Action Prologue: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Venus Versus Virus]]'''s [[Pragmatic Adaptation|anime version]] has this. Guns, check. Shooting stuff with said gun? Check. [[Eyepatch of Power|Eyepatch wearing]] [[Elegant Gothic Lolita|Gothic lolita girl]] [[The Gunslinger|wielding the gun]]? Check. Creepy girl with [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|red eyes]]? Check. Then we cut to the [[Ear Worm]] of an opening. In the manga however, the intro is mellow, and shows how Sumire became the way she is.

* ''[[Berserk]]'' is a extreme example: it starts with a two and 2/3 volumes of story to establish the setting and then has a ''twelve'' volume flashback before reaching the point of time when it started. The anime follows suit with its first episode (basically a shortened version of the first episode without Puck), which is given no explanation as to how it happened, given that the anime ended at a point where the story could have only gotten there based on action taken by [[Schrodingers Cat|characters that were never introduced in the anime]].

** Which is based on how the game begins with a narration going along with a the sound of something hitting something else.

* The manga adaptation of ''[[Persona 3]]'' opens with The Hanged Man Operation. That is, an explosive battle on a bridge.

* The second scene in ''[[Sword of the Stranger]]'' is an elaborate action sequence, with bandits attacking the Ming caravan.

* ''[[Infinite Stratos]]'' begins with Ichika and his harem facing off an unidentified IS pilot. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|And it was]] '''[[Visual Effects of Awesome|awesome]].'''

** {{spoiler|It turns out that it's actually the fight vs Silvario Gospel in the last episode}}

* ''[[Hidan no Aria]]'' starts with Kinji trying to not be blown up by the bomb on his bike, and Aria falling out of the sky, shooting guns and all, to try to save him.

 

 

== Fan Fiction ==

 

 

== Film ==

* Pretty much universal in [[James Bond]] movies.

* Most of the ''[[Star Wars]]'' movies start off in a fight of some sort:

** ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]'' starts in the middle of the battle for Coruscant.

** ''[[A New Hope]]'' starts with the famous shot of the Star Destroyer chasing the ''Tantive IV''.

* ''[[Hancock]]'' opens up with a gun battle on the L.A. Freeway, with the eponymous hero arriving to "save" the day.

* ''[[Lord of the Rings]]: The Fellowship of the Ring'' starts with the Battle of the Last Alliance not only because it was establishing the backstory, but because [[Peter Jackson]] felt that the movie needed an epic battle scene with armies at both sides, not just the Fellowship vs. dozens of Orcs.

* The [[Film of the Book]] of ''[[Narnia|The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe]]'' starts in WWII London, where German fighter pilots are conducting an air raid.

** ''Prince Caspian'' similarly starts with Caspian escaping Miraz's assassination attempt, followed by the book's original opening of the Pevensie siblings at the train station.

* The 1985 IMAX film ''The Dream Is Alive'' looks like a subversion at first- it opens with about a minute of an alligator and some birds going about their business in a Florida swamp- THEN we hear sonic booms as the space shuttle flies overhead and it cuts to a dramatic touchdown, true to form.

* ''[[Diary of the Dead]]'' begins with internet footage of a zombie attack on some TV journalists, then cuts to the protagonists making a horror movie and slowly finding out about the [[Zombie Apocalypse]]. Justified as the whole movie is meant to have been edited by one of the protagonists after the event anyway.

** Similarily, ''[[Toy Story 3]]'' starts with Woody and Jessie trying to save a train of orphans. Then the plot starts getting [[Anachronism Stew|anachronistic]] and filled with [[Call Back|Call Backs]] to the previous films, and it turns out to be Andy's playtime from the toys' point of view.

* In another Pixar film, ''[[Cars 2]]'', the film begins with Finn [[Mc Missile]] infiltrating the Lemons' oil rig to uncover their evil plans after his partner Leland Turbo has been crushed to death while attempting to escape their lair.

* The Tea Room shootout at the beginning of ''Hard-Boiled''.

* ''[[Gladiator]]'' begins in the [[wikipedia:Marcomannic Wars|Marcomannic Wars]] with a battle between Roman legions and German barbarians. Given how the film plays out, and the fact that the Emperor berates Commodus for missing "the entire war", this may be the final battle near the Tisza river, where the Romans beat the Marcomanni into signing a peace treaty.

* ''[[The Dark Knight]]'' starts with the Joker and a gang of crooks robbing a bank.

** This seems to be a reverse of the usual [[Batman Cold Open]] in that, instead of the establishing the hero's skills, the first 15 minutes has several moments designed to instill the fear of The Joker into the viewers.

* Before the opening credits of ''[[Enter the Dragon]]'' even begins Bruce Lee fights and beats Sammo Hung in a nonlethal kung fu match at a Shaolin Temple in Hong Kong.

* ''[[Streets of Fire]]'' starts off with a rock concert and the lead singer being kidnapped onstage. From there, there's very little pause in the action.

* ''[[Brotherhood of the Wolf]]'' begins with a martial arts fight between the two heroes and some local goons. The original script began with an extended chase through Parisian sewers.

* ''[[The Chase]]'' (1994) is pretty much lock, stock and barrel Jack Hammond's kidnapping of Natalie Voss and his attempt to escape to Mexico. Roughly 90 percent of the movie takes place on the freeway or just alongside it, and the director wastes no time whisking us right into the thick of it: from ''the very moment the screen fades in'', we can already hear the wail of police sirens in the distance as Jack enters the convenience store looking for a hostage, and spots Natalie.

