The Best and Most Hooky Openings

Discuss books, films and what-nots which you have become interested in purely because of an outstanding tagline or blurb or opening sentence. Bonus points for providing the examples.

The Dresden Files is one example for me. I was in a random bookshop in Alberta, Canada and was just skimming spines. Saw a book called Storm Front, which sounded interesting, and I liked the cover (some dude standing somewhere). I can't remember the exact words, but I loved the way Dresden introduces himself in a completely normal way, as if his being a wizard based in Chicago is a non-event. This theme continues with another example, courtesy of Shorty:

Quote:

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"A friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep. Welcome to Night Vale.

Hello, listeners. To start things off, I've been asked to read this brief notice. The city council announces the opening of a new dog park at the corner of Earl and Somerset, near the Ralph's. They would like to remind everyone that dogs are not allowed in the dog park. People are not allowed in the dog park. It is possible you will see hooded figures in the dog park. Do not approach them. Do not approach the dog park. The fence is electrified and highly dangerous. Try not to look at the dog park, and especially, do not look for any period of time at the hooded figures. The dog park will not harm you."

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An utterly creepy and unusual concept expressed in as mundane a way as possible.

And Yahtzee covers A Machine For Pigs excellent opening line - "Daddy, please don't kill me." in his Extra Punctuation article. It is similarly attractive to me as the examples above; something truly bizarre stated as something average.

I love openings like these. :)

Extension activity; talk about incredible endings that have hooked you even further.

The opening line to The Gunslinger made me want to keep reading. "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. " The sentence is so simple, yet it raises so many questions that you need to keep reading in order to understand. Who is the man in black? Who is the gunslinger? Why is one following the other? (I will admit that my patience wore thin for a while later on reading, which I still am, but I'm still interested enough in the story to continue.)

Same thing for the opening text of The Night Circus. "The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not." I fall all over this kind of stuff. Mystery intrigues me. Forcing me to ask questions is my favorite kind of introduction to a story.

I'll post more when I've had some time to think on others! :jess:

I want to mention Saving Private Ryan, but perhaps ironically the first three times I watched this film, the opening sequence is the only part I watched. It took me four attempts to finally bother to actually watch the rest, not because it was boring or anything... I don't even know why. But the opening scene was just wow, and it does deserve a mention in a thread like this.

The start of Intouchables hooked me immediately. I loved it.