10 Movies That DEMAND Your Attention Immediately

Christopher Nolan clearly puts a lot of effort into crafting memorable prologue sequences for most of his movies, though never better than in The Dark Knight.

Nobody who's ever seen the film will surely forget The Joker's (Heath Ledger) daring, iconic opening bank heist, and right from its very first shot, the film touts a "s**t just got real" vibe.

The first shot is a beautiful, sweeping image of the Gotham City skyline as the camera fast pulls in towards a building. Soon enough, a window is violently shattered and a perp wearing a clown mask fires a zipline out of it.

Then we cut to another man, unbeknownst to us at the time to be The Joker, waiting on a street corner to be picked up.

Such begins a riveting bank heist which offers a thrilling introduction to Nolan's Joker, presented here in a manner far more grounded than basically all other Batman media.

If you've ever been lucky enough to watch The Dark Knight in IMAX, you'll probably vividly remember how startling that opening full-frame image of the Gotham skyline truly is.

Nolan wanted everyone to know he wouldn't be resting on his laurels with his Batman sequel, immediately laying his ambition bare and telling viewers, "This ain't your daddy's Joker."