Not necessarily your favorite movies (though certainly allowed), but brief scenes and moments from them that really stick in your memory. A few off the top of my head:
[list]
[li]John Woo’s “The Killer”. Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck have just finished killing about two hundred stods inside the church. Things are in flames, they’re both something of a bloody mess. There’s a brief slow-mo to freeze frame of them walking side-by-side towards the outside. Every time I see it, I think of a video game screen announcing “Level Completed”.[/li][li]Another Chow Yun Fat moment, this time in “Hard Boiled”. It’s before the big warehouse shoot-outs; Tequila is up on the roof, very slowly and quietly loading shells into a shotgun, pausing between each. A kind of sad thoughtful breathing space.[/li][li]“Harold and Maude” To choose just one from it: Harold’s mother is having bad luck with setting up his blind dates. He fakes his own death (he’s good at it) via being turned into a pyre by a barbecue grill or somesuch. His date is in painful chitchat with his mom, watching from the window, and freaks out, and freaks out further when Harold, perfectly fine, strolls into the room. She runs screaming away. The smirk on his face coupled with the look his mother is shooting him is priceless.[/li][li]The end of “Ghostbusters.” Louis, now no longer possessed, takes a long look around at the marshmallow-soaked destruction of the building. “Boy, the superintendent’s gonna be pissed.” And this exchange:[/li]“We’d like to get a sample of your brain tissue.”
“Okay.”
“Tremors”. Those who have seen it will know. “Broke into the wrong goddamned rec room, didn’t ya you bastard?!”
Christopher Walken’s “gold watch” speech in Pulp Fiction
Carlito’s Way
Carlito confronts the lawyer in the hospital room. The lawyer screwed him good, so SOMETHING is gonna come up.
Lawyer happens to have a gun under the pillow and a police guard to protect him from a mob hit-man.
Carlito examines the revolver, and tells the lawyer to leave it in front of him, to make it fast to get a hold of.
Carlito leaves.
A few minutes later, the Hit-man (disguised as the cop’s relief) dismisses the cop, and busts into the hospital room and pulls a gun on the lawyer.
The lawyer aims his gun at the hit man, and is horrified at finding out the hammer clicks on an empty chamber.
Outside, Carlito spills a handful of bullets in a trashcan,
saying, “Adios, counsellor.”
- Jurassic Park
Dr. Elle Statler (Laura Dern) is about to go and turn on the main power when John Hammond tries to convince her to let him go instead. She looks at him and says “look, we can discuss sexism in survival situations when I get back.” Then she walks out.
Holden’s monologue to Alyssa in Chasing Amy. I cry EVERY time I see it.
The last twenty minutes of The Last Seduction. If they hadn’t released it on HBO before the theaters,Linda Fiorentino would have won the Oscar.
Any scene with Randal in Clerks
The scene in GoodFellas when they’re at Joe Pesci’s mother’s house.
Mmmm.
[li]The Lost Boys. I’ve always liked the scene when Michael is hanging off the railroad ties before dropping off into oblivion. Or the part when he asks his grandfather if he stuffed the Widow Johnson’s husband for her. Hehe.[/li]
[li]The part when Jules and Vincent shoot the third guy in the bathroom to oblivion. Oh yeah, Pulp Fiction.[/li]
[li]Flashback, when Buckner raises his gun and fires, and ends up shooting the handcuffs off Huey Walker. :)[/li]
Another Jurassic Park one. The little dialouge where Dr. Grant brutally describes how it feels to be hunted by a giant raptor- to a ten year old. Also that scene when Lex is in the cupboard thingy and the raptor lunges for her. Gruesome, man.
The scene in True Lies where Arnold is calling in the airstrike on the trucks carrying the nukes:
Arnold: Recomend switching to Mavaricks [missles].
Harrier pilot: Hey, these missles won’t set off those nukes, right?
Arnold: Uh, thats a negative. (Arnold than crosses his fingers and makes the ‘oh shit, I hope not!’ face to the guy sittingnext to him)
The sceane in Desparado where Steave Buscemi tells Cheech Marin the story about ‘the biggest Mexican he ever saw’.
The ‘Star Wars’ speech from Clerks
When Eddie Murphy is in the holding tank in Trading Places telling everyone about how he’s a Karate man and how his ‘bitches’ better get there soon.
Dennis Hoppers ‘Sicilians’ speech to Christopher Walkin in True Romance.
Mikey calling that girl 50 times in Swingers.
Ghostbusters, when Venkman et al are driving to the hotel for the Big Fight with Gozer, followed by a full police escort, and the streets are lined with cheering fans. For the first time in the entire movie, the boys are finally getting the complete respect that they’ve been working for – it just makes me wanna jump up and cheer.
