10 Most Intense Movie Openings Ever

To be fair, Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket is basically a prolonged exercise in sustained intensity from start to finish, chronicling a fleet of U.S. Marines as they go through boot camp and, later on, take part in the Vietnam War's Tet Offensive.

Don't be fooled by Kubrick's ironic use of Johnny Wright's cheery "Hello Vietnam" in the film's opening moments, though.

Within a minute of the movie starting, we're introduced to the psychotic Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey), whose abusive "training" regimen defines most of Full Metal Jacket's first half.

The opening 10 minutes of the movie are largely comprised of Hartman shouting a foul-mouthed tirade at the new Marine trainees, including Pvt. Joker (Matthew Modine) and Pvt. Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio).

Kubrick clearly knows he's got absolute gold with R. Lee Ermey's performance and so centers the camera tightly around him at almost all times, even having Hartman bark his rant directly into the camera lens at one point.

The rat-a-tat back and forth between Hartman and the recruits is at once terrifying and hilarious, so perfectly setting the tone for the horrors to follow over the next two hours.