- yesterday
From unforgettable one-liners to moments of raw emotion, these iconic opening scenes immediately showcased actors destined for greatness. Witness performances that turned characters into legends, featuring stars like Melissa McCarthy, Humphrey Bogart, Christian Bale, and more. These powerful introductions set the tone for unforgettable careers and timeless cinematic moments. Which scene hooked you instantly? Share your thoughts below!
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00:00Welcome, my friends. Welcome to my chocolate factory. Would you come forward, please?
00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo. And today, we're counting down our picks for the introductory scenes that
00:11immediately let us know an actor was here to stay.
00:15Now you just help us out today and find yourself a place where you won't get into any trouble.
00:22Someplace where there isn't any trouble.
00:26Number 20. Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids.
00:30Hey. How's it going? It's going great. It's going great. I'm on the mend. You know, I just got some pins in my legs.
00:37Believe it or not, pins in my legs. Can still do this. All right? Amazing. Fell off a cruise ship.
00:42Oh. The moment we meet Megan, we know this is going to be someone who says some of the most
00:47out-of-pocket stuff you can possibly imagine. Her swagger and way of wielding words like a hammer
00:53is made believable because of Melissa McCarthy. She's the kind of actress who can make even the
00:58wildest of dialogue feel real and grounded whilst remaining unbelievably funny.
01:03I didn't, I'm not going to say I survived and say I thrived. I met a dolphin down there and I swear
01:09to God that dolphin looked not at me but into my soul, into my goddamn soul, Annie, and said,
01:16I'm saving you, Megan. Not with his mouth, but he said it, I'm assuming, telepathically.
01:22While McCarthy had made her mark as a character actress before this, Bridesmaids made her a
01:28bankable star. Her work in the movie was so game-changing that it's one of the few broad
01:33comedic performances to get an Oscar nomination.
01:36It's a pleasure.
01:37Oh, and he's not, I'm not, he's not, I'm not with him. Sorry.
01:40Oh, all right. I'm glad he's single because I'm going to climb that like a tree.
01:46Number 19. Humphrey Bogart, The Maltese Falcon.
01:50Yes, sweetheart?
01:51There's a girl wants to see you. Her name's Wonderly.
01:54Customer?
01:55I guess so. You'll want to see her anyway. She's a knockout.
01:58Sure in, Effie, darling. Sure in.
02:01Gruff-voiced and cruel-looking doesn't describe your typical movie star.
02:06Yet few actors exemplify classic Hollywood cool like Humphrey Bogart.
02:10In 1941's The Maltese Falcon, he starred as author DeShiel Hammett's private eye, Sam Spade,
02:18and helped create some of the hallmarks of the hard-boiled detective for the screen.
02:22Wonderly's sister ran away from New York with a fellow named Floyd Thursby. They're here in San
02:26Francisco. Ms. Wonderly has seen Thursby and has a date to meet him tonight. Maybe he'll bring
02:30the sister with him. The chances are he won't. Ms. Wonderly wants us to find the sister, get her
02:35away from him, and back home. Right?
02:37Yes.
02:38His callous demeanor and skeptical gaze makes him hard to look away from. As he scans the
02:43femme fatale played by Mary Astor, we know he doesn't believe her story. We just don't know
02:49which parts. Bogart immediately establishes himself as a guy you can trust, despite his
02:54exterior. And when you want on your side when there's trouble. It's the kind of character
02:59that made him an icon.
03:01What is it?
03:06The stuff that dreams are made of.
03:10Huh?
03:14Number 18. Christian Bale. American Psycho.
03:17There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman. Some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me.
03:25Only an entity. Something illusory.
03:28There's another time where this actor became a song and dance man. Actually, that time was
03:33the 90s when Christian Bale was an original newsie in Disney's cult classic musical.
03:38When the city's finally sleeping, all my thoughts begin to stray. And I'm on the train that's
03:46bound for Santa Fe.
03:50But it wouldn't be until his villainous turn as the murderous Wall Street broker in this
03:55satire of masculine excess that he proved he was one of the greats.
03:59In 87, Huey released this. Four.
04:02Their most accomplished album. I think their undisputed masterpiece is hip to be square.
04:07A song's so catchy. Most people probably don't listen to the lyrics, but they should.
