10 Best Opening Scenes From Movie Sequels

Boasting a frankly insane $300 million budget, fans of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl and its largely inferior sequel, Dead Man's Chest, were primed and ready for the series to stick the landing and conclude the original trilogy of features on an epic high. In the end, though, At World's End wound up being heavily criticised for its excessive plotlines and overall length.

Yet, before fans were left feeling deeply underwhelmed by the whole bloated experience, director Gore Verbinski only went and delivered us one of the most unexpectedly disturbing moments of the entire series in the opening scene.

On the orders of Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) anyone associated with piracy is to be executed via hanging. This decree opens the door for a string of grisly conclusions for wave after wave of accused folks. Then, ending the sequence with an unsettling full stop, a young boy joins the group of doomed personnel, singing a sea shanty (before it was cool) with his fellow man as they all suffer the same sickening fate.

Haunting and shocking in equal measure, this moment definitely set the stage for an uncompromising conclusion.