10 Movies Where The First Scene Is The Best
3. Dawn Of The Dead (2004)
The doubts surrounding Zack Snyder's 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake were certainly justified, but the director clearly sought to prove in the film's opening 10 minutes that he was taking the assignment dead-seriously.
Zombie movies don't cut to the point much quicker or more chaotically than this, as Snyder's film opens with suburban nurse Anna (Sarah Polley) heading home from a tough shift at work.
In the early hours of the morning, though, Anna and her husband are woken by their zombified young neighbour Vivian (Hannah Lochner), who soon enough takes a bite out of Anna's husband.
Anna then flees from Vivian and her now-undead husband, but outside finds her street transformed into a glorified war zone: homes aflame, neighbours getting devoured by zombies, and the police seemingly unable to control the matter.
Anna drives away in her car as the mayhem continues - including a gas station turning into a fireball - before crashing her vehicle while attempting to escape from an aggressive fellow survivor.
It so brilliantly captures the lump-in-throat terror that'd surely emerge at the onset of a real zombie apocalypse, and assured audiences Snyder wouldn't be wasting anybody's time. His remake is never this good again, but still a damn solid time throughout.