Best character introductions

The first ten minutes of Raising Arizona, introducing us to Nic Cage's character and his story.

"My name is H.I. McDunna - call me Hi."

Best start to a film ever.

Also the "I believe in America" speech introducing us to Don Corleone is another goodie.

Yoda being introduced as a crazy little green swamp dude instead of a great Jedi Master is another fave - the moment he stops play acting and starts talking to the ghost of Obi-Wan.

Im sure I'll think of more.

Great topic Dragon

RD

sorry.. but Arnie takes the cake. Last Action Hero.. the entire first 10 minutes its set up EXACTLY like a few dozen action movies of the 80s... and then you find out it actually was a movie some kid was watching..flawless

lets break it down:

alligator boots walking across the hoods of cop cars, pans up to Arnie smokin his trademark cigar.. he doesnt listen to his sargeant who threatens to take his badge.. he tosses it over his shoulder to him and keeps going to do his job.. he pulls the "want to be a farmer? well heres a couple of... achers!' line before canning a fellow cop tryin to hold him back...

...yadda yadda... anyway... perfectly sums up the stereotypical tough guy one man force cop stereotype that was prevalant for a few years... and sets up his character in the movie perfect... a movie character

its all genious i tells ya..

or maybe.. i just really really really love all the lame jokes, bad puns, and overdone stereotypes that movie is made around

okay..thats not the best character introduction ever.. the cool serious ones are still better.. but for a tounge-in-cheek comedy style character introduction.. look no further than this beauty

notable serious entries:

Desperado - Buscemi's story to the bar patrons about the 'biggest damn mexican ive ever seen'

Leon: The Professional / X2: Nightcrawler - both basically the same... one guy takes out an entire room full of armed guards pretty much unseen... leaving the audience stunned (well.. comic fans know who the hell nightcrawler is.. but it didnt make the scene any less magic.. i always though of Nightcrawler as kind of .. useless before i saw him tear apart those secret service agents)

The original Terminator - no dialogue, just a nekkid Arnie getting ready to whoop a young Bill Paxton's ass

my faves are both Paul Newman flicks -

Cool Hand Luke - drunken Luke cutting the heads off of parking meters and laughing his ass off - classic

The Hustler- Eddie and his partner stop off at a roadside pool hall, Eddie drinks his ass off, and just when he's slobbering all over the table, pockets an impossible shot, pockets the money and exits with a grin - cool as shit.

Final pick -- subliminal Tyler Durden.

Welles introduction in 'The Third Man' is way on the top of my list.

Darth Vader in Ep 4.....

Striding through the midst of all the shorter stormtroupers in the smoky ship....that Williams score...the gleaming black armor and that evil faceplate with the Nazi helmet.....perfect!

Jack Sparrow's is probably one of the best modern ones. It just says so much about the character in such a small scene.

Quint's nails-on-the-chalkboard intro in Jaws.

Tuco crashing through the window, turkey leg in hand for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Shriker's intro in Death Wish 3. "Who's this dude?"

The brilliantly defused hostage situation introducing two characters near the beginning of The Seven Samurai.

Salieri, Amadeus.

Charles Foster Kane, Citizen Kane.

The Usual Suspects has a terrific chain of character introductions before the line-up.

Jeremy Northam gets a great introduction in The Winslow Boy.

Kevin Spacey in Seven: "Detectiiiiiive!!!"

Droz, PCU.

Jack Foley, Out of Sight.

Joe Hallenbeck, The Last Boy Scout.

Frank Cross, Scrooged.

Add my love to Quint and Desperado.
Also-
Jimmy The Gent's entrance in GoodFella's. We were right there in Henry's glamour struck head when DeNiro walks into the joint.

The Bride of Frankenstein. Gorgeous moment complete with church bells.

The Duke of New York- Escape from New York

Chandeliers on a car says so much about a character.

As bad as Star Wars Episode 1 is i liked the Darth Maul intro alot.

i love the way the characters are introduced in Lock Stock and Snatch.

