# 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:** 5
**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, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/81 "2008-04-19T09:35:17Z")
Speaking of which, I loved when Armadillo got his face held down on the hot burner on the stove. ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/82 "2008-04-19T10:17:50Z")
[QUOTE=teela brown] It sure felt good when Billy Bob Thornton chopped up Dwight Yoakum’s head with a sling blade in the movie of the same name. [/QUOTE] Wasn’t a sling blade that he used at the end but a sharpened lawn mower blade. It’s funny how many people remember that part wrong. I’m not 100% sure but I don’t think you see a sling blade in the entire movie you only hear about it in Karl’s story about killing his mother. My favorite part was how he called the cops afterwards and said something along the lines of “Yup pretty sure he’s dead. I whooped him a good one” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Them](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/898d66/32.png) [@The\_Them](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Them)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/83 "2008-04-19T10:21:24Z")
**Knead,** re _The Professional_…can’t believe I forgot that one. Darn me! To certain other posters: there was nothing in _Spirited Away_ that would qualify as severe villiany. It’s just a very sweet coming of age story. ---
**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, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/84 "2008-04-19T10:48:10Z")
Oh yeah, another one - when Donnie Darko tells off Patrick Swayze’s character (Jim Cunningham) in front of the entire school during his “motivational speech.” ---
**Author:** ![Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophistry_and_Illusion)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/85 "2008-04-19T12:49:04Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] Oh yeah, another one - when Donnie Darko tells off Patrick Swayze’s character (Jim Cunningham) in front of the entire school during his “motivational speech.” [/QUOTE] Oh, and by the way, **Argent Towers** , in re _The Mist_: Goddammit, you should have just told me not to watch The Mist. I watched it last night, and I’m fucking traumatized by that ending. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/86 "2008-04-19T12:49:28Z")
[QUOTE=The Them] **Knead,** re _The Professional_…can’t believe I forgot that one. Darn me! [/QUOTE] I gotta be first on some of these occasionally, even if only through the laws of random chance. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/87 "2008-04-19T12:59:13Z")
I immediately thought of _Misery_, when James Caan’s character finally escapes and gives it back to Kathy Bates’ character: Eat it till ya choke, you sick, twisted fuck! ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/88 "2008-04-19T13:20:02Z")
Just as a side issue, I think it might be instructive if we could identify which actor has contributed most by being on the receiving end of these cathartic and visceral moments in more than just one or two movies. Nominees: Jack Palance Alan Rickman Brian Dennehy Gary Oldman Your basic Bond villain anybody in a black hat in the B Westerns (except Lash LaRue) Lee Van Cleef Peter Lorre Glenn Close Demi Moore Barbara Stanwyck Joan Crawford Margaret Hamilton Doris Day ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/89 "2008-04-19T13:41:12Z")
[QUOTE=alice\_in\_wonderland] 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. [/QUOTE] One of my favorites. Very satisfying. ---
**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, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/90 "2008-04-19T14:26:52Z")
> [@The Them](#): > > To certain other posters: there was nothing in Spirited Away\* that would qualify as severe villiany. It’s just a very sweet coming of age story. I never said that Yubaba was a villain. But there’s no denying that she was a horrible bitch at many points in the movie. Just like Lady Eboshi was a horrible bitch at some points in **Princess Mononoke** , even though she’s not strictly a villain (and she’s one of my all-time favorite animated characters as well). > [@The OP](#): > > Moments where someone who is just behaving like a real piece of shit gets what they deserve? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/91 "2008-04-19T14:53:29Z")
[QUOTE=The Them] To certain other posters: there was nothing in _Spirited Away_ that would qualify as severe villiany. It’s just a very sweet coming of age story. [/QUOTE] It’s been a while, but my recollection is that Yubaba was a “bad guy”. Am I remembering wrong? -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/92 "2008-04-19T14:55:42Z")
