10 Best Opening Shots From 2010s Movies

The opening shot of a movie says a lot about the film and sets the audience's expectations for the remainder of the story. Through the first image shown onscreen, the filmmakers can communicate the stakes, setting, and character dynamics that will fuel the characters' actions and the narrative's drama. While it's important for these shots to be beautifully crafted and incredible to look at, they should be more than aesthetically pleasing. Every frame of the movie must serve both a visual and narrative purpose to capture the viewer's attention.

There are many movies from the 2010s that will still be relevant in 50 years, and it's usually easy to tell from the early moments of a film if it's going to stand the test of time. While there are plenty of movies with gorgeous opening shots that turn out to be boring or uninspired and vice versa, these movies manage to be beautiful and iconic. The 2010s were a landmark decade for cinema with incredible opening shots. While these are far from the only strong first scenes of 2010s movies, they're some of the most recognizable and inspired.

10 Lady Bird (2017)

Directed by Greta Gerwig

Before Greta Gerwig made history with her blockbuster Barbie, she started her directing career on a much quieter and more intimate note. Gerwig's feature debut, Lady Bird, stars Saoirse Ronan as the titular character. Lady Bird is a young woman in her senior year of high school trying to establish her identity and navigate a difficult relationship with her mother. This relationship defines the story of Lady Bird, as seen in the opening shot.

This single moment demonstrates the complexity of their relationship and touches upon the struggle that many mothers and daughters face in their dynamic.

Ronan gives one of the best performances in an A24 movie, and her chemistry with Laurie Metcalf, who plays her mother, Marion, makes their dynamic unforgettable. The opening shot gives the audience insight into the intimacy between the two women and the closeness of their bond, even though many of the interactions between them while they're awake push each other further away. This single moment demonstrates the complexity of their relationship and touches upon the struggle that many mothers and daughters face in their dynamic.

Title	Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score	Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score
Lady Bird (2017)	99%	79%

9 The Florida Project (2017)

Directed by Sean Baker

The director of The Florida Project, Sean Baker, has been at the center of many recent conversations regarding Oscar buzz and representation of working-class Americans thanks to his latest movie, Anora. However, his 2017 film, The Florida Project, was the filmmaker's first big hit with critics and audiences. Told through the perspective of Moonee (Brookylnn Prince), a young girl living in a Florida motel near Disney World, The Florida Project is an incredible exploration of youth and the class struggle of the U.S.

The Florida Project deals with many serious and adult subjects, and Moonee escapes through her games and her play with the other children in her area, who face similar struggles. It's through her childish perspective that Moonee is able to survive her hardships and navigate seeing her mother in intense and often violent situations. As she sits with another child, away from adult supervision, against a brightly colored cheerful wall, the message of The Florida Project is perfectly distilled for the viewer.

Title	Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score	Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score
The Florida Project (2017)	96%	81%

8 La La Land (2016)

Directed by Damien Chazelle

The skillfully crafted opening scene of La La Land features neither of the movie's protagonists but communicates the dreams and drive that fuels them, as well as any line of dialogue they deliver. A love letter to the city of Los Angeles, La La Land is unabashedly romantic and nostalgic for old Hollywood, even as it lets some cynicism pervade the fantasy. In the opening number, the best and the worst parts of LA are on display, as a traffic jam turns into a tribute to the belief that coming to the city will make your dreams a reality.

It has the golden exterior of a Hollywood dream, but it takes hard work and many days of unending disappointment and sacrifice to achieve this idyllic existence.

As one of the best movie musicals of the 21st century, La La Land isn't just about film and music but a tribute to all art forms and the people who pursue their dream to create relentlessly. Despite the sunny and beautiful exterior of the opening number, there's a deeper message inside the song. It has the golden exterior of a Hollywood dream, but it takes hard work and many days of unending disappointment and sacrifice to achieve this idyllic existence.

Title	Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score	Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score
La La Land (2016)	91%	82%

7 If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

Directed by Barry Jenkins

Based on James Baldwin's seminal novel of the same name,If Beale Street Could Talk follows the heartwrenching story of Tish (KiKi Layne) and Fonny (Stephan James), two star-crossed lovers who are torn apart by injustice in the 1970s. Though If Beale Street Could Talk didn't receive the same attention as director Barry Jenkins' earlier groundbreaking film, Moonlight, it's a fantastic addition to his filmography and shouldn't be forgotten. While there is devastation and prejudice throughout the story, there is also an enduring current of love.

This love is what sustains Tish and Fonny as the racism and systemic oppression of the time continuously pull them apart in If Beale Street Could Talk. In the first moments of the film, their love pours out of the screen as Tish and Fonny walk arm-in-arm down a quiet, tree-lined street. It's a beautiful tracking shot that remains on the couple for a long time, giving them space to be alone with each other while communicating a quiet intimacy that their relationship is built on.

Title	Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score	Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)	95%	68%

6 Interstellar (2014)

Directed by Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan's Interstellar is easily one of Matthew McConaughey's best movies, featuring an all-time performance from the actor. Watching Cooper sacrifice everything for the sake of humanity's survival in this epic sci-fi drama brings a tear to the eye, and Nolan doesn't shy away from just how hard this is on Cooper. However, the solution to humanity's problems is hiding inside Interstellarfrom the very beginning, and this message is being sent in the opening shot.

