34 Absolutely Incredible Opening Lines That Convinced People To Watch The Rest Of The Movie
Recently, we asked the BuzzFeed Community about the best opening movie lines ever.* Here are some of their submissions!
Some of these are a bit more than one sentence — we're counting up to the first three lines/the end of the thought.
1.Love Story: "What can you say about a 25 year old girl who died?"
2.Casino: "When you love someone, you've gotta trust them. There’s no other way."
3.The Prestige: “Are you watching closely?”
4.Lord of War: "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?"
5.The Kentucky Fried Movie: "The popcorn you're eating has been pissed in. Film at 11."
6.The Haunting: "An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted, is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored."
7.Tangled: "This is the story of how I died."
8.The Basketball Diaries: "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."
9.Megamind: "Here's my day so far: went to jail, lost the girl of my dreams, and got my butt kicked pretty good. Still, things could be a lot worse. Oh, that's right. I'm falling to my death."
10.Die Hard: “You don’t like flying, do you?"
11.The Emperor's New Groove: "Will you take a look at that? Pretty pathetic, huh?"
12.Apocalypse Now: "Saigon. Shit, I’m still only in Saigon."
13.Citizen Kane: "Rosebud."
14.The Virgin Suicides: “Cecilia was the first to go."
15.Gone Girl: "When I think of my wife, I always think of her head. I picture cracking her lovely skull."
16.The Breakfast Club: "Saturday, March 24, 1984. Shermer High School, Shermer, Illinois, 600062. Dear Mr. Vernon, We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong."
17.Fight Club: “People are always asking me if I know Tyler Durden."
18.Big Fish: “There are some fish that cannot be caught. It’s not that they are faster or stronger than any other fish, they’re just touched by something extra.”
19.Rebecca: "Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again."
20.Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: "I should have known that you would be here... Professor McGonagall."
21.Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: "The World is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air."
22.Lawrence of Arabia: "He was the most extraordinary man I ever knew."
23.Goodfellas: "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster."
24.Princess Mononoke: "In ancient times, the land lay covered in forest, where, from ages long past, dwelt the spirit of the gods."
25.Eve's Bayou: "Memory is a selection of images, some elusive, others imprinted indelibly on the brain. The summer I killed my father, I was 10 years old."
26.Patton: "I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country."
27.The Jerk: "I am not a bum. I'm a jerk."
28.Trainspotting: "Choose life; choose a job; choose a career; choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers."
29.Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron: “The story that I want to tell you cannot be found in a book. They say the history of the west was written from the saddle of a horse, but it’s never been told from the heart of one. Not until now.”
30.War of the Worlds: “No one would have believed in the early years of the 21st century that our world was being watched by intelligences greater than our own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns, they observed and studied, the way a man with a microscope might scrutinize the creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water."
31.The Godfather: "I believe in America. America has made my fortune."
32.The Departed: "I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me."
33.Stand by Me: "I was 12 going on 13 the first time I saw a dead human being."
34.And finally, The Sound of Music: "The hills are alive with the sound of music."
Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments below!
Submissions have been edited for length/clarity.