginning of the movie it gets you ready for what's going to happen next and that's what you call a Tarantino opening it has his signature style all over it even though he's not the one who directed that was Robert Rodriguez but he wrote it and it feels just as much of his own number five Taste the Blood of Dracula well there's something that needs to be said about about Simplicity the movie has only just begun and Dracula is impaled on a cross bleeding out his eyes it's sort of a recap showing us what happened at the end of the last movie Dracula has risen from his grave except that it's being witnessed from the point of view of another character he just so happens to be lost in the woods when he sees Dracula die and crumble away into blood red ashes I guess it can be assumed that Dracula's blood becomes like a powder when it dries up so already we're being taught to just go along with it that it's only going to get crazier so this guy examines the remains of Dracula which we know will eventually be used for his resurrection in a plot that was almost remade as a video game Castlevania 2 Simon's Quest so that's all you need to know Dracula dies there's blood and now somebody's going to Taste the Blood of Dracula oh yeah it's so cheesy it's brilliant number four Edwood this is a great example of a tribute Tim Burton crafted this opening scene to imitate the style of Edwood we start outside a miniature of a house which is replicated from Bride of the monster it's meant to look cheap but it's filmed in a well executed and beautiful way as the camera tracks through tree branches with fake movie style rain and lightning we go all the way through the window and inside where a coffin opens and out comes Criswell played by Jeffrey Jones now it's imitating the opening scene of Night of the ghouls yet the dialogue is taken from plan n it's done in the same cheesy way can your hearts stand the shocking facts of the true story of Edward dwood Jr after he's done talking the camera continues traveling and the title sequence begins it's really one of the best as we sail past gravestones giant squids and flying saucers like we're traveling through every major Edwood movie for someone who's been called the worst director of all time it's nice to know he got such a loving tribute number three Gremlins just about everybody's seen it everybody knows but just think how great that opening is if you knew nothing about Gremlins it sets up the plot and gives you a hook right away Mr Peltzer is just a father on a business trip during the Christmas season looking for something to bring home to his kids he sees the mwaa in a cage we're not supposed to know what a mwa is nor do they show it to us yet but what we do know is it's going to mean trouble the owner doesn't want to sell it but the grandson secretly makes the sale and as Mr Pelzer is walking away we hear that last warning there's three rules don't expose them to light don't get them wet but above all don't feed them after midnight as as soon as you hear that you know those rules are definitely going to get broken and you can't wait to find out what happens and then we cut to a jolly Christmas scene as the titles begin fantastic number two War the worlds this one gets a lot of extra points because it's from 1953 back when pre-title scenes weren't that common and it was one of the first color sci-fi films but it starts in black and white and in a documentary style showing stock footage from World War I and 2 with a narrator who gives it extra charm with his oldfashioned radio style voice it doesn't look like we're about to watch a science fiction film it looks more like some old documentary but then the narrator builds up almost like a commercial or trailer voice saying and now fought with the terrible weapons of super science menacing All Mankind and every creature on earth Comes The War of the Worlds Boom the title just clobbers you over the head it was such a wise choice to make that the first color you see in Stark red and it comes crashing in and commands your attention it sets up for what you're about to see is going to be the craziest battle that's ever been fought in the history of human Civilization by using real events to lead up to it it makes it more believable that it could be a possibility World War I was bad World War II was even worse but wait till you see the War of the Worlds it's one of those times where I get chills just hearing it it's such a short opener it cuts right to the Chase and packs a punch like no other number one Goldfinger it's inevitable that I have to end with a James Bond movie anybody you ask if you bring up pre-title sequences James Bond is the first thing that comes to mind how could it not it's what made the Trope as classic as it is I'd have a hard time picking one but I'll just say Goldfinger it's not necessarily the best one nor does it pack the most action and stunts into it but this is the film where the bond formula really got figured out I think it's probably the best of the Shan connory Bond films in the opening Bond infiltrates an enemy base he starts out in scuba diving gear but then he has a tuxedo under it how badass is that who wears a tux under scuba gear who walks into a party and lights a cigarette just as an explosion goes off this is where cliches are born and then he's kissing a girl who just got out of a bathtub then he's in a fist fight with a bad guy he throws him into the tub along with an electric fan electrocuting and effectively murdering him and then he says shocking the classic oneliner it's easy to dismiss this sort of thing because we've seen it in so many other movies movies but this is where it really got started and the best thing about it is that it all happens before the opening titles when you can say the best part of the movie is before you even see the title of the movie that's really something