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Greatest Movie Entrances of All-Time Part 5 |
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Greatest Movie Entrances of All-Time Part 5 |
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The following illustrated list in the next few web pages, in unranked chronological order, presents a solid collection of the most classic movie entrances or bows of film characters in cinematic history. These include film scenes from the silent era, the classic film period, and modern-day. Greatest Movie Entrances of All Time |
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Movie Title and Film Character |
Brief Scene Description | Example |
The Fly (1986) Seth Brundle
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The film opened on teleportation scientist Seth Brundle's (Jeff Goldblum) wide-eyed face, as he flirted with beautiful reporter Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis) during a scientific convention: "What am I working on? Uh, I'm working on something that will change the world, and human life as we know it... What, you want me to be specific here, in this room, with, uh, half the scientific community of North America... eavesdropping?" When Veronica demured, he insisted: "I think you're making a mistake. I think you really want to talk to me... Yeah, but they're not working on something that'll change the world as we know it." When Veronica replied: "They say they are," Seth said with confidence: "Yeah, but they're lying. I'm not" | 
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Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) Lee
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The first shot of the film was
an extended, medium shot of the ravishing, youthful Lee (Barbara Hershey)
in her grey sweater, the object of desire for Elliot (Michael Caine) -
the bored husband of her sister Hannah (Mia Farrow); in voiceover, he
pined for her, as the camera (representing Elliot's point-of-view) followed
her around the room: "God, she's beautiful. She's got the prettiest
eyes, and she looks so sexy in that sweater. I just want to be alone with
her and hold her and kiss her and tell her how much I love her and take
care of her. Stop it, you idiot. She's your wife's sister. But I can't
help it! I'm consumed by her. It's been months now. I dream about her.
I, I, I think about her at the office. Oh, Lee..." When she squeezed
by him in a doorway with a tray of hors d'oeuvres, he admitted: "...When
she squeezed past me in the doorway, and I smelled that perfume on the
back of her neck... Jesus, I, I thought I was gonna swoon!" |
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The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) Venus
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One of the most breathtakingly romantic and sensual entrances was this one -- the entrance of Venus with homage to the famous The Birth of Venus painting of 1482 by Sandro Botticelli with a live-action recreation; in the scene, a giant closed clamshell was slowly brought up from a watery pool by two angels and when opened, it revealed a fully nude, angelic-faced Venus (Uma Thurman) in the same pose as her counterpart from the painting; her long tresses and left hand covered her crotch and one arm covered her breasts; she gazed at the visiting Baron Munchausen (John Neville) and his friends, and greeted simply with a melodic voice: "Hello" - the two angels then flew to her and wrapped her in strands of pinkish silk to form her new dress; Roman god Vulcan (Oliver Reed) then nervously and jealously introduced her after giving her air kisses -- telling the overwhelmed Baron: "This is, uh, Venus. The goddess. My wife." |   |
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Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) Jessica Rabbit
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In one of the high points of the film, out from behind a spotlight on blue curtains emerged the throaty, smokey blues sound of Jessica Rabbit singing (voice of Amy Irving) Why Don't You Do Right? Her sexy leg and ample breasts appeared first - from behind the curtain - as she began her song and stepped out. Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) was transfixed and entranced by the beautiful Toon (voice of Kathleen Turner) - her bright pink, slinky, high-cut gown sparkled and shimmered brilliantly. Looking very little like a rabbit and more like a cartoon-animated movie star, a combination Playboy bunny, Lauren Bacall and 40's peek-a-boo blonde actress Veronica Lake, the buxom, red-haired chanteuse swept out onto the stage and soon slinked into the audience while singing - the patrons hooted and whistled at her. Jessica reached her fingers inside Eddie's trenchcoat, removed his fedora, seductively tantalized him, sat on his table with her statuesque chest bursting out in front of him, leaned closer to him, and pulled his necktie toward her as she finished her song, cooing: "Why don't you do right? Like some other men do" |
  
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Batman (1989) The Joker
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The first full view of the newly-transformed mob enforcer Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson) - now as the Joker - came as he entered boss Carl Grissom's (Jack Palance) office, hidden in the dark. He accused Carl of a frame job: "You set me up over a woman! A WOMAN!" and muttered (ironically): "You must be insane." When Carl realized Jack meant to kill him, he spit angrily: "Your life won't be worth spit!" The Joker replied musingly: "I've been dead once already. It's very liberating. You should think of it as therapy." When Carl tried to reason with him: "Jack, maybe we can cut a deal," the Joker answered acidly: "Jack?" and stepped into the light for the first time, revealing his grotesquely transformed visage -- a deathly, pure white face, green hair and an impossibly wide, hideous, permanent grin with blood-red lips. The Joker announced ominously: "Jack is dead, my friend. You can call me... Joker! And as you can see, I'm a lot happier!" The Joker then clownishly shot Carl repeatedly, bouncing and hopping balletically, even shooting from between his knees. After killing his former boss, the Joker sighed nonchalantly: "What a day!" |
  
