10 Best Opening Movie Scenes Of All Time (According To Reddit)

8. Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan Tom Hanks
Paramount Pictures

Sure, the Omaha beach landing isn't the very first scene in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, but since most people remember it as the opening of the movie, Reddit decided to give it a well-deserved shoutout.

The movie actually begins with an elderly veteran visiting a cemetery, but this scene quickly transitions into that iconic, beach-set action sequence, in which we witness the chaos and brutality of war through the eyes of Tom Hanks' Captain Miller.

Understanding that war most certainly isn't pretty, Spielberg brings this horrific situation to life with some disorienting handheld camerawork, a barrage of blood, bullets, and dirt, and a slew of smaller touches - the soldiers throwing up on the boat, the shot of Miller's hand shaking with terror - that do the best possible job of transporting the viewer into the soldiers' shoes.

It's equal parts riveting and horrifying, a cinematic masterclass that is still the most memorable scene in a war movie over 20 years later.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!