Villain Opening Scene: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Common in stories in which [[The Villain Makes the Plot|the villain and the plot are essentially synonymous]].

 

{{examples}}

* A lot of ''[[Detective Conan]]'' stories open this way as well.

* The first episode of ''[[Dragonball Z]]'' opens with Raditz landing on Earth and killing a farmer.

* In the North American version of ''[[Kirby Right Back At Ya]]'', the very first episode opens with an immense, evil crimson octopus Demon Beast/monster called Octacon attacking and eating a whole flock of sheep to a Cappy farmer's horror before flying back to King Dedede's castle. This scene actually switched places with the original Japanese opening scene where Kirby is flying through space asleep and eventually comes into orbit over Popstar in the dub.

** Also, the episode "Masher 2.0" begins with Knuckle Joe in a battle against a newly-rebuilt Masher 2.0. And not doing too well against it. At least he does well against its helpers, some of Nightmare's kaiju-esque monsters seen in Meta Knight's flashbacks.

* ''[[Arashi no Yoru ni]]'' begins with Giro and his pack of wolves attacking and killing Mei's mother, who tells her son to run away into a nearby forest for his own safety. Just right before she bids her son goodbye and is killed by the wolves, the mother goat attacks Giro and bites off one of his ears.

* ''[[Pokémon: The First Movie]]'' begins with Mewtwo destroying the very laboratory he was created in, killing all of the scientists inside, and immediately escaping.

 

* ''Many'' films in the [[Disney Animated Canon]] have such a scene.

** ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]''. Okay, so it actually opens with the Merchant, but straight after it goes to Jafar. This is also true with ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]''.

** ''[[Mulan]]'' opens with Shan-Yu and his army attacking the Great Wall of China. Mulan herself doesn't appear till scene three.

** ''[[Dinosaur]]'' actually begins with the film's [[Big Bad]], [[Carnivore Confusion|the Carnotaurus]] attacking the nest made by Aladar's mother, smashing all but one of the eggs (which was taken away by an Oviraptor, and later on a Pterodactyl, to Lemur Island) and presumably killing his mother.

** ''[[Tangled]]'' begins with the villainess finding the magic flower used by Rapunzel's mother to heal her illness (and later transferring its magic to her daughter's hair), only to have it snatched away by the King to heal his aforementioned wife.

** ''[[The Rescuers (Disney film)|The Rescuers Down Under]]'' begins with [[Evil Poacher|Percival McLeach]] successfully killing [[Giant Flyer|Marahute's mate]] and immediately pursuing the fleeing large bird.

** Though technically not a villain, ''[[Atlantis: The Lost Empire]]'' was originally going to begin with [[Kraken and Leviathan|the Leviathan]] sinking [[Horny Vikings|a Viking ship]], and causing the Shepherd's Journal to be thrown into the Atlantic Ocean.

* Rasputin from ''[[Anastasia]]''; he even gets his ''[[Villain Song]]'' for the cutscene.

* The 1986 ''[[Transformers: The Movie]]'' opens with Unicron eating an inhabited planet.

* ''[[Recess: School's Out]]'' opens with the villians stealing the weather-altering laser.

* Several ''[[Godzilla]]'' films start off with either Godzilla or the monster he's going to fight in the films.

* The Joker's bank robbery in ''[[The Dark Knight]]''.

* ''[[The Dark Crystal]]'' opens with the Skeksis.

* ''[[Hellraiser]]'' introduces Frank and the Cenobites before the good guys, unfortunate victims of their schemes.

* ''[[Spaceballs]]'' opens with the bad guys' ship and its infamous "We brake for nobody" plate.

** ''[[From Russia with Love]]'' appears to begin with Bond, {{spoiler|but it is actually a double, who is killed by Red Grant for a [[Nebulous Evil Organization|SPECTRE]] training mission.}}

** ''[[Live and Let Die (film)|Live and Let Die]]'' opens with people getting murdered (though the cause only appears after the credits).

** ''[[For Your Eyes Only (film)|For Your Eyes Only]]'' also opens with a murder, following a sequence where a spy ship accidentally collides with a mine.

** ''[[Licence to Kill]]'' blurs the two tropes, mainly focusing on [[Big Bad]] Franz Sanchez who, unfortunately for him, unintentionally interuppts the wedding on Felix Leiter, which means Bond gets involved.

* ''[[Flash Gordon (film)|Flash Gordon]]'': "Klytus, I'm boooooored."

