# Best movie "comeuppance" scenes (Spoilers)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 23, 2006, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901 "2006-06-23T19:29:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901/1 "2006-06-23T19:29:34Z")
What are some of the best scenes in which the bad guy gets his satisfying comeuppance? Of course we can pick where the bad guy just dies horribly, like, say, **Rob Roy** , but I’d prefer the eternal humiliation / disgrace angle.
My nominations:
**Ever After**. What can I say, I actually liked this movie. Espacially the scene at the end where the evil stepmother and daughter think they’re arriving “in style” so the daughter can be named queen, but then the tables are turned. I even didn’t mind the over-the-top ending where they get tossed in the vat of steaming hot laundry water. (Although they got a little carried away with the purplish tint to their faces).
**Absence of Malice**. The scene where Wilford Brimley comes in and cleans house. “You weren’t no pres-ee-dential appointee, Elliot. Th’ one that hired you is me. You got thirty days.”
**Trading Places**. “Turn those machines back on!!!”
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### Author:  [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901/2 "2006-06-23T20:01:25Z")
**Quigley Down Under** , in which Alan Rickman’s character discovers that even though Quigley doesn’t care for pistols, it doesn’t mean he’s not handy with one.
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### Author:  [@Ludy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludy)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901/3 "2006-06-23T20:13:50Z")
> [@Dooku](#):
>
> **Ever After**. What can I say, I actually liked this movie. Espacially the scene at the end where the evil stepmother and daughter think they’re arriving “in style” so the daughter can be named queen, but then the tables are turned. I even didn’t mind the over-the-top ending where they get tossed in the vat of steaming hot laundry water. (Although they got a little carried away with the purplish tint to their faces).
I didn’t see that as laundry water, but as a vat of dye.
Thus the purple face.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901/4 "2006-06-23T20:19:36Z")
The arrest of the KKK member deputy in _Time to Kill_.
Sal Tessio realizing he’s screwed in _The Godfather_, which of course also had Paulie, Turk, the Irish cop and a variety of mob bosses getting comeuppances.
The warden realizing just f\*cked he is in _Shawshank Redemption_ (a scene that wasn’t in the book but should have been).
Tony Goldwyn’s character (movie name eludes me) typing in the account information and finding $4 million of mob money gone in _GHOST_.
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### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901/5 "2006-06-23T20:31:44Z")
> [@Ludy](#):
>
> I didn’t see that as laundry water, but as a vat of dye.
>
> Thus the purple face.
:smack:
> [@](#):
>
> Tony Goldwyn’s character (movie name eludes me) typing in the account information and finding $4 million of mob money gone in GHOST.
Didn’t seem to elude you for very long. 🙂
Another one: Julian Glover’s demise at the end of **52 Pickup**.
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### Author:  [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901/6 "2006-06-23T20:38:40Z")
The best comeuppance ever is in **Dogville**. The whole movie was a build up to it, and it was sweet.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901/7 "2006-06-23T20:53:17Z")
**Sleeping with the Enemy.** Julia Roberts has a gun pointed at the bad guy. Picks up the phone, calls 911, gives them her name and address, and says she’s just shot an intruder. Fade to black.
**Cinderella**. “But, Your Excellency, _I_ have the _other_ glass slipper…”
**Ladyhawke** , when Ysabeau walks up to the priest and hands him her jesses…
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901/8 "2006-06-23T20:54:18Z")
Oh, and I forgot my favorite ever…
**Wizards.** “Here’s a spell Mom never showed you…” pulls out a gun… “I’m glad you changed your last name, you son of a bitch…”
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### Author:  [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901/9 "2006-06-23T20:54:19Z")
Diggstown.
Burce Dern, Louis Gosset Jr. and James Woods.
For the ending-
[spoiler] Earlier in the film Bruce Dern shows his power in the town during a boxing match by calling out to one of the boxers and giving him a thumbs down. The boxer takes a dive.
At the end of the movie, Bruce Dern has called in a tough prison boxer as a wringer for the finale of the marathan boxing match(es) that Gosset is fighting. James Woods just got out of the same prison with this guy and there may or may not be some bad blood.
