10 Directors Who Started Movies The Same Way
6. A Foreshadowing Opening Shot Presented Out Of Context - David Fincher
David Fincher is as dynamic and singular as filmmakers get, though he did repeat one particular thematic and stylistic motif in two of his movies, albeit 15 years apart.
Fight Club opens with a scene from the very end of the movie taken totally out of context, where the protagonist (Edward Norton) is held hostage by Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) without the audience knowing the film's big plot twist and how that recontextualises the scene completely.
Similarly, Gone Girl opens with a shot of the back of Amy Dunne's (Rosamund Pike) head, which her husband Nick strokes before she turns round, while Nick espouses his desire to find out what she's thinking.
Fincher ingeniously ends the film with a repeat of this shot, this time Amy's apparently ambiguous stare replaced with a more deliberate loaded glance, informed by the events of the movie.
In each case the opening scene is designed to mystify the audience during an initial viewing but give them an "aha!" moment on a repeat watch, viewing that striking initial image through a completely different lens. Genius.