Greatest Film Entrances of All-Time

Greatest Movie Entrances of All-Time

Part 6

Introduction: 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. 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.

Movie Title and Film Character	Brief Scene Description	Example
Ed Wood (1994) Bela Lugosi	The first view of washed-up, aging horror star Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau) as he was lying in a coffin in a Hollywood mortuary, complaining to the salesman: "Too constrictive. I can't even fold my arms…This is the most uncomfortable coffin I've ever been in. Your selection is quite shoddy. You are wasting my time"
The Mask (1994) Tina Carlyle	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
French Kiss (1995) Juliette	Toronto physician fiancee Charlie Brewster (Timothy Hutton) told neurotic and jilted teacher Kate (Meg Ryan) that during a business trip to a medical conference in Paris, he'd met and fallen in love with a French "god-dess" - and the wedding was off; although she feared flying, she flew to Paris to win him back - and on the plane met an overbearing French petty crook-hustler named Luc Teyssier (Kevin Kline), who eventually became her love interest; first though, at the swanky Hotel George V where Charlie was staying, Kate saw Charlie making out in the hotel's descending glass elevator with his new love - the devastatingly sexy, long-haired French beauty Juliette (Suzan Anbeh), who wore a low-cut, short red dress - as menacing music underscored Kate's dismay at how gorgeous the woman was; as they romantically held each other and kissed passionately, Kate finally fainted from the shock
Richard III (1995) King Richard III	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
Se7en (1995) Detective Lt. William Somerset	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)
Se7en (1995) John Doe	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
Star Trek: First Contact (1996) The Borg Queen	The sexy, cunning Borg Queen (Alice Krige) used time travel to enslave Earth's humanity in the 21st century (the year 2063); her memorable entrance featured her organic head, shoulders and spinal cord descending from the ceiling and latching onto her synthetic, artificial body, as she announced: "Are you ready?...I am the Borg... I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many. I am the Borg...I am the Collective"; as head of the Borg, her mission was to absorb or assimilate all other species or cultures into the collective consciousness - "By assimilating other beings into our Collective, we are bringing them closer to perfection," she claimed to captured android Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) (with an implanted emotion chip) from the USS Enterprise
The Big Lebowski (1998) Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski	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
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) Mini-Me	In Dr. Evil's (Mike Myers) Headquarters in Seattle within the "Starbucks" Needle, Evil's Number Two (Robert Wagner) presented Evil with his perfect clone "except one-eighth your size" - dubbed Mini-Me (Verne Troyer); as he was introduced, his silhouette was seen distorted (and in full-size), but when the door opened, the camera was forced to pan downward as Mini-Me ran forward; Dr. Evil remarked: "Breathtaking," as lightning flashed
High Fidelity (2000) Rob Gordon	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?"
Moulin Rouge (2001) Satine	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
The Scorpion King (2002) The Sorceress	In this prequel spin-off to The Mummy films, muscle-bound barbarian-like "cutthroat" Akkadian mercenary Mathayus (Dwayne Johnson, "The Rock") was paid twenty blood rubies by wise King Pheron (Roger Rees).to kill the prophetic visionary Sorcerer of the bloodthirsty tyrant and conqueror Memnon (Steven Brand). When assassin Mathayus dropped into the Sorcerer's tent and was poised for the kill with his bow, the Sorcerer turned, revealing herself to be a beautiful young female Sorceress (Kelly Hu) in an abbreviated costume. He was stunned that she knew both his name and his mission (why he was there): "You've been betrayed, Mathayus"; claiming she had a vision ("To ignore this would bring great misfortune. The gods show him favor on this night"), she protested Mathayus' proposed murder, and unexpectedly pleaded that his life be spared; then later in the film, he encountered her again when he crashed into the bathhouse of Memnon's palace in Gomorrah, where the Sorceress was bathing naked - she popped up out of the water and turned to him, with only her black wet hair covering her breasts; he stared at her as she grabbed a knife to defend herself and asked: "Well, are you gonna try to kill me or just stare at me?"