Though the clues in Interstellar's first scene are only apparent upon rewatch, the first shot is of the bookshelf and the toy spaceship that come to be humanity's salvation. It takes Cooper a long time to realize that he was the one sending messages back to himself and Murph all along, even if the movie was dropping these clues from the start. Like most of Nolan's films, Interstellar only gets better with every consecutive viewing.

Title	Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score	Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score
Interstellar (2014)	73%	87%

5 Boyhood (2014)

Directed by Richard Linklater

In the opening shot of Richard Linklater's Boyhood, Mason (Ellar Coltrane) stares up at the sky, daydreaming, lost in the imaginary world of his own making. It's not surprising that this shot was chosen for the poster and a lot of the marketing materials for Boyhood, as it captures an intimacy and insight into Mason's character that's difficult to achieve onscreen. As he ages before the audience's eyes, Mason becomes almost unrecognizable when compared to the child in the first frames of the movie, though this boy will always be part of him.

Shot over the course of twelve years, Boyhood was a long and time-consuming project, but the results speak for themselves. There are few movies that so accurately and tenderly capture the enormous and minuscule moments of coming-of-age and how much these parts of early life shape us. Looking back on the first scene of Boyhood after taking in Mason's entire life up until college, it's incredibly moving to see in him such a universal portrait of childhood.

Title	Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score	Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score
Boyhood (2014)	97%	80%

4 Roma (2018)

Directed by Alfonso Cuarón

The deliberately paced opening title sequence of Alfonso Cuarón's Roma forces the audience to sit and wait for the gratification of the remainder of the story. It's telling that the viewer's introduction to the narrative is through Cleo washing the floors of the home she works on. As the title sequence progresses, the water slowly overwhelms the frame until it's flooded by soapy liquid, and the dirt and history of the floor have been washed away.

Yalitza Aparicio is unforgettable as Cleo, one of the cleaners in the affluent Mexican home where most of Roma takes place.

Yalitza Aparicio is unforgettable as Cleo, one of the cleaners in the affluent Mexican home where most of Roma takes place. Set in the 1970s, Roma tackles the racial and class tensions in Mexico during this period through the lens of Cleo, who watches the comforts and misfortunes of the family she works for from the outside. The domestic and ritualistic practice of washing the floor in the opening shot is reminiscent of the blank slates and new starts that the characters get by the film's end, even if this is an illusion.

Title	Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score	Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score
Roma (2018)	90%	72%

3 Dunkirk (2017)

Directed by Christopher Nolan

Like all of Nolan's work, Dunkirk plays with time and perspective, and this is apparent from the first frame of the movie. Dunkirk unfolds through several different timelines. One of the most stressful storylines is told from the point of view of Tommy (Fionn Whitehead), a British soldier on the ground awaiting evacuation on the beaches of Dunkirk. The film opens with Tommy and his fellow soldiers wandering through an abandoned French town, priming the audience for a movie full of tension and terror.

By using an opening shot of British soldiers watching propaganda fall on an empty town, Nolan is referencing how perception can be altered through suggestion and experience. The different timelines in Dunkirk are a kind of propaganda, as they tell audiences different versions of the story and showcase how people's experiences of the evacuation of Dunkirk play into what they view as the most important parts of the conflict. While there are many films about the horrors of World War II, Dunkirk is one of the best in recent memory, thanks to Nolan's style.

Title	Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score	Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score
Dunkirk (2017)	92%	81%

2 Parasite (2019)

Directed by Bong Joon-ho

Parasite is widely considered Bong Joon-ho's magnum opus, and it's hard to argue this as the film went on to win both Best Director and Best Picture at the Academy Awards, among many other awards that season. However, even without the accolades, Parasite would be known as an unforgettable film. Inspiring many additional projects that touch upon the stark differences between classes through a darkly comic lens, Parasite takes many shocking turns throughout its run.

However, the intense social stratification and mind-bending narrative wouldn't work without the careful exposition that Bong employs both visually and through dialogue. The opening scene is of the family's socks hanging up to dry as the focus pulls in and out from the socks to the activity on the street outside. It's a deliberately patient moment that mirrors the dichotomy between worlds the rest of the story examines. It will be interesting to see what Bong has in store for audiences in his upcoming movie, Mickey 17, starring Robert Pattinson.

Title	Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score	Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score
Parasite (2019)	99%	90%

1 Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Directed by George Miller

The violently explosive Mad Max: Fury Road is frequently cited as one of the best movies of the 2010s, and the cinematography plays a large role in why this is the case. In both the color and black-and-white versions of Mad Max: Fury Road, the breadth and importance of the opening shot is clear. In a story where machinery is a source of power and influence in a desolate world, the audience sees a character looking out at this wasteland. The setting and stakes of the narrative are communicated in a single moment.

For the rest of the movie, the audience and characters rarely leave this barren desert, as the lack of water and the dystopian reality the characters live in fuels their unbelievable actions. The camera slowly pushes in on Max (Tom Hardy) as he surveys the land and jumps into his car, accompanying the monologue that plays in the background. From the color grading to the instantly immersive setting, there's no part of Mad Max: Fury Road that disappoints the audience after this iconic moment.

Title	Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score	Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)	97%	86%

trendglee