Comments on: Best Cinematic Prologues?

Question: Best Cinematic Prologues?

roger ackroyd — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:15:11 -0800

What films have the best prologues?

• "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...."
• 2001's "Dawn of Man" sequence
• Battlestar Galactica's "The Cylons were created by man..."

What are other examples of prologues that set up necessary backstory while kick starting a film in style? Bonus points for fantasy or sci-fi examples.

By: moift

moift — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:20:31 -0800

I like the one in Magnolia with the montage of strange coincidences from urban legends... "these things happen!"

By: infinitewindow

infinitewindow — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:31:16 -0800

Raising Arizona and The Fellowship of the Rings are two that come immediately to mind.

By: pupdog

pupdog — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:40:05 -0800

I like the opening of Serenity, starting with the Universal logo's Earth morphing into 'Earth that was'

By: bru

bru — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:45:21 -0800

The Kingdom first 4 minutes (youtube) have been acclaimed recently as the best résumé of the story of the oil relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia for the past 70 years.

By: Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam

Vic Morrow's Personal Vietnam — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:53:29 -0800

A lot of the Coen Brothers' films have had memorable prologues. My favorite is the Stranger's opening narration in The Big Lebowski.

I'm seconding The Fellowship of the Ring. They compressed about 3000 years of fictional history into 7 or 8 minutes, and made it a clear and exciting narrative.

By: clango

clango — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:58:44 -0800

"The Player" has one HECK of an opening shot.

By: Gnatcho

Gnatcho — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 22:20:03 -0800

Layer Cake has an exhilarating prologue, which gives you a very good idea of Daniel Craig's character's personality and the world he inhabits. Admittedly, a lot of crime films heavily influenced by Guy Richie have taken to the flashy prologue.

By: asuprenant

asuprenant — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 22:29:38 -0800

Contact's gorgeous universe-long tracking shot with chronologically matching radio mix: though this doesn't setup a backstory, per se, it does highlight a major theme beautifully.

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 22:36:26 -0800

If you don't mind a reference to anime, I think the Ah! My Goddess! movie has an incredible beginning. Fairy Princess Morgan le Fay bounces across the surface of the moon and dives into a deep crater. She then breaks through a magical shield, draws runes on what looks to be a magically sealed vault door, and eventually releases a prisoner held there.

Truly an amazing scene, and quite a contrast to what comes next: switch to Tokyo, where we see everyday life with Keichi, Beldandy, Urd, and Skuld.

By: Cool Papa Bell

Cool Papa Bell — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 23:05:55 -0800

I Am Legend starts off with a kick, introducing Will Smith alone in New York City.

But Raising Arizona, for the win.

By: Faux Real

Faux Real — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 23:18:56 -0800

O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire
Crouch for employment. But pardon, and gentles all,
The flat unraised spirits that have dared
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
So great an object: can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
Attest in little place a million;
And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,
On your imaginary forces work.
Suppose within the girdle of these walls
Are now confined two mighty monarchies,
Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
Into a thousand parts divide on man,
And make imaginary puissance;
Think when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times,
Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hour-glass: for the which supply,
Admit me Chorus to this history;
Who prologue-like your humble patience pray,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

Exit

By: wemayfreeze

wemayfreeze — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 23:42:12 -0800

The Alan Smithee version of Dune has an extended animated prologue that is best appreciated in an elevated state of consciousness. It's incredible. Is the backstory necessary? Not at all. I don't remember the specifics, but it outlines some untold number of years before the story begins, and by the end of it you realize that absolutely none of what you just learned save the last minute or so is meaningful.

But, really, Raising Arizona takes all cakes.

By: churl

churl — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 01:11:44 -0800

It's not fantasy or sci-fi, but the intro for "The Kingdom" [youtube] compresses seven decades of US/Saudi Arabia history into its four-minute prologue / title sequence. It's masterfully done.

By: churl

churl — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 01:14:12 -0800

Crap, I totally overlooked bru, who already recommended The Kingdom. Disregard, sorry.

By: Iosephus

Iosephus — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 01:45:25 -0800

That Dune prologue. God, the pain... And it's as animated as a week-old dead cat, IIRC... ;-)

Can a single take count? Then the one in The Prestige gets my vote for the perfect prologue. "Are you watching closely?". Heh.

The one in The Host is great, concise, witty, and a lesson on tight narration.

The remake of Dawn of the Dead has a brilliant prologue, truly spooky up to and including the title credits.

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 02:15:11 -0800

Pumpkin and Honey Bunny in Pulp Fiction

And every single James Bond film ever made...

By: jbickers

jbickers — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 03:34:26 -0800

This is a tale about an unprejudiced heart, and how it changed our valley forever.

By: spasm

spasm — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 04:10:14 -0800

Oh, how quickly they forget.
When The Matrix came out eight years ago, its prologue was the most amazing bit of action film ever seen, with the jaw-dropping introduction to the "bullet time" technique, followed by Trinity's amazing escape run with the inter-building refenestration dive.
People would have paid to see this even without the rest of the movie.

By: marxchivist

marxchivist — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 04:53:02 -0800

Director's cut of Aliens. Not fantasy or sci-fi, but most Scorsese films, Goodfellas ("As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a gangster") and Casino are the first two that come to mind as having awesome prologues.

