10 Greatest Opening Scenes In Sci-Fi Movie History

Does it get any more spectacular than the opening shot of a futuristic Los Angeles (in the far away world of 2019) in Ridley Scott's 1982 game-changer Blade Runner?

The gorgeous and unnerving use of synthesisers in the flick's now-adored Vangelis score was first introduced as a simple but perfectly cold opening crawl explained what replicants were and why they were being retired by Blade Runners at this time.

But before a single bio-engineered humanoid had even made its presence known on-screen, the audience was already in awe of the world Scott and co. had unleashed.

With flames shooting out of buildings and into the dark, twinkling skyline, hover-cars are spotted soaring through the soulless remains of L.A as the camera takes its sweet time wandering across the Hades landscape. The sudden cuts to a fixated eye, lit up by this fiery world, is merely the icing on top of the stunning sci-fi cake.

And if that wasn't enough of a reason to get excited about the mysterious thriller to come, Scott only goes and follows that majestic vista with the first compelling look at a particularly tense Voight-Kampff test - the gripping exam used to figure out whether an individual was a replicant.

Spoilers: it did not go well.