Clarity on opening a book with "action"

[kennyc]

"In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing."
- Norman Maclean A River Runs through It

 

[Helen]

When people advise to make the opening of a book exciting with action, are they talking about literally having an action scene going on, like a car chase for instance; or are they talking about someone doing something in general rather than just a general opening narrative giving the reader some type of introduction to what's going on?

Like someone could be leaving the house and getting into their car, then driving off to wherever they need to go.

When I think of action I think of car chases, shootouts, etc.

Watch SPECTRE and a bunch of Bond movies. They seem to do this pretty well.