Field of Dreams: “Hey, Dad, you wanna have a catch?”
T-Rex flips over the SUV also pretty, um, monstrous. (All SUV’s should be treated in a similar manner.)
There are probably a few others out there…
The dinner scene in Nutty Professor (Eddie Murphy version) is the funniest I’ve ever seen.
The actors and their real-life counterparts acknowledging Schindler’s grave in Schindler’s List was the most moving for me, but it was more of an epilogue than a part of the narrative.
Storming the beach at Normandy in Saving Ryan’s Privates was the most intense, esp. considering we didn’t know nor care about the characters yet.
When William Wallace returns on horseback from the hills to exact revenge on the British soldiers is the most exhilirating for me.
When Eric turned to Madison in the London subway and said, “Honey, will you marry me?” God, that was intense. Oh wait, that wasn’t a movie–that was my life!!!
Roy Batty’s death scene in Blade Runner : “All these moments will be lost in time, like…tears…in rain. Time to die.” The rain. The dove. His satisfaction at getting the last words out. Damn.
Conan’s speech to Crom before the Battle of the Mounds in Conan the Barbarian. And Valeria’s funeral pyre catching fire on the mound. “Fire won’t burn up there. No fire ever.” WHOOMF!
And the closing web-slinging sequence in Spiderman, - the close-up slo-mo shot brings tears to my eyes.
And the little teeny-tiny tree-ghost amongst the saplings in Princess Mononoke
I’ll second and third all the “Casablanca” scenes and add the scene in “To Have and Have Not” where Bogey and Bacall confront the fisherman and she lights his cigarette…damn, they were good.
Don’t know if it counts as a scene, or more a shot, but i nominate the last 20 seconds of Full Metal Jacket.
Marines, marching in single file through the blazing jungle, singing as the trees burn…
singing:
M. I. C,
K. E. Y,
M. O. U,
S. E.
Mickey mouse
who’s the leader of the gang…
etc etc
wonderfully disturbing.
Love Last of the Mohicans, too, but my favorite scene was when Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis) grabs Cora (Madeleine Stowe) underneath the waterfall and yells at her to stay alive and he’ll find her!
::swoon::
The first time I watched it, I figured it followed the book, so I was kind of depressed that they developed this awesome love story only to kill Cora off.
Do you mean in the book? In the movie, they didn’t kill Cora off. They killed Alice (her sister). I haven’t read the book – but in the movie, Cora and Hawkeye both live.
i can only think of two nominations right now…
the scene in THE CHILDREN"S HOUR where shirley maclaine spills her guts to audrey hepburn (that’s when i first fell in love with shirley…)
and the “it’s beyond my control” scene in ‘dangerous liaisons’.
The final scene of “Thelma and Louise” – I especially liked the Hans Zimmer score.
One of the most powerful scenes I have ever witnessed in any form of filmed entertainment occurs in the episode of Babylon 5 entitled “The Long, Twilight Struggle” near the end of Season 2 (out on DVD in April, buy your copy now (and I guess I should say spoilers ho because I don’t know how to do that neat spoiler thingie)):
A large fleet of Centauri warships approaches the Narn homeworld, and begin to hurl asteroids at its surface in a final blow that effectively ends the war between these two species. During this horrific scene, we get a slow zoom shot. The camera, out in space, slowly pushes in on one of the battleships. We see Londo Mollari staring out a window, the reflection of white-hot asteroids illuminating his face from time to time. As the camera gets closer, Londo is slowly and utterly eclipsed by the shadow of a nearby ship, until we finally can see little else but the look of shock, horror, and deep regret on his face. The scene then fades out.
The incredible symbolism in this shot is nigh overwhelming, reducing the viewer to a mass of quivering nerve endings. It is a fantastic payoff for someone who has invested time in the series. Londo is the most tragic figure in the show, and this one shot demonstrates his realization that he is truly and irrevocably damned. It was Mollari that brought his people to this place, this time. Mollari, who in a moment of weakness allied himself with an evil power and ended any hope of peace. Without uttering a word, actor Peter Jurasik lets his face do all the acting, and it is a masterful piece of work.
Everything about this one scene is simply perfect. The special effects, the music, the direction, and the actor combine to present one of the most incredible scenes ever televised. It is a shining example of drama and of tragedy, and one that I will never forget.
I love that scene, but for technical reasons. The way pilots and controllers talk on the radio is very particular. There’s a special vocabulary and rhythm to it. That scene in Close Encounters absolutely nails it, and I’ve never seen another movie that even came close.
My nominations:
The Right Stuff: The opening is fantastic, Levon Helm’s narration and watching Yeager break the sound barrier is great. And the movie gets it just right, all the way down to the broomstick. But the best scene is toward the end. As the astronauts are being feted in Houston, Yeager is going flying. He stands in the open door of the hangar in his flight suit, talking to Ridley, and his voice just echoes.
