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Favorite opening lines

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Scott Crawley

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Willard: [voiceover] Saigon... shit; I'm still only in Saigon... Every time I think I'm gonna wake up back in the jungle.

What's your favorite opening line?
 
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Not a favorite by any stretch, but the opening sentence of "Payback", with main character Porter (Mel Gibson) passed out on a table while an improvised "surgeon" removes bullet slugs from his back: "Not many people know what their lives are worth. I do, 70 grand. That's what they took from me and that's what I was gonna get back" sets up the movie premise and lets you know exactly what's going to happen in this film. Masterful screen writing.
 
Going with another Coppola film, "I believe in America..." is a pretty fantastic opening monologue.
 
Oh yea.

How 'bout: “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.”
 
"In our family, there was no clear line between religion and flyfishing." ~A River Runs Through It

"There's a guy like me in every state and federal prison in America, I guess - I'm the guy who can get it for you." ~Shawshank Redemption (This one's not so much for the line as for Morgan Freeman's voice saying the line.)
 
This might not really count, but I thought it was incredible that 'Wall-E' didn't have human dialog for the first 40 minutes.
 
Coppola does have a flair for openers. That monologue and the entire opening scene of The Godfather is symbolic of the Corleone family history. It is brilliant. You can see how much more succinct he had become by Apocolypse; one line.

Let's remember Patton then:

"I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country." et al.

Going on:

"When you put your hand into a bunch of goo that a moment before was your best friend's face, you'll know what to do."
 
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"We're doomed. There'll be no escape for the Princess this time!"

More so than the incoherent intro text, establishes the world. Talking robots, despair, escape, princesses...

But that whole opening scene, from the tilt down to the escape pod launch is one of my favourites in cinema.
 
T D

T D

Narrator: [voiceover] People are always asking me if I know Tyler Durden.

:boxing_smiley::

::emote_popcorn:
 
Oh yea, Star Wars and Fight Club. It's a good day.

Many of the lines we are choosing do a lot of very efficient exposition. The Fight Club line is interesting in that only upon the second viewing can you appreciate how clever it is. Do you think that makes it more or less remarkable than the others?
 
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VOICE-OVER
A way out west there was a fella,
fella I want to tell you about, fella
by the name of Jeff Lebowski.
 
My name is Dalton Russell. Pay strict attention to what I say because I choose my words carefully and I never repeat myself. I've told you my name: that's the Who. The Where could most readily be described as a prison cell. But there's a vast difference between being stuck in a tiny cell and being in prison. The What is easy: recently I planned and set in motion events to execute the perfect bank robbery. That's also the When. As for the Why: beyond the obvious financial motivation, it's exceedingly simple... because I can. Which leaves us only with the How; and therein, as the Bard would tell us, lies the rub. -Inside Man 2006


One of my favorite opening lines.
 
Haha, The Jerk and Inside Man, love those two, excellent!
 
"So where are you? You're in some motel room. You just - you just wake up and you're in - in a motel room. There's the key. It feels like maybe it's just the first time you've been there, but perhaps you've been there for a week, three months. It's - it's kind of hard to say. I don't - I don't know. It's just an anonymous room."

I just love Guy Pearce in Memento
 
- What?

- I said I just wanted to speak

- What the hell? What's with the way you fucking talk? Who the fuck are you?

- My... name is...

[ Cut to police station ]

- Oh... Dae-su.
 
The dream is always the same.
Instead of going home,
I go to the neighbors'.
I ring, but nobody answers.
The door is open, so I go inside.
I look around,
but no one seems to be there.
Then I hear the shower running.
So, I go upstairs to see what's what.
Then I see her.
This... girl!
This incredible girl!
I don't know why she's there
because she doesn't live there...
...but it's a dream, so I go with it.
"Who's there?" she says.
"Joel," I say.
"What are you doing here?"
"I don't know.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm taking a shower," she says.
Then I give her...
..."Do you want me to go?"
"No," she says.
"I want you to wash my back."


Opening of RISKY BUSINESS
 
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