Always see a Trek movie opening night if you can-- The audience is WAY more into it and responsive, and they get all the in jokes.
The best was in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Kirk is rescuing McCoy from the “Federation Funny Farm,” and tells him that he is “suffering from a Vulcan mind-meld” given him by the currently-deceased Spock. McCoy’s reply: “That green-blooded son of a bitch! It’s his revenge for all those arguments he lost.” The audience just howled!
You are all going to laugh at me. I know this. But in Iron Eagle, after the kid has picked up his dad and is trying to get him to safety, there are enemy planes chasing them.
His father says “we’re going to have to try to outrun them son” then an American Pilot makes contact with them (basically saving their butts) and the kid is yelling “They’re OURS Dad - They’re AMERICANS!” I was practically jumping up and down on the couch with all the excitement. Yes, I am easily amused. No I can’t recreate the dialogue - it’s been ages since I’ve seen the movie, but that’s the gist of it.
Go ahead. Laugh away.
I was almost in tears. “Woo Hoo!! They’re getting away!!” Shut up, I was young.
My favorite movie theater moment had nothing to do with audience reaction. It was during Star Wars: Episode 1 TPM. I fell asleep about 30 minutes into the movie and didn’t wake up until about 10 minutes before the end. Ahhh, what a nice nap.
We were watching Batman a second time after it had been out for 4 or 5 weeks already, and this time around, whenever something bad happened to Batman, the audience would clap and cheer (maybe they didn’t like Batman’s performance the first time around?). Anyway, the scene that really them going was when Batman crashed his Batwing in front of the church.
Here’s a few, all from horror movies:
Exorcist III - when George C. Scott is interviewing Mr. Crazy Guy. There’s no ambient sound in the film during the interviews, no noise at all but their voices. Everyone in the entire theater held their breath during these interviews; you could hear everyone start breathing again when the scene changed, kind of a big collective gasp. Kinda cool how everyone was hanging so tightly to every word, drinking it all in…
Dracula - the recent Coppola version. Mina’s friend (can’t remember her name, sorry) dies, in a freaky scene involving a werewolf, a storm, shattering windows, and about 300 gallons of blood dumped everywhere. The scene ends very suddenly, and goes quiet very quickly. At that instant, someone in the theater said, loudly and clearly, “Well, THAT was disturbing…” just kinda conversationally. It was freakin’ hilarious.
Scream - I saw Scream at the $1 theater with only two other people in the audience. They were both teenage girls, and they both sat right behind me, one row back. Honestly, that was the best sensurround sound I’ve ever experienced; these girls screamed at EVERYTHING, and it actually made the movie better in my book.
I would have to say… most of the Manturian Cnadidate is pretty iimpressive. ANyone who hasn’t seen it, ought to.
I especially loved the opening scene with the “ladies flower meeting”
Goldfinger: “Do you expect me to talk?” “No, Mr Bond, I expect you to DIE!”
Blood of Heroes. At the very end, when the underdog wins, and instead of running with the dog skull, Rutger Hauer says, “Walk. Slowly.”
Okay, I love the corny stuff, but I still think it was a great ending.
We used to have $1.00 movie nights in a lecture hall at my college. These always drew a huge crowd that had a GREAT vibe, even if they were films that had been out a while. Some great moments:
Resevoir Dogs: A lot of older people from town would show up at the films (some professors, some just townies looking for a cheap film. The door people were only supposed to let university staff and students in, but they’d take anyones money). The best was wacthing a bunch of conservative looking picks and prudes get up at “the ear scene” It was great. Half the audience loved it, and half the audience left.
Jumanji: Right at the end of the movie, when they dig the game up again, this dude stands up in the middle of a mostly quiet theater, and shouts REALLY loudly “JUMANJI!” Was a hoot.
After a showing of Clerks, the whole audience cheered. It was a great film.
I always enjoyed the movie “the crying game” when you found out she was a he. Also great is Robocop where whasisfuck gets fired and then killed by Robocop. Also in Starship troopers where they shout “Let’s kill some bugs”
And dead alive, the lawnmower scene.
2001: A Space Odyssey–when the protohuman discovers how to use a bone as a tool. The music is great (and now cliched), but the performance of that unknown actor was incredible. I’ve never seen a better depiction of the ecstasy of discovery.
Apollo 13–when Jim Lovell fantasizes about walking on moon. Man, that get’s me everytime! I’ve read Lovell’s “Lost Moon” and I know that, while he never admits to thinking that, the movie has convinced me he did. Heck, I know I would. And I know Tom Hanks did, too.
