10 Movies That Peaked In Their Opening Scene

7. Drive

The Movie

It's fair to say that Nicolas Winding Refn's crime drama isn't for everyone - though marketed as a breakneck action flick, Drive is ultimately more of a character drama with genre film trimmings.

And though the director's slow, "art-house" approach was disconcerting to some, to many it served as a refreshing subversion of a genre so reliant on ham-handed cliches.

If nothing else, it's tenaciously directed, brilliantly acted (especially by Ryan Gosling, Bryan Cranston and Albert Brooks) and jam-packed with awesome music.

The Opening Scene

Much like Scream, Drive's opening sequence works on its own as an extremely tight and impressive short film, establishing the protagonist and serving up some delicious thrills in the process.

The scene introduces audiences to The Driver (Gosling), a mechanic and stuntman moonlighting as a getaway-driver-for-hire.

We learn the Driver's strict rules for carrying out a job, before he picks up two thieves and gets them safely across town with the police in hot pursuit.

Between Refn's claustrophobic direction - which takes place almost entirely inside the car - and The Chromatics' pulsing "Tick of the Clock", it's pure suspense at its most brilliantly sweaty-palmed.

And if that's not enough, once the job is done, Refn cuts straight to the opening titles, which show the Driver heading home, set to Kavinsky's incredible "Nightcall."

Whether you love the rest of the movie or find it a wilfully plodding slog, it never again reaches this level of sustained tension, excitement or sheer cool.