04:11His haunting narration and physical dedication to Patrick Bateman's morning routine is as sharp
04:17and witty as it is horrifying. But the journey Bale takes us on is thrilling. We get from what
04:23sounds like a simple skincare routine to the terrifying truth that this man is basically inhuman
04:29in just under three minutes of screen time.
04:33And though I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours,
04:38and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable, I simply am not there.
04:47Number 17. Gene Wilder, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
04:51Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination.
05:00The eccentric chocolatier's first entrance was actually the actor's own idea. Gene Wilder's
05:06exactitude as a performer is perfectly captured in this moment. When Willy Wonka suddenly leaves
05:12his cane behind, falls over, and tumbles into a somersault.
05:30Wilder knew it would be spectacular, but it would also serve a deeper purpose.
05:35Wonka is a man who constantly throws you off the scent, and you can never know from then on if he's
05:40lying. He was right. The first time we meet Wonka, we're rightfully confused, and we never really
05:46stop. There's a reason why it's the role most people think of when they think of him.
05:51There is no earthly way of knowing.
05:55He's singing.
05:56Which direction we are going.
06:00Number 16. Sidney Poitier, No Way Out.
06:03Well, how does it feel?
06:04The reaction hasn't set in yet.
06:06Like a woman who's just had a baby, I won't believe it till I see her.
06:09Throughout the 1950s and 60s, this star of To Sir With Love and In the Heat of the Night broke
06:16barriers in representation for African Americans.
06:19They call me Mr. Tibbs.
06:22An early and undersung example is his 1950 film debut, No Way Out. In it, Poitier plays Dr.
06:30Luther Brooks, the first black doctor at a county hospital. There, he endures skepticism to downright
06:36racist abuse from everyone. Patients, colleagues, and cops.
06:40Shut up. You're talking to a doctor.
06:44A doctor? Him?
06:48Lie back and lie still. You're in my charge.
06:50These first scenes have a lot to establish. Dr. Brooks is acknowledged as an anomaly. Like the actor
06:57playing him, he is a trailblazer. That opens him up to both abuse and praise. This dignity under pressure
07:04became Poitier's secret weapon in this and many more of his famous roles.
07:09There is a possibility that I killed him, isn't there?
07:12Don't be a fool.
07:13That I was careless in a spinal tent. That his brother's negro baiting got me down.
07:17I don't want to ever hear you say anything like that again.
07:20You're a capable doctor. You were the doctor in charge.
07:22You did what you thought right and there's an end to it.
07:24Number 15. Julie Andrews. Mary Poppins.
07:29Make a look.
07:37Perhaps it's a witch.
07:38Of course not. Witches have brooms.
07:41When the Tony nominee was passed up for the big screen adaptation of My Fair Lady, a role she originated on
07:47Broadway, it left her free to make her big screen debut for Walt Disney. Though it's her first film,
07:53Julie Andrews stormed the screen like a seasoned pro in Mary Poppins.
07:58You brought your references, I presume? May I see them?
08:00Oh, I make it a point never to give references. A very old-fashioned idea to my mind.
08:04Is that so? We'll have to see about that then, won't we?
08:07Now then, the qualifications.
08:10Her entrance into the lives of the Banks family is a whirlwind of magic, efficiency, and charm
08:16that climaxes in one of the movie's most memorable numbers.
08:19By the time she launches into Spoonful of Sugar, you're as charmed and puzzled as the family
08:25themselves.
08:26A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, the medicine go down, the medicine go down.
08:35Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, in a most delightful way.
08:44Number 14. Julia Roberts, Pretty Woman.
08:48Big mistake. Big. Huge. I have to go shopping now.
08:52Big.
08:54Big.
08:55Although she raised her profile as the doomed Southern Belle Shelby in Steel Magnolias the
09:00year before, Julia Roberts' entire star persona was born in 1990's Pretty Woman.
09:06The first time we see her, she's walking the streets of Hollywood in a blonde bob wig and
09:11a dream. Her street smarts, combined with a desire to leave her life as a sex worker behind
09:16as soon as it's economically possible, immediately tell us who she is.
09:20Don't you want to get out of here? Get out of where?
09:23From the jump, Julia Roberts had the right amount of sass and vulnerability to make us root for
09:29her every time.
09:30No, I want to find Beverly Hills. Can you give me directions?
09:33Sure. For five bucks.
09:38Number 13. Angela Bassett, What's Love Got To Do With It?
09:42I hope you know what comes along with that territory.
09:45You would only come back home.
09:47Can I get you something to drink?
