3x3: great character introductions

[Tom Chick]

This week's 3x3 begins at the 53-minute mark of our Way Back podcast (http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2011/01/24/qt3-movie-podcast-the-way-back/).

This is an odd one, because any good movie with good characters is probably going to have at least one good character introduction. But what are some of your favorites? What are examples of a movie that uses the acting, writing, and direction to make a memorable character introduction? Who's the character, and why is the introduction special?

Here are the choices we discuss on the podcast:

Kellywand
3. The Dude in The Big Lebowski
2. MacReady in The Thing
1. The Sundance Kid in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Dingus
3. Harry Lime in The Third Man
2. The Joker in The Dark Knight
1. Don Logan in Sexy Beast

Tom Chick
3. Miles in Sideways
2. Everyone in Magnolia
1. Quint in Jaws

Okay, what are your picks?

-Tom

[Hugin]

1. Steve Buscemi's introduction of Antonio Banderas' El Mariachi in Desperado. Now, of course, it's easy/hard to actually formally introduce someone who is meant to be a badass as a badass, but formme the whole scene is made by the gag where Buscemi is explaining that he doesn't know what the guy looks like because his face is always in shadow, and Rodriguez has the shadows shift obligingly just when you'd see Banderas's face. It's just funny and helps give you permission to enjoy whatever ridiculous stuff might follow.

2a, 2b, 2c: Morpheus, Trinity, and Smith in The Matrix. Look, set aside that the series went on to fall apart. There's nothing as crazy and alien as the first time you see the intro of Trinity, before the freeze/rotate/kick and the green filter became a cliche, before we had 500 superhero movies. That scene is like getting hit with a taser. And yet, she's not a cartoon badass. The first thing we learn about Trinity is she's absurdly dangerous, superhumanly so....which makes the second thing we learn about her, 10 seconds later, awesome: she's scared to death and running for her life. Which instantly gives the MIBs cred. And Smiths preternatural calm even while being brutally violent, and his bland foreknowledge of what's going down...great stuff. And finally Morpheus as both Yoda and Dracula and Ginsburg. Magical Negro, but also a seducer, luring the ultimate white boy into his world of jazz and heroin, offering to turn him into a vampire/black panther/bohemian hipster like himself.

3. Darth Vader in Star Wars. Yes, okay, this is a gimme, but really, for an entire generation this is the quintessential "and now, the bad guy" intro in all of cinema. Forget the black hat, he's the black everything. Lucas may never have been subtle, but in a case like this it doesnt matter. It's pure pulp and it's great.

[Tom Chick]

2a, 2b, 2c: Morpheus, Trinity, and Smith in The Matrix. Look, set aside that the series went on to fall apart. There's nothing as crazy and alien as the first time you see the intro of Trinity, before the freeze/rotate/kick and the green filter became a cliche, before we had 500 superhero movies. That scene is like getting hit with a taser. And yet, she's not a cartoon badass. The first thing we learn about Trinity is she's absurdly dangerous, superhumanly so....which makes the second thing we learn about her, 10 seconds later, awesome: she's scared to death and running for her life. Which instantly gives the MIBs cred. And Smiths preternatural calm even while being brutally violent, and his bland foreknowledge of what's going down...great stuff. And finally Morpheus as both Yoda and Dracula and Ginsburg. Magical Negro, but also a seducer, luring the ultimate white boy into his world of jazz and heroin, offering to turn him into a vampire/black panther/bohemian hipster like himself.

Very nice, Hugin.

It's easy to forget how utterly awesome The Matrix was before a thousand imitators made it a cliche. I really couldn't care less what became of George Lucas because the Star Wars movies were just fun pulp. But the Brothers Wachowski who gave us Bound and The Matrix are sorely missed and a genuine loss to movies. :(

-Tom

[John Merva]

Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West. SPOILERS - After the family is brutally murdered, it turns out that the nicest man in Hollywood was responsible. It is a truly shocking moment to see Fonda at the head of the gang and then more than happy to kill a child. SPOILERS

Christ, it always winds me up that I can only ever think of one of these...

