20 Greatest Opening Movie Scenes Of All Time

8. Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction is oft considered to be Quentin Tarantino's finest directorial effort, and with the film boasting an introduction that's both stylistic and charismatic, it's easy to see why it resonated with audiences as quickly as it did.

Non-linear in its delivery and meandering in approach, Pulp Fiction's opening also serves as the film's end, with crime duo Pumpkin (Tim Roth) and Honeybunny (Amanda Plummer) holding up a diner where Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winfield (Samuel L. Jackson) happen to be having breakfast.

Of course, the actual opening doesn't draw attention to the hitmen's presence, but Roth and Plummer's dialogue is captivating enough. They're two down on their luck criminals tired of robbing liquor stores, and as Roth begins to explain the intricacies of bank robberies, they both have a brainwave: "nobody ever robs restaurants."

By far the most enjoyable aspect of the sequence, however, is the instant shift from cutesy romance to pure aggression, with Plummer's Honeybunny bookending the sequence with a threat to execute each of the diner's patrons before Dick Dale's Misirlou launches the opening credits.