Many good ones have been named, but this beats all for me:
Luke Skywalker and the binary sunset from Star Wars
Alex staring right at the camera in the milkbar in A Clockwork Orange.
The pull back from the intake of a supercharger to the face of Mel Gibson behind the wheel of his V-8 interceptor at the start of Mad Max II (The Road Warrior)
The long aerial shot traveling shot of British soldiers assaulting a German-held town in The Longest Day
No offense, but that bit – like everything else in the history of action movies – pales in comparison to Indy gunning down the swordsman.
Or you just describe the scene without even naming the movie:
-Audrey Hepburn in her tiara standing in front of Tiffany’s nibbling on a pastry
-Darth Vader with his fist clenched saying, “No, I am your father” and Luke backing away.
-Gregory Peck standing in the courtroom in his white suit
-Sissy Spacek standing in her pink prom gown, drenched in pig’s blood
-Marilyn in her pink dress, surrounded by tuxedoed admirers.
This is hard! It has to begin with Fargo though, it being my favorite movie and all. This really isn’t in any order except number 1.
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Gaear is in the midst of pushing Carl (or Carl’s leg) through the woodchipper when he turns to see Marge standing there.
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Don Corleone holding a Kitten
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The showdown in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (specifically the three men standing there ready to go)
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Tim Robbins with his hands in the air right after escaping from Shawshank.
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Kane on Stage
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King Kong on top of the Empire State Building swatting away airplanes.
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Kujan drops the coffee cup in The Usual Suspects.
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The little girl in Red in Schindlers List.
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The four friends on the Yellow Brick Road in The Wizard of Oz.
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Indiana running from the Boulder
The the beach scene from “From Here to Eternity.” I’ve not quite gotten around to seeing that movie, but I know that scene. Everyone knows that scene
The burning sled in Citizen Kane.
Marilyn (the character doesn’t even have a name) over the steam in “The Seven Year Itch”
The baby carriage rattling down the steps in Potemkin.
The closing door at the end of The Godfather
Rick and Ilsa facing each other at the end of Casablanca
The space baby from 2001
The seven Mercury astronauts making their entrance in The Right Stuff.
Merrin arriving at the house at night illuminated only by the streetlight in “The Exorcist.”
She’s in the middle of a tree-less garden when she makes her vow at the end of Part One (there are two other pullback shots with trees); and the movie depicts not the Burning of Atlanta, but an earlier, smaller event: the Burning of the Atlanta Depot.
Andromeda chained to the rocks as the Kraken approaches, while her hero flies in to save her on a winged horse in “Clash of the Titans.”
Lawrence of Arabia - “No prisoners!”
The close up of the “franks and beans” from Someting About Mary.
My first pick as well.
The end of **Some Like it Hot ** - “Nobody’s perfect!”.
John Wayne silhouetted in the doorway at the end of The Searchers.
The ‘hawk into Spitfire’ sequence at the beginning of Powell and Pressburger’s 'A Canterbury Tale’
John Wayne again: - “Fill your hands, you sonofabitch!”
Powell and Pressburger again: - The first ten minutes or so of ‘A Matter of life and Death’. From “This is the universe - big, isn’t it?” to David Niven jumping from the Lancaster.
Steve McQueen jumping over the fence on his motorcycle in The Great Escape.
George C. Scott, in full regalia, standing in front of the huge American flag in Patton.
“I am Spartacus!” I’ve never seen the whole movie, but I know this scene from many cultural references. To me, that says “iconic.”
It’s funny how some movies have several “iconic images” and different people pick different ones.
For example, the iconic Star Wars moment for me is Luke grabbing Leia and swinging across the pit, and the iconic Jurassic Park scene is the T-Rex roaring right in the face of the frightened girl.
Since there’s an egregious absence of foreign language films listed, I’m obliged to add, for starters:
Emil Jannings in the washroom in **The Last Laugh**
The birth of the robot in Metropolis
The rabbit hunt in **The Rules of the Game**
Father and son on the curb in The Bicycle Thief
Anna Magnani gunned down in **Open City**
Toshiro Mifune holds Machiko Kyo at bay in Rashomon
Death leads a dance in **The Seventh Seal**
Three windows in **Jules and Jim**
Anita Ekberg in the Trevi Fountain in La Dolce Vita
The Last Supper in **Viridiana**
