Dialogue is a crucial part of a movie’s screenplay. It’s one of the main tools with which the film can advance the story, develop themes, or present characters’ emotions.
Likewise, one of the most important parts of dialogue is the movie’s opening line. If done right, it can be an unforgettable hook that captures the audience right away and keeps the story fresh on their minds even long after it’s over. Many films throughout history, like GoodFellasand Gone Girl, have had opening lines so fantastic that they’re still talked about years after their release.
‘High Fidelity’ (2000): “What came first, the music or the misery?”
Starring John Cusack (who also helped write the screenplay, so we owe this great opening line partly to him), High Fidelity is a dramedy about the owner of a record store who tells the story of his five most significant breakups.
The protagonist’s fourth-wall-breaking opening monologue is a thought-provoking one and a good indication of what’s to come throughout the rest of the movie. The dialogue gets us thinking about the underrated emotional impact of music and its relationship to the sadness of those who listen to it.
‘Gone Girl’ (2014): “When I think of my wife, I always think of her head. I picture cracking her lovely skull, unspooling her brains, trying to get answers.”
David Fincher‘s terrifying thriller Gone Girl is the story of a man who becomes a suspect in the murder of his wife, getting caught up in a media circus while the plot takes unexpected twists around him.
The dialogue throughout the film is fantastic, especially in the masterfully crafted opening scene. Ben Affleck delivers his opening narration with tranquility yet an urgent sense of mystery, setting the film’s eerie tone alongside Rosamund Pike‘s marvelous acting, which earned her an Oscar nomination.
‘The Basketball Diaries’ (1995): “When I was young, about eight or so, I tried making friends with God by inviting Him to my house to watch the World Series. He never showed.”
Featuring one of Leonardo DiCaprio‘s best performances from his youth, The Basketball Diaries follows real-life figure Jim Carroll as he and some of his friends descend into the Hellish world of drugs and crime.
From very early on (the opening line, to be precise), the film establishes a melodramatic and hopeless tone of despair. It’s particularly relevant considering that Carroll spent much of his life studying in Catholic high schools.
‘Patton’ (1970): “Now, I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.”
Winner of 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Patton is the story of the man who was known as “America’s Fightengest General,” an expansive portrait of not just his military exploits but also the most interesting parts of his hot-tempered personality.
The movie’s opening line immediately establishes its protagonist as a rational, cold, no-nonsense kind of guy. Francis Ford Coppola was the one who wrote the opening speech. Thinking that it was a stupid way to begin the film, higher-ups fired Coppola. However, history has proved them wrong since it has become one of the most iconic opening scenes in movie history.
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’ (2001): “The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air.”
For good reason, many people praise Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy as one of the greatest movie trilogies ever made, for good reason. The Fellowship of the Ring, the first installment in the series, tells the beginning of the journey of Frodo and his friends to destroy the One Ring and defeat the evil Sauron.
The whole prologue of the movie is one of the best opening sequences of any movie ever, and the opening line definitely lives up to that. Keeping with the descriptive and poetic nature of J.R.R. Tolkien‘s writings, it’s a beautiful tribute to the source material that perfectly establishes the epic journey to come.
‘Lord of War’ (2005): “There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That’s one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other 11?”
Lord of War is a crime drama about a Russian arms dealer played by Nicolas Cage, who struggles to do business while avoiding an Interpol agent and countless business rivals.
Lord of War isn’t a perfect movie, but its opening line and consequent title sequence sure are great. Clever, witty, and memorable, these first few words spoken at the beginning of the film tell a story by themselves, and they set up the narrative’s themes and the protagonist’s lack of morals wonderfully.
‘Stand By Me’ (1986): “I was 12 going on 13 the first time I saw a dead human being.”
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Based on a Stephen King novella, Rob Reiner‘s Stand by Me is a coming-of-age drama about four Oregon boys who set out on a journey to see the recently killed body of a stranger.
From its first line of dialogue, the movie establishes the dark sense of wonder that will come from the main character’s adventure. It touches on the story’s themes of childhood innocence, and it fortifies the humanistic tone of the picture.
‘GoodFellas’ (1990): “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.”
Martin Scorsese‘s GoodFellas, telling the true story of Henry Hill and his rollercoaster life in the mafia, is perhaps the filmmaker’s most popular crime movie, offering the most famous performance of the late Ray Liotta.
Although this isn’t technically the first thing that is said in GoodFellas, it is what kicks off the story; no list about the best opening lines in movie history is complete without it. It’s a hell of a hook, and the prologue scene that comes after it only cements the opening of this film as one of the most fun and effective of all time.
‘The Godfather’ (1972): “I believe in America. America has made my fortune.”
Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 masterpiece is one film that needs no introduction. The epic about an aging patriarch who passes on leadership of a crime family to his youngest son is known by pretty much anyone who has ever heard of cinema.
The dimly lit, masterfully acted opening scene of The Godfather isn’t only one of the best opening scenes ever, but one of the best scenes in general. The fact that it opens with a morally corrupt man speaking about the beauty of the American dream flawlessly establishes the movie’s tone and critique of contemporary American society.
‘Citizen Kane’ (1941): “Rosebud…”
Less is more. The opening line of Citizen Kane, Orson Welles‘ magnum opus about a journalist investigating the meaning of the last words of an infamous editorial industry magnate, is so mysterious that it’s precisely what the entire plot of the film revolves around.
As the plot unfolds, this word will remain in the back of the audience’s minds as a journalist (Joseph Cotten) struggles to discover its meaning, so will each viewer wonders what it could mean. And by the time the movie ends, the line and when it’s uttered will be so imbued with rich and profound meaning that it’ll be hard for anyone not to consider it the best opening bit of dialogue of any film ever made.