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) Capt. Jack Sparrow	Pirate Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), dressed fully in pirate's garb, was memorably and heroically introduced as he sailed into Port Royal, Jamaica while standing and balancing himself on the crow's nest of a ship in a seemingly-dramatic, heroic entrance to a swelling score; however, he was soon using a bucket to bail out the water from his small dinghy, undercutting the heroism of the earlier shot; as he approached the wooden dock, it was very apparent that he was in a quickly-sinking vessel aimed toward the pier - when only the very tip of the mast was showing above water; in a perfectly-timed move, he stepped onto dry land from the submerged boat
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) Terminator T-X (Terminatrix)	The future AI computer system called Skynet dispatched another Terminator to the year 2004 in modern-day Los Angeles - a Terminatrix (Model T-X) (Kristanna Loken), a female, superhuman, sophisticated model with an arm that could morph into dangerous weapons; after crackling flashes of light and heat, she appeared crouched and naked in a Beverly Hills shop's display window (on Rodeo Drive) and soon appropriated a rich woman's silver sports Lexus across the street ("I like this car") - and her purple leather pantsuit-clothing.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) Terminator T-850	In the southwestern desert on a moonlit night, flashes and bolts of electrical light and heat prefaced the transport arrival of another reprogrammed T-850 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), sent back to 2004 Los Angeles on a mission to protect post-apocalyptic leader John Connor (Nick Stahl); the entrance was similar to all of the other time-travel transports in the previous films; he arrived crouched and naked, then stood up, scanned the dark horizon, and walked to the Desert Star cocktail bar; after determining a MATCH for his body build, he demanded the clothes of a leather-clad male stripper (on-stage and mid-performance) during a cowgirls' Ladies Night "Pleasure Men Fantasy Show"
Before Sunset (2004) Celine	While signing books and answering questions during an in-store appearance in the Parisian bookstore Shakespeare & Company, successful author Jesse Wallace (Ethan Hawke) described the premise for his next book; he described how the events in the book would take place in only 3-4 minutes, and the past and present would co-exist at the same time: "He's there, in both moments, simultaneously. And just like for an instant, all his life is just folding in on itself. And it's obvious to him that time is a lie. That it's all happening all the time, and inside every moment is another moment, all, you know, happening simultaneously"; as he thought back to his romantic encounter with French girl Celine (Julie Delpy) nine years earlier during the delivery of his answer, she magically appeared in the bookstore to his right - startling him and distracting him as he spoke the words: "That it's all happening all the time..."; after his session was over, they shyly and awkwardly greeted each other with a kiss on each cheek; outdoors afterwards, Jesse exclaimed: "I can't believe you're here!... how are you? This is so weird!" and then he admitted as they walked to a cafe to catch up: "I thought I was gonna totally lose it in there when I first saw you!"
Happy Feet (2006) Mambo/Mumble	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")
Stranger Than Fiction (2006) Harold Crick	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..."
Venus (2006) Jessie/"Venus"	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"
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007), (aka Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon) Jean-Dominique Bauby	Almost all of the first 40 minutes of this Julian Schnabel-directed film were the subjective, POV sights of Elle French magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) who suffered a debilitating stroke (a "cerebrovascular accident") in 1995, that left him with "locked-in" syndrome (except for being able to blink his left eyelid) even though he was fully conscious; as he slowly came out of the 3 week-long coma, the film presented the disorienting images shot from behind his eyes -- all he could see were blurry, unstable and dim images, flickerings, puzzling and distorted shapes, and extreme close-ups as he heard doctors asking him: "Do you remember what happened?"; he can only respond with thoughts heard within his own head, such as: "What's going on?"; when his right eye (with a non-lubricating cornea) was sewn shut, the remarkable first-person camerawork showed the stitches being horrifyingly administered to his septic eye from the inside
The Dark Knight (2008) The Joker	The first appearance of the Joker (Heath Ledger) while pulling off a bank robbery in the film's opening; he was revealed to be the mastermind behind the holdup of a mob-owned bank with his clown-masked accomplices, whom he had instructed to kill each other -- leaving him as the only surviving criminal; removing his clown mask only revealed another painted-on clown mask (with a grinning red scar) as he affirmed to the bank manager: "I believe whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you stranger"