L.A. Story: Two scenes. The first is when Harris is giving Sara a tour of Los Angeles and they visit the graveyard. They find a gravedigger and he and Harris start doing a brilliant parody of Hamlet. And just at the end Sara realizes what they’re doing and joins in. They have to fall in love because there’s nobody else in their world they could do that with. The second scene is toward the end. In a moment of desperation, Harris has told Sara the impossible things he would do to keep her from leaving, and it’s treated like grand hyperbole. She leaves anyway. She’s sitting on a plane and he’s in his house with a scowl on his face. And then everything he promised actually happens.
Chasing Amy: When Holden pulls his truck over in the rain and pours out his heart to Alyssa. He knows that he has no chance with her, and it will screw up their friendship, but he tells her because he has to. And she leaves.
Man, I’ve got a lot of movies to see. Lemme copy and paste this thread into my Palm Pilot…
Oh yeah. You could turn that one scene into a standalone short film (it was, what, 3 minutes long?) and it would still make sense and be a perfect capsule.
WarGames. David Lightman and Jennifer what’s-her-name are on Falkien’s island, and have apparently failed to convince Falkien to intervene and stop Joshua from initiating World War III. Trying to get away to some place of safety, they come to the shores of the island:
David Lightman: I can’t swim.
Jennifer: You can’t swim?
David Lightman: No, I can’t, OK, Wonder Woman? I can’t swim.
Jennifer: Well, what kind of an asshole grows up in Seattle and doesn’t even know how to swim?
David Lightman: I never got around to it, okay? I always thought there was gonna be plenty of time!
Jennifer: Sorry.
David Lightman: [sits down in despair] I wish I didn’t know about any of this. I wish I was like everybody else in the world, and tomorrow it would just be over. There wouldn’t be any time to be sorry … about anything. Oh, Jesus! I really wanted to learn how to swim. I swear to God I did.
Wow.
(Of course, it pales in comparison to any scene from Shallow Hal, but then again, Shallow Hal is the greatest movie of this millennium, after all.)
Even better IMHO, is the scene were Henry (Ray Liotta) goes to the club with Karen (Lorraine Bracco) and they are given the table in the front. The whole thing was filmed with a SteadyCam without any cuts. Absolutely great, and one of the reasons Scorcese is one of my favorite directors.
The movie was Frenzy, and you’re right - that is an incredible scene!
Especially the line “Hey Ridley… you got any Beaman’s”. You knew right away what he was getting at.
But my favorite from that movie is Glenn’s launch sequence. The way the score corresponds to the footage is remarkable.
A couple of favorites have already been hit a few times.
Here are some not touched on yet:
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The introductory scene in Raiders of the Lost Arc till he he gets back to the plane. Classic.
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The opening battle scene in Germany in Gladiator.
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The Jack Black club scene (where he sings) near the end of High Fidelity.
what a great idea for a thread…my list:
and if you havent seen these films i might spoil it so be wary!
moulin rouge
the ‘roxanne’ sequence. while there are problems i have with this movie, in the end i have to say i love it. the roxanne scene is just stupendous cinema. the way everything is just building up and you can just feel the pain everyone is going through…the dancing and the screaming…also my favorite song from the whole film. it’s just fantastic. blows me away.
the lord of the rings: the fellowship of the ring
many many great parts in this movie (peter jackson = AWESOME),
my favorite shot in the movie is when the ring wraiths come to bree and you see them zooming by and in the right is this man hiding behind something, and there is just so much fear in him. it breaks my heart every time i see it.
but by far the best scene IMHO is the death of boromir. just how he keeps fighting for merry and pippin and they keep shooting him with arrows and he picks himself up again to keep on going, and then the hobbits with their battle cry, so perfect, and all the orcs move on and just ignore him as he’s dying and run past…and right when he’s gonna get that last awful arrow, BAM aragorn comes and the whole ‘my captain, my king’ and just wow. there’s such unbelievable talent in these films. sean bean is just amazing.
the matrix
well there are lots of great moments in this film. of course when neo and trinity go through the metal detector and it goes off and the security guard and all the guns and just nothing is cooler than that. but my favorite scene is when keanu is fighting hugo weaving and he gets shot and everyone watching just goes NOOO! HES THE ONE! NOO! and then after trinity’s whole ‘i love you’ thing, he wakes up and he is just a force. and he breathes and bends the walls and all the bullet stopping and it’s just awesome.
there are more on my list, but those are the top three 
aaaaaarrgg Great choices. All 3 are fantastic.
The Roxanne dance number is absolutely brilliant but still IMO doesn’t reach the heights of genius that the untouchable Donald O’Connor hits during the Make’em Laugh sequence in Singing in the Rain. Gotta Dance wasn’t too shabby either 