In no particular order:
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The entire opening sequence of Dead Man, up to the point when William Blake arrives at the end of the line. I love the whole move, but every time I hear those Neil Young chords, my heart rate increases and goosebumps appear. This movie has cost me a fortune, because I need to keep seeing it, and I can’t bring myself to watch it on video, so I have to keep tracking down proper screenings of it.
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In High Fidelity, the discussions in the record shop and the abuse of customers with bad taste.
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Mary X’s father’s speech about his arm in Eraserhead: “I can’t feel a damn thing!”. Actually, the whole scene when Henry Spencer is at dinner with his girlfriends’ family should be seen by all men, because your experience will never be as scary as his.
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The melting Nazi faces in Raiders of the Lost Ark - I saw this film first when I was about nine years old, and it was the first scene to give me nightmares. Now it makes me get nostalgic.
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Every scene with the beautiful evil headmistress Mary Woranov in Rock and Roll High School - such a cool thing to see a former dancer from the Velvet Underground/Andy Warhol days playing that sort of role.
From The Full Monty:
It chokes me up every time. God, I’m getting misty just thinking about it.
The scene from The Usual Suspects when the detective drops the coffee cup in the realization that he’s just been set up in a horrendously major way, and on the bottom you see Kobayashi. Those of you who have seen it know exactly what I’m talking about.
That part in Dopefest where Opal walks into the room and everybody says “Hi” at once. I dunno, it just sticks for some reason.
Dr. Strangelove, at the Coke machine, when Colonel Guano (if that is your real name) says to Group Captain Mandrake “Okay. I’m gonna get your money for ya. But if you don’t get the President of the United States on that phone, you know what’s gonna happen to you?”
“What?”
“You’re gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola company.”
I mean, the fate of the entire world hangs in the balance here and he’s concerned about the rightful owner of the Coke machine?!
That and when Major Kong is trying to fix the problem in the bomb bay and the bomb drops while he’s sitting on it. The facial expression Slim Pickens manages is soooo perfect. And then the way he decides to make the best of it.
YEEEEEEE HAAAWWWW!!! AIYEEEE HAAAWWW!!!
Of course, the whole movie is a great moment, IMHO.
I have so many!
-Pulp Fiction: When Vincent mouths off to The Wolf.
-Fight Club: When Tyler is talking to that woman behind the soap counter, with his pants extremely low, and she’s saying, “This is the best soap.”
-12 Monkeys: When Jeffery is talking to James at night, then starts going crazy and pulls his pants down.
-Dumb and Dumber: When Lloyd sees that Harry has spent the day with Lauren Holly (can’t remember her character’s name off the top of my head). He just turns around and gags. Hilarious.
-Kingpin: When Randy Quaid goes and gets a beer out of the fridge. When he turns around, his nipples… oh man, that’s funny.
-Strange Brew: The whole “movie” that they made. “All the bowling alleys had been wrecked, so’s I spent most my time lookin’ for beer.”
-Reservoir Dogs: The conversation about the meaning of “Like a Virgin.”
-Legally Blonde: When Elle calls Emmit a butthead.
-Falling Down: When D-Fens says to the Korean convenience store owner, “We’re gonna roll back prices to 1965.”
Ah, movie moments.
Silence of the Lambs: “A census taker once tried to test me…” Man, I love that movie.
Maverick: The scene when Annabelle tried to steal Maverick’s money after the poker game. She eventually gets away with it and gets to her room, but he realizes what happened and gets her outside his window. He then starts taking off his lucky shirt (which got a little dirty in a fight)and the exchange is one of my favorites!
Radioland Murders: The last scene in the movie with Penny and Rodger up in the control booth and the sound comes on and they’re fighting and everyone hears and then… oh, it’s just so sweet!
One more…
Rocky Horror Picture Show: The Time Warp ('nuff said)
Indeed it is! Correction, though: it wasn’t Peter Sellers as Strangelove, it was Sellers as Mandrake. Anyway, he’s priceless in that scene. The only thing keeping him from giving way to hysteria is his British stiff-upper-lip. “Shoot the lock off! Shoot with a gun! That’s what the bullets are for, you twit!”