[Bahimiron]

3. Darth Vader in Star Wars. See above. When he first comes on screen he's bigger than life, humanity hidden behind an outfit color coded so we know he's the baddest of bad guys. The fact that the stormtroopers don't show their faces either gives the impression of Vader as the godlike master of his own anonymous army. Sure, his enemies seem to fear him, but the only people who seem even more wary are his own people. Even from the first scene you get the impression that his own officers are concerned about crossing him. Something that will be explained shortly.

2. Han Solo in Star Wars. This is a good guy? Really? He's such a jerk. He's not particularly respectful toward Old Ben, but he treats our hero like the whiny kid he pretty much is. And once he's gotten rid of the two dildos that are totally cramping his style, he hauls off and shoots a guy for talking green at him.

1. As much as I wanted to go all Star Wars (Yoda in Empire, for instance! Or just to troll, Dexter Jettster in Attack of the Clones) I'll go with Sanjuro in Yojimbo. There is a quiet moment when we first see him, but it's quickly evident that Sanjuro has lived a violent life and carries that with him wherever he goes. Before long he's cutting men down in the street, leading to the film's best line. "Cooper, two coffins! No, maybe three."

[serling]

Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West. SPOILERS - After the family is brutally murdered, it turns out that the nicest man in Hollywood was responsible. It is a truly shocking moment to see Fonda at the head of the gang and then more than happy to kill a child. SPOILERS

Christ, it always winds me up that I can only ever think of one of these...

Fonda wins in shock value, but I think I'm actually partial to Bronson when it comes to cool character introductions. That eerie harmonica tune was etched onto my brain for months.

[Omniscia]

1. Quint in Jaws

I'll see your Quint in Jaws, and raise you Bruce the Shark in Jaws.

"You're gonna need a bigger boat..."

[John Merva]

Fonda wins in shock value, but I think I'm actually partial to Bronson when it comes to cool character introductions. That eerie harmonica tune was etched onto my brain for months.

Yeah, but there's something more to Fonda's character than Harmonica. I think Frank is more of a character, whereas Harmonica may as well be the Terminator for all the character he's given.

[peacedog]

It's easy to forget how utterly awesome The Matrix was before a thousand imitators made it a cliche.

Or before the two sequels made us Forget that the Wachowski's actually had any talent whatsoever, and that the series was once one excellent movie instead of complete shit.

1. I have to chose Darth Vader as well. The intro is so perfect, and it had such an impact on me as a kid. This is the kind of stuff Lucas lost touch with (or maybe never had). Lucas wants to use show effects, shitty dialog, and over-done costumes to try and paint a picture. The picture here is simplicity itself but is 1000x more effective at telling a story than anything in episodes 1-3.

Even Lee Van Cleef would have hesitated a little bit at the site of Darth Vader appearing on the streets. But only a little bit.

2. How about Indiana Jones? One of the great all time movie openings. We get to see Indy first use his brains to navigate traps and obstacles (and de-tarantula Alfred Molena, a scene that has burned itself into my brains and sometimes still causes me to wake up screaming). But then a failure to properly estimate (possibly; we'll never know if just the right amount of sand would have prevented the trap from going off) forces him to rely on his physical abilities to escape. Only to have his treasure stolen.

At that point we've seen it all - this is an intelligent, quick witted guy who is also physically up to the sort of insane tasks he apparently likes to undertake in the name of history. And his luck might be a little hard as well.

[Mightynute]

3 - Ash Campbell, Army of Darkness. "My name is Ash, and I am a slave." The overdramatic, slightly-campy voiceover sets the tone for the whole movie and lets you know not that while the character takes the entire setting seriously, you as the audience aren't meant to.

2 - Alex Owens, Flashdance. C'mon, it's Jennifer Beals all sweaty in a steel mill and... what were we talking about again?

1 - Tyler Durden, Fight Club. From the get-go, he breaks all the rules that the Narrator has set out for his life. Starting up a random conversation, no real concept of personal boundaries, even the way he dresses sets him apart in the first scene on the airplane, like a highlighted object in a 1990s computer game saying "Click on me, I am important!"