09:49We are introduced to Tina Turner three times in this beloved but intense biopic.
09:54We first meet her as a child named Anna Mae Bullock in Tennessee, as a shy young woman joining
10:00her mother and sister in the big city, and finally as the brilliant entertainer Tina Turner.
10:05I know you love me baby, but you never tell me so. If you don't tell me you love me, I'm gonna crack my rags and roll.
10:23Angela Bassett won us over with Anna Mae's shyness, but it's the scene 10 minutes in when she first takes the mic in a blues bar
10:31and shows us the first inklings of the woman who will become Tina.
10:35The physicality, the strength, and the radiance we all know Turner for is suddenly there for the first time.
10:41Bassett completely transforms before our eyes.
10:53Number 12. Samuel L. Jackson, Pulp Fiction.
10:57Hey kids. How you boys doing?
11:00Quentin Tarantino's crime masterpiece revitalized John Travolta's career, but it cemented his co-star Samuel L. Jackson as one of Hollywood's best working actors.
11:11Vincent, you ever had a big kahuna burger? Want a bite? They're real tasty.
11:17Well, if you like burgers, give them a try sometime. Me? I can't usually get them because my girlfriend's a vegetarian, which pretty much makes me a vegetarian.
11:28After making several films with director Spike Lee, Jackson took on what many consider to be his most iconic role in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.
11:37His Oscar-nominated performance as a hitman who has a religious experience during a job sees him delivering one of the best monologues in film history.
11:46Blessed is he who in the name of charity and goodwill shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children.
11:59And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers.
12:11Trying to put the fear of God into a man who's betrayed his boss, Jackson's Jules Winfield paraphrases the Bible before unleashing a rain of bullets like a plague on the guy.
12:21It's a brutal and stunning introduction.
12:23Oh, I'm sorry. Did I break your concentration? I didn't mean to do that. Please, continue.
12:30Number 11, Judy Garland, The Wizard of Oz.
12:42The first sequence of this all-time musical fantasy shows a young girl dreaming to escape from the drab, sepia-toned mundanity of her family's Kansas farm.
12:52Judy Garland plays Dorothy Gale, the girl who's magically transported to the land of Oz.
12:58From the moment she began singing the movie's unforgettable ballad, the movie became an all-time classic and she became a star.
13:05Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high, there's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.
13:27MGM had spent the late 30s putting Garland in star vehicles, but it was The Wizard of Oz that shot her to new heights.
13:34When people think of her, they largely think of this role and this scene.
13:39If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow, why, oh, why can't I?
13:58Number 10, Meryl Streep, Kramer vs. Kramer.
14:02I'm leaving you.
14:03Honey, please.
14:04I can't hear.
14:05What?
14:06Okay, you too.
14:07Thanks a lot.
14:08See you tomorrow.
14:09You guys eat?
14:11Ted, I'm leaving you.
14:12The Perennial Award winner earned her first Oscar for this, one of her first film appearances.
14:18In Kramer vs. Kramer, she plays the deeply unhappy wife of Dustin Hoffman's character.
14:24Her very first scene is a masterclass in showing and not telling.
14:29Although she starts out her performance as Joanna Kramer with an icy, even dead-eyed glare, Streep quickly reveals the character's hidden depths.
14:37We watch in real time as her matter-of-fact explanations as to why she's leaving her husband turn into panic.
14:44Don't you, don't, don't make me go in there.
14:46Please, please don't make me go in there.
14:47Don't make me go in there.
14:48Don't make me go in there.
14:49We'll just talk.
14:50If you do, I swear, one day, next week, maybe next year, I don't know, I'll go right out the window.
14:54Her desperation is haunting to watch.
14:57It's a perfect first scene that proves to be only the beginning for one of our greatest actors.
15:02Joanne, please.
15:03And I don't love you anymore.
15:12Where are you going?
15:13I don't know.
15:15Number 9.
15:16Matthew McConaughey.
15:17Dazed and Confused.
15:19All right, all right, all right.
15:21Oh, Christ.
15:22How you doing?
15:25Twenty-something burnout Wooderson was supposed to play a much smaller role in the narrative of Richard Linklater's coming-of-age movie.
15:33Newcomer Matthew McConaughey's performance saw the character bumped to a more prominent position throughout Dazed and Confused.
15:41Gotta keep living, man. L-I-V-I-N.
