10 Opening Movie Scenes Which Immediately Stunned Audiences
3. Inglourious Basterds - The Family Under The Floorboards
The exchange we see at the start of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009) is another scene which is crammed full of excruciating suspense and swiftly hurls audiences right into the harsh reality of World War II.
In the film's opening moments we are introduced to the unsettling character of Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) as he quizzes a French dairy farmer known as Perrier LaPadite (Denis Ménochet) about the whereabouts of the Dreyfus family.
As this drawn out conversation unfolds, we find out that LaPadite is actually protecting the family and that they are hiding under his floorboards. Sensing this to be the case, the 'Jew Hunter' asks LaPadite to confirm in English where the Dreyfus family are hiding beneath them in return for his own family's safety, and the hope that they may escape this harrowing situation unharmed starts to agonisingly dwindle away.
Flipping back over to speaking in French and still pretending he is unaware of their presence, Landa opens the door and signals for his Nazi troops to enter the home before ordering them to fire their weapons through the floorboards.
Arguably the most shocking moment comes in the form of Landa happily letting the daughter of the family Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent) run free after mercilessly murdering the other Dreyfuses without hesitation. One thing that isn't up for debate, however, is the fact that this piercing first scene left countless audience members reeling before we'd even had a chance to meet Brad Pitt and the gang.