# Perfect scenes in movies/TV shows/plays **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 22, 2010, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326 "2010-05-22T01:26:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2010, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326/101 "2010-06-06T00:41:35Z")
Gotta be the scene in True Romance with Walken. [It’s delicious how the power shifts from the first of the scene to the last.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqccyUpnZwA) Perfection. > [@Aspidistra](#): > > Actually, quite a lot of _Unforgiven_. That’s a good movie, that. “The _Duck_, says I.” ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2010, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326/102 "2010-06-06T00:59:51Z")
I can’t think of any movie scenes right now, but there was a scene from an old “Bones” episode that I caught the other day that makes me tear up again just recalling it. This is probably a spoiler, but it’s an old episode, regarding Christmas, so don’t read if you don’t want to know. -The episode is about Christmas, and throughout it Bones is practically anti-Christmas, and the whole episode is about creating Christmas wherever you are, regardless of circumstances. During the episode, it comes out that Bones’ parents had died shortly before Christmas, and her older brother had tried to make a Christmas anyway, buying presents and pretending they were from their parents. But Bones hated it, hated that it wasn’t what it should have been, and apparantly has disliked Christmas ever since. Eventually some gestalt is reached by Bones, because at the end of the episode, she is opening a present. Somehow it is realized that she is not just opening A present, she is opening THE present from her childhood, that her brother had put under the tree, trying to make a Christmas right for a little girl for whom nothing was ever going to be right again. She had never opened it. I bawl just thinking about it. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2010, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326/103 "2010-06-06T01:28:34Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > _Touch of Evil_ - the opening scene First one I thought of. The chase scene in “Raising Arizona” is another one I agree with. Perfect song choice. I thought the final scene of _Ikiru_ was perfect within the context of the film. I know I’m in the minority, but I thought the final scene of _The Sopranos_ was genius. Also from the Cohen Brothers, Albert Finney going nuts with the machine gun while “Danny Boy” plays in _Miller’s Crossing_ is one brilliant scene among many in the film. ---
**Author:** ![Moonchild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@Moonchild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonchild)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326/104 "2010-06-06T03:10:21Z")
Another Freaks & Geeks devotee chiming in. Kudos to you, Cicero! (threadstarter) I discovered Freaks and Geeks surfing channels one night and stumbled into that episode and was just wanted to laugh and cry and come out of my socks at the scene before the dance, when Sam drums up the courage to ask Cindy to the dance as the scene intercuts with Bill & Schweiber fighting Alan White to the opening of “Renegade” by Styx. Talk about getting locked in to a show! Spectacular! Slight hijack: I met Linda Cardinelli a couple weeks by happenstance and let her know I was a huge F&G fan and she shined like a silver dollar. An awesome moment – but still not as good as that Freaks & Geeks scene! ---
**Author:** ![Moonchild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@Moonchild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonchild)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2010, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326/105 "2010-06-06T03:24:16Z")
> [@MTCicero](#): > > I was discussing **Freaks and Geeks** (one of my favorite TV shows, ever) with a friend of mine earlier today, and it got me to thinking about one of the most perfectly realized TV scenes I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching: the ending of the pilot episode, where Sam dances with Cindy Sanders. It’s gut-bustingly funny, yet so sweet and real at the same time. Okay, I just watched both scenes [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLiXo2wlMMY&feature=related) and you’re right, the dance scene is better. But the [final scene](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVAGmxKlCyQ) of the season (and the show) might be a tie. ---
**Author:** ![alindallas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f17d59/32.png) [@alindallas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alindallas)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2010, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326/106 "2010-06-06T06:00:50Z")
ROB ROI: Liam’s duel with Tim Roth SAVING PRIVATE RYAN: on the beach ---