15:45Wooderson first appears as the driver who picks up high schoolers Pink and Mitch for a night drive.
15:51He then asks them for a certain herb.
15:54Uh, no.
15:55Not on me, man.
15:58It'd be a lot cooler if you did.
16:01It's simultaneously hilarious and a little sad that he's trying to bum some illicit substances from teenagers.
16:08Wooderson made McConaughey a star, and this one scene tells us everything we need to know about Wooderson himself.
16:15I get older, they stay the same age.
16:19Yes, they do.
16:20Yes, they do.
16:21Yes, they do.
16:22Number eight, John Travolta, Saturday Night Fever.
16:26We just washed the hair.
16:28Yeah.
16:29You know, I work on my hair a long time, and you hit it.
16:32He hits my hair.
16:34The transition from TV to films is not always easy to make.
16:38John Travolta made it look easy when he first appeared as Saturday Night Fever's disco dancing Lothario, Tony Manero.
16:46When we first meet Tony, he's strutting across the city in his platform shoes to the infectious beat of the Bee Gees.
16:52With his leather jacket, dark red shirt, flared collar, and unrefined manners, he pretty much exemplifies late 70s masculinity.
17:04He may be a dancer, but it doesn't make him any less blunt, masculine or even callous in his pursuit of women, nice shoes, and a New York slice.
17:22Are you Tony? Two or three?
17:24Two or two, give me two, that's good.
17:36Number seven, Viola Davis, Doubt.
17:39Mrs. Miller, we may have a problem.
17:42Well, I thought there must have been a reason you're wanting to see me. Principal's a big job.
17:46Movie audiences might have first encountered Viola Davis in this 2008 drama, but the Juilliard-trained actress was already a Broadway veteran and Tony Award winner by then.
17:57After Doubt, they would never forget her.
18:00She shares an explosive 10-minute section of the story with Meryl Streep, of all people, and almost runs away with the whole movie.
18:08Not to be disagreeing, but if we're talking about something floating around between this priest and my son, it ain't my son's fault.
18:15Oh, I'm not suggesting that…
18:16It's just a boy.
18:17I know.
18:18Twelve years old, if someone should be taken blame, it should be the man, not the boy.
18:21I agree with you completely.
18:22You're agreeing with me, but I got called to the principal, if you know what I'm saying.
18:25I am concerned about Donald's welfare.
18:29As a mother who learns a devastating secret about the parish priest, Davis' performance is confusing, disturbing, and deeply moving.
18:37We see her not only match pace with Streep, but leave a gigantic impact on a movie that is already really, really complicated.
18:44His father don't like them.
18:46You come to your school, kids don't like them.
18:49One man is good to him, this priest.
18:53Then does a man have his reasons?
18:56Yes.
18:57Everybody does.
18:59You have your reasons, but do I ask the man why he's good to my son?
19:05Number 6, Barbara Streisand, Funny Girl.
19:18Reprising the Broadway role that made her famous, the velvet-voiced star is first seen stalking the backstage of Manhattan's New Amsterdam Theatre in a striking leopard print coat.
19:29The first time we see Barbara Streisand's face on screen, it's as Fanny Bryce, looking into a mirror and saying the words that have now become immortal.
19:38Hello, gorgeous.
19:40But she's being sarcastic.
19:44This is the paradox of the movie made instantly clear.
19:47Throughout the movie, Fanny believes that her face is not traditionally beautiful enough to make her a star.
19:53She has to be funny, but anyone with eyes and half a brain can see she's both.
19:58Instead of just kicking me, why don't they give me a lift?
20:03Well, it must be a plot, because they're scared that I got such a gift.
20:08Oh, sure. Let's go.
20:10Number 5, Anthony Hopkins, The Silence of the Lambs.
20:14Closer, please.
20:18Closer.
20:19Hannibal Lecter was far from the respected and acclaimed actor's first film role, but Anthony Hopkins became synonymous with screen villainy in The Silence of the Lambs.
20:29When we first meet the cannibalistic psychiatrist, he is staring right at us and FBI trainee Clarice Starling, as we first come upon his cell in a psychiatric hospital.
20:40He seems to know we're coming.
20:42You use Evian skin cream.
20:47And sometimes you wear lead at home.
20:51But not today.
20:52It's one of the most unsettling first scenes of any character in film history.
20:57Hopkins imbues Lecter with the comportment of a gentleman, even as we feel him sizing up Jodie Foster's character and working his way into her mind.
