Why do some movies begin with an ending?

I think he means starting with a scene near the end, or in the middle of the film, then telling how the character got to that point, not telling the story backwards. Could be a lot of reasons. Sometimes when a movie needs to lay a lot of pipe to get the plot in motion, it's a way to open your movie with a burst of excitement to get the audience's attention. Then you give them a breather while you do all the tedious exposition. Or to intrigue the audience with a mystery to tease them along. Like showing the character in some extreme situation, then showing how he was just a regular shrub a few weeks ago, leaving you to wonder how he got into that situation. It's a tactic, a lot of time used to cover up a deficiency in the story and/or to make it more interesting than it would be if just told in a linear fashion.
 
Opening a TV show with a whiz-bang climax scene and then cutting to "16 hours earlier," etc., has gotten to be WAY overused in the last few years.
 
The narrative (structural) reason is that it is an extreme form of telegraphing. When you know where it is going, every moment that doesn't appear to go in that direction increases dramatic tension. Context is everything and when this technique is used well the assumptions you make in the opening scene are almost always subverted. The apparent good guy/bad guy roles may in fact be reversed. Certain death may be revealed to not actually be the case. Alternatively a death may be proved a worthwhile and meaningful sacrifice. Or in a tragedy a noble sacrifice may be revealed to be meaningless, the hero a victim of a misperception. A film that does not subvert the original assumptions is generally applying unusual editing techniques to fix pacing issues or compensate for an otherwise flat script. Occasionally it is a gimmick that the entire structure of the film is built on (Memento).
 
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