10 Movies That Peaked In Their Opening Scene

2. The Dark Knight Rises

The Movie

Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises was, of course, the climactic entry into his hugely successful saga of gritty, "grounded" Batman movies, and faced the thankless task of following-up the universally loved The Dark Knight.

Though the narrative is riddled with dubious eccentricities, it's still a thoroughly entertaining superhero opera, jam-packed with eye-popping action, emotionally involving character arcs and strong performances (especially Tom Hardy's Bane and Michael Caine's Alfred).

It doesn't touch The Dark Knight, but what does?

The Opening Scene

In an attempt to one-up the unforgettable opening introduction to The Joker (Heath Ledger) in the previous movie, Nolan takes the action to the skies this time for Bane's debut.

The sequence, which not-so-subtly homages the James Bond franchise, sees Bane being captured by the CIA and transported on a plane with nuclear physicist Dr. Leonid Pavel (Alon Abutbul).

But of course, once Bane is allowed to speak, he reveals that getting caught was all part of the plan, as his cronies show up to carry out an ambitious mid-air liberation of both himself and Pavel.

Given that so much of the sequence was achieved practically - this is Nolan, after all - it goes without saying that it must've been a headache to film. It was surely worth it, though, as the extremely tactile and believable nature of the otherwise absurd set-piece undeniably enhances the audience's immersion.

As an introduction to Bane in all of his theatrical villainy, it's a fantastic sequence, if one that the rest of the film can't really beat.

While The Dark Knight has at least three scenes which can hold a candle to The Joker's heist, none of this movie's subsequent action achieves the same ingenious fusion of boundary-pushing practical filmmaking and kinetic storytelling.