21:06Pure West Virginia.
21:07What is your father, dear?
21:09Is he a coal miner?
21:10Does he stink of a lamp?
21:12You know how quickly the boys found you.
21:15All those tedious sticky fumblings in the back seats of cars, while you could only dream of getting out, getting anywhere, getting all the way to the FBI.
21:27Number 4, Harrison Ford, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
21:31Playing Han Solo may have made his career, but embodying Indiana Jones made him a star.
21:37He was good.
21:38He was very, very good.
21:41Harrison Ford recreated the archetype of the classic swashbuckler in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
21:47Dr. Jones fuses action hero stunts, nonchalant humor, and surprising nerdiness.
21:53And all of these are on display in that first incredible scene in a booby-trapped Peruvian temple.
22:00There's nothing to fear here.
22:05It scares me.
22:06The entire opening sequence volleys between dark intrigue and broad humor.
22:11Ford demonstrates his secret weapon as a lead.
22:14It's his humor.
22:15He's not afraid to look a little ridiculous, even as the character appears to have almost a sixth sense for danger.
22:21There's a big snake in the plane, Jacques!
22:24Oh, that's just my pet snake, Reggie!
22:27I hate snakes, Jacques!
22:30I hate them!
22:31Come on!
22:32Show a little backbone, will ya?
22:34Number 3, Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's.
22:38As the flighty socialite unmoored from commitment, Audrey Hepburn turned away from her more introverted and virtuous roles and completely reinvented her star persona.
22:48I don't even want to own anything until I can find a place where me and things go together.
22:53I'm not sure where that is, but I know what it's like.
22:57It's like Tiffany's.
22:59When Holly Golightly first gets out of that cab in front of Tiffany & Co, wearing the most famous little black evening dress of all time, we realize two things.
23:09The first is that this must be the same dress she was wearing last night.
23:13The second is that she is somehow alone in one of the most exciting cities in the world.
23:18It's not only simple, chic, and romantic, but it also ends up reflecting Holly's deeper, existential dilemma.
23:40Hepburn and that dress have since become icons of cinematic elegance.
23:45Promise not to be angry, I might let you take those pictures we mentioned.
23:49When?
23:51Sometimes.
23:52Number 2, Marlon Brando, A Streetcar Named Desire.
23:57You want a shot?
23:58No, I rarely touch it.
24:00Well, there's some people that rarely touch it, but it touches them often.
24:05The Godfather alone proves no one can make an entrance like Brando.
24:10But his first appearance in the Hollywood adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play is unlike anything anyone had ever seen from a film actor.
24:18As the brutish but alluring Stanley Kowalski, Brando arrives on the scene with an alarming magnetism.
24:24Hey, you mind if I make myself comfortable? My shirt is sticking to me.
24:27Please, please do.
24:28Be comfortable, that's my motto up where I come from.
24:31It's mine too. It's hard to stay looking fresh in hot weather while I haven't washed or even poured in.
24:38Here you are.
24:39Even as she's repulsed by his vulgarity and working class background, Blanche Dubois can't help but linger on her brother-in-law's physique.
24:47Brando is frequently cited as a groundbreaking actor in terms of realism on screen.
24:52And a streetcar named Desire is a big reason why.
24:56You look like you got another car.
24:58That jerk mechanic down to fist's doesn't know his axle grease from third base.
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25:20Number 1. Sean Connery, Dr. No.
25:23James, where on earth have you been? I've been searching London for you.
25:27The scene is a smoky London club. We first catch glimpses of Sean Connery in bits and pieces. From behind, then his hands as he opens his cigarette case, then his face in full. He introduces himself to a woman across the Baccarat table.
25:43Bond. James Bond.
25:47It's the scene that launched a franchise, a career, and an unforgettable catchphrase in one fell swoop.
25:53When Sean Connery first appeared as the cool, detached, and incredibly suave secret agent in 1962's Dr. No, he was a working actor with a few minor roles under his belt.
26:05Suddenly, James Bond was a worldwide phenomenon, and the actor became synonymous with his character's brutal methods and irresistible charm.
26:14Can you have dinner afterwards, perhaps? Sounds tempting. May I, um, let you know in the morning? Splendid. My number's on the card.
26:34Did your favorite actor make the list? Who did we miss? Let us know in the comments.
26:40I'll be back.
26:44I'll be back.
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