10 Opening Movie Scenes Which Immediately Stunned Audiences

10. Law Abiding Citizen - Clyde Shelton's Family Is Killed

Law Abiding Citizen (2009) instantly lets you know that you're in for a seriously intense and often unpredictable two hours with its absolutely horrific opening scene.

After engineer Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is seen interacting with his young daughter and applauding her necklace making efforts, he is asked to answer the door by his wife and the entire scenario is suddenly flipped on its head.

Shelton is quickly hit in the head with a baseball bat and two intruders break into the house. Shelton then has his hands tied behind his back and is stabbed in the stomach, before being forced to witness the same thing happen to his wife. His daughter is then taken away by one of the men (Christian Stolte) and Shelton loses consciousness.

Though we don't actually see the murders on screen and only find out later that both Shelton's wife and daughter were killed in the home invasion, this scene left audiences in a state of complete shock and let them know this feature wasn't going to go the way they were perhaps expecting.

It also made us thoroughly understand exactly why Shelton goes to the lengths he does throughout the film to seek justice for the heartbreaking death of his family.