10 Most Intense Movie Openings Ever
6. Natural Born Killers
Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers was one of the most controversial and polarising films of the 1990s, though Stone certainly can't be blamed for burying the lede, given that his savagely intense opening sequence is a perfect snapshot of everything the movie is about.
Stone's ultra-violent, kaleidoscopic take on Bonnie and Clyde opens by introducing audiences to serial killer couple Mickey and Mallory Knox (Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis) as they stop off at a diner.
As Mallory dances to a song on the jukebox, she's set upon by a trio of rapey rednecks, at which point Mallory turns violent and begins assaulting the leader of the group.
After changing the jukebox record to L7's raucous "Sh*tlist," Mallory brutally beats the leader, and when his pals get involved, Mickey cuts one of their fingers off before ferociously knifing them to death.
Mickey then shoots a line cook in the head and throws a knife at the third member of the gang, while Mallory puts the leader out of his misery by snapping his neck.
The scene finally comes to a merciful end when the pair executes the diner's waitress and leaves one patron alive to tell the authorities what they did.
Loud, ultra-violent, stylistically audacious, and deeply, deeply disturbing, few films have so enthusiastically let audiences know exactly what unpleasantness they're in for from the jump.