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Shoeless Joe Jackson
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The memorable mystical appearance or materialization of disgraced ballplayer Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta) occurred in a baseball field built in an Iowa cornfield by farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) - it came after Ray's daughter Karin (Gaby Hoffman) told him: "Daddy?... There's a man out there in your lawn"; also there was the secondary appearance of Ray's father John Kinsella (Dwier Brown), and Ray's reaction: "Oh my God. It's my father... My God..." |
  
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Henry V (1989) Henry V
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This film had one of the most spectacular Shakespearean entrances in film history. When the music swelled (both ominous and grand at the same time), a black silhouette of a figure appeared, framed through towering portal doors of the palace that swung open; it was the king, Henry V (Kenneth Branagh), dramatically backlit and wearing a flowing black cape - reminscient of Darth Vader's entrance in Star Wars (1977). His bishops and courtiers gazed at the distant monarch in absolute, rapturous awe, as if he was godlike, as he approached (directly toward the camera until blackening the doorway), passed by and sat on the throne. Then shortly after, with the camera on his face, Henry V addressed the council and summoned the Archbishop of Canterbury (Charles Kay), telling him: "...For never two such kingdoms did contend without much fall of blood" |
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The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Dr. Hannibal Lecter
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This Best Picture winner was most memorable for novice FBI agent trainee Clarice Starling's (Jodie Foster) introduction scene to the notorious, satanic, cannibal-psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins); she took a tense walk along a dank row of medieval, high-security underground prison cells on her left to meet him - before meeting him, she was confronted by Lecter's neighboring cell-mate named Miggs (Stuart Rudin), who mashed his face against the bars and hissed charmingly with some verbal abuse: "I c-can sssmell your c--t!"; the brilliant Lecter was imprisoned in a windowless, glassed-in, dungeon-like cell, decorated with his own charcoal or crayon drawings of European cityscapes; filmed from her point of view, the notorious psychiatrist and insane criminal monster made a dramatic film entrance - he first appeared standing, ironically still and at attention in his cell, watching her with twinkling, chillingly-dead, blue eyes. His hair was closely-cropped and his head was tilted slightly in her direction. He urged -- with a slightly mocking tone -- the clever, intelligent, but inexperienced Clarice to step closer to his cell to show him her ID credentials: "Closer, please. Clo-ser" |
  
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Jurassic Park (1993) The T. Rex
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The entrance of the monstrous T. Rex was prefaced by the chaining of the leg of a bleating goat to a stake in the middle of a field in order to tempt the dinosaur to appear. Later, during a nighttime torrential rainstorm, the goat suddenly stopped bleating, and had disappeared from the stake, causing teenage computer hacker Lex (Arianna Richards) to wonder: "Where's the goat?" That cued a disembodied goat leg to startlingly drop onto the Plexiglass roof of the Explorer jeep. Off to the side of the road, the T. Rex appeared, gulping down the goat in a single swallow. The T. Rex, sensing more prey, then proceeded to harrass the two jeeps, dominantly staking its claim by roaring frighteningly |
 
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The Mask (1994) Tina Carlyle
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The jaw-dropping scene of timid bank teller Stanley Ipkiss' (Jim Carrey) first sighting of bank customer Tina Carlyle (Cameron Diaz in a star-making entrance in her screen debut) - in the bank lobby; wearing a low-cut, shape-hugging red dress under a black jacket, she paused to bend down to adjust her lacy footwear before straightening up as the camera slowly panned up her body, revealing her curvaceous and shiny upper chest before she enticingly shook her rain-drenched mane of long blonde hair back and forth; later in the film, Tina made a second eye-catching entrance as a sexy blonde night-club singer at the Coco Bongo Club |   
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Richard III (1995) King Richard III
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In the modern day setting of late 1930s fascist England, murderously power-lusting Richard of Gloucester (Ian McKellan) made a dramatic entrance in the opening of the film, breathing heavily through a gas mask like Darth Vader in Star Wars (1977); it was a time of civil war between the house of York (Richard's side) and the house of Lancaster, when he drove a tank through Lancaster headquarters and killed King Henry VI (Edward Jewesbury) and his son with point-blank gunshots |   
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Se7en (1995) Detective Lt. William Somerset
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Before the opening credits, the first scene introduced the meticulous character of retiring veteran Det. Lt. William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) going about his orderly and precise morning routine in his furnished bachelor apartment; he carefully tied his tie in front of a mirror, then methodically picked up his keys, gold homicide badge, switchblade knife, pen, and glasses case -- all laid out in a row -- removed a fleck from his sportscoat before picking it up from his neatly-made bed, and then shut off the light on his nightstand where there was a wooden, pyramidical metronome (used as a sleep aid to drown the city's noise by its rhythmic ticking, and a symbol of the passing of time) |  
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Se7en (1995) John Doe
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The startling, last-reel revelation of sociopathic serial killer John Doe (an unbilled Kevin Spacey) who voluntarily turned himself in at the police station; he walked in, yelled out repeatedly to rookie Detective David Mills (Brad Pitt): "DETECTIVE!" and then admitted: "You're looking for me" - obviously he had just committed another crime because his shirt was spattered with blood; with his hands out, he was surrounded by cops with guns drawn as he was ordered to kneel and then lie prostrate on the floor | 
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The Big Lebowski (1998) Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski
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The long opening voice-over description (partially quoted here) by The Stranger (Sam Elliott) introduced the film's main character: bearded, and long-haired Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges), while a tumbleweed rolled along to the tune of the song Tumbling Tumbleweeds sung by Sons of the Pioneers: "Way out west there was this fella that I wanna tell ya about. A fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least that was the handle his loving parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself "The Dude"... I'm talkin' about the Dude here. Sometimes, there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that's the Dude in Los Angeles. And even if he's a lazy man - and the Dude was most certainly that, quite possibly the laziest in Los Angeles County, which would place him high in the runnin' for laziest worldwide. But sometimes there's a man, sometimes, there's a man. Wow, I lost my train of thought here. But... aw, hell. I've done introduced him enough" -- The Dude was first viewed with sunglasses and shuffling along in the flourescently-lit dairy section of an almost-empty Ralph's supermarket - opening and smelling the contents of a quart container of Half-and-Half, while wearing a long open gray overcoat, dirty white T-shirt, his PJ bottoms, and slippers; at the checkout counter, he wrote out a check for $.67 cents |  
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High Fidelity (2000) Rob Gordon
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In the opening, the song "You're Gonna Miss Me" played loudly over a close-up of a spinning, black and shiny 45 rpm record. When the music faded, Chicago used record store owner Rob Gordon (John Cusack) started explaining, directly to the camera as he turned around, what the Thirteenth Floor Elevators' song about being dumped and wallowing self-pity was all about -- especially since he had just broken up with blonde attorney Laura (Danish actress Iben Hjejle), his latest live-in girlfriend of several years; his opening words: "What came first, the music or the misery?...Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?" |
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Moulin Rouge (2001) Satine
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During the dazzlingly colorful Moulin Rouge can-can musical scene, the screen went dark, and there was silence. After some diamond-like sparkles, red-lipped courtesan and lead chorine Satine (Nicole Kidman) descended from above perched on a glittering flying trapeze-swing, bathed in cool blue light |
 
