Thanks, I did a google search for it, and I am surprised it didn’t return this.
Three Kings is IMHO an underrated movie; a combination war movie, crime caper and disaster movie.
If I had to pick a scene, I’d pick
[spoiler]the tense moment in the town square where the Americans are just trying to escape with the gold while the Iraqis loyal to Saddam are trying to reimpose their will on the townspeople. When the frozen tableau finally ends in violence, there’s a moment where you can see George Clooney’s conscience drag him from the role of self-serving theif to the role of avenger/protector and he HATES that he has to make that switch.
Another fantastic scene is the interrogation of Troy. The Iraqi interrogator is perfect.
TROY
(whispers)
That’s horrible.
INTERROGATOR
What?
TROY
(whispers)
I said, that’s horrible.
INTERROGATOR
Oh, my God, buddy. I didn’t even
told you the horrible part yet.
[/spoiler]
Another perfect or almost perfect scene comes from Children of Men. You know it if you’ve seen the movie.
The evacuation of the baby during the fighting.
From the same movie, I’d also nominate
The revelation of the girl’s pregnancy. For a moment you think it’s going to be a scene about sexual exploitation, and then you realize. Short but powerfully effective.
The car chase scene:
Partly because of the amazing camera work, but mostly Julianne Moore’s death. She gets shot out of nowhere, and bam…that’s it, she’s dead. No stupid speech about her being in love with the protagonist while he shouts “Hang on! You’ve got to hang on!” She just dies almost instantly, as people often do when they get shot in the chest. They avoided the stupid cliche and I love them for it
Another from Lost (the first season) about Locke:
[spoiler]At the end of “Walkabout,” when the camera pans away and we see Locke in a wheelchair for the first time, screaming
“Don’t tell me what I can’t do!”
One of the largest collective “Holy Shit!”'s on record.[/spoiler]
Atticus Finch’s closing statements in To Kill a Mockingbird. And after that: “stand up, Jean Louise. Your father’s coming.” (This is a paraphrase.) I also love the scene where Scout meets Boo Radley in person for the first time. His quiet shyness and her childlike energy is so sweet and touching at the same time. There are a lot of great moments in that movie, actually.
Han Solo’s appearance in the climax of Star Wars: A New Hope. “You’re all clear, kid, now let’s blow this thing and go home!” Awesome.
The entire climax of the Doctor Who episode “Blink.” So frantic and so utterly terrifying that I had to sleep with the lights on for a night or two.
And an anime: One Piece. There are a lot of perfect scenes in that one (such as Luffy, Zoro, Sanji and Usopp’s march into Arlong Park), but my favorite is during the Enies Lobby Arc. The bad guy, Spandam, is taunting the Straw Hat crew about the greatness of the (highly corrupt) World Government, waxing poetic about its flag (which is sitting on top of a tower hundreds of feet away).
After he’s finished talking, Luffy, without taking his eyes off Spandam, says “Sogeking, shoot it down.” And Sogeking (really Usopp in disguise), without hesitation, aims and shoots, reducing the flag to cinders. I literally cheered when I watched that scene for the first time.
Hee, I remember that one! Two other episodes with great scenes are the one with Maris & the dead seal, and the radio play episode. “Mupapa muddeda.” “Look out, he’s got a nug!”
One scene that comes to mind is the last few minutes of The Usual Suspects.
- She’s Having a Baby* - the scene when they are all mowing their lawns and dancing.
“Say hello to my little friend!”
I agree it’s underrated and a great movie but didn’t you kind of miss something?
A bunch of US soldiers fight a battle to grab some gold off Saddam, and have to rescue some ordinary Iraqis, which they do resentfully because really all they want to do is grab the wealth?
A combination war movie, crime caper, disaster movie and *freaking gigantic barely subtle allegory *perhaps?
Mine would have to be the opening scenes of The Exorcist when Max Von Sydow is in the desert on the archaeological dig. The priest facing the demon statue, the dogs fighting in the background, the clock stopping…it was the creepiest part of the movie.
Oh my god, I love that scene so much. I mean, that actor stole my heart in that scene. I don’t mean to gush, but I love that scene so much that I forced random friends and family members to watch it with me. Thank you for just reminding me to dickride that scene today. I haven’t jocked it in about a year now. Now, I gotta find it on youtube and watch it.
