8 Sci-Fi Movies That Immediately Revealed Their Brilliance

Among the sci-fi movie masterpieces that have come out, some have shown their brilliance in the opening minutes. Many sci-fi movies deal with complex plots and considerable worldbuilding. This can sometimes make for a lot of heavy lighting in the opening moments, and even the greatest sci-fi movies can take some time getting going.

There are those slow-burn sci-fi movies that gradually reveal their brilliance over time, but there are also some true classics of the genre that really hit the ground running. With their brilliant opening scenes, these sci-fi movies immediately grab the audience and let them know that they are about to see something special.

Gravity (2013)

There have been many sci-fi movies set entirely in space, but none that have been quite as effective at putting the audience in the position of an astronaut as Gravity. The movie stars Sandra Bullock as Dr. Ryan Stone, an astronaut on her first space mission, when her shuttle is destroyed, leaving her stranded in space.

Gravity was filmed as if it were one continuous shot, which makes for one of the most pulse-pounding thrillers and a truly unique experience. However, while the danger doesn’t present itself in the first ten minutes, director Alfonso Cuarón uses one floating shot to display the amazing approach the movie takes.

As the audience floats over Earth and gradually comes to focus on Stone and her shuttle, it is as if we are floating through space as well and happen upon this story.

Arrival (2016)

Denis Villeneuve’s first sci-fi movie might not have the same scale as his Dune movies, but it is no less impressive. The movie stars Amy Adams as a linguist who is asked to help open a line of communication with an alien species that has arrived on Earth. However, the opening moments are much more intimate.

The movie opens with a montage of Adams’ character, Louise, and her young daughter. We see that the loving relationship evolves over the years, until Louise’s daughter becomes ill and eventually passes away. Similar to the famous opening of Up, Arrival packs a short and devastating story of love and loss into mere moments.

The movie quickly shifts to the arrival of the aliens, grabbing the audience’s attention in a new way. However, the way that Arrival‘s opening montage strikes at the audience’s heart prepares them for an emotional and powerful sci-fi movie that is rare for the genre.

Jurassic Park (1993)

The original Jurassic Park kicked off the massively popular franchise with the exciting promise of dinosaurs being brought into the modern world. However, Steven Spielberg wisely holds back the full reveals of the creatures until later in the movie, but hints at the chaos to come in the opening moments.

The first scene finds Jurassic Park workers overseeing the transportation of one of the raptors in the park. The dense jungle setting, juxtaposed with the image of the modern park employees, immediately evokes the strange clashing of eras. Spielberg wastes no time in delivering the thrills, with the raptor using its intelligence to attack and kill one of the employees.

Even with no clear glimpse of the dinosaur, the opening scene makes the thrilling promise that bringing these creatures into a time when they coexist with humans is going to end badly.

Children Of Men (2006)

Despite being sadly overlooked upon its release, Children of Men is one of the best sci-fi movies of the 21st century. It is set in a dystopian future in which humanity faces extinction with no new infant births in over a decade, only for a young woman to emerge, pregnant and in need of help escaping the wartorn cities.

The opening moments of the movie find the protagonist, Theo (Clive Owen), entering a coffee shop filled with mournful people watching a news broadcast about the death of the world’s youngest person. As Theo steps outside, the shop he was just in suddenly explodes in a bombing.

While most dystopian movies give a somewhat removed view of their future worlds, Alfonso Cuarón immerses the audience in it with the long tracking shot that gives the audience the same kind of shock that they just stepped out of that shop along with Theo, right before it exploded.

Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)

Sometimes a great sci-fi opening means introducing a bit of mystery. Steven Spielberg has explored the idea of aliens visiting Earth in several of his movies, but Close Encounters of the Third Kind deals with the wonder of this concept, and the filmmaker nails that feeling in the first scene.

The movie opens with a team of scientists investigating a fleet of abandoned planes that have suddenly appeared in the Sonoran Desert. However, as strange as it is that these pilotless planes have suddenly been found, it is discovered that these are actually a fleet of military planes that went missing more than three decades ago.

While keeping the audience in the dark as to what is going on, Spielberg directs the sequence with such excitement and intensity that we don’t really care. However, the final reveal of the origins of the planes gives the movie a magical sense of wonder to kick things off.

The Matrix (1999)

The Matrix is a movie that has some very big and bold sci-fi ideas that eventually have to be explained to the audience. However, the Wachowskis are also confident enough as filmmakers to throw the audience into this strange world of the movie and just let them experience it for a moment without explanation.

After the memorable opening image of the green code running across the screen, we are introduced to Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) as the police close in around her. In one of the most iconic shots in movie history, Trinity leaps in the air as the camera spins around her, delivering a powerful kick to the arresting officer.

It is an unforgettable cinematic moment that immediately wows audiences with some inventive new filmmaking styles while also letting the audience know that this is a world with its own rules.

Star Wars (1977)

Taking the audience to a galaxy far, far away for the first time helped make Star Wars one of the biggest movies of all time. While there are countless moments in the movie that gave the audience something they had never seen before, the opening moments were enough to change cinema forever.

While it has become an expected part of the Star Wars franchise now, it is easy to overlook just how confident and bold the opening title and crawl of Star Wars was in the original movie. It really sets the stage for something special. The movie also wastes no time in delivering on that promise.

Once the crawl is gone, a space battle is suddenly unfolding above the audience. The image of the massive starship engulfing the screen is a brilliant moment to show the epicness of George Lucas’s vision and to throw the audience into his intergalactic adventure.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Along with being one of the most influential sci-fi movies, 2001: A Space Odyssey is also considered one of the greatest movies of all time. It is a profound and complex movie that many people have interpreted in various ways over the years, but it remains impactful regardless of your take.

It also features one of the most iconic opening sequences in cinema history, set in prehistoric times and following early hominins as they struggle to survive. With the mysterious arrival of an extraterrestrial monolith, the hominins suddenly gain the intelligence to recognize that a bone can be used as a tool, and even a weapon.

The cut from the bone flying through the air to a satellite in space, one of the great edits in cinema, is a connection between millions of years of technological evolution and sets the stage for a look into the future.