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Entrances of All-Time Part 6 |
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Mean Streets (1973) Johnny Boy The film opened with the memorable, sub-titled introduction of the film's main characters, including the one filmed in telephoto. It showed Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro) blowing up a mailbox with a homemade bomb - and losing his porkpie hat as he shuffled away from the blast. |
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Quint The film's most memorable entrance scene, besides the first appearance of the shark, occurred in a meeting among the town's elders in a crowded Amity City schoolroom (dubbed the "council's chambers" by the mayor), during a discussion about closing the beaches of the picturesque resort town after a bloody shark attack. The room had a long, semi-circular desk at the front of the room, and a blank blackboard stood behind rows of chairs at the back. Police Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) disagreed with the Mayor (Murray Hamilton), who only wanted the beaches closed for 24 hours. Suddenly, master fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw), an eccentric, grizzled shark-hunter, made a dramatic entrance by silencing the commotion of the meeting. The colorful old sea salt with a brogue-accent scraped his fingernails - on a disembodied arm - irritatingly across the blackboard (with a drawn/doodled outline of a Great White Shark with a human being in its tooth-rimmed mouth) at the back of the audience to get everybody's attention. As the camera slowly panned toward him while he munched on a salty cracker, the foul-mouthed charterboat captain proposed to rid the town of the menacing, deadly shark - for $10,000. He drawled:
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The Shark Delaying a glimpse of the dangerous shark was employed in this film - a full view of the shark was not provided until over an hour into the film (although there were a few brief glimpses earlier). Out on the open ocean, Police Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) was given distasteful tasks, such as "chumming" (throwing spoiled, bloody meat - shark bait - over the side of the boat) to attract the shark. As the chief scooped out bucketfuls of bloody slop, humorously griping to his mates: "Come down and chum some of this s--t," a monstrous shark rose out of the water and nearly took his hand off. This was the film's first full glimpse of the shark, an hour and twenty minutes into the film - a truly spine-tingling moment. Brody could not believe the size of the creature, and with a classic, practical understatement, told Quint (Robert Shaw) his assessment:
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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) Leatherface In Tobe Hooper's classic slasher film set in Travis County Texas, there was the first and sudden appearance of chainsaw-wielding redneck killer Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) in his "House of Horror" inhabited by his family of cannibalistic psychopaths. It was justifiably one of the scariest, most memorable appearances in film history. When Kirk (William Vail) entered the unlocked front door of a deserted-looking clapboard house, he repeatedly called out: "Hello, hello...Anybody home?" He heard squealing noises and saw a open doorway in the hall beyond which was a red-colored wall covered with skulls and bones. There, he was immediately and surprisingly attacked by a lunging, apron-wearing, skin-masked Leatherface who clobbered him in the head with a large mallet or sledgehammer - his legs kicked and twitched during a seizure as he was dragged into the killer's lair - and its steel-metal door was forcibly slammed shut. |
  
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The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) Dr. Frank N. Furter An engaged young couple Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon) mistakenly ended up in a large castle after getting a flat tire in the middle of a rainy night while returning from a friend's wedding. There, after a group of conventioneers from the planet Transsexual finished a rendition of the Time Warp, a black-cloaked figure descended in an elevator behind them, tapping one sequin-encrusted high-heeled boot. When the elevator opened, the figure turned, causing Janet to scream and faint. "How ya do-a" sang a mad transexual transvestite named Dr. Frank N. Furter (Tim Curry) in greeting, who then strutted boldly forward. He dropped his black cloak to reveal his sexy, skimpy, cross-dressed outfit: a pearl necklace, a leather draw-string vest, black garters, leather bikini briefs, and high-heeled boots. He then sang seductively: "I'm a sweet transvestite... from Transssssexual Transylvania-hah-hah!" He invited the young couple to his lab for the unveiling of his creation - the perfect humanoid man named Rocky Horror. |
 
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Carrie (1976) Chris Hargensen The opening credits featured a high school girls' locker room scene after physical education class, in which one of the main characters, popular 'bad' girl Chris Hargensen (Nancy Allen), was introduced as she strode completely naked from the shower. She flicked her towel at friends, and then led the taunting of ridiculing of humiliated menstruating teen Carrie White (Sissy Spacek). |
 