What is problem with Michael Jackson?..Michael Jackson is pop king of sick fucking country.
Also, a shout out to HelloNinja who mentioned the Glengarry Glen Ross scene. Every scene of that movie is perfection for me, but my favorite is the scene where Pacino cusses out Spacey for messing up his sale by opening his big mouth.
I just realized that my Watchmen contribution doesn’t count, as it is really multiple scenes, or a montage.
Sliding Doors The repeated scene where G. Paltrows characters life splits, something as simple as a little girl being pulled to the side by her mother profoundly effects anothers life.
And the final scene, “nobody expects the spanish inquisition”
And if TV shows are valid targets, there a plenty of scenes in the BBC version of Coupling (We shan’t talk about the US flop)
Almost any scene where Jeff expounds his ideas on life, and there are a couple of hilarious soliloquies by Steve, (Inferno, and Her Best Friend’s Bottom)
And I forgot, the final reveal in No Way Out it’s one of the only movies that was far better than the book (The Big Clock), and IMO better than the original movie made from the book.
I’d say the one perfect scene in FotR is the Fellowship grieving for Gandalf immediately after they leave Moria.
Near the end of The Train Job episode of Firefly. Mal and crew back out of the job that Mishka hired them to do & Mal is trying to give the money back to Mishka’s henchman so Mishka doesn’t come after them.
Mal (paraphrasing). Here’s all the money Mishka gave us. You give it back to him and tell him the job didn’t work out. He goes his way and we go ours. That’s best for everyone.
Henchman - Keep the money. Use it to buy a funeral. It doesn’t matter where you go, or how far you fly. I will hunt you down & the last thing you’ll see is my blade.
Mal gets this slightly disappointed look and says “darn” then kicks the henchman into the engine.
How many billions of times in TV & movies has the good guy let the bad guy go, only to have it come back and bite him in the ass. I love that scene.
Of course, it dosn’t matter. The deal with Miska still bites him in the ass.
True, but not that particular henchman.
Take The Money and Run.
Teller: What does this say?
Virgil: Uh, can’t you read that?
Teller: I can’t read this. What is this? “Abt natural”?
Virgil: No it just reads, “Please put $50 thousand into this bag. Act natural.”
Virgil: (pointing to the note) “I, uh, am pointing a gun at you.”
Teller: That looks like “gub”, it doesn’t look like “gun”. No, it’s “gub”. That’s a B.
Virgil: No you see, it’s an N … G-U-N.
Teller: George, would you step over here a moment please.
Teller: What does this say?
George: “Please put $50 thousand into this bag and … abt” — What’s “abt”?
Teller: “Act”. Does this look like “gub” or “gun”?
George: “Gun”. But what’s “abt” mean?
Teller: It’s “act” … A- C-T, act. Please put $50 thousand into this bag. Act natural.
George: Oh, I see, this is a hold up.
Virgil: Yes.
Woody Allen movies are full of perfect scenes.
I will say that it’s the best part of an otherwise all but unwatchable movie. In short: Fuck Zach Snyder.
From Buffy, the episode Restless, which people seem to either think is brilliant or boring, does a perfect job of capturing the disjointed feel of dreams for me, especially the scene where Xander is in the ice cream truck. I love that he’s trying to focus on what should be important (his job, his girlfriend), but there’s something vaguely sexual happening in the back, and when he gets up to go be a part of it, the truck gets longer and longer, and he can’t ever reach it, and then he’s right back to where he doesn’t want to be.
Another one: The scene in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang where the pink haired girl dies, Harry shoots the bad guy, and then the dog eats his finger. Two details that seal it for me: the pink haired girl’s surprise at finding Harry hiding under the bed while she’s dying (and him 'shhs’ing her final words), and the way Harry looks away when he fires the first bullet into the bad guy’s chest.
I think the opening credits to Watchmen also qualify, but someone already mentioned them uppage, and apparently they don’t.
Oh, no. It certainly meets the criteria of this thread. I was just taking a moment to once again vilify one of the worst directors working today; someone who nearly made me stop loving one of my all time favorite books ever.