In the original _Longest Yard_, when Burt Reynolds tells his blockers to let the one guard through, and then FIRES the ball right into the guy’s crotch… And in the next play, does the EXACT SAME THING… ---
**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, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/93 "2008-04-19T17:21:30Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > It’s been a while, but my recollection is that Yubaba was a “bad guy”. Am I remembering wrong? Yubaba was more what I would call an “antagonist”. While she’s not particularly nice at all to Chihiro, the main character, she doesn’t have any particular motives to hurt her, either. Probably the worst thing she did in the whole movie was stealing her sister Zeniba’s precious magic seal by way of Haku, whom she controlled with a spell, and subsequently abandoning Haku once Zeniba sent magic creatures to kill him. However, I interpreted the seal-theft as just another instance in a long-time series of conflicts between the sisters, and her abandonment of Haku as part of her general indifference towards others. One thing about Hayao Miyazaki’s movies is that hardly any of them have classic purely evil villains. Probably the most purely evil character he ever created was Muska in **Castle in the Sky**. Yubaba is not a pleasant character, to be sure, but she doesn’t want to rule the world either. All she wants is for her bathhouse to make gobs of money and to one-up her sister by any means possible. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/94 "2008-04-19T17:43:15Z")
[QUOTE=Ranchoth] 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_. [/QUOTE] Actually IIRC, that is what Robert Carlyle’s character does to his wife near the beginning of the film, while she is strapped a gurney, pleading for help and unable to defend herself. One of the more disgusting and uncomfortably misogynistic scenes I’ve even seen. Whether that happens again to someone else later on, I forget, as I’ve tried to block out all traces of that horrid film from my memory. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/95 "2008-04-19T17:54:37Z")
[QUOTE=The Them] To certain other posters: there was nothing in **Spirited Away** that would qualify as severe villiany. It’s just a very sweet coming of age story. [/QUOTE] You think severe river pollution isn’t villainy? Anyway I put it in as a response to the “viscerally satisfying” request, rather than the “just deserts” bit; I felt the “etc” gave me the mandate to do that. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/96 "2008-04-19T18:50:55Z")
[QUOTE=KneadToKnow] Ooooo! Ooooo! The first time I ever stood up in a theater and cheered was when Clark went back to the truckstop at the end of _Superman II_ and taught that prick truck-driver some manners. [/QUOTE] Always thought that scene was awful. After regaining his powers and, literally, saving the world, Clark Kent takes petty vengeance on a garden-variety bully. Don’t know why I didn’t think of this right away: in the movie _Punch-Drunk Love_, when the half-wit brothers from Utah crash into the protagonist’s car, injuring his girlfriend, and this time, instead of being terrorized and helpless, he calmly and efficiently puts three of them down for the count and leaves the fouth one pissing his pants. I also love the ending of _The Big Sleep_ with Humphrey Bogart. Guess Eddie Mars isn’t such a tough guy when it’s his own life on the line, eh? ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/97 "2008-04-19T18:57:27Z")
_Dirty Harry_ is the all time leader in this category for me. The scene in the stadium where the lights come on and Scorpio freezes in the middle of the field… well, let’s just say disrespecting a psychopath’s civil rights has never felt so _good_. ---
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/98 "2008-04-19T20:10:14Z")
Many scenes from the Death Wish series. Here’s one that I particularly enjoyed: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtWLnB4WyGk) ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/99 "2008-04-19T20:22:22Z")
[QUOTE=brewha] Was that really Liam Neeson in Rob Roy? I don’t recall seeing him in anything before the crappy Star Wars prequels. Hmm, I’ll have to see that one again. [/QUOTE] Is this a whoosh? _Schindler’s list, Nell, Michael Collins, Ethan Frome_ and _Darkman_ all came before the_Star Wars_ prequel. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830/100 "2008-04-19T22:36:21Z")
[QUOTE=Blank Slate] Is this a whoosh? _Schindler’s list, Nell, Michael Collins, Ethan Frome_ and _Darkman_ all came before the_Star Wars_ prequel. [/QUOTE] Not to mention _Next of Kin_, where Liam plays Patrick Swayze’s hillbilly brother. I can’t tell you what Neeson’s acting range limits are, but I can confidently say that this role was outside of them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-viscerally-satisfying-moments-in-movies-just-deserts-etc/445830.md?page=6)