* It's not strictly an "action-packed" movie, but ''[[Purple Rain]]'' gets off to quite a heady start. Director Albert Magnoli literally does not waste even one second plunging us into the story: the Warner Brothers studio logo has not even faded from the screen yet before the strains of a synthesizer played by "Doctor Fink" (a character in the movie) are heard in the distance and the voice of the (yet unseen) master of ceremonies at the First Avenue Nightclub is heard calling out: "Ladies and gentlemen....The Revolution!" (What follows is some of the best [[Crowning Music of Awesome]] in movie musical history.)

 

 

** This is how Simon R Green introduces the characters to new readers in most of his books in fact, especially the [[Nightside]] series. And sometimes the opening scene contains a [[Chekhov's Gun]] or foreshadows a future book's plot

* Nearly all of the ''[[Halo]]'' novels have this.

* [[Harry Harrison]]'s two series [[The Stainless Steel Rat]] and [[Bill the Galactic Hero]] often start each novel this way.

* ''[[Snow Crash]]'' starts out with a wild racing scene in which Hiro tries to deliver a pizza under threat of death. Hiro isn't even called by name until the end of the scene, when he introduces himself to YT.

* The start of ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', [[Egregious|egregiously]]. The enemy in the prologue doesn't show up until ''three books'' later, and then only in ''another'' [[Action Prologue]].

 

== Live Action TV ==

* Many of the "opening gambits" on ''[[MacGyver]]''.

* [[Human Target]] almost always starts this way, with Christopher doing something awesome (often involving explosions).

* The first episode of [[Game of Thrones]] cold opens with a suspenseful scene that features rangers of the Night's Watch getting ambushed by White Walkers.

 

== Video Games ==

* Video game example: ''[[Silent Hill 3]]'' starts with Heather in a spooky amusement park, armed with very little in the way of weapons, and wondering where she is. If you either die or reach the end (which results in her dying in a cutscene), she wakes up and realizes it's just a dream. Much later in the game, you go to that very same amusement park for real.

* Some of the [[James Bond]] games. ''Everything or Nothing'' actually started you right in the first level, without giving you a menu or anything like it before.

** ''[[X-Men]] 2: Clone Wars'' for the ''[[Sega Genesis]]'', too.

* ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' starts with Joanna's very first mission as Carrington Institute agent. Also its prequel started with a mission, but it's revealed it was a [[Fake Action Prologue]] being just a simulation.

** ''[[Final Fantasy II (Video Game)|Final Fantasy II]]'' begins with a [[Hopeless Boss Fight]].

* The prologue of ''[[Castlevania]]: Symphony of the Night'' starts at ''ending'' of the previous game, ''Rondo of Blood'': the player isn't even controlling Alucard at that point, but Richter Belmont.

* ''[[Breath of Fire III]]'' opens with the hero escaping from a mine in dragon form. The dragon's stats are such that you cannot lose the battles in this sequence.

* The game ''Prototype'' begins with New York in ruin and chaos as well as giving your character [[A Taste of Power|full ablities]], then after the title appears, flashes back to "18 days ago".

** Almost the same thing happens in ''Spider-Man: Web of Shadows''.

* ''[[Bayonetta]]'' begins with our antiheroine and Jeanne in their flashback garb fighting angels on the face of a falling clock. It might be a clever symbol for a compressed backstory narration, but it's hard to tell when the actual game is so trippy. Despite the game's reputation for putting some of the most spectacular fights in cutscenes, it's fully playable, with no control guidance for first-time players, but also no way to lose. Then, there's a whole prologue chapter, filled with control tutorials and some minor exposition. Then there's an expository cutscene and an Indy-style travel montage. ''Then'' the opening tiles play as 'netta struts off the train in Vigrid.

* The first and third ''[[Uncharted]]'' games open with a very brief, enigmatic cutscene and then some kind of balls-out action sequence.

** ''Uncharted: Drake's Fortune'' opens with Nate and Elana unearthing Sir Francis' journal in the middle of the ocean, when suddenly, pirates attack and the player has to defend the boat.

* ''[[Shadow Complex]]'' begins with a man in a city with [[A Taste of Power|about half of the full set of equipment]] for a shootout with some troops and a helicopter. He is then killed, and the action switches to the actual player character, where the real ''[[Metroidvania]]'' part begins.

* Done extremely well on the [[Lord of the Rings]] video games, as the prologues are there not just to state how the fight elements are there, but also to tell most of the backstory and certain background elements.

* ''[[Xenoblade]] Chronicles'' begins in the middle of the war against the Mechon, where you play as Dunban in the battle that would make him a legend among the peoples of Bionis.

 

* The ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' story arc "Phoenix Rising" (well, the Oasis half of it, anyway) begins right away with Oasis fighting a group of convenience store robbers. Things then quiet down for a while, giving us time to know the characters, before the action starts up again when {{spoiler|Nash Straw kills Lupae}}.

* ''Pibgorn'''s arcs start this way, but they're so confusing they're pretty much [[Mind Screw]] prologues. For example, the latest arc began with a [[Rapunzel Hair|Rapunzel Haired]] Pibgorn messing around with dewdrops in a meadow, with the panels interrupted by a giant rack-focused number 8 on a plain white background out of nowhere. It then switched to short-haired Pibgorn and Drucilla talking on a glacier (Rapunzel-Hair Pib is a flashback). Pib suddenly fainted then attacked Drucilla who fought back, and then the giant 8 explodes in a shower of Photoshop brushes.

 

 

 

== Western Animation ==

 

{{reflist}}