# Nice Shot! Most Memorable Film Shots **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 13, 2005, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-shot-most-memorable-film-shots/284486 "2005-01-13T03:23:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-shot-most-memorable-film-shots/284486/101 "2005-01-24T22:28:50Z")
> [@Miabella](#): > > **Strangers on a Train**. . . the scene at the tennis match where the entire audience is moving their heads back and forth watching the ball. All except Robert Walker, who is focusing intently on Farley Granger. Ooo, good call. That was one brilliant scene. Isn’t it amazing what a good director can do with a deceptively simple setup like that? Just thinking about that expression on Robert Walker’s face gives me chills. RW did a good psychopath. ---
**Author:** ![Torgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-shot-most-memorable-film-shots/284486/102 "2005-01-25T02:32:24Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > **Blue Velvet** : Sandy walking out of the darkness saying, “You the guy who found the ear?” I’m also a big fan of the Dennis Hopper screaming “I’ll f\*\*\* anything that moves!”/VANISH INTO THIN AIR scene. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-shot-most-memorable-film-shots/284486/103 "2005-01-25T04:30:35Z")
I must have seen hundreds if not thousands of on-screen shootings, but somehow it was different when Mikey got popped in the back of the head in “Beverly Hills Cop.” It was really disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-shot-most-memorable-film-shots/284486/104 "2005-01-25T05:26:58Z")
A pair of shots from **Cast Away** : When Hanks is first stranded on the island and he climbs to the top of the hill and we get a beautiful 360 degree shot that shows nothing but water in every direction. It really sells the fact that he is completely alone, with no place to go. Contrast that with one of the final shots in the movie. Hanks, having left the ‘winged’ package on the house’s doorstep, pulls his vehicle to a stop at a crossroads. We get a wide shot from above, showing the land spreading out in in every direction and showing us that he can go anywhere from here. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-shot-most-memorable-film-shots/284486/105 "2005-01-25T05:40:17Z")
> [@ianzin](#): > > **The Panic Room** - any of the two or three ‘impossible’ shots they used in which the camera seemingly goes through a set of moves that no actual camera could possibly perform. This reminded me of a shot in **Contact**. Young Ellie is rushing into her house and up the stairs to the bathroom to get her father’s medicine. The camera is in front of Ellie, shooting into her face and retreating in front of her, so it’s like she’s chasing the camera up the stairs. She reaches the bathroom and reaches up to open the medicine cabinet and as she pulls open the mirrored door of the cabinet, you realize that everything you’ve just seen was taking place _in the mirror_! Which is, of course, impossible. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-shot-most-memorable-film-shots/284486/106 "2005-01-25T06:07:49Z")
> [@dotchan](#): > > Anime probably shouldn’t count… The hell it shouldn’t. In one of the last episodes of Cowboy Bebop, there’s a big gunfight going on with the characters running all over rooftops. Spike and Julia, the long separated lovers, have killed or incapacitated most of the Syndicate thugs after them and are about to make their final escape, when Spike sees a guy pop up behind them. Spike kills the guy, but not before he fires at Julia. These last shots disturb a flock of white birds, which take off gracefully en masse to the left while Julia falls over to the right, long blonde hair streaming behind, all in slow motion. This is _the_ shot that finally convinced my wife that anime had something good to offer. Perfect Blue tells the story of an upcoming young pop star and a stalker who tries to make her think she is going insane. The director uses some of the same techniques found in Eternal Sunshine to illustrate the star’s reality breaking down. In the end we discover the stalker is acutally the girl’s manager, who decides she wants to kill the star and take over her life. There’s a shot of the manager chasing the star down the street, dressed in the same clothes. At times she looks just like the star, but when she passes in front of a store window you see her reflection, and she appears as her true self - a middle aged, out of shape woman, running herself to exhaustion trying to catch the young, pretty girl. ---
**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:** [January 25, 2005, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-shot-most-memorable-film-shots/284486/107 "2005-01-25T08:15:32Z")
About a million and a half shots from _1492: Conquest of Paradise._ It’s been awhile, but as I recall, the movie _D.A.R.Y.L._ had a good shot of the hero ejecting from an SR-71. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-shot-most-memorable-film-shots/284486.md?page=5)