The Best Opening Scenes in War Movie History

We all know that opening scenes are all about setting the tone for the movie, but if you're strapping in for a war film, how can you set the genre while also delivering something more surprising than just a battle?

We already know that when we're watching one of these kinds of films, the stakes are inherently life-and-death. Today, I want to talk about how the best opening scenes in war movie history use that to their advantage, while also finding a way to set the theme right from the start.

Let's dive in.

1. Apocalypse Now (1979): The Art of the Psychological Dissolve

- YouTube www.youtube.com

The opening of this movie functions as a Doors music video juxtaposed against the horror of Vietnam. You get the music, the sound of the helicopters, the exploding jungle, and suddenly you're inside Francis Ford Coppola's madness.

He and legendary sound designer Walter Murch collaborated to deliver one of the most iconic openings in cinematic history.

• The Technique: Slow-motion dissolves overlay a line of peaceful palm trees and a thumping helicopter blade, taking us to an overhead fan beating down hot air on the ghostly, upside-down face of Captain Willard (Martin Sheen). We're right inside this guy's mind, and we can see the toll war has already taken on him. And it's going to ask for more.
• The Sound Design: Murch was actually the first person credited as a sound designer ever for this movie. He matched the rhythmic whirp-whirp of helicopter blades to the sound of a ceiling fan in Willard’s Saigon hotel room. It set the existential tone right away without needing any words.
• Filmmaking Lesson: You don't need a multi-million-dollar explosion to convey internal chaos. Sure, we have one here, but the real tension is bringing us into Sheen's frame of mind and thenhis stupoor of drinking and thrashing. This is a guy on the brink, given a mission that will only take him further. We can tell the theme of this movie is a man at war with himself right away.

2. Saving Private Ryan (1998): Visceral Immersion and Subjective Camera

- YouTube www.youtube.com

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Two videos? Yeah, I'm cheating. We're talking just the whole movie opening here. While most people want to talk about Omaha Beach, it doesn't really work without the old man at the start.

This is a movie about survival. By showing us a person who made it through, we're given life and death, but we're also given a story of someone who lived. That becomes very important later.

Then, we roll right into a match cut to Steven Spielberg’s depiction of the D-Day landing at Omaha Beach. Now, this scene changed war cinematography forever. Janusz Kamiński’s camerawork rejected Hollywood slickness in favor of documentary-style chaos that gave real veterans PTSD when they watched.

• The Technique: Kamiński used a 45-degree shutter angle (which removes motion blur and creates a crisp, jarring, staccato effect), handheld camera work at eye level, and desaturated color grading to make us feel like we were at war. It was staggering for the audience to consume.
• The Pacing: After a brief present-day framing device at the Normandy cemetery, Spielberg strips away the non-diegetic musical score entirely during the 20-minute landing sequence. It's like he tricks us, takes a movie away, and presents reality. He took away the safety nets, and we really were now in this old man's mind.
• Filmmaking Lesson: Spielberg forces the audience into the perspective of an infantryman and then never lets go for three hours. Test your scene without music; do you need them to feel the reality or can you survive without it?

3. Inglourious Basterds (2009): Sustained Tension Through Dialogue and Spatial Awareness

- YouTube www.youtube.com

We've written a much longer post about the Inglourious Basterds opening scene, but you have to mention it here for how it sets the tone of the movie and also leans into Tarantino's auteur aesthetic.

Quentin Tarantino proves that war is fought just as ruthlessly in a quiet dairy farm kitchen as it is on the front lines, as long as you have a scary enough villain present.

The opening scene introduces Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) and sets the story of a relentless killer who will never stop.

We are now on a journey of someone who has to kill him or be killed.

• The Technique: The scene relies on Hitchcock’s "Bomb Under the Table" suspense theory. The audience learns early on that a Jewish family is hiding beneath the floorboards. So now we have this massive dramatic irony while Landa politely sips milk and threatens their lives above.
• The Geometry: Tarantino uses blocking and slow push-in tracking shots that gradually tighten the frame as Landa’s polite questioning turns into an interrogation. And we feel his clever camera work. The story becomes claustrophobic.
• Filmmaking Lesson: High tension doesn't require motion or gunfire. You just have to add a bomb under the table and then edit it in a way that brings the audience into the story and sets them up for the rest.

4. Dunkirk (2017): Acoustic Tension and Environmental Horror

- YouTube www.youtube.com

I think this is one of Nolan's best movies. It grips you right away and catches you up on the situation very quickly. This is him doing a simple plot extremely well. It's a rescue mission, and these guys can't retreat; they're literally on the beach facing the water. They need boats.

• The Technique: Nolan uses long takes following characters from behind. We get the emphasis of their isolation before a sudden sniper attack forces them to run, and we get the reveal of the full situation.
• The Sound: Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack incorporates a Shepard tone, which creates the auditory illusion of a continually rising pitch—alongside the physical ticking of Nolan's pocket watch.
• Filmmaking Lesson: Instead of characters discussing the situation, German propaganda flyers falling from the sky visually tell the audience: You are surrounded. Then, after running, we see how bad it is and immediately understand that the story is to get off that beach.

Summing It All Up

I'm sure I could figure out more scenes to put on here, but these came to mind first. I think they have diverse lessons and give filmmakers a glimpse at what it's like to boil it down to an opener and to set the audience up to understand what's happening.

Let me know what you think in the comments.