In The Great Escape… it’s a couple of scenes together, spread out in the movie. All about Danny. When we find he’s claustrophobic, and why he digs anyways, then when he gets to the ship at the end and we know he’s gonna make it. A pretty darn enjoyable movie overall, even the over-the-top stuff, but I really got to root for Danny (Bronson) because he just was selfless and worked so hard.
I can’t believe no one’s mentioned that fantasy pool scene featuring Phoebe Cates in Fast Times
At Ridgemont High.
The very-NSFW opening of Way of the Gun.
Superman’s first appearance in the helicopter sequence of the 1978 Reeve film.
The ending of Carlitos’ Way in the subway station.
Michael Corleone’s shooting of the cop in The Godfather.
Gandalf facing down the Balrog is, in my opinion, one of the best scenes in the history of film-making.
And that final image of that long, long line of headlights making their way to the field.
Michael Palin as Pontius Pilate, The Life Of Brian:
“…He has a wife, you know.”
I still cannot believe that the man who taught Sergio Leone to shut his characters the hell up has a speech. It should have been no more than “that’s right” if even that much. We already know everything he is saying and why. Just two words, a dirty look and blasting. It’s the biggest flaw in what is otherwise a masterpiece.
Or any other scene in Casablanca.
Have I missed it, or has no one mentioned the fake orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally? “I’ll have what she’s having.”
“But what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn’t one today” from Groundhog Day.
The witch scene from MP&HG. “She turned me into a newt!” “A newt?” “Got better.”
Don’t think so. IIRC, the punk gave himself up when the magnum was put to his head. It was the scumbag in the first movie who got blown away at after being given the chance to surrender (“Now you’re probably wondering: Did he fire six shots, or only five…?”)
In Stalag 17, how would Joey have known Price was the informer before anyone else? 
My all-time favorite scene is here. I can’t watch it without singing along! Unfortunately, the poster left off the part where Gene Wilder says “This is it!!!”
Runners-up are just about any scene from ***Holy Grail ***and Life of Brian.
The end of Empire of the Sun when Christian Bale sees his parents
The murders during the baptism in The Godfather
Love these:
Those P-51s give me goose bumps! :o
Christian Bale was something, even as a kid, wasnt he?
The scene where Josey Wales speaks with Ten Bears.
The Constitutional Peasant scene from Holy Grail.
Carl & Ellie in Up.
Of course, if you’re going to redo something, you might as well overdo it.
And really good actors can act like they’re enjoying themselves.
I think it’s notable because it’s so fake, and so loathsome and embarrassing. I want to yell STFU already, you asshole. No one believes some guy sticking a peen into you is going to give you an epileptic fit. But people just seem to love this scene, like some treasure the after-war reunion of Ashley and Melanie in GWTW.
One of my favorite scenes is in an oldie, Of Human Bondage, where Bette Davis is excoriating poor old Leslie Howard. “When ya kiss me, I wipe my mouth. I WIPE. MY. MOUTH! You’re a cripple, a cripple, a CRIPPLE!” My word, she is just electrifying! She didn’t win an Oscar for that, but I think they gave her an Oscar for a lesser performance in Dangerous the following year to make up for it. Bette has figured in many of movie’s favorite scenes.
Sometimes, when geniuses collide, great things result. Such was the case when Stanley Kubrick and Peter Sellers worked together for the second time (after Lolita) on Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. One of the funniest comedies ever produced (my favorite); one of the greatest films ever made. Sellers played 3 characters in this movie (he was slated to do 4, but an accident intervened, demanding he relinquish the B-52 pilot role to Slim Pickens). Little to none of Seller’s dialog was scripted, most being ad-libbed or developed on-the-fly by Sellers/Kubrick riffing, jazz-like, during filming. Multiple scenes from this movie still make me weak-at-the-knees laugh 50 years after seeing it for the first time, including:
“He went and did a silly thing…” the biggest (and funniest) understatement of all time: Dr. Strangelove phone conversation U.S President - YouTube
George C Scott at his over-the-top best: - YouTube
Keenan Wynn: “your gonna have to answer to the Coka Cola company”: "You'll have to answer to the Coca-Cola company" - YouTube
Sterling Hayden: “our precious bodily fluids”: Dr. Strangelove - Precious Bodily Fluids - YouTube
Water fluoridation: Dr. Strangelove - Water Fluoridation - YouTube
And, of course, Dr. Strangelove himself: Dr. Strangelove and the Bomb - YouTube
Remarkably, there are many more noteworthy scenes from this iconic film (find the scene where George C Scott falls over backwards. That was not scripted, he really tripped; Kubrick smartly used that take in final cut), but you young’uns will just have to watch the film in it’s entirely to appreciate them.
A touching tribute by Robin Williams: Robin Williams on Peter Sellers and DR. STRANGELOVE - YouTube
The making of Dr. Strangelove. Watch this to appreciate the craftsmanship of film making at it’s finest: Inside the Making of Dr. Strangelove - YouTube
That one still gets me every time.
A favorite that hasn’t (I think) been mentioned yet: The “Showdown with a Tiger” scene from Kelly’s Heroes.
Dead Poets Society, when Ethan Hawke’s character (Todd) reacts to the bad news* and is outside in the snow saying “It’s so beautiful!”
Even just typing this chokes me up a little. Too close…
-
Neil’s suicide
I did not know this, from IMDB:
*The scene where Todd cries outside in the snow was done in one take. It was originally an interior scene, but when it started to snow, Peter Weir thought the scene might have more impact if it were done outside. The snow was already beginning to let up so it had to be done in one take. Fortunately, Ethan Hawke managed it. *