Blue Velvet -- from icons of classic Americana (the fire truck with waving firemen, the white picket fence, the roses) to the seamy underbelly of beastly insects battling just beneath the surface of the perfectly green lawn. Perfect thematic representation of the noir journey Jeffrey Beaumont is about to begin.

"Did you hear that? They've shut down the main reactor!"

So little dialogue, so much camera-centric storytelling...

So effective.

Brazil...

A smarmy Central Services pitchman on a TV in a showroom window is hawking brand new furnace duct designs to suit "your demanding tastes."

And then the entire scene is promptly blown to smithereens by what can only be presumed to be a terrorist bombing.

Talk about "setting the tone for what's to come," eh?

The Matrix.

They skipped over all the exposition and went straight for the WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT IT WAS SO AWESOME OMG SHE JUST JUMPED OFF A ROOFTOP INTO A WINDOW HOLY CRAP! moment.