Zamboniracers quote remind me of another one, I haven’t even read the book but I have read others in the series:
Chaos pointed at the Solamnic Knights.
“Paladine is dead you fight alone.”
Chaos turned to the dark Knights.
“Takhisis has fled. You fight alone.”
Chaos spread his enormous arms, which seemed to encompass the universe
“There is no hope. you have no gods. What have you left?”
Steel drew his sword and raised it in the air, the metal did not reflect fire, but shone white, argent, like moonlight on ice
"Each other? he answered.
-dragons of summer flame
Good lord. Just watched this, and I have to say, even though I’m mostly unaware of the context (haven’t watched more than an episode or two of the new series), this gave me chills.
I’ve never seen Scent of a Woman. I now know what all those Al Pacino impersonators base their impressions on. It always puzzled me because Pacino never seemed to match the impressions in the stuff I did see him in.
– The fight scene between Bill Adama and Saul Tigh in Galactica. We were cheering out loud. It is one thing to see two young bucks like Anders and Lee Adama duke it out. But two old warhorses like Bill and Saul, with years of experience, skill, and stubbornness? That is something to behold.
– Albert Finney stopping a train with the power of his voice in The Dresser. I can’t find it on YouTube, and there’s no use trying to describe it with all-caps or bold or spaces between the words. But then, that’s the idea of it.
*The West Wing *had plenty of awesome moments. My favorite one, though is a bit unusual, insomuch as it does not involve politics, philosophy, the clash of intellects or other such high-minded manners. In fact, it’s a bit of a cheap shot, the kind of scene an inferior series would put in every episode.
Still, they wouldn’t have made it this cool.
Some background: it’s early in the series. The President has a new personal assistant, a bright, earnest, hard-working kid called Charlie. The President feels that Charlie has been working *too *hard, and “suggests” that several senior White House staff take him out for drinks. Tagging along at the last minute are the President’s 19-year-old daughter and the daughter of the Chief of Staff.
The scene: a Georgetown bar. The black kid is Charlie. The girl in the hat is the First Daughter. The thing on her table is her panic button.
Apollo 13 is re-entering the atmosphere after nearly blowing up in space. The whole world is watching to see if the heat shields held up after everything else has gone wrong. Walter Cronkite has said that no crew has been out of contact for more than three minutes upon re-entry. Jim Lovell’s family is gathered, watching what might be his death on TV. His son is in prep school and he and his class are listening to hear if the crew has made it. Three minutes come and go and still no word from the crew. Gary Sinise, who should’ve been on that flight, keeps trying to make contact as each excruciating second passes. Then Apollo 13 responds! I swear I didn’t breathe the entire time we are waiting for the news.
Dear God, yes! I’ve seen that movie and that scene in particular any number of times, and each time – starting with the first, even though I was already familiar with what had happened, and right up through every subsequent time, even though I’ve seen the movie over and over – I hold my breath, heart pounding, until that crackle of static and the voice saying that they’re there – gaah!! And the giant burst of relief from everyone on screen! *That’s *filmmaking!
The attack of the the nuclear pulse drive carrier-battleship Michael ( so named because Archangel Michael cast Satan out of Heaven ) against the Fithp mothership in Footfall. It’s armed with everything they can think to give it, from bomb pumped lasers, to Space Shuttles fitted with missiles, to dismounted battleship guns with rocket engines and a pilot compartment added. Especially Awesome is the scene where a Space Shuttle manages to ram the mothership’s drive while one of the characters ( soon to be dead ) watches; slowing it so it can’t escape.
In Honor Among Enemies by David Weber, there is an epically awesome scene where PNS Vaubon comes streaking in to take on a group of pirate raiders that outnumber the Havenites 3:1, all in defense of a Manticoran freighter (the Havenites and the Manticorans are, at this point as throughout most of the series, fighting an ongoing and bloody war). It’s a bit of a bitter irony after his ship has been beaten into submission by the third ship after defeating the first two when the Havenite captain discovers the merchant ship in question was actually a merchant cruiser - a heavily armed warship disguised as a freighter to lure in unsuspecting merchant raiders and pirates, and entirely suited to defend herself without his help.
And in Service of the Sword, the Manticoran cruiser HMS Gauntlet is ambushed by three Solarian cruisers, forced to flee the star system with the three cruisers in persuit and leaving behind an away team on the planet to fend for themselves. The badass comes when the away team is being attacked by bad guys from the fourth enemy cruiser, when the fourth cruiser is suddenly caught by surprise and destroyed in orbit by HMS Gauntlet, recently returned from having narrowly defeated the other three cruisers in a running battle in hyperspace.
Oooh, and from More Than Honor (IIRC), the battle between a very large and very angry Sphinxian Hexapuma and a very large number of very angry Sphinxian Treecats when the Hexapuma is about to kill Stephanie Harrington (end result? The much larger predator is reduced to sandwich meat in a very short period of time)
A few moments of awesome, not necessarily so much the characters themselves but how the story twisted and the show redefinied itself:
-Alias when it’s revealed that SD-6 is not part of the CIA, so the good guys you’ve been rooting for were actually working for the bad guys.
-Buffy when Buffy suddenly has a little sister, living with them, and nobody notices anything is different.
And moments of badassery:
-Firefly, when the guy holds a gun to River’s head and is in the middle of threatening to kill her. Mal simply raises his gun and shoots him.
Similarly, in the original Star Wars, when Han shoots Greedo under the table, stands up and says “Sorry for the mess” to the bartender, tossing him a coin. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1YbFnkZwZk