By: quentiniii

quentiniii — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 04:55:07 -0800

Each Lord of the Rings film has a pretty amazing prologue, including Fellowship, but especially Return of the King, with the Smeagol/Gollum transformation.

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 05:12:16 -0800

The opening minutes of Citizen Kane, where the camera tracks through the deteriorating Xanadu, toward Kanes bedroom window and his death bed, culminating on his uttering his last word.

By: googly

googly — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 05:30:43 -0800

The single-take, 3-minute-long, crane tracking shot that opens Orson Welles' Touch of Evil is widely regarded as one of the best (and most famous) film prologues of all time. In its own way, it is just as cinematically breathtaking as the Matrix opening.

By: fuse theorem

fuse theorem — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 05:58:44 -0800

Sunset Boulevard

By: i_cola

i_cola — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 06:04:06 -0800

Reservoir Dogs is still one of my favourites but Tarantino is always good for setting things up - see also, Kill Bill I.

Go! has a cool prologue with Claire's v.o. Rona lying in the ditch, then to Simon in the trunk of the car and then onto the actual chronological start (well, the first one) of the film.

Then there's always Joan Fontaine's v.o. prologue for Hitchcock's Rebecca:

Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again.

It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate leading to the drive, and for a while I could not enter for the way was barred to me. Then, like all dreamers, I was possessed of a sudden, the supernatural powers and passed like a spirit through the barrier before me.

The drive wound away in front of me, twisting and turning as it had always done. But as I advanced, I was aware that a change had come upon it. Nature had come into her own again, and little by little had encroached upon the drive with long tenacious fingers, on and on while the poor thread that had once been our drive.

And finally, there was Manderley. Manderley, secretive and silent. Time could not mar the perfect symmetry of those walls. Moonlight can play odd tricks upon the fancy, and suddenly it seemed to me that light came from the windows. And then a cloud came upon the moon and hovered an instant like a dark hand before a face. The illusion went with it. I looked upon a desolate shell, with no whisper of a past about its staring walls.

We can never go back to Manderley again. That much is certain. But sometimes, in my dreams, I do go back to the strange days of my life which began for me in the south of France...

By: cashman

cashman — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 06:14:45 -0800

Equilibrium. This is a german language version, but you get the idea.

By: softlord

softlord — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 07:38:54 -0800

Saving Private Ryan

By: equalpants

equalpants — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 08:40:17 -0800

The wedding at the start of The Godfather. And even within that, Bonasera's introductory monologue ("I believe in America...").

By: Lentrohamsanin

Lentrohamsanin — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 08:57:53 -0800

The silent film "UNLUCKY!" opening of O Lucky Man!

By: Hlewagast

Hlewagast — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 10:06:43 -0800

That's the key joke of my adult life, in terms of my relationships with women...

By: roger ackroyd

roger ackroyd — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 10:12:41 -0800

Great answers, everyone. Keep 'em coming!

By: Black_Umbrella

Black_Umbrella — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 10:19:18 -0800

Reservoir Dogs, enough said. It doesn't have anything to do with the movie really and its a conversation that at least half a dozen partake in, but its still incredible.

By: evisceratordeath

evisceratordeath — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 10:35:03 -0800

I enjoy the Blade Runner opening, especially with that gigantic throbbing bass thump in the background.

By: PercussivePaul

PercussivePaul — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 10:47:09 -0800

I always loved the intro to LA Confidential. Danny Devito does a great voice-over introduction which, you realize as he winds it up, is his weekly gossip column.

By: mrbill

mrbill — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 10:52:16 -0800

The opening from Lord of War showing the "life of a bullet" was sadly the best part of the movie.

By: wierdo

wierdo — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 11:26:41 -0800

Payback (1999), either version (they are very different), but as mentioned above, the Matrix has an awesome prologue.

By: Mapes

Mapes — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 11:46:05 -0800

1. The Hunt for Red October:

In November of 1984, just before Gorbachev came to power, a Typhoon-class Soviet sub surfaced just south of the Grand Banks.
It then sank in deep water, apparently suffering a radiation problem. Unconfirmed reports indicated some of the crew were rescued.
But according to repeated statements by both Soviet and American governments, nothing of what you are about to see...
EVER HAPPENED.

2. The beginning of Boogie Nights introduces most of the main characters in a single several-minute shot.

By: Student of Man

Student of Man — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 11:48:18 -0800

This might veer dangerously close to "my favorite movie intro" But I thought the monologue and ingratiating smugness of that guy from Thank You For Smoking was superb.

By: Hogshead

Hogshead — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 14:26:31 -0800

Not exactly SF, but... A Matter of Life and Death (known as Stairway to Heaven in the US), a 1946 film that's mostly a love-story between a British bomber pilot and an American radio operator, begins with a very long, slow pan across a starscape, as a sonorous narrator intones:

"This is the universe."
(pause)
"Big, isn't it?"

By: cazoo

cazoo — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 23:03:57 -0800

I loved the prologue in Evil Dead 2, which was basically all of the first Evil Dead movie summed up in about 5 minutes.

By: roger ackroyd

roger ackroyd — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:16:05 -0800

Loved The Host. Digging out my Tarantino and Raimi. Checking into Touch of Evil...I can't believe Netflix doesn't have Stairway to Heaven. :-P

Thanks again, everyone.

By: iamkimiam

iamkimiam — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:44:02 -0800

Stranger Than Fiction
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2nding Magnolia