[sinnick]

3. Marge Gunderson (from up Brainerd) in Fargo
She's the most memorable character in the movie, possibly in the entire Coen Brothers' career, and she's not introduced until the second act. That's ballsy! It's very early in the morning, and she wakes up to the phone ringing. We know a murder has happened. "Hi, it's Marge. ... Oh, my. Where? ... Yah. Aw, jeez....OK, there in a jiff." She then has a conversation with her husband Norm about how she's "gotta eat a breakfast". It's only then that she stands up and we see that she's pregnant. Kelly commented on the podcast how usually when a woman is introduced, it's with a long, loving shot that pans up her body. This intro is like the reverse of that. I love how this short scene establishes who she is so perfectly.

2. Mozart, in Amadeus
Salieri attends a Cardinal's reception in the hopes of meeting the new genius composer. His voice-over right before meeting Mozart goes: "This man had written his first concerto at the age of four; his first symphony at seven; a full-scale opera at twelve. Did it show? Is talent like that written on the face?" Before the performance, he sneaks into a side room to steal some sweets and eavesdrops on a vulgar little man cavorting on the ground with a girl. We of course know this is Mozart. But what sells the intro I think, is the look on Salieri's face when he finally realizes who he is looking at.

1. Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs
Still one of my favourite character entrances. As Clarice Starling approaches the last cell on the left, and Hannibal comes into view, it's as though he has been staring at her with X-ray vision through the brick as she walks down the hall, and his politeness combined with the intensity of his glare is so unsettling when compared to all the insane rapists she's just walked by.

[sinnick]

2. How about Indiana Jones?

I believe Tom took that one off the table last week.

[forgeforsaken]

3 - Ash Campbell, Army of Darkness. "My name is Ash, and I am a slave." The overdramatic, slightly-campy voiceover sets the tone for the whole movie and lets you know not that while the character takes the entire setting seriously, you as the audience aren't meant to.


My only problem with this is this is it's the third movie in a series. It's a good introduction for those that haven't seen the Evil Dead films but it's not the first time the character was introduced.

[Mightynute]

My only problem with this is this is it's the third movie in a series. It's a good introduction for those that haven't seen the Evil Dead films but it's not the first time the character was introduced.

Yeah, but at the time, only nerds with subscriptions to Fangoria were likely to have seen Evil Dead or Evil Dead 2. For most of the regular world, Army of Darkness was their introduction to the character. It was mine, therefore it counts.

[Anders Hallin]

The first one that comes to mind for me is Wolverine in X-Men.

[peacedog]

I believe Tom took that one off the table last week.

I didn't hear the podcast. And I don't care.

[sinnick]

I didn't hear the podcast. And I don't care.

It is a great introduction. One of the best.

[Hans Lauring]

I didn't hear the podcast. And I don't care.

Exactly.
Tom pretty much takes Star Wars off the table every week and yet those voting for Darth Vader are absolutely right.
(In fact there's a lot of very good picks already, so I'm not sure I can come up with any I feel can compare)

[dtolman]

If the criteria is memorable, then I go with:
The Peter Fonda montage/introduction in The Limey. The whole character summed up in a few seconds of silent screen time.

The Alien in Alien. Deadly and popping out from where you least expect it - just like the Alien throughout the rest of the movie.

Bill Murray in Ghostbusters. No wait - Bill Murray in Zombieland. Crap... what about Bill Murray in Groundhogs Day? Or Lost in Translation? I'll make #3, Bill Murray in Any Movie with a character played by Bill Murray

[Delta]

Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men. You see him first being pushed into a police car in the first shot that isn't landscape.

Then, they cut directly (I think) to the policeman reporting the arrest over the telephone, and over his shoulder we see Chigurh stealthily stepping out of the handcuffs so they're in front of him, coming up behind the man, and, in a horrifically prolonged scene, garroting him with the cuffs.

It's a moment of the film I find hard to watch, yet it's a perfect introduction to that character.

[Bill Dungsroman]

1. Randall Tex Cobb's Leonard Smalls in Raising Arizona. "Smalls. Leonard Smalls. My friends call me Lenny...but I got no friends..."

2. Robert Duvall's Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore in Apocalypse Now.

3. Bruce Willis' character in Unbreakable. I just really liked how removing his wedding ring made him out to be a cad at first.

[Kemper Boyd]

Here's three:

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

All three characters have great intros that lay out their character very well. I especially love the "ugly" intro - "Blondie!!!" - and how it is echoed later in the movie.

...and for good measure, Keyser Soze from The Usual Suspects may be the best ever.

