September 2022 made it 30 years since Ridley Scott re-released Blade Runner with its Director's Cut. This gave an entire new generation a chance to re-discover the sci-fi classic, a movie that has one of the most beautiful openings in sci-fi movie history. This makes it fit in with an amazing batch of movies that set the stage in the very opening scenes.
Over the years, science fiction movies have set the tone with beautiful scenes. It isn't just futuristic movies like Blade Runner, but also space operas, apocalyptic adventures, and high-tech sci-fi masterpieces. From setting up the world to setting the stage for the action, these breathtaking scenes helped set up some of the movie world's greatest sci-fi movies.
Blade Runner (1982)
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Blade Runner opens with a rolling text explaining what the movie's world includes, with androids called Replicants and Blade Runner hunting down ones that get out of control. However, it is the opening scene that follows that sets up the world. It is a breathtaking shot of the skyline of the city.
While the Vangelis score plays over the background, Los Angeles in 2019 is shown, a hellish landscape with massive fires and lightning striking the ground. The camera then drifts into the city to show flying cars in the dystopian futuristic city of nightmares. In this one shot, viewers know all they need to about the world of the movie.
Star Wars (1977)
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Every Star Wars movie starts off with the crawl, catching people up on what has happened in the universe up to that point. However, when the first movie hit theaters, the now-titled A New Hope moved from the scrolling text to introducing an Imperial Destroyer.
After learning about rebels, seeing one small ship pursued by the Destroyer as it grew larger and larger over the screen was a breathtaking moment. In this one scene, viewers saw the vast expanse of space and the overwhelming might of the Galactic Empire.
The Matrix (1999)
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What The Matrix did with its breathtaking opening was present the world of the movie and the style of action fans would enjoy in the rest of the franchise. The intro also focused on Trinity, rather than Neo, to tell this story.
It was clear from the opening that this world was like the real one, but with some striking differences. When police started chasing Trinity, and she fought in an over-stylized form, it was clear the viewers were in for something they had never seen before.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
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There might not be another sci-fi movie opening as iconic and breathtaking as Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. With no dialogue and no text crawl, Kubrick showed viewers the process of evolution on Earth.
The theme of this movie is the birth of life and the start of a new life. This breathtaking opening showed early apes as they discovered war, and then as one throws a bone into the sky, it transitioned into space and the start of the movie. There isn't a better example of world-building through one scene than in Kubrick's masterpiece.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
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There are few movies in history, science fiction or otherwise, with as powerful an opening scene as James Cameron's Terminator 2 Judgment Day. The first movie showed one man could save the world after an apocalyptic event in the future. The intro here shows that future.
What makes this scene so breathtaking is that fans had imagined the horrors of the future war against the robots. This opening scene showed that what fans imagined was only a fraction of what they could expect. The kids playing and people going about their business all ended in a flash of white, and then robots walked over skulls, and the war was on. It doesn't get better than this.
Children of Men (2006)
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A breathtaking opening scene does not always have to be picturesque views of a society or city or a brilliant action set piece. Sometimes, it is something that just shakes the world to the core and sets up the movie's world for viewers. That happened with one of the best sci-fi movies of all time.
In Children of Men, that is exactly what happens. The scene sets the stage perfectly, with newscasters explaining that no child has been born in many years, hinting at the end of the world. Then, an explosion rocks a street, killing people and sending the hero on his mission to save the world. It is a devastating scene in a harrowing movie.
Avatar (2009)
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Thanks to the backlash following its overall box office success, people have forgotten why people fell in love with Avatar when it hit theaters. It was the first movie that really took advantage of 3D filmmaking as a world-building tool and not as a simple gimmick. This was all shown from the start, in its breathtaking opening.
The movie started on a spaceship with people coming out of their cryogenic sleep, and then the cameras moved outside the spacecraft and showed Pandora in all its glory. The 3D used here swept people into the story's world and held on tight for the rest of the journey.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was a movie with his aspirations, but it failed to reach those levels. The movie was a critical and commercial failure, but there is one thing that many people remember fondly. That was the movie's breathtaking opening scene.
Despite few liking the movie on the whole, this opening scene was one that was made specifically for fans of space. With this opening, the rest of the movie had a lot to live up to. Even with the lackluster response, it is an opening scene that people can still watch and appreciate today before zoning out for the rest of the movie.
Back to the Future (1985)
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Anyone watching Back to the Future for the first time, with no knowledge of the movie, could watch the opening and realize they were about to see something special. There was no explanation in the opening, as the credits played over a series of clocks and Rube Goldberg machines. These all ended up failing spectacularly, thanks mostly to the mad scientist being nowhere around.
When Marty McFly showed up and picked up a guitar and went in front of a giant speaker, only to get blown backward, it told people all they needed to know. This was a movie about a mad scientist and a kid who loved to push the limits. It was breathtaking in its simple storytelling technique, and the rest of the movie, and entire Back to the Future trilogy, disappointed no one after watching this scene.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
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There was a long wait between chapters in the Mad Max movie franchise. This scene exists to catch people up on the story of Mad Max, and it is Max himself who tells the story in a voice-over to open the movie. This bridges the gap between the movies, and then it jumps right into the action.
What happened next was what really made the scene so breathtaking. The scene showed the vast sandy landscape, and then he immediately leaped into his car and took off while countless vehicles gave chase, and the movie never slowed down until the manic conclusion.