Dern thinks he’s just won because there is no way the beaten and tired Gosset can beat this fresh prison brawler. As the match begins, Woods calls out to the prisoner and gives him a thumbs down. The prisoner takes a dive and Woods and Gosset win the boxing marathon and a huge bet. [/spoiler]
Its one of the few times I’m been in a theater where EVERYONE cheered. About 25% of them stood up and cheered even.
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### Author:  [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901/10 "2006-06-23T21:03:03Z")
There’s a nice one in Superman III, even though the ‘bad guy’ concerned is just an incidental character. Thug in a diner picks on a temporarily non-super Clark Kent and beats him up. At the end of the movie, being ‘super’ once more, Clark returns to the same diner, and allows the same thug to pick on him again. It’s very nicely done.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901/11 "2006-06-23T21:09:06Z")
Magneto getting his in **X3**.
Jan Michael Vincent starting Charles Bronson’s car in **The Mechanic.**
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901/12 "2006-06-23T21:15:06Z")
**Slingblade** , baby.
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### Author:  [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901/13 "2006-06-23T21:19:12Z")
> [@ianzin](#):
>
> There’s a nice one in Superman III, even though the ‘bad guy’ concerned is just an incidental character. Thug in a diner picks on a temporarily non-super Clark Kent and beats him up. At the end of the movie, being ‘super’ once more, Clark returns to the same diner, and allows the same thug to pick on him again. It’s very nicely done.
Its actually Superman 2. It always struck me as a little vindictive for Superman to do that.
But hey the line “Funny, I’ve never seen garbage eat garbage.” is pretty good.
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### Author:  [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901/14 "2006-06-23T21:20:29Z")
**Ethilrist’s** post reminded me of my favorite scene - the six-fingered man and Inigo Montoya from **The Princess Bride**.
“I want my father back you sonofabitch.”
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### Author:  [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901/15 "2006-06-23T21:33:39Z")
**The Untouchables** - scene in the train station when Ness chases the baby carriage down the steps while Stone comes running across the room, tosses a pistol to Ness, slides to the bottom of the steps & stops the carriage, while taking a bead on the thug holding Capone’s accountant:
Ness: One–
Ness: Two!–
Ness, to Stone: You got him?
Stone: Yeah, I got him. (shoots thug in forehead)
Stone: Three.
[I forget the movie]:
Bully: I eat shits like you for breakfast!
Protagonist: You eat shit for breakfast?
**Caddyshack** :
Noonan putts, ball stops on edge of hole-
Bad guys cheer-
Carl depresses plunger and explosions ensue-
Ref stares at hole-
Ball drops-
Crowd erupts!
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### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901/16 "2006-06-23T21:56:22Z")
> [@ianzin](#):
>
> There’s a nice one in Superman III, even though the ‘bad guy’ concerned is just an incidental character. Thug in a diner picks on a temporarily non-super Clark Kent and beats him up. At the end of the movie, being ‘super’ once more, Clark returns to the same diner, and allows the same thug to pick on him again. It’s very nicely done.
[geek]
That’s in Superman II. He’d given up his powers to be with Lois and gotten them back to deal with the Phantom Zone villains.
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### Author:  [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901/17 "2006-06-23T22:02:26Z")
“Nighthawks” - Rutger Hauer, after having his kidnapping plan thwarted, seeks revenge on the girlfriend of the cop who messed up his plans - helpless Lindsay Wagner doing the dishes.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901/18 "2006-06-23T22:04:13Z")
Reese Witherspoon’s “Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior” moment in _Speedway_, and later the courtroom scene (“look who got beat with the ugly stick!”). (To say more would be spoilerville.)
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### Author:  [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901/19 "2006-06-23T22:05:44Z")
\*\*Captain Blood \*\*-- The evil plantation owner who has been making life hell for Errol Flynn for most of the movie returns to Port Royal at the end of the movie only to discover that he has been disgraced, Captain Blood has been named governor of the colony in his place, and … the Captain is marrying his niece! The look on his face is sooo satisfying … .
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### Author:  [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2006, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-movie-comeuppance-scenes-spoilers/361901/20 "2006-06-23T22:08:36Z")
> [@McNew](#):
>
> [I forget the movie]:
> Bully: I eat shits like you for breakfast!
>
> Protagonist: You eat shit for breakfast?
**Happy Gilmore**.
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