...also, the father-daughter shooting scene from Kick Ass is a great intro to Big Daddy and Hit Girl.

[cannedwombat]

Vader is at the top of my list as well. That image of him emerging from the smoke is seared into my brain.

Other notables:

1) The first glimpse of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. Does CGI count?

2) The Jesus in The Big Lebowski.

[Kelly Wand]

If you watch the Star Wars movies in chronological or episode-number order, as no doubt Mr. Lucas intends, Vader's intro is now in Watto's junk-shop.

[peacedog]

If you watch the Star Wars movies in chronological or episode-number order, as no doubt Mr. Lucas intends, Vader's intro is now in Watto's junk-shop.

I recall no "yipee" in the scene. A missed opportunity if there ever was one.

[metta]

If you watch the Star Wars movies in chronological or episode-number order, as no doubt Mr. Lucas intends, Vader's intro is now in Watto's junk-shop.

Only if you believe the kid was born Vader, and didn't become Vader as a result of the choices he made. I would argue that not even the Vader we see at the end of Episode 3 is the same person that boards Leia's cruiser in Episode IV.

[Brad Grenz]

Bill Murray in Ghostbusters. No wait - Bill Murray in Zombieland. Crap... what about Bill Murray in Groundhogs Day? Or Lost in Translation? I'll make #3, Bill Murray in Any Movie with a character played by Bill Murray

I'd go with Venkman in Ghostbusters. He so perfectly smarmy in that experiment as he hits on the girl and shocks the poor dude, even when he gets the question right!

[russellmz00]

1.you ever been mistaken for a man?

no. have you?

2. Shimada saves a little child through guile and skill.

3. experiment 626 does something so disgusting off-screen, he makes a robot throw up nuts and bolts.

[Djscman]

3) The Ringo Kid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pu9V85Njg8) in Stagecoach. "Hi, I'm John Wayne and I'll be in a bunch of these here kinds of movies."

2) Mouse in Devil In A Blue Dress. Easy Rawlins' friends refer to Mouse in hushed, nervous tones. Easy briefly remembers Mouse's gold capped teeth in a montage punctuated by gunfire. Then when Don Cheadle shows up, he's not in Easy's house for more than five minutes before he shoots somebody (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBabUNpa8mQ).

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5290/5252684343_77ffafa953.jpg

1. Something beloved arrives that will destroy the world. The traveler has come (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JVkonHpxKk).


Honorable Mentions: Max Fischer in Rushmore up to the point his headmaster mentions him. "He's the worst student we've got." Ned Beatty's character Mr. Jensen in Network, described by Paul Newman as a suit, and indeed that's what he appears to be, crusty but benign. But he totally transcends that later on. Oh, and Tom Sizemore's gruffer-than-a-billy-goat sergeant in Saving Private Ryan. He hits Omaha Beach and starts scooping sand into a can, next to cans labeled "North Africa" and "Italy".

[dermot]

1.you ever been mistaken for a man?

no. have you?

2. Shimada saves a little child through guile and skill.

3. experiment 626 does something so disgusting off-screen, he makes a robot throw up nuts and bolts.
I know the Aliens quote but come on - name the bloody movies so that people who've never seen them have a chance!

[Djscman]

I know the Aliens quote but come on - name the bloody movies so that people who've never seen them have a chance!

They're pretty famous: Seven Samurai and Lilo & Stitch.

[Hugin]

They're pretty famous: Seven Samurai and Lilo & Stitch.

I've seen both movies, heck, I own Seven Samurai, and had no idea what you were talking about.

[Kelly Wand]

Only if you believe the kid was born Vader, and didn't become Vader as a result of the choices he made. I would argue that not even the Vader we see at the end of Episode 3 is the same person that boards Leia's cruiser in Episode IV.

You misspelled different Lucases.

[Gabe Lewis]

Even then, you'd have to admit that he's Vader when he puts on the black suit and Palpatine starts calling him "Vader" all the time right? Which means this is Vader's introduction:

http://blogs.gamefilia.com/files/imce/u18103/nooooo.jpg

[cannedwombat]

Trying to reconcile the first three Star Wars with the original three is like trying to perform integration on a grapefruit.

As far as I'm concerned, Vader is introduced in Episode 4.

