Best scene ever

Cafe Society
141

::sigh:: I’m going to be a fangirl and a nerd and nominate a handful of scenes from Deep Impact. I’m sure you’re all tired of my talk of it, but I want to nominate it.

[spoiler]First and foremost, my all time favorite scene, is Leo’s proposal to Sarah. When he holds out his hands to show her the rings, and the way he says “we’d be family” absolutely reduces me to tears.

Next, when Leo is minutes away from the Arc and stops for a pregnant moment, then suddenly says “I have to go back for Sarah.” Tears again.

Third, when Sarah’s mother hands her the baby. Again, I cry. (I did that a lot watching this movie.)

Fourth, Leo and Sarah’s wedding. (Do I need to explain this? It’s a wedding!)

Fifth, the astronauts’ goodbyes to their families. No explanation needed.

And last but most certainly not least, the astronauts’ decision of self-sacrifice.[/spoiler]
Does anyone ever read those spoilers?

142

Good, lord, but that’s a good question. I thought of at least a couple of dozen just on reading it, but here are the first five that came to my mind:

  1. The closing scene of The Godfather, when the door is closed upon Kay - it set’s the mood for Part II perfectly (although you don’t know that at the time - you only know that the door has been closed on Michael’s previous life);

  2. A sentimental favorite: in It’s a Wonderful Life when George finds Zuzu’s petals in his watch pocket: “Zuzu’s petals! Zuzu’s … they’re… they’re here, Bert! What do you know about that? Merry Christmas!”

And two of my favorite scenes of all time are from the same movie, Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V:

  1. Harry’s pre-Agincourt battle speech (the St. Crispian’s speech) - whenever I watch this scene, I always have my circa 15th century sword by my side and I’m ready to raise it against the French by the end of the speech…
    “…gentlemen in England now abed
    shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
    and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks,
    that fought with us upon Saint Crispian’s day!”

  2. Henry and Fluellen post-Agincourt, when Fluellen reminds Harry of his Welsh blood and Henry, with tears and laughter, exclaims:
    “For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.”
    I tear up at that seen every time I see it (maybe it’s my Welsh blood…).

  3. Just at the end of Happiness, where Bill confesses to his son, Billy, that he has sodomized two of Billy’s friends. When Billy asks his Dad if he would, um, sodomize him, Bill replies “No… I jerked off instead.” The emotions that you see both characters feeling is heartbreaking and sickening and incomprehensible at the same time…

I could go on and on… the question is always “What are your favorite movies” but “best scene ever” should be a website in itself…

-bbb-

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God, I don’t know how I forgot Miller’s Crossing! Johnny Caspar’s interview with Leo is reminiscent of the opening scene of The Godfather but it has more grit… Leo coming out blazing with the tommy gun… what a great movie!

The Raising Arizona DVD has a teaser that says that Miller’s Crossing is “Coming Soon to DVD” - but I have yet to see it. It’s in my top ten favorite movies of all time… I have the videotape, but I want the full, lush music in Dolby Digital, the film-quality progressive scan on my HDTV… sigh…

-bbb-

144

2001: A Space Odyssey The scene after the bone turns into the space ship and you see the space station and ships accompanied with Blue Danube waltz.

Dr. Strangelove the already mentioned Slim Pickens scene with the missile. I would add the final scene after the bomb is dropped in the war room where everyone is talking about a “mine gap” and saving a few missiles for after they come out…not learning a darn thing. Then the last scene with the Nuclear explosions going off to the song “Some Sunny Day”. (I think that is what it is called.

Planet of the Apes when Taylor and Nova are riding off and Taylor suddenly realizes he is home.

145

OK - just one more - just about any of the musical scenes in Pennies From Heaven.

In one of her last interviews, Pauline Kael said that she could never be friends with anyone who didn’t enjoy Pennies From Heaven. I won’t go that far, but it is a brilliant movie and there is not one muscial scene that isn’t terrific (although the best has to be the “Pennies from Heaven” choreography and art direction - was it Vernel Bagneris that was the main dancer?)

I’m gonna have to get off this thread and go to bed… my mind is reeling!:slight_smile:

-bbb-

146

For sheer atmosphere and mystery, and a look at San Francisco in the late 50s, I love the scene in ** Vertigo ** where James Stewart follows Kim Novak for the first time. This scene lasts about 11 minutes and there is no dialogue. Novak is doing the most ordinary things—buying flowers, meditating at a museum, visiting a cemetery. But all the while, you’re wondering what the heck is she doing, and you’re realizing that he’s falling in love with her. Wonderful!

I’m going to have to see ** True Romance**!

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This post contains SPOILERS, big and small. If you don’t want to be spoiled, tell your mom to crack down!

Dramatic–

The Saint Crispin’s Day speech (thank you boo_boo_bear) of course, but also the battle scene that follows. The hand-to-hand combat makes it, IM (nevery very) HO, the most moving commentary on the brutality of war ever filmed (will all due respect to the opening of Saving Private Ryan and the fans thereof).

The dungeon scene in The Lion in Winter where Eleanor (Katharine Hepburn) brings knives to the boys so they can escape. They plan to use them to kill Henry instead. Then Henry (Peter O’Toole) arrives, broken-down 50-year-old that he is, and faces them all down. Finally, after the scene has played itself out, Eleanor says “Well…what family doesn’t have its ups and downs.” Fabulous scene!!!

Comedy–

In The God Must Be Crazy, when what’s-his-name tries to drive the jeep and it’s in reverse, so he jumps on the hood (bonnet to you Brits) and drives it that way. Ah purt neer died laughin’.