Psycho–the discovery of Mrs. Bates body. Much freakier than the shower scene, what with the swinging light bulb.
Duck Soup–the mirror scene. Much imitated, but still funny.
basketball diaries on the roof “time sure flies when you’re young and jerkin’ off”
chicken run “i dont want to be a pie” and trying to figure out how chickens kiss
the star wars spoof in toy story 2. basically all of both toy stories
the sped up orgy scene in a clockwork orange
Alessan: You’re absolutely right about the Marseillaise scene. That’s my favourite scene in any movie.
Heart in my throat scene: When Ethan Hawke loses his contacts in Gattaca and has to run across the highway after Uma Thurman without being able to see the cars.
How has nobody mentioned JAWS yet – there are so many great moments in that movie
1 : First time we see the shark and Brodie backs into the cabin, turns to Quint and says ‘you’re gonna need a bigger boat’
2 : Quint at the start with his ‘y’all know me…know what I do for a livin’ speech which is preceded by his nails on blackboard
3 : The end when Brodie says ‘Smile you son of a’ ……BOOM ! ! !
JAWS is one of the best movies of all time ! ! ! ! !
I saw Jaws in Monterey, Ca three whole weeks after it came out and thought I knew where all the suprises were. But When Roy Scheider is chugging the bloody chum into the water, and that shark rears up at him, I swear, the whole theater screamed and moved back about a foot! This was a midnight show, and the place was still packed.
matt_mcl,
I’ve been trying to remember the name of that movie - cought it on TV late at night, fantastic! So it’s Gattaca, thanks. That had some fantastic moments, like the swim with his brother…
Do you happen to know the actor who played his friend, the one donating all the bodily fluids? He had several memorable scenes.
Yes, BurnMeUp, that flower-club scene in The Manchurian Candidate put me right off hydrangeas. When I saw it on the first night of the re-release, the audience didn’t breathe for a good five minutes.
“Why don’t you play a little solitaire?”
One of my fave movies is The Exorcist. I’m old enough to go back way back to when this was showing in movie theatres, and in that setting it packed some great collective moments of audience reaction. One was the false-scare moment in the attic, which tended to get one over on any ‘cynical’ types present who reckoned they could out-guess what was coming. Next great moment: the first time we see Regan in her demonic phase. This generally elicited the desired collective gasp from the audience.
Another favourite: One flew over the cuckoo’s nest. Full of great moments. Chief Bromden finally wins the basketball game for the inmates - huge whooshing cheer from the audience! Also, McMurphy’s brilliant line after failing to shift the faucet block: “Well, I tried didn’t I, goddamit, at least I did that”.
And let’s not forget ‘Carrie’, when the wicked mother gets three carving knives in the head. All darts enthusiasts tended to cheer and shout “One hundred and eighty!”.
National Lampoon’s Animal House:
Near the end of the movie, when the crashing parade float flings a Playboy Bunny through a bedroom window where a boy is kneeling in prayer. She lands on the bed in front of the boy, he stares at her, looks up at the heavens with hands clasped and says, “Thank you, God!”
Remembering being a horny teenager, I knew exactly how he felt.
Recent movie:
In The Matrix, after Neo walks through the metal detector, the audience went nuts when he whipped open his jacket.
Not so recent movies:
In Dead Again, the 1989 reincarnation thriller with Kenneth Branagh… I saw it opening night, and there were two amazing moments with Gray Baker, the reporter played by Andy Garcia, in the nursing home scene at the end. The first was sticking the cigarette in the tracheotomy hole, taking a drag, and exhaling; the whole theatre laughed queasily. Then, a minute later, they were all caught flatfooted when Baker said, “Antiques.” (You have to know the movie.) I was towards the back, and the sight of three hundred heads snapping back, then turning quickly to whomever they were sitting with, followed by “ooOOOoohh, (murmur murmur murmur)” was pretty damn cool. I saw the movie five times in the theatre over the next two weeks, just so I could experience that moment with a crowd again.
I saw Tremors with an advance sneak-preview audience made up primarily of college students, and afterwards, we all thought it was going to be a smash hit. Stupid marketing dorks. Anyway, after Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward jump/fall into the big concrete ditch, and the graboid smashes into the concrete wall, Bacon’s “FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOU!” totally brought down the house. The scare with the student girl immediately afterward worked pretty well, too…