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Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) Capt. Jack Sparrow
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Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), dressed fully in pirate's garb, was memorably introduced as he sailed into a port while standing and balancing himself on the crow's nest of a ship in a seemingly-dramatic, heroic entrance to a swelling score. The heroism of the shot was quickly undercut when it was revealed that he was in a quickly sinking dinghy; he was forced to leap down and desperately bail out the water with a bucket. By the time the ship reached the wooden pier, only the very tip of the mast was showing above water - and in a perfectly-timed move, he stepped onto dry land from the submerged boat |
 
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Happy Feet (2006) Mambo/Mumble
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A tapping was heard from inside a penguin egg, and two feet popped through the shell - the unhatched egg began to dance/slidestep energetically forward, and burst open when the feet slipped and somersaulted onto the ice; a blue-eyed, golden-beaked baby penguin chick, dubbed Mambo by father Memphis (voice of Hugh Jackman), immediately began to soft-shoe dance on the snow, explaining that he was "F-f-f-freezing!" but that his feet were "happy"; later, Mambo would be dubbed Mumble by his peers due to his inability to sing, and 'Happyfeet' by the disgusted elders who exiled him for his forbidden dancing ("It's just not penguin") |
  
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Stranger Than Fiction (2006) Harold Crick
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In the film's opening, the brilliant introduction of neurotic, obsessive-compulsive, numbers-infatuated IRS auditor Harold Crick (Will Ferrell), narrated by blocked writer Karen "Kay" Eiffel (Emma Thompson), accompanied by on-screen numbers: "This is a story about a man named Harold Crick, and his wristwatch. Harold Crick was a man of infinite numbers, endless calculations, and remarkably few words, and his wristwatch said even less. Every weekday for twelve years, Harold would brush each of his 32 teeth, 76 times. 38 times back and forth, 38 times up and down..." |   
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Venus (2006) Jessie/"Venus"
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The entrance of crotchety has-been actor Ian's (Leslie Phillips) pretty, sensual, but foul-mouthed grand-niece Jessie (Jodie Whittaker in her film debut) in a close-fitting pink jogging outfit while eating ramen noodles directly out of a carton; as Ian complains about Jessie's inability to cook fish ("Horrible! Horrible! Foul! Vile, beyond belief!...it's only been 24 hours, and already I'm screaming for euthanasia"), his best friend Maurice (Peter O'Toole) cannot help but ogle her youthful femininity; intrigued, he attempts to make conversation ("I'm Maurice. Maurice. You?") as he lustfully focuses on her mouth and throat as she slurps down the noodles - she would later become his "Venus" |
 
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Created in 1996-2008 © by Tim Dirks. All rights reserved.
One of the
most striking elements in any film is the sudden or memorable appearance
of one of the main characters or stars. Often, film entrances are not
very extraordinary, but now and again, there are some that are very
spectacular and skillfully executed. Although it would be impossible
to compile a list of every single memorable movie entrance ever screened,
this collection moves toward that goal. 