# Most viscerally satisfying moments in movies ("just deserts," etc) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 18, 2008, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830 "2008-04-18T03:02:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/61 "2008-04-18T23:29:13Z")
[QUOTE=Rubystreak] There were several in The Wire, but the two most notable: Stringer Bell getting capped by Omar and Brother Mouzone, both of whom he had fucked over, among many others, and knowing exactly who was doing it, why, and how (his best friend, who he set up to get arrested, gave him away to his assassins). And, in the last ep of the series, when Slim Charles just got sick of Cheese and shot that swaggering asshole out of nowhere. Cheese was also guilty of sociopathic behavior and betrayal of his uncle, so I was quite glad to see him get taken down. [/QUOTE] I second these and wanted to add the scene in Unforgiven when Little Bill gets what he deserves. ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/62 "2008-04-18T23:35:53Z")
One of the most deeply satisfying “Oh my!” moments for me – The Deep Blue Sea, when Samuel L. Jackson gives the speech about survival, and how they should all stick together and they’ll win… And the shark jumps out of the water and eats him. There was a collective stunned gasp in the audience… Then a cheer! God, I still love that moment. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/63 "2008-04-18T23:36:06Z")
I second ( **Rubystreak** ’s moments above) these and wanted to add the scene in _Unforgiven_ when Little Bill gets what he deserves. I just realized, in reveiwing the synopsis for accuracy of my post, that at the time of his death, Little Bill, says “I don’t deserve this…to die like this.” Munny replies, “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.” Munny then shoots Little Bill dead. That last quote is exactly what Snoop (a character in _The Wire_) says to the young soldier, Michael when telling him about a (fake) hit they’re about to do and Michael questions whether the target deserves to be killed. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/64 "2008-04-19T02:22:24Z")
[QUOTE=Raguleader] **Remember The Titans** , when the bruiser from the opposing team gets taken _down_ by the Titan’s linebacker, who then proceeds to point straight at the other team’s coach before moving on to the next play. After all the talk the other coach had done about “beating the chocolate” out of the Titans, it was a super-satisfying scene. [/QUOTE] I liked it better when the QB smashed the bruiser. The ref refuses to call a penalty “on a quarterback?” ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/65 "2008-04-19T03:21:13Z")
[QUOTE=Icerigger] The ending of Cruel Intentions, when everyone is walking out on Buffy-Kathryn’s eulogy to the Bitter Suite Symphony and she is reduced to tears. [/QUOTE] Much better (IMHO) is the original \* Dangerous Liaisons \* when Glenn Close’s character realizes her entire life (as she knows it) is over. The Green Mile - when Coffee spews that stuff at the psycho guard and he shoots Wild Bill and everything \*\* Tombstone \*\* when you know that Wyatt can’t beat Ringo and Doc Holliday is too sick, then “I’m your huckleberry.” YAY ---
**Author:** ![Intravenus\_De\_Milo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Intravenus\_De\_Milo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intravenus_De_Milo)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/66 "2008-04-19T04:33:57Z")
Some of my favorite movie moments: - **The Bourne Ultimatum** : when Noah Vosen (David Strathairn) barges into the office in the CIA black ops lab in New York just as Pam Landy (Joan Allen) finishes faxing the Project Blackbriar classified papers to the press. The look on his face, and Landy’s “I hope you have a good lawyer”. Priceless. - **Return of the Jedi** : when Leia strangles Jabba the Hutt with her own slave-girl chains 😃 - speaking of returns… **Return of the King** when Eowyn slays the Witch-King of Angmar. “I am no man…AAAAAAAHHHHH!” _stab_ > [@G. Odoreida](#): > > A great moment that is literally cathartic is in Spirited Away when the girl pulls out the rubbish that is choking the river spirit in the bath: “That’s no stink god!”, then a very relaxed and relieved “aaaahhhhh”. I love that scene, but I think my favorite “just desserts” moment in that movie is when Chihiro gives the “medicine” to No-Face, and he/she/it subsequently pukes on Yubaba. Big time. Bitch had it coming 😉 ---
**Author:** ![bathsheba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@bathsheba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bathsheba)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/67 "2008-04-19T04:46:02Z")
[This.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mzwbiVghnc) It lost something in the translation hence the youtube. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/68 "2008-04-19T05:20:35Z")
How about the rapists getting a load of buckshot in _Pulp Fiction_? Or Gary Oldman’s character in _Leon_ (aka _The Professional_)? (Or, what **KneadToKnow** said.) Also, Jodie Foster getting served in that Spike Lee movie about the bank robbery was pretty awesome. Almost made up for the Godwinization. Almost. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/69 "2008-04-19T05:24:04Z")
