10 Movies That Destroy You Right From The Opening Scene (2024)

While many movies place their saddest scenes towards the end of the film, some daring writers open with them. Opening a movie with a tear-jerking scene is a tactic that can hook an audience from the very beginning. Movies are meant to stir emotions, whether joy, sadness, anger, or fear. The way a movie begins creates a path for what to expect out of the rest of the film. Making audiences sad can be the mark of an excellent movie, especially if the emotion is stirred at the forefront. Creating characters and situations that can be empathized with so quickly demonstrates an understanding of the realism required to convey strong emotions.

Some movies that have sad beginnings don't necessarily have sad endings. Many movies open with a sad scene to emphasize how happy endings can still come from unfortunate beginnings and make them more impactful. Still, these incredibly sad opening scenes are often difficult to watch and place a feeling of suspense over the rest of the piece.

10 Marriage Story

The 2019 drama opens with the main characters, Charlie and Nicole Barber, talking about the things they love about each other. It's a heartwarming moment until it is revealed that the two are actually going through a couples' counseling exercise prior to their upcoming divorce. It's made worse when Nicole refuses to read her list aloud and won't let Charlie either. Having the opening scene of Marriage Story take such a sharp turn from love to animosity sets the tone for the rest of the film while bracing audiences for what's to come. It's sad to see a couple who was clearly happy, as they can still find things they love about each other, going through such a bitter divorce. The inclusion of their young son, Henry, only increases the empathy meant to be felt.

9 X-Men: First Class

In the opening scene of X-Men: First Class, a young Erik Lehnsherr is in a concentration camp. His powers are discovered by a Nazi officer and Erik is forced to try to use them. When he is unable to move a coin at the officer's orders, Erik's mother is killed and Erik kills two guards in anger. Seeing a young child subjected to the horrors of a concentration camp is already hard to watch. Knowing that these experiences will lead Erik to becoming the villain Magneto piles onto this already horrible situation. This backstory introduces Erik not as a cut-and-dry villain, but as someone who experienced trauma at a very young age and was never helped through it.

8 Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War picks up right where Thor: Ragnarok left off after the destruction of Asgard. The ship carrying the remaining Asgardians, Thor, Loki, and Heimdall among them, is attacked by Thanos's army and everyone but Thor is killed. Knowing that everyone on the ship just narrowly escaped death as Asgard was destroyed makes this scene hard to watch.

Loki and Heimdall, especially, were beloved characters in the Thor franchise, so watching them die trying to protect everyone was heartbreaking. Thor's breakdown at losing so many people he cared about is the final straw. Throughout the Thor franchise, the God of Thunder was shown to be someone who just wanted to protect people. Watching him not be able to do so is undeniably sad.

7 Inglourious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino begins Inglourious Basterds with the terrifying Nazi officer, Hans Landa, questioning a French farmer who he believes is hiding a Jewish family. When the farmer admits to this in order to save his own family, Landa finds and kills the family the farmer was hiding, the Dreyfuses. One girl, Shosanna escapes and becomes a key character in the later events of the film. This opening sequence is difficult to watch for similar reasons to X-Men: First Class. Knowing the true horrors of the Nazi regime and the countless people who lost their lives to it makes the actions of Hans Landa hard to sit through. Although the film goes on to follow several people attempting to take down the Nazis, the opening scene gives the audience a sense of hopelessness.

6 Grave of the Fireflies

Based on a semi-autobiographical short story, Grave of the Fireflies is a Studio Ghibli film that follows two children trying to survive during the final months of World War II. The movie opens with the spirits of the children, already alerting the viewers that their story will not end well. The spirits discuss the bombing of Kobe, which killed their mother and set them on their quest for survival. Studio Ghibli is known for their lighthearted, aesthetically pleasing films so having a movie be sad from the very beginning is unusual. However, as the film is semi-autobiographical and about World War II, it makes sense that the film would jump into the realism needed to convey the horrors of war. Still, it does not make the opening scene any less sad.

5 Guardians of the Galaxy

Despite the film's generally upbeat tone, the beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy is heart-rending as young Peter Quill watches his mother succumb to cancer. As he runs away out of anger and grief, Quill is taken by Ravagers. Before he leaves, Quill's mother gives him a gift that he refuses to open. This sets up another emotional scene at the end when Quill finally opens the gift years later to find a cassette tape full of his mother's favorite songs. It's the second volume to the Awesome Mix Vol. 1 Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack that Quill listens to throughout. Part of what makes this such a heartrending scene is the emotions felt by young Quill. His anger at his mother dying causes him to leave her too early, which is something Peter later regrets.

4 My Sister's Keeper

The 2009 drama, My Sister's Keeper, opens with Brian and Sara Fitzgerald learning about their daughter Kate's leukemia diagnosis. They then utilize in vitro fertilization to conceive Anna, who will act as a donor for Kate. The film follows the Fitzgerald family as they struggle with Kate's illness and Anna's desire for medical emancipation. The movie is set up to tug at the viewer's heartstrings from the very beginning with the introduction of Kate's illness. It becomes clear that difficult topics, such as the struggles of living with cancer and what freedom of choice is, will be tackled in the course of the film. It also warns the audience that more sadness is likely to follow as the Fitzgerald family comes to terms with the reality of their situation.

3 Finding Nemo

Pixar films love to include a scene meant to make audiences cry. In Finding Nemo that scene comes at the very beginning when Marlin and his wife Coral are attacked by a barracuda. Coral is killed trying to protect their eggs and only one egg is left when Marlin wakes up from the attack. The barracuda attack is not only sad to watch, but it's frightening as well. The speed of the attack and Marlin's inability to help his family create a sense of fear and sorrow as the scene progresses. This scene is crucial to Marlin's character, as the trauma of losing his wife and almost every egg leads him to be overprotective of Nemo as the titular fish grows older. The scene helps the audience to empathize with Marlin's paranoia during the film.

2 Saving Private Ryan

Steven Spielberg's war drama, Saving Private Ryan, is the story of Captain John Miller and his men searching for private whose brothers were all killed during World War II. Despite the popular thought that the Saving Private Ryan opening scene is D-Day , it's not. The beginning of the film shows the titular Private Ryan visiting the grave of Captain Miller in his old age to thank him for saving his life. Ryan is surrounded by his family, emphasizing what Miller and his men ultimately sacrificed their lives for. Seeing the elderly Ryan break down in front of Miller's grave adds weight to the already intense war piece, as it reveals the fate of Miller and his men early on.

1 Up

One of the most heartbreaking Pixar scenes is Carl and Ellie's love story in Up. The scene follows as Carl and Ellie grow up and fall in love after meeting when they were young. The couple have a happy life dreaming of adventures and someday traveling to Paradise Falls, a place they both want to visit due their mutual love of explorer Charles Muntz. This happiness is cut short by Ellie's eventual death due to illness just as Carl managed to save enough money for them to go to Paradise Falls.

Up's beginning scene is one of the most effective sad openings because it doesn't start with the sadness, but gradually sinks into it. The turn into melancholy is what makes Up such a wonderful, yet heartrending, story. The sadness is necessary to Carl's journey to find a reason to live again.