Cold open noun phrase
In a motion picture, television program or video game, a scene shown before the theme song or opening titles are shown.
The cold opening of this movie was so suspenseful that it won my attention and kept me from channel surfing.
A perfect cold opening for drama series is the one succeeding at increasing suspense.
The origin of this phrase is not clear.
To quit; to give up, stop doing something because you know that you cannot succeed; admit defeat
The team is not going to throw in the towel just because they lost one game.