Bad Prologues vs Good Prologues (Writing Advice)

Positive note I want to add about Batman v Superman (SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING): BvS begins and ends with a death/funeral. This helps bring the movie full-circle, which works in that regard.

The Dark Knight has easily one of the most memorable and near perfect openings, as it combines action, crime, shock, chaos, betrayal, all to introduce the psychotic, anarchic, master villain Joker in a prologue that doesn't wear out its welcome, coming in at just around five minutes.

I always liked the prologue to „Megamind“. It does everything: establishes tone, genre, main characters and conflict plus the backstory of the main characters. Also it‘s visually engaging, Action-packed, and, the best part, hilarious. Highly underrated movie, I feel.

A bit late to the party but I've always loved the prologue for the 2007 film, I Am Legend. It's a news segment where Dr. Krippin (played by Emma Thompson, perfectly cast for such a tiny role) declares that she has genetically altered the measles virus and has actually cured cancer. Cut to "Three Years Later" and the world has been devastated by the "Krippin Virus." That's all the backstory you need. Everything else is told visually.

I like Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds. Sets the tone, introduces the main villain and establishes how terrifying and intelligent he is and sets another key character on her revenge quest which comes full circle by the end of the film.

This is the new one, but I REALLY loved the prologue in Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse introducing Gwen's backstory quickly while also telling us what's going to happen in the movie. It shows immediately that she and her relationship with Miles will be in big focus, while she's telling what happened in the past it's foreshadowing to what's going to happen later in the movie, it perfectly cuts to introduction of Miguel O'Hara and Jessica Drew and how Gwen ended up with them. It's also there to remind us that a lot of Gwen's decisions in the film were based on her past before she met Miles and again before she reunited with him.

“About as fun as a child’s funeral”

It is crazy that when using Last Crusade as a bad example due to length you didn't use Raiders as the counter-example which does a PERFECT job of setting up all franchise elements in a timely manner, not just the film itself.

This is going to be obvious, but the prologue from Pixar's Up is not only my favorite prologue, it's my favorite part of the movie. The rest of the movie never reaches that emotional high, I can even say you can just watch the prologue and skip the rest of the movie. My second favorite? The prologue from the cinematic videogame The Last of Us.

I actually love the Last Crusade's prologue. It's a great young Indy adventure with a great actor as young Indy. Wish we could see more.

Ever since I saw the prologue for the first LotR more than 20 years ago now (good lord) I have been absolutely in love with it. That's just pure perfection. Oftentimes when I need that LotR itch scratched and don't have time to watch 12 hour long movie (and damn right I would) I just need to see the prologue. Also, pro tip - have Cate Blanchett read your boring prologue. She'll make it work, because she's a goddess. 😂

Zombieland's prologue is great. It perfectly sets the tone, while throughout the rest of the movie there are often call backs to it.

The White Walkers scene from GoT s1 e1 sets such a terrifying tone. It was perfect.

The Princess Bride has two prologues - the sick kid & grandfather and the backstop of Westley and Buttercup's romance - but you don't mind at all watching it because they're done so well.

My pet peeve is when they are not confident their story will be engaging so they show basically the climax of the movie, and then say "Three days earlier..." or some such thing. It's like saying hey this is going to be really boring for a while but in the meantime try to remember how much excitement is coming later if you just stick it out.

My favourite movie prologue is one that you mentioned (and showed) in passing but didn't get into: Jurassic Park. It accomplishes so much in a delightfully short amount of time. That the cinematography is absolutely perfect certainly helps (as it does throughout the film, which I contest is Spielberg's masterpiece). In a movie that will take HALF its runtime to become the monster survival flick we know and love (the iconic shot of the T-Rex roaring beside the cars, the first full-body look at a predator in the film, comes EXACTLY 50% of the way through), and will consist mostly of philosophical speeches and discussions, the prologue does ALL the heavy lifting of establishing genre to prepare us for the incredibly slow-paced build. Jurassic Park simply would not function without the prologue hanging over our heads to remind us that dinosaurs are enormous, terrifying beasts that can kill and eat us almost without trying, if given the chance. It's that knowledge that allows us to get behind every single one of our protagonists as they lecture Hammond on precisely why and how this is a colossally bad idea. It's the counterweight to all the majesty and wonder that fills the first half of the film, as we bask in the magic of seeing dinosaurs in all their glory, paired with possibly the greatest film score of all time. All of that - ALL of that - is balanced by a couple dark minutes in the rain, where we see just the eyes of a single raptor for only a second, as a man is slowly pulled into a giant box, while a minor character screams "SHOOT HER!" That's the tension. That's why the power outage works. Why the lawyer running to the outhouse and abandoning the kids works. It's why the ripples in the water works. We've understood the REAL danger behind the facade the whole time, because we saw it in the prologue. In case you hadn't guessed, Jurassic Park is my favourite movie XD

I really love the prologue in the game Arkham Knight. At first it feels totally disconnected (you are not even Batman) then there's a very spooky surprise and suddenly you understand the point of that scene and everything is then connected. It introduces the vilan quite nicely and conveys info of why the city won't be totally populated. AND is super short.

Bad Vs Good use of violence would be interesting. Violence should be shocking, tell us something about a character and convey a plot point. It shouldn't be boring or unnecessary.

The prologue for RAIDERS OTLA is the best in the business by a mile. The creepy music as they move through the jungle, the mounting threat, the bullwhip, the spiders, booby traps, that escape- it's just perfect

Very informative. “Never use a prologue that doesn’t include your main protagonist” was what I’ve always heard. I liked the nuance of this video much more.