[Uncle Larry]

The usual suspects have once again stolen all the best ones (someone even snatched my pick from The Usual Suspects) so I'll just name some memorable ones off the top of my head:

Francis Begbie, Trainspotting "No cunt leaves here 'til we found out what cunt did it."

Jules Winnfield, Pulp Fiction "Do they speak English in What?

James Bond, Casino Royale "Yes. Considerably."

Clarence J. Boddicker, RoboCop "Can you fly, Bobby?"

Harmonica, Once Upon a Time in the West "You brought two too many."

[alonzo]

I'm really surprised no one has mentioned the opening of Let the Right One In where we meet Oscar in his bedroom with that knife. Its such an unusual and unsettling scene, then when it is replayed later it just adds even more to the character.

This is a little similar in that the replaying of the scene later in the film changes the dynamic of the character, but the opening of Hunger is one of my favourite character introductions and even opening scenes - it says so much and it's so physical and detailed rather than dialogue-based.

[Wing of ilium]

A lot of good picks here. I'm not sure if this counts, but Jason Bourne. That scene on the park bench with the two cops getting the shit beat out of them is beautifully shot and goes off like clockwork. We already knew he was a spy/field op, but this really set the stage for a new "cool" in how hand to hand sequences get handled while telling us exactly what the character is capable of.

Roger Rabbit. Bear with me, but that sequence is still gorgeous and looks so strangely realistic in its rendering that when the live action breaks in there it's oddly seamless. And wow, he really is a cartoon rabbit.

I'm sure I'll come up with a third one.

[Strato]

I really only have one and that is Private Ryan's introduction in Saving Private Ryan. Well, I guess it carries across two scenes, the first with the ambush outside of town, the surprise of Captain Miller knowing Ryan's full name and hometown, then dealing with the loss of his brothers and the seemingly absurd idea of Miller and co mission being sent to find him. Matt Damon acted out this immediately likeable sort of guy.

[Bill]

I really only have one and that is Private Ryan's introduction in Saving Private Ryan. Well, I guess it carries across two scenes, the first with the ambush outside of town, the surprise of Captain Miller knowing Ryan's full name and hometown, then dealing with the loss of his brothers and the seemingly absurd idea of Miller and co mission being sent to find him. Matt Damon acted out this immediately likeable sort of guy.

I think you're misremembering--we're first introduced to Ryan while he's visiting the Omaha Beach cemetary with his family. And this leads to probably my most hated character introduction: it fades from Ryan's eyes at the cemetery to Tom Hanks' eyes in the landing craft, which by convention leads you to think that they're one and the same character. I guess Spielberg did this as a "gotcha", but I just thought it was lame and pointless.

[sinnick]

I think you're misremembering--we're first introduced to Ryan while he's visiting the Omaha Beach cemetary with his family. And this leads to probably my most hated character introduction: it fades from Ryan's eyes at the cemetery to Tom Hanks' eyes in the landing craft, which by convention leads you to think that they're one and the same character. I guess Spielberg did this as a "gotcha", but I just thought it was lame and pointless.

I'm not sure what you're talking about, Bill. Saving Private Ryan doesn't have two lame bookend scenes. It starts with the boats at Normandy and ends right after Tom Hanks dies. It certainly doesn't have some sort of bizarre Matt Damon face-morph scene. Nope, those scenes didn't happen! Right? Right? Who's with me?

[Erik J.]

Though minor, I always found Sex Machine's intro in Dusk Till Dawn pretty amusing.

[Strato]

I think you're misremembering--we're first introduced to Ryan while he's visiting the Omaha Beach cemetary with his family. And this leads to probably my most hated character introduction: it fades from Ryan's eyes at the cemetery to Tom Hanks' eyes in the landing craft, which by convention leads you to think that they're one and the same character. I guess Spielberg did this as a "gotcha", but I just thought it was lame and pointless.

You don't actually know it is Ryan though until right at the end, so I refuse to call that an introduction.

[Bill]

I'm not sure what you're talking about, Bill. Saving Private Ryan doesn't have two lame bookend scenes. It starts with the boats at Normandy and ends right after Tom Hanks dies. It certainly doesn't have some sort of bizarre Matt Damon face-morph scene. Nope, those scenes didn't happen! Right? Right? Who's with me?

Now that's a director's cut I could get behind!