20 Opening Movie Scenes That Are Totally Flawless

Denis Villeneuve's tension-riddled masterpiece Sicario opens with a raid on safe house linked to the Mexican cartel. There's limited dialogue or exposition, only Jóhann Jóhannsson's atmospheric score accompanying the sequence's palpable dread and foreboding.

In the house, the raid itself is brief, but does little to lessen the tension. When protagonist Kate Mercer (Emily Blunt) is almost shot, bullet holes reveal dozens of decaying, wrapped-up corpses hidden in the walls. Later, two officers are killed by a booby trap.

Sicario opens as it means to go on - by putting the intensity of the characters' situation first, whilst leaving audiences in the dark about what's actually going on.

Like the rest of the film, the first scene is methodically crafted, moody, mysterious and sinister, and makes it clear that the next two hours of gun fights, plot twists and human horror is going to be far from a relaxed ride.