Thriller Film Opening Sequences

Although I have studied opening sequences previously, none of them were specifically for Thriller films (although Dawn of the Dead may be seen as a thriller), and so I found some recent examples of thriller openings.

THE DARK KNIGHT
The opening to Christopher Nolan's second Batman film, sets up the villain, the Joker (Heath Ledger). After seeing the studio logo's we cut to an establishing shot of a skyscraper, where one of the windows explodes. It then cuts to a close up of a masked man fixing up a grapple to an opposite roof, before cross cutting to a third man, standing on the side of a road. After crossing back to the man and a third gunman going across onto the roof, we see the man on the street get picked up. Two of the men start talking about the Joker, and when his name is mentioned cuts to the guys on the roof who are fixing an alarm, and back again, to the ground trio on the ground entering a bank and starting a heist. We then cut to the pair on the roof, and see via a two shot one of the men shoot the other, after he completes his job. This continues inside after the vault is opened. The reason for this is 'one less share', however it also shows what kind of person the Joker is, not caring about anything but chaos. During the heist the bank manager tries to intervene, killing one man but being shot. At the end, we see a goon killed by a bus, where the Joker reveals himself through a closeup, telling the bank manager 'whatever doesn't kill you makes you stranger' before driving off in the getaway bus, killing the bank manager with a grenade he placed in his mouth, the pin attached to a string.

This opening shows how dangerous the Joker character is, without any sign of the Batman, and gives the theme of chaos to the audience.

INCEPTION
This film opens on a beach, after the studio logo's, without any title. We cut to a close up of Dom Cobb's face, before cutting to a child playing in the sand. We then see a foreign soldier discover Cobb and call to another troop. It then cuts to the inside of a building where two men are talking, one of the soldiers and we assume their boss. It is subtitled rather than dubbed. Cobb is then brought in, where he is seen talking to a younger man, talking about ideas using the analogy of parasites. After the speech, where Cobb reveals himself to be an 'extractor', we discover they are currently in a dream, and a war is breaking outside the building they are in. The opening to this film is used to demonstrate the idea of stealing dreams.
http://youtu.be/-VXkUzf1et4 (embedding disabled)


TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY
T2 opens with a title card, before cutting to stock footage of traffic and children playing, setting up a normality that the audience can identify with. It then cuts to a ruined car and a skeleton inside, with a date given (2029AD). The destroyed playground is also seen while we hear Sarah Connor narrate about Judgement Day, non-diegetically. She mentions the survivors are in a war against the machines, to which we have a close up of a Terminator crushing a skull. The camera tilts up to reveal it's face, while lasers go off in the background. This cuts to war scenes where men are trying to destroy a tank. We then cut to a man walking through a passageway, while Sarah talks about Terminators being sent back in time, so we assume that we are following John Connor. We cut to a zoom on his face, which then cuts to an explosion. In the explosions foreground are the title credits, in the same font as the title logo. We cuts to different scenes on fire, so the audience can believe that this is the start of Judgment Day. After the credits, we have a zoom on the face of a Terminator through the flames, ending on an extreme close-up of his eyes.
http://youtu.be/N9YU0hQEZ5M (embedding disabled)