Narrative technique · used in 12 films
Opening with a short separate sequence, such as a fable, origin scene or overture, that sets tone and theme before the main story begins.
Examples
Orson Welles · 1962
The film opens with a pinscreen illustration of the parable Before the Law. It tells you in a few minutes that the door you are waiting at may never open.
Where to see it: The pinscreen prologue: a narrated, animated fable of a man who waits at a gate, which sets the film's theme.
William Friedkin · 1977
The film opens with four short stories in Veracruz, Jerusalem, Paris and New Jersey. Each shows a man committing a crime or losing everything. By the time they reach the village, you already know why each one can never go home.
Where to see it: The four opening vignettes. A killing in Veracruz, a bombing in Jerusalem, a fraud scandal in Paris and a failed church robbery in New Jersey each send a man into hiding.
John Carpenter · 1980
An old man tells ghost stories to children around a campfire on the beach. He tells of a clipper ship lost in an unearthly fog, then finishes as midnight strikes. The little story sets the rules before the film begins.
Where to see it: The campfire: old Mr. Machen tells children about a ship that crashed on the rocks after mistaking a campfire for a lighthouse. He finishes at midnight, and strange things begin to happen.
Steven Spielberg · 1981
The temple prologue is a miniature version of Raiders itself. It has a goal, obstacles, rivals, booby traps, betrayal and an escape that fails to hold on to the prize. That is, the opening teaches you how to watch the film that follows.
Where to see it: The golden idol sequence. It is a complete adventure story, and it comes before the film's actual story.
John Carpenter · 1983
The film opens in 1957 on a Detroit assembly line, before any of the main characters appear. The car crushes a worker's hand and a second worker dies inside it. You know she is evil before Arnie ever sees her.
Where to see it: The assembly line: a newly built red Plymouth Fury slams its hood on a worker's hand. Another worker is later found dead in the car after dropping cigar ash on its seats.
David Lynch · 1984
Virginia Madsen appears as Princess Irulan in an opening introduction that was added to the theatrical cut. Universal wanted a standard-length film, so scenes were cut and the narration helped cover the gaps. It tells you what you need to know about the spice and the houses.
Where to see it: The opening introduction. Princess Irulan narrates the setup of the year 10,191, the spice and the rival houses.
Steven Spielberg · 1989
The film opens in 1912 with a young Indiana Jones, played by River Phoenix, who gets hold of the Cross of Coronado on a Boy Scout trip. The prologue shows who he was as a boy before the adventure starts.
Where to see it: The 1912 prologue. Young Indy takes the Cross of Coronado while on a Boy Scout trip.
William Friedkin · 2000
The film opens in Vietnam in 1968. You see Childers save Hodges by executing a prisoner to scare a captured officer. That scene sets up why Hodges owes Childers and what Childers is capable of, long before the trial starts.
Where to see it: The 1968 Vietnam ambush. After a disastrous advance, Childers executes a North Vietnamese prisoner to force an officer to call off the attack.
Wes Anderson · 2007
The short Hotel Chevalier, starring Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman, plays before the film. It stands apart from the feature, yet it fills in the emotional state of Jack, the youngest brother. You arrive on the train already knowing something he does not say.
Where to see it: Hotel Chevalier: The 13-minute short shows Jack with Natalie Portman's character in a hotel, before the brothers board the train.
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen · 2009
Before the story of Larry begins, a Yiddish folk tale in a 19th-century shtetl shows a wife stabbing a man she says is a dybbuk. The Coens wrote it themselves and say they did not intend a link to the rest. Critics still read it as a curse over Larry's life.
Where to see it: The opening tale. A husband brings home a guest, his wife says the man is dead and a dybbuk, and she plunges an ice pick into his chest.
John Krasinski · 2021
The film begins on the first day, at a Little League game, before it jumps a year ahead. The prologue shows the invasion before the world went quiet, and it gives the sequel its own opening instead of a recap.
Where to see it: Little League game: The Abbotts watch a baseball game while something falls from the sky, and the hostile creatures attack.
Lee Isaac Chung · 2024
The film opens with Kate and her friends chasing a tornado and trying a new way to weaken it. It ends in a disaster that kills three of them. That short chapter explains Kate's fear and sets the stakes before the main story starts five years later.
Where to see it: The opening chase. Kate, Javi and their crew release beads into a tornado, which grows into an EF5 and kills three friends.
Questions