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Saturday Night Fever (1977) Tony Monero Under the opening credits appeared the iconic image of Brooklyn disco king Tony Monero (John Travolta). He was a young stud dressed for the evening with a leather jacket, wide collared bright red shirt and gold chain around his neck (with a close-up of his shiny brownish-red shoes). He strutted cockily and confidently down the sidewalk, seen in closeup, to the Bee Gee's Staying Alive while swinging a paint can in his right hand:
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Darth Vader A fierce laser-gun battle was fought in the hallway of a crippled Rebel ship with fleeing Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), quickly lost by the Rebel defenders as more and more white, ceramic-like, space-armored stormtroopers of the Emperor's advance guard charged into the smoking corridor. When control was secured, the leader of the cruel and villainous forces strode in - black-garbed with a cape swirling around him, and helmeted. He was the towering, faceless Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader (David Prowse, with a deep, breathy voice supplied by James Earl Jones) - a vision of evil, signaled by the soundtrack. |
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The Chestburster Nostromo crew member Kane (John Hurt) sat eating at the mess table with his crew mates, contemplating his return home, when he suddenly experienced a seizure - coughing and choking on green, spaghetti-like strands of food. As he rose and struggled, Kane was turned around and laid on the table. Held down by the crew, they forced a spoon into his mouth to prevent him from choking on his tongue. And then, in a terrifying moment, blood graphically exploded out of the front of his white T-shirt. As he moaned, jerked violently, quivered, and ultimately died, the Alien burst from the bloody spot on his chest. The hissing, razor sharp-toothed monster/lizard was literally "born" from the guts of the first infected crewman. |
  
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Jake LaMotta During the opening credits sequence, boxer Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro), with his face hidden in the monk-like hood of his leopard-skin robe, warmed up alone in the ring by shadow-boxing into the smoky air. He gracefully danced or jogged up and down - in slow-motion - in the dreamy sequence to the melancholy, haunting soundtrack of the "Intermezzo" from Cavalleria Rusticana (an opera by Pietro Mascagni). |
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Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Indiana Jones The Paramount logo dissolved into an actual mountain peak. It was 1936 in a South American rainforest jungle, with high jutting canyon walls shrouded by thick mists. An expedition was being led by an American, Dr. Indiana "Indy" Jones (Harrison Ford), first seen faceless and only in silhouette while guiding the group. Teasingly viewed from the back, he sported his signature short, brown leather flight jacket, a brimmed felt fedora, and a bullwhip firmly held in his hand. His face was memorably revealed after Spanish Peruvian Barranca (Vic Tablian) reached for his gun and cocked it when a treasure map was found. Jones responded reflexively with lightning speed by accurately and gracefully uncoiling his bullwhip and wrapping it around Barranca's hand. His reaction sent the gun into the river where it discharged harmlessly. Barranca fled into the forest as Jones was fully revealed. |
 
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Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) Lieutenant Ilia Sexy Deltan and USS Enterprise navigator Lieut. Ilia (Persis Khambatta) made her entrance in this first film in the series (with the original crew). Her initial appearance was very memorable. The bridge door to the newly-redesigned USS Enterprise opened and there stood the bald-headed, unsmiling crew member, who walked a few steps, and then announced to Admiral James Kirk (William Shatner): "Lieutenant Ilia, reporting for duty, sir." She was immediately recognized and greeted by former love interest Commander Willard Decker (Stephen Collins), bringing a smile to her face. She dutifully reported to Kirk that she had maintained her "oath of celibacy." |
 
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Time Bandits (1981) The Giant This had to be one of the strangest, most unexpected entrances in film history. Young Kevin (Craig Warnock) and his dwarf friends had just deposed of an ogre (Peter Vaughan) and his wife (Katherine Helmond) by knocking them overboard into the sea. Not long after, the ship shuddered, and suddenly, it began to lift out of the water, revealing that it was a hat (!) worn by a giant (Ian Muir)! The giant came ashore, raising the ship/hat and its occupants hundreds of feet into the air, and in a typically Monty Python-esque gruesome joke, the giant stepped on an unaware, bickering couple (resembling anthropomorphic elephants) in a shack along the beach. Kevin and his friends were finally able to have the giant put them down after injecting a sleeping potion into his head. |
 
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Greatest Movie Entrances of All-Time
(chronological, by film title)
Introduction | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10