**Author:** ![Clydius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Clydius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clydius)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326/107 "2010-06-06T18:27:54Z")
I’m new here but had to register to have my input… Someone already mentioned a scene from ‘My So Called Life’, but there was a Christmas episode ‘So Called Angels’… “How did you die?” ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326/108 "2010-06-07T22:02:39Z")
My favorite two-second ending of a movie is in _Monsters Inc._: Sully: Boo? Boo: Kitty! It can’t get any better than that. In _LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring_ the Moria scene has the perfect pitch up to the death of the cave troll. The sense of dread and Gandalf’s reading of the log are skillfully done. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326/109 "2010-06-07T22:11:47Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > -Dying Mozart dictates the Requiem to Salieri in **Amadeus** , or maybe the earlier scene where Salieri is describing the music that starts as just a simple squeezebox, etc. My wife and I held a theme party for our film discussion group where you were to bring in your favorite scene from any movie and show it. She chose the scene in _Amadeus_ where Mozart is first meeting with the Emperor, pissing off Salieri with his madd improvizing skillz. “That doesn’t quite work, does it? How about…” I chose the absinthe trip from _Moulin Rouge!_ ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2010, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326/110 "2010-06-07T23:50:57Z")
In the final season of _Angel_, Cordelia Chase is absent for every episode but one. She’s in a coma for the first half of the season, only to miraculously awake. Angel thinks she’s come back to him, but in fact it’s just a brief refrigerium for her before she goes on to the next life; the Cordelia he’s interacting with is a magical projection of some sort. At the very end of the episode, he gets a call from the hospital where she’s been all this time, and where her physical body is. We hear very little of the conversation: just “Hello, this is Angel,” followed by a long pause, and as the cameral pulls away, “When did she die?” I never liked the idea of Angel & Cordelia being in love, and David Boreanez is by no means a great actor. But that little scene is heartbreaking, and it made me believe that she was in fact his beloved. ---
**Author:** ![RedChesterfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9de0a6/32.png) [@RedChesterfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedChesterfield)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326/111 "2010-06-08T01:41:01Z")
After one of the greatest drinking scenes in film, the McManus brothers and David Della Rocco accidentally discharge a gun and blow Rocco’s girlfriend’s cat into a fine past on the wall. “Is it dead?” I’ve never laughed so hard, so many times at a single scene. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326/112 "2010-06-08T01:49:34Z")
The scene in The Longest Day where the GI is nervous behind enemy lines when he takes out his clicker and clicks once, waiting for two clicks in response, meaning a friend. After agonizing silence, he hears the two clicks and emerges from hiding, only to be immediately shot by a German. As he nears death he says “I heard two clicks”. Cut to the German soldier, working the rifle mechanism, making two clicks in the process. ---
**Author:** ![Klaus\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@Klaus\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klaus_K)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326/113 "2010-06-08T12:43:25Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > The scene in My Cousin Vinny with Marisa Tomei on the stand: “It’s trick question…”. Almost any scene in My Cousin Vinny with Marisa Tomei looking great. ---
**Author:** ![Klaus\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@Klaus\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klaus_K)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326/114 "2010-06-08T12:52:20Z")
1. The scene in Grosse Point Blank at the reunion ball, where Martin Blank looks into the baby’s eyes and the DJ plays Pete Townsend’s “Let My Love Open the Door”. 2. The scene in Roxanne where Steve Martin lays into a guy who calls him “big nose”, showing him all of the more imaginative insults he could have used. 3. The closing scene of a halloween Frasier, where the kids have been spreading rumours that Frasier eats brains. Somehow a hat (or hairpiece?) has got stuck on Niles’s head - Frasier is trying to prise it off with a teapsoon when the kids look in through the door, to see him apparently scooping brains. Lovely how all of the apparently unrelated threads come together. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326/115 "2010-06-08T13:27:41Z")