True Romance - Vincenzo Coccotti (Christopher Walken)
True Romance - Drexil ("who or what is a drexil")
Fight Club - Tyler with a gun in "Jack's" mouth
Fight Club - Marla ("Then SHE had to ruin it all")
Star Wars - Darth Vader (in all three)
Star Trek 2 - Kahn
Transformers - Unicron
Transformers - Galvatron introducing himself to starscream
("corronation? this is bad comedy")
Kill Bill - Go Go Yubari (slicing the guy at the bar)
The Usual Suspects - the whole thing is pretty much a 2 hour introduction to Keiser.
Die Hard 3 - Samual Jackson introduces himself to Jeremy Irons
Lord of the Rings - the witch king in ROTK
Lotr - the Balrog in FOTR
Lotr - Treebeard in TT
Lotr - The Harradrim (the guys on the elephants) in ROTK
Lotr - The Nazgul in FOTR

Quiz Kid Donnie Smith- Magnolia (ps- possibly my favorite steadicam shot ever)

Honey Ryder- Dr. No

Rob Gordon- High Fidelity

Butch and Sundance- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Odd Job- Goldfinger

Gandalf- Fellowship of the Ring

The Velociraptors- Jurassic Park

Lester Burnham- American Beauty

Can you say The Terminator?

peakfreak totally jizzed all over this whole thread... what a mess.

J. Carrey in Ace Ventura
agreed on Cpt. Sparrow
looking into Tom Hanks' eyes in Saving Private Ryan

and Jar Jar Binks running into the jedi

Brad Pitt's Jeffrey Goines in 12 Monkeys. He's sitting in his chair with his sweater pulled over his head. The warden calls out for him and he pops up as the cartoon on the TV makes a "Boing" sound.
"Sure, I'll give him the de luxe mental...hospital tour."

In the same vein is Brando in 'Apocalypse Now.'

The main guys in Brotherhood of the Wolf.

The schoolgirl stripper with the, uh, blowgun in Fudoh: The New Generation.

The father/killer in Ju-on: The Curse ("I can see it's a girl...").

And how about Salma Hayek in From Dusk 'Til Dawn?

Kirsten Dunst -- Bring It On

1. Donnie Darko waking up to that view then riding his bike back into town while Echo and the bunnymen play? AWESOME!

2. Lester Burnham's into-narration in American Beauty.

3. A ditto for Tyler Durden and his opening/closing speach in Fight Club.

4. Silence of the Lambs intro of Hannibal Lecter as clarice visits.

5. Oren Ishii's origin in KBV1

6. Morgan Freemans narration of Andy Dufresne's first day at Shawshank.

7. Steve McQueen and Yul Brenner taking the indian to be buried on boot hill in "The Magnificent seven".

8. Sriders introduction in LOTR:FOTR

9. Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean.

10. Batman taking out to hoods in Tim Burtons Batman.

Hellboys intro was cool, as was Abe Sapien. Come to think of it all the heros and villains have a good intor in HB.

The most recent one would be Jack Sparrow for me.

edit: I'm sorry, Captain Jack Sparrow.

Peter Fonda in The Limey. Love that montage.

My vote goes to Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Carribean.

Johnny Depp is simply unbeatable, that look of proud dignity on his face as his ship sinks always cracks me up.

Harmonica

The one that I think was almost as good as Indy's in Raiders of the Lost Ark is Nightcrawler's intro in X-Men 2. That has to be one of the most riviting character intros that I've ever seen.

Bingo.

Excellent.

Doc Holliday in Tombstone....I love his opening...."Why if I thought you weren't my friend, I just don't think I could bear it"...or something to that effect...and his eyes are icey cold

Blade in Blade 1...great intro to a badass character

Agreed on Cpt. Jack Sparrows entrance.

NightCrawler in X2 was great as well.

And this wasnt really the characters entrance, but at the end of LotR: The Two Towers when Gollum started going schizo to set up the way he'd be for RotK, I thought that was brilliant.

Frank.

"I know what your thinking. And the answer is yes, I do have a nickname for my penis. It's called the Octagon."

Whoa, I can't beleive no one's mentioned Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark yet. Maybe because it's just too obvious. But it's just so cool how you see him marching through the forest without seeing his face, and then the reveal with the bullwhip-badassery.

EDIT: Whoops, I'm such a dumbass. Sorry Dragon Ma, I swear I've read this thread before, but I forgot that was the one that started it all.

Guido's anxiety-ridden intro in 8 1/2 is probably tops on my list.

Sharla in Killer Joe.

Sean Connery in Dr. No. "and I admire your luck, Mr..?" "Bond. James Bond."

Marlo Stanfield exits a house and sees Bubbles on the hood of his car with a gun to his head. "Do it or don't," he says, "but I got someplace to be." 

 

The best character introduction to one of the most interesting characters on The Wire. This was the first one that came to mind when I saw the thread title. 

 

As far as movies, I love the introduction of Paul Dano's character in Looper, when he's struggling with his broken hoverbike and yelling at the homeless guy.