Opening Sequences - Introducing enigma/mystery

The Usual Suspects:
Frequently films begin with an establishing shot of the location where the film's action will take place, to help orientate the audience. The very first shot of The Usual Suspects is the exact opposite of this, an extreme close up of a book of matches being lit. The director has deliberately withheld information regarding the location to unsettle the audience. This sense of mystery is reinforced through the continued use of low key lighting which makes it difficult for the audience to clearly see either character or location. We witness a number of dead bodies and the boat on fire but we are given no idea why these things are happening. It feels as if we are coming into this story after something significant has already occurred.

The audience is introduced to two characters but are given very little information about who they are, and we don't even see one of them clearly at all. As one of the characters kills the other we are given absolutely no indication as to why he did this. The non-diegetic music is also mysterious and there are shots which imply that the characters are being watched. The scene ends with a dissolve which suggests the majority of the film will be a flashback revealing what has happened.

Goodfellas:
Goodfellas also begins with a scene that withholds information from the audience before cutting to a flashback that fills in story information for the viewer (this lasts for almost 3/4 of the movie).

Again the scene begins unconventionally without a traditional establishing shot which would help orientate the audience. Instead the first shot is a medium close up of the back of a car driving at night. The fact it is at night further disorientates the audience and it is only a title card which indicates where and when the narrative takes place (New York - 1970).

As the scene progresses the camera stays tightly framed with close ups of characters in the car. They pull over when they hear a noise in the boot and kill a man by repeatedly stabbing him. It is implied that they thought the man in the boot was dead but had failed to kill him the first time. Enigma is created as the audience do not know why the man has been killed or who any of the characters in the car are.

The Bourne Identity:
The scene begins with a worm's-eye-view of a body floating in the ocean. Again, there is no conventional establishing shot which instantly disorientates the audience and leaves them asking questions about the body, why it is in the water and where the action is taking place.

As sailors fish the body out of the water further enigma is created as the man wears a wetsuit riddled with bullet holes and has a number of scars across his body. The sense of mystery is further enhanced by the sinister non-diegetic music and the fact that the sailor pulls a tracking chip that has been embedded under the floating man's skin.

The sense of mystery is intensified by the man's violent reaction when he wakes up and the fact that not only does he not know about how he got into the water but also by the fact that he doesn't know who he is.