Movie+techie geek note–

Don’t download the thread to your Palm. Just keep another browser window open on NetFlix and order the movies as they come up in discussion. Sheesh.

148

Two references to Indiana Jones, and neither of them mentions…

Indiana Jones facing a scimitar-wielding assasin

All alone

With his gun

149

No kidding. And it’s “the best [he] ever had.” When I first saw that I thought Patric would be a shoe-in to play Patrick Bateman in American Psycho.

Alec Baldwin’s speech in Glengarry Glen Ross, outlining the sales competition: “Have you made your decision for Christ!”

Ashley Judd, in Heat, when she sees Chris/Val Kilmer pulling up to the house where the cops are waiting to arrest him, and gives him that subtle hand signal telling him to go. Oh, and the whole shootout too.

Robert De Niro tearing Donald Sutherland’s pyromaniac character a new one at his parole hearing in Backdraft. Sutherland starts off repentant, saying he’s changed with a lot of composure. Then De Niro starts in with “what do you do with old ladies?” DS: “I burn them.” RD: “What do you want to do to the world?” DS: “Burn it.” Sutherland creeps me out to no end in that role.

Painless’s suicide/funeral in MAS*H. Absolutely beautiful.

150

Rooftop/helicopter scene in The Matrix
“Now are you starting to belive?”

“I’m your huckleberry.” (people erupted in the theater when this came out).

“I know it was you, Fredo.”

needle shot in Pulp Fiction

151

Forgot about Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

The whole movie is mesmerizing, but the umbrella scene is one that sticks with you.

152

Sorry, just had to say that again.

BTW, what’s with everyone misquoting Tombstone? The line is not “I’m your Huckleberry”. Ringo’s just shouted out asking if Wyatt’s there; Holliday steps out from behind a tree and replies “I’m here, Huckleberry”.

Favourite scenes that nobody’s mentioned yet…

The stoning in Life of Brian: “Right - who threw that?”

The car chase in The Blues Brothers: “Use of unnecessary violence in the apprehension of the Blues Brothers has been approved.”

The scene at the docks in Mortal Kombat where Liu Kang throws Johnny cage’s luggage into the harbour: “Good job I didn’t ask him to park the car…”

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Blade Runner: Roy Batty: “I’ve seen sunships burning off the shoulder of Orion…all these memories will be gone…like tears in the rain.” Then he hangs his head down, and dies. Shattering.

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When Neo starts to see the Matrix as code.

Schindler breaking down at the end; ?I could have saved one more??

Darth Vader turning on the Emperor in Jedi.

Dangerous Beauty

End of City Lights ?Yes, I can see now.?

William Wallace seeing the ghost of his wife at his execution.

George kissing Mary in ?It?s a Wonderful Life.?

Michael?s gift to Karen in Brainstorm

Thomasina?s journey to the Temple of Bast in ?The Three Lives of Thomasina.?

The end of ?The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,? the movie with Rex Harrison.

Maximus reunited with his wife and son in Elysium.

Christopher Walken singing and lip-synching to ?Let?s Misbehave? in Pennies from Heaven.

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Some of my favorites have already been mentioned (Glengarry Glen Ross, Cinema Paradiso), but here goes.

—Jurassic Park: Wayne Knight’s character’s last moments. This was the only scene where a character was in jeopardy that really touched me. The banker was a coward, Sam Neill and the children had each other, Laura Dern had balls, but Knight’s situation was hopeless. He was screwed; he screwed himself; and he knew it. And he brought it off perfectly.

—Goodfellas: When Henry found out that Karen had flushed all the cocaine. "Why did you do that?! WHY?! That was all the money we had!! It’s unusual (not unheard-of, but unusual) for a set to be closed for reasons other than nudity. That set was closed.

—Planes, Trains and Automobiles: Steve Martin’s go-off on John Candy in the hotel room, and Candy’s response. “You wanna hurt me? Go right ahead if it makes you feel any better…I’m an easy target.”

—Heavenly Creatures: The climactic (and final) scene. Fade to the epilogue, with Mario Lanza on the soundtrack singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, and the saddest title card I’ve ever read: “It was a condition of their parole that they never meet again.”

Also, one bit, early on. After a protracted beginning: travelogue—cut to leads, hysterical—cut to montage of students filing into school, all students are assembled in the main hall. The headmistress bids them be seated, which they do, with a thunderous rumble of bottoms hitting chairs. Said I, to Mr. Rilch, perhaps unnecessarily, “This is a really evil film.”

—Holy Grail: Knights of the Round Table. The first time I saw that, I could only sit back, feeling, and probably looking, as if a horse had kicked me in the chest. “What about Clark Gable?”

156

The Prologue in LotR: Fellowship of the Ring.

Un-fucking-believable!

157

The immortal Walken/Hopper scene in True Romance.

In Ghost World, the scene where Seymour (Steve Buscemi) and Enid (Thora Birch) are laying in bed after gettin’ it on - the clash of reactions is great and it’s just so wonderfully, tangibly awkward.

Roy Batty’s dying words in Blade Runner: I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe… attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
The last ten minutes of Evil Dead. DEMON MUSH!

158

SUPER MAN- When Super Man pulls Lois out of the car after she was killed when her car was buried and he screams and flies off to spin the world back in time. That scream gets me every time. Very, very good scene.

159

The Wicker Man, when Howie finally puts it all together and realises what’s up. Also, Britt Ekland’s dance is one of the sexiest scenes on celluloid.

And from all the memorable moments in the Kubrick collection, I’ll mention the final scene of Clockwork Orange.
Alex: “I was cured all right.”