The 20 Greatest Title Sequences of All-Time

Everybody has to do one of these lists, right? I've been thinking about it for a while and decided it was time to just throw it out there. 
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Really my only rule when compiling this list was making sure that I had actually seen every movie that I put on the list. Therefore, I didn't go trolling around Youtube just watching credits sequences. These are films that I have a great appreciation for that I've all seen at least once and could recall them from memory. Oh yeah, and the quality of the film (as you'll see) has no bearing on their place on this list. So here we go:


(IF A VIDEO WILL NOT PLAY DUE TO EMBEDDING RESTRICTIONS, SIMPLY FOLLOW THE LINK TO WATCH ON YOUTUBE.)
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#20

"ROSEMARY'S BABY"

Title Sequence Designed by Wayne Fitzgerald and Stephen Frankfurt

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A spare, almost shrill lullaby plays over delicate, pink titles against the Manhattan skyscape to begin Polanski's paranoid masterwork. The fact that it's so clearly Mia Farrow - and that it plays again at the end - makes it all the more indelible. 
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#19

"RAGING BULL"

Title Sequence Designed by Dan Perri

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Pietro Mascagni's "Intermezzo" from Cavalleria rusticana has quite the presence over Martin Scorsese's brutal, elegant boxing drama, never as prominently as in the opening few minutes, set to a slow-motion view of Robert De Niro's Jake La Motta bouncing in the ring.
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#18

"THE GETAWAY"

Title Sequence Designed by Latigo Productions

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Featuring Sam Peckinpah's stop-and-start visuals and a pervasive sound design, this sequence quite brilliantly sets up this underrated masterwork from one of the greatest (and notoriously divisive) filmmakers of the 60's and 70's. 
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(Opening credits are about the first five minutes of the below video.)
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#17

"SPIDER-MAN"

Title Sequence Designed by Ahmet Ahmet

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Danny Elfman may show up later here, but his opening title compositions have always been works of art since he began collaborating with Tim Burton back in the 80's. The soft, comic-style renderings of the titles to "Spider-Man 2" are certainly a bit easier on the eyes than these rough CG spider webs, yet I decided to go with the original here.
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#16

"FORBIDDEN PLANET"

Title Sequence Designed by Somebody

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Certainly the most spare, musically-neglectful title sequence on this list, these ominous titles, utilizing groundbreaking sound effects, are far more effective than Bernard Herrman's theremin. 
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#15

"THE SOCIAL NETWORK"
Title Sequence Designed by Neil Kellerhouse

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David Fincher is a firm believer in the title sequence and his best, thanks to the lovely, exquisite Trent Reznor track, is the sequence for "The Social Network". Featuring Jesse Eisenberg's Mark Zuckerberg jogging across campus, the titles quite brilliantly foreshadow the subject's impending burst of creativity, invention.
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(The sequence isn't available online anywhere, but I'm sure you've seen it anyway if you're reading this, below is simply the audio track.)
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#14

"HIGH NOON"

Title Sequence Designed by Somebody

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Tex Ritter's familiar jingly-jangly theme song plays ironically over the menacing, no frills meeting between three baddies about to ride into town. The song's lyrics paint the picture to come, but the melody and instrumentation are equally sincere, foreboding. 
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#13

"THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM"

Title Sequence Designed by Saul Bass

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My favorite of Saul Bass' titles for Otto Preminger, this is one of the premier examples of the jazzy, Saul Bass black-and-white jagged-edge aesthetic. 
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#12

"SPARTACUS"

Title Sequence Designed by Saul Bass

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One of his more unique sequences, these austere, four-minute titles feature an epic Alex North piece over sparsely-lit images of sculptured features and scripture. 
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#11

"PSYCHO"

Title Sequence Designed by Saul Bass

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Fleet, frenzied and helter-skelter, this marks the first Saul Bass/Alfred Hitchcock collaboration on this list, and you can bet it won't be the last. The Bernard Herrman track screeches and shrieks with Bass' shuffling, migrating lines and words struggling to keep up, assimilating in front of us. 
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#10

"ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13"

Title Sequence Designed by Somebody

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I know I'm going to catch flack for this, but I believe John Carpenter's title sequences, especially this one, to be criminally overlooked. There's really no design to speak of (it's just red type against a black background), but his timing to his resoundingly unforgettable snyth score is so remarkable and majestic that it takes a hold of you. 