From the second-to-last episode of _The Shield_:Vic’s confession.Every single moment in the past seven seasons had been leading up to that scene, and Michael Chiklis manages to get every word, every pause, every facial expression and body movement _exactly_ right. The final episode was great, but it was denoument. ---
**Author:** ![ajdebosco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@ajdebosco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ajdebosco)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326/116 "2010-06-08T14:04:57Z")
For all of the agonizingly slow moments in _The Grapes of Wrath_, it is still worth watching, if for nothing else, Tom Joad’s perfectly executed scene: “Then it don’t matter. I’ll be around in the dark - I’ll be everywhere. Wherever you can look - wherever there’s a fight, so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there…” ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326/117 "2010-06-08T14:41:51Z")
Beatrice Straight’s scene in [\*\* Network\*\*](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcXIktL55Gw), reacting to William Holden’s admission of infidelity. I remember watching this in the movie theater and being totally blown away. I’m pretty sure the link shows the entirety of Straight’s screen time in the film. It’s the briefest performance to ever win an Oscar, and imho one of the most deserved Oscars ever! ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326/118 "2010-06-08T15:04:36Z")
There is a scene from the TV show Dead Like Me wehre Rube has taken over as a cook in the reastaurant the gang all meets at every morning. He’s helping out, and the ghost of the dead cook is giving him guidance. It all comes to a head when a customer tries to tell Rube how he wants his patty melt made. It goes like this: Waitress: Guy wants the cheese melted on the bread, not the patty, and kraut. (returns the dish) Rube: Fine. Ghost of Old Cook (GOC): No, no. That’s how it starts. You give in, next you’re making a rib-eye, well done, smothered in ketchup. Rube: You’re being melodramatic. Waitress: I’m not! Rube: I’m not talking to you. (to GOC): I’m not paying for it. GOC: Oh, you pay for it. Sending back a dish is a hostile act. Are you going to take orders from a fucking customer? Rube (to customer): Hey. How are you doing? You order a patty melt? Cutsomer: Yeah. Is there a problem? Rube: You don’t know what a patty melt is. A patty melt not only implies what it is but also how it’s prepared. The cheese is melted on the patty. Customer: I like the cheese on the bread. Rube: That would be a bread melt, more commonly known as a Grilled Cheese. How about I make you a nice grilled cheese? Customer (petulant): I want a patty melt with kraut and cheese melted on the bread. Rube: Sorry. I can’t do that. Customer: What do you mean? Rube: Well, you give in on one little thing, you compromise and compromise…until you’re a shell of a man beaten down and you stand for nothing. Customer: I want to talk to the manager. Rube: A dish is a collection of flavours, consistencies. Start swapping ingredients and it’s like fucking with a Jenga tower of tastes. You don’t know what you’re asking for. Customer: I know. Rube: Kraut on Der Patty Melt is akin to knocking the tower down. Customer: “Der Patty Melt” should have kraut on it. Rube: “Der” is German for “the”. The Waffle House. The patty melt. Customer: I want der fucking patty melt with der cheese melted on der bread with der fucking kraut on it. Got it? Rube: No, you got it. On der house! (Rube tossed the plate into customer’s lap) ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326/119 "2010-06-08T15:15:49Z")
> [@crazyjoe](#): > > There is a scene from the TV show Dead Like Me wehre Rube has taken over as a cook in the reastaurant the gang all meets at every morning. He’s helping out, and the ghost of the dead cook is giving him guidance. It all comes to a head when a customer tries to tell Rube how he wants his patty melt made. > > It goes like this… [Dead Like Me - Patty Melt](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYCTVlxVx0I) (YouTube) :D:D:D:D:D:D ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2010, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326/120 "2010-06-08T15:50:12Z")
It’s interesting that a lot of scenes mentioned involve dancing. The first thing that I thought of was the crowd scene in Grand Central Station in **The Fisher King** where it suddenly morphs into an elaborate ballroom number, and then at the end of the scene turns right back into hundreds of people milling about. That must have been one hell of a scene to choreograph. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-scenes-in-movies-tv-shows-plays/540326.md?page=7)