* All three original ''[[Star Wars]]'' films open with a shot of one or more Imperial Star Destroyers (though the Rebel Blockade Runner is seen first in ''A New Hope''). ''Return of the Jedi'' most closely fulfills this trope with its first scene featuring Darth Vader.

* ''[[Dirty Harry]]'' begins with the first Scorpio murder. More accurately, it starts with a pretty girl taking a swim in a rooftop pool, then zooms out at length until we see the barrel of a sniper rifle...

* ''[[Clash of the Titans]]'' opens with ''a'' villain, King Acresius of Argos, crossing the [[Moral Event Horizon]] by sentencing his daughter and baby grandson Perseus to death by exposure in a sealed boat cast upon the waves. Of course, Acrisius dies only a few minutes later, so he's not the main villain of the film, but he is responsible for Perseus being raised as a commoner on an island rather than as a prince.

* ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'' starts up with a meeting between Col. Hans Landa and a dairy farmer. [[Moral Event Horizon]], ahoy!

* ''[[Stargate (film)|Stargate]]'' (the film) opens with Ra abducting his future host and slaves. (We don't see Ra himself, but we do see the host and Ra's ship).

 

* ''[[The Coldfire Trilogy]]'' by C.S. Friedman begins with a scene with the villain (although it's from the viewpoint of his wife).

* ''[[Intensity]]'' by Dean Koontz opens with a scene about the villain, from the villain's point of view.

* Ken Follett writes amazing books like ''[[The Key To Rebecca]]'' and ''[[The Eye Of The Needle]]'' where the villain starts out as the main character, with the readers' sympathies with him, and then the focus and sympathies begin to slowly shift to the hero.

* Many of [[Robert E. Howard]]'s ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' stories begin with such a scene:

** ''[[The Phoenix on the Sword]]'' opens with Ascalante plotting with Thoth-Amon to kill Conan and take the throne.

* ''[[The Last Battle]]'', the conclusion to ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'', starts with Shift finding the inspiration for his [[Evil Plan]].

* ''[[From Russia with Love]]'' takes it a few steps further by devoting the entire first third of the book to SMERSH's machinations.

 

* The very first scene of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' featured not Buffy, but Darla. It looked like the guy with her was a creepy predator, but then she ate him. (Driving home the whole "helpless blondes in this show aren't actually helpless" thing).

* Any number of detective shows, e.g. ''[[Columbo]]''.

* Of course, the hundreds of episodes of shows with a [[Monster of the Week]] (e.g. ''[[The X-Files]]'', ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'', ''[[Angel]]''), where the entire [[The Teaser]] involves said monster killing or attacking someone, and we don't see any main characters until after the opening credits.

* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' began with Rita Repulsa and her goons being accidentally released by two astronauts investigating the planetoid her space dumpster was hidden on. She hammily declared her intent to attack the first planet she saw, which happened to be Earth.

* Both story arcs of ''[[Dark Season]]'' have one of these as the [[Cold Opening]] of the first episode.

 

* The first scene of ''[[Theatre/The Ring Of The Nibelungs|Das Rheingold]]'' begins in comedic fashion with the Rhinemaidens playing around and teasing Alberich, but ends with Alberich renouncing love so he can steal the Rhinegold to forge it into the Ring and become the [[Big Bad]].

 

* ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' II for the ''[[Nintendo Entertainment System]]'' starts with Ashtar, mastermind of the events of the first game and primary antagonist through most of the second game relaying orders to a subordinate.

* Many ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' cases start with the crime, some of them (mostly the early ones) [[Reverse Whodunnit|clearly depicting the villain]].

* Pokey in ''[[Mother 3]]'', if you played Earthbound/Mother 2 however, you likely knew he would appear here.

* Dr. Robotnik has one in the spinoff Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, in which he explains his latest plan to Scratch and Grounder.

** He does this in the first as well, but he is revealed to be an illusion created by Cordelia.

* ''[[Onimusha]] 2'' begins with Nobunaga [[Doomed Hometown|razing Jubei Yagyu's home village]].

* ''[[Tales of Monkey Island]]'' starts out with LeChuck and his captive Elaine near the Rock of Gelato at the very beginning of Chapter 1, all on [[It Was a Dark and Stormy Night|a dark and stormy night]].

 

 

* A couple of ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' episodes opened with [[Big Bad]] Vlad. The most devious one might be "Kindred Spirits" where the opening unfolded his plans to make a perfect clone.

* The first episode of ''[[Thunderbirds]]'' opens with a scene of the Hood monologuing to himself.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Beginning Tropes]]

[[Category:Villains]]