I think it was _28 Days Later_, where… …in a fight with one of the renegade troops, the hero _gouges his opponent’s eyes out with both thumbs._ Y’know, it’s interesting…in all the movies I’ve seen, all the characters that that ever happens to—no matter how badass they are—always end up _squealing_. On the other extreme, the ending of the happy, fluffly little fairy tale flick, _Ever After_: [spoiler]When now Princess Drew Berrymore (read: Cinderella) confronts her evil stepmother, who’s been making her life a living hell for years, and recently tried to sell her into indentured servitude, in the middle of the royal court. Drew says something along the lines of “Know this…in a few minutes, I’ll have put you out of my mind, and I’ll never think of you again. But I’m sure _you’ll_ be thinking of _me_ for the rest of your life.” I mean, pretty standard fare, right? But the best part is the stepmother’s reply—she’s beaten, she’s doomed. She’s lost everything, and everyone has abandoned her. She’s surrounded by eyewitnesses and guards. But she looks up from her cringe, and asks, demurely as you can imagine, “And…how _long_ might that be?” 😃 I always loved that part, for some reason. No shrieking curses, no breakdown, no hopeless defiance. It’s almost like it’s one professional to another; “Well, that’s it, you got me. Could I inquire if there’s going to be a _lot_ of screaming involved on my part after this, or are we just going straight to the axe?” Now _that_ is knocking a tormentor down to size. Or maybe it’s just rising to meet them. [/spoiler] And…one particular scene from the grand brooding goth of revenge fics, _The Crow_: [“Abashed, the devil stood…and felt how…_awful_ goodness is…!”](http://youtube.com/watch?v=mplBCLrVzBY) ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/70 "2008-04-19T06:31:46Z")
[QUOTE=schnuckiputzi] It’s kind of corny, but every year when my high school English class (having studied Geoffrey Chaucer) watches **A Knight’s Tale** , there never fails to be a huge cheer when the evil knight gets his comeuppance at the end, and Heath Ledger (sob) gets the girl. [/QUOTE] She didn’t deserve him. And I’d rather have Kate, the smith. Michael Clayton’s little corridor conversation with Karen Crowder at the end of _Michael Clayton_. No blood; just the end of her world. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/71 "2008-04-19T06:58:56Z")
I still love the shopping scene in _Pretty Woman_. Julia Roberts comes in lookin’ fine, with a stack of bags and boxes and looks at the snooty women and says “You guys work on comission, right? Big mistake…HUGE.” Heh - love that. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/72 "2008-04-19T07:08:16Z")
I think some of my most viscerally satisfying media moments were successful rescue scenes. That Mary elizabeth mastarantonio resucitation scene in James Cameron Movie was awesome…perhaps that influence carried over as the protector in T2. That hypothermic heartstopper in last weeks Nip and tuck. Just deserts. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/73 "2008-04-19T07:35:15Z")
As a proud but abused black woman stuck in a gay white male body, two of my favorites that haven’t been mentioned yet: _The Color Purple_- Celie’s rebirth at the Easter dinner table (great acting all around in that scene, but I particularly loved Danny Glover’s expression when Celie picked up the knife) _What’s Love Got To Do With It?_- the limo ride from airport to hotel when Ike beats Tina and for the first time she beats back. I particularly love the way Angela/Tina was cowed by him for a split second, then goes absolutely berserk. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/74 "2008-04-19T07:42:18Z")
ETA: Tina on Ike action begins about 1:30 [into this clip](http://youtube.com/watch?v=7DEMh7eFh6k&feature=related). ---
**Author:** ![Omi\_no\_Kami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Omi\_no\_Kami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omi_no_Kami)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/75 "2008-04-19T07:56:36Z")
[QUOTE=Sigmagirl] In _Raiders of the Lost Ark_, when the Arab-ninja guy is dicking around with all those scimitars, so Indy just whips out his gun and drops him. [/QUOTE] In a similiar vein, from _Serenity_: [spoiler]Captain Reynolds is standing about ten feet away from the deadly Operative who is standing between Reynolds and the transmitter he needs to get to. The following dialog (roughly) ensues: Operative: “Is this cause really something you’re willing to die for?” Captain Reynolds: _swallows_ “Yes.” [Draws his pistol in a flash and shoots the operative.] Captain Reynolds: “But I’d rather not.” [/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/76 "2008-04-19T08:02:40Z")
[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect] How about the rapists getting a load of buckshot in _Pulp Fiction_? [/QUOTE] Hoo, boy. How could I have forgotten about that one? Not to mention the Samurai sword to the stomach, also. That’s one of the best of these scenes ever. I never saw Pulp Fiction in the theater - did people cheer when that happened? Some must have. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/77 "2008-04-19T08:11:58Z")
[QUOTE=shelbo] Ahem, you forgot something. Eight somethings. [/QUOTE] Well, I’m confused too, because [according to the IMDB,](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112346/quotes) those last eight words are “is Andrew Shepherd, and I _am_ the President”. Mayhap **Sunrazor** meant the last TEN words…? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/78 "2008-04-19T08:40:25Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] The scene in _Ghost_ when the real killer looks back and sees his dead body, then the deamons come and take him away. [/QUOTE] I like the scene a few minutes before when [Goldwyn’s character] types in his access code and the $4 million “blood money” account has been closed. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/79 "2008-04-19T08:48:24Z")
_Gone With the Wind_- the scene in which Scarlett encounters, kills, and disposes of the Yankee soldier (or the just deserts deserter) is an intense and well done scene from start to finish and the reason Scarlett is such an icon even though she’s one of the least likable characters in film or literature, though Melanie steals the scene (the saber, her cool lying, and her very ladylike suggestion that they rob the body). [YouTube](http://youtube.com/watch?v=eL0aPDOSu80) ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/80 "2008-04-19T09:20:41Z")
The next season of The Shield should have such a hell of a moment, I’m quite looking forward to it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830.md?page=5)