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#9

"McCABE AND MRS. MILLER"

Title Sequence Designed by Anthony Goldschmidt

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Leonard Cohen's "Song of Leonard Cohen" fits Robert Altman's 1971 anti-Western so snugly that it's a miracle they weren't composed with one another in mind. This opening sequence so fitfully arranges a unique version of Cohen's "The Stranger Song" (there's a rare instrumental break that can be heard here) that it forever has ingrained itself to Zsigmondi's images of a clumsy, bumbling Warren Beatty riding into town.
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#8

"WATCHMEN"

Title Sequence Designed by Garson Yu

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There's a lot wrong with Zack Snyder's elegantly-styled, clumsily-told adaptation of Alan Moore's "Watchmen," including his taste in music, but this opening title sequence, featuring Bob Dylan's "Times Are 'A Changing" is quite brilliant. In just under six-minutes, it helps to establish the graphic novel's convoluted, decades-long mythology by placing its superheroes at the scene of some of the country's most historically relevant scenes. 
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#7

"NORTH BY NORTHWEST"

Title Sequence Designed by Saul Bass

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Saul Bass' use of line and color here is impeccable, as he once again matches Herrman's bombastic brass stride-for-stride. That it eventually turns into an establishing shot of an office building is just icing on the cake.

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#6

"PLANET OF THE APES"

Title Sequence Designed by Robert Dawson

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Tim Burton's 2001 remake of "Planet of the Apes" is a stiff, god-awful big-budget calamity, yet if you're just watching the opening credits (set to a bombastic Danny Elfman piece) you wouldn't know it.
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(The sequence isn't uploaded anywhere, below is simply the main title track from Danny Elfman.)
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#5

"EXPERIMENT IN TERROR"

Title Sequence Designed by Somebody

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Henry Mancini composed some remarkable pieces for films in the 60's, and Blake Edward's against-type, thoroughly-effective San Francisco-based procedural fits Mancini's noirish jazz tune like a glove. That you get some silky black-and-white images of the Golden Gate Bridge is an added bonus.
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#4

"ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST"

Title Sequence Desgined by Somebody

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Sergio Leone's ode to the American West is, in this viewer's opinion, one of finest filmmaking feats of all-time - skillful, composed, operatic - and this over ten-minute title sequence is the perfect introduction. Just listen to that sound design and watch his camera - magically stuff.
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#3

"VERTIGO"

Title Sequence Designed by Saul Bass

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The holy grail of title sequences, it seems like. It's hard to argue when it so perfectly captures Hitchcock's film about identity, obsession and the deadly allure of the female figure. Floating around a woman's facial feature and popping up titles synched to one of the greatest musical pieces (and scores) of all-time, this one's a keeper.
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#2

"ARABESQUE"

Title Sequence Designed by Maurice Binder

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Seldom seen, this title sequence features one helluva track by Henry Mancini set to a kaleidoscope of colors and optical tricks by notable trickster Maurice Binder. That the film, a dull stab at capturing the globe-trotting espionage of late Hitchcock, is pretty much a complete misfire, only seems to elevate its opening titles.
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#1

"THE SPY WHO LOVED ME"

Title Sequence Designed by Maurice Binder

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Ah yes, there just had to be some James Bond on here, right? On the whole, I'm not really a huge fan of the big, hallucinogenic Shirley Bassey Bond titles, but the second I heard Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better," I was in love. 

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Set against trampolining silhouettes and babes twirling off gun-barrels, the sequence captures the sexy, romanticized espionage of not only the film, but the series and the character of James Bond. Enjoy.
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Honorable Mention:

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"Footloose"

"Escape From New York"

"Lolita"

"Days of Heaven"

"Gone With the Wind"

"Where Eagles Dare"

"Zombieland"

"Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"

"The Third Man"