Question:
What's your favorite prologue in a movie?
Option 1: The Star Wars crawl (several movies)
votes: 3
Option 2: War of the machines (Terminator 1)
votes: 0
Option 3: Galadriel tells the story of the Rings (Fellowship of the Ring)
votes: 4
Option 4: Vlad the Impaler becomes a vampire (Bram Stoker's Dracula)
votes: 1
Option 5: Opening credits - Golden age/silver age of superheroes (Watchmen)
votes: 2
Option 6: Carl & Ellie's life (Up)
votes: 3
Option 7: The story of Alpha station (Valerian and the city of a thousand planets)
votes: 0
Option 8: Thus spoke Zarathustra (2001)
votes: 3
Option 9: Days of high adventure (Conan the Barbarian)
votes: 2
Option 10: The military industrial complex speech-JFKs presidency (JFK)
votes: 0
Option 11: Irulan - the spice must flow (Lynch's Dune)
votes: 0
Option 12: Chani - Who will our next opressors be? (Villeneuve's' Dune Part 1)
votes: 0
Option 13: Out west there was a fella I want to tell you about (The Great Lebowski)
votes: 3
Option 14: Hey Jude (Royal Tennenbaums)
votes: 0
Option 15: Another world, another time (Dark Crystal)
votes: 0
Option 16: Las Vegas (Casino)
votes: 0
Option 17: These can't be just things that happen (Magnolia)
votes: 0
Option 18: History of a bullet (Lord of War)
votes: 0
Option 19: Other (Name it)
votes: 0
So, was discussing the upcoming Odissey movie with a friend, and whether they would adapt all the bits in the beginning with several characters recounting the Illiad into some kind of prologue, ala LOTR. From there, we drifted into discussing our favorite movie prologues.
And since it's been a while since my last movie poll, here I am!
By movie prologue, I mean any scene at the beginning of a movie that gives exposition explaining the past events leading up to the narrative you're about to see, or sets up the world, the theme, etc... The prologue of Fellowship of the Ring is the perfect example. It doesn't need to be a full fledged scene or montage - text or voiceover count if they are memorable (Star Wars or Conan come to mind).
Again, the field is very large, so feel free to go beyond the ones I listed and take this as a way to discuss your favorite ones.
I'm not going to be too hipster here: the Star Wars crawl, the Galadriel prologue and Up's opening montage still give me goosebumps.
Up's opening montage is one of the greatest short films ever made, but I also voted for 2001 and The Big Lebowski.
I suppose it is sometimes hard to distinguish an opening "prologue" with what would be more said to be just the start of the film.
Would something like Wargames up until "Turn your key sir!" count? :hmm: :P