I should start a separate thread for this, but I fear that no one would reply. Anyway, the scene I’m thinking of is a deleted scene that I saw on the DVD for Boogie Nights. Dirk, Reed and Todd are doing lines from what looks like a whole gram of coke on a glass-top table. The camera looks up from below the table while these three jitter and discuss righting the ill-fated record deal. “I say we just go back there and kick their asses…All I’m saying is, shut up about it if you are!..Listen, is that a fire truck or is it the cops?” I don’t have those lines memorized, so that’s a vague paraphrase, but that’s what they’re doing: going over and over the same subject, jumping from incomplete idea to random comment, and accomplishing nothing. The cuts are very subtle, showing the passage of time through slight changes of position and the dwindling amount of powder on the table. I understand why it wasn’t in the final edit, because it doesn’t advance the plot, but if you’ve seen the movie and like it, it’s priceless.
“‘If the professor asks about the job, tell him ‘sorry, I had to go see about a girl.’’ Bastard stole my line.”-Good Will Hunting
“And my . . . dad?”-October Sky
“Farmboy, fetch that pitcher for me?” “As you wish.”-Princess Bride
“I forgot to tell you that I love you.” “You know, I don’t think you’ve ever said that to me.” “Yes, but I meant it every day.”-Dragon.
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The scene in Smiley’s People where the innocent pawn Alexandra/Tatiana, before the mirror in her room at the remote asylum overlooking one of the most beautiful background scenes I’ve ever seen, draws a smiling face on the mirror in lipstick to cover her own hopeless, baleful visage.
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From the same film, the final scene wherein Peter Guillam, ecstatic at the incredible triumph George Smiley (played by the inimitable Alec Guinness) has just achieved, proudly congratulates his mentor: “You’ve done it, George – You’ve won!” To which Smiley, cleaning his glasses on his tie as always, soberly – even morosely – replies, “Did I? … Yes, I suppose I did.”
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It’s kind of an odd choice, perhaps, but I always liked the scene in 2001 that clearly triggers HAL’s breakdown. HAL, in its arrogance, must have been thinking it’s far too subtle for a mere human to see through its facade of pretending to casually converse with Dave Bowman while actually working up a crew psychology report. When Dave nails HAL and exposes its subterfuge, the only thing the humiliated A.I. can think of doing is changing the subject immediately, which it does by manufacturing a false trouble report for some other piece of equipment. Now trapped by what it sees as a completely untenable position of being caught in an error about the bogus report, HAL see no option but to eliminate the threat of its potential exposure and subsequent disconnection by killing off the crew. What extremes a conscious being may reach to avoid humiliation!
Dr. Strangelove is so amazingly brilliant that it is a very rich source of remarkable moments. Along with those that have already been mentioned, I would certainly add…
- The scene where the President (also Sellars) angrily rebukes the struggling General Turgidson and the Soviet Ambassador that, “You can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!”
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The scene in Smiley’s People where the innocent pawn Alexandra/Tatiana, before the mirror in her room at the remote asylum overlooking one of the most beautiful background scenes I’ve ever seen, draws a smiling face on the mirror in lipstick to cover her own hopeless, baleful visage.
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From the same film, the final scene wherein Peter Guillam, ecstatic at the incredible triumph George Smiley (played by the inimitable Alec Guinness) has just achieved, proudly congratulates his mentor: “You’ve done it, George – You’ve won!” To which Smiley, cleaning his glasses on his tie as always, soberly – even morosely – replies, “Did I? … Yes, I suppose I did.”
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It’s kind of an odd choice, perhaps, but I always liked the scene in 2001 that clearly triggers HAL’s breakdown. HAL, in its arrogance, must have been thinking it’s far too subtle for a mere human to see through its facade of pretending to casually converse with Dave Bowman while actually working up a crew psychology report. When Dave nails HAL and exposes its subterfuge, the only thing the humiliated A.I. can think of doing is changing the subject immediately, which it does by manufacturing a false trouble report for some other piece of equipment. Now trapped by what it sees as a completely untenable position of being caught in an error about the bogus report, HAL see no option but to eliminate the threat of its potential exposure and subsequent disconnection by killing off the crew. What extremes a conscious being may reach to avoid humiliation!
Dr. Strangelove is so amazingly brilliant that it is a very rich source of remarkable moments. Along with those that have already been mentioned, I would certainly add…
- The scene where the President (also Sellars) angrily rebukes the struggling General Turgidson and the Soviet Ambassador that, “You can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!”
All time favourite
Out Of The Past (1947 film noir)
Jane Greer: (melodramatically) I don’t want to die!
Robert Mitchum: Either do I baby, but if I have to I want to die LAST.
That slays me.
Oh, the shame! By doubling its action the “submit” button has humiliated me beyond my capacity to endure! I have but one option…
Straight Dope Readers: ALL LIFE FUNCTIONS TERMINATED.