Charge of the Rohirrim, Return of the King.
Aliens, when the marines locate the settlers and are moving down into the complex to find them, and they find them all cocooned but the one woman is still alive, and then all hell breaks loose. I love that scene because the movie is just tense up to that point, and you know something bad is going to happen, which it does as the tension gives way to pure horror.
Rudy, when he finally gets on the field. It always gets a little dusty around my place.
The fight in the park in Billy Jack along with the opening credits where they’re herding the wild horses.
Not only are these two scenes truly awesome in their own right, they’re the only two scenes in this movie that were anything better than truly awful.
The yawp scene from Dead Poets Society. I love how the Ethan Hawke character is so embarassed and tries to act apathetic when he’s called on to recite a poem; Keating knows better, though, and pushes him outside of his comfort. The stunned silence and the look on the kid’s face at the end of the scene always gets me.
The scene in Spider-Man 2 where Aunt May is moving out of her apartment. You expect her to be heartbroken, but she’s really much pluckier than she looks. Then, of course, the little speech she gives to Peter, who has struggled with self-doubt for the entire movie:
And right then, Peter knows what he has to do, and what he should have been doing all along.
Finally, the scene in The Shawshank Redemption when the warden finds out that Andy has escaped. After everything that Andy went through, he never gave up hope, and you are just pulling for him throughout the whole movie. That one second when the warden rips the poster off the wall and sees the huge hole makes the whole thing worth it. I’m tearing up just thinking about it.
Forrest Gump - Forrest talking at Jenny’s grave
Jaws - Quint’s story of the USS Indianapolis and the sharks eating the sailors
Kung Fu - the “time for you to leave” scene
The Illusionist - the “Excalibur” illusion
Amistad. The movie itself is good, if an unremarkable period piece. Morgan Freeman and Anthony Hopkins are terrific of course but there’s one scene near the end when Hopkins, as John Quincy Adams, gives a speech before the Supreme Court and he completely knocks it out of the park.
It starts out rather slow, and if you’ve watched the entire film you know exactly where it’s going, but Some Anvils Need To Be Dropped, and I think this may be a perfect example of that. I don’t own the film on DVD but I keep the speech bookmarked and still listen to it on occasion.
"So what are we to do with this? I have a modest suggestion…
Just thought of another one.
Herzog’s 1979 remake of Nosferatu was an excellent film, but what really made it for me was the surreal scene with Lucy running through the town infected by plague. Just the sight of her friends having their last supper among the rats and the dead has stayed with me since I saw it months ago. What really made that scene though was the eerie song in the background. I thought it was a Greek chorus, but a little googling revealed it to be Zinskaro, a Georgian folk song. Just a breathtakingly creepy scene all around.
KPAX - The scene where the psychiatrist takes him to meet a group of astronomers to demonstrate his delusional knowledge of the field.
I remember it for the bar scene where he’s teased about drinking milk. Didn’t spill a drop.
The perfect example of this for me is the scene near the end of Apollo 13 – the four minutes during which the capsule is out of radio contact, and the increasing tension in everyone glued to the TV or a monitor, waiting, waiting … and then the explosion of emotion that follows.
I must have seen that scene at least 10 times, and I still find my chest clenching up with tension every single time.
Glory, when Col. Shaw volunteers his men to lead the assault on the Confederate fort. They’re marching in formation and the other Union troops exhort them to “Give 'em hell, 54!”
Goosebump city.
It was pretty exciting when it actually happened.
Here’s a very strange example in Michael Clayton:
Tilda Swinton is dressing for work and practicing a speech, IIRC, in front of a large mirror. At one point she puts her hands above her hips, and there’s this role of fat that shows appear below where her hands are resting. I saw it and thought it was truly extrordinary that she was allowing herself to be filmed so unattractvely. And I remember thinking she was going to get some kind of award for it – and she won an Oscar. I actually believe she won for that camera shot, because she had the courage to let herself be shown in as unattractive a light as possible. She acted well, too, but I really believe it was about that particular visual.
For emotional whallop, the taxi driver scene in “We Were Soldiers”
“I don’t like this job, ma’am. I’m just trying to do it” packs as much of a punch for me as “Tell me I’m a good man” from Saving Private Ryan.
River’s last fight scene in Serenity.
The unveiling of Captain Hammer’s statue in Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog was an awesome scene.
The Hammer would be my penis.
Open Range. The garden scene. Cry every time.
You can say this with all the conviction and authority you can muster but that does not make you right. I think that shot is one of the best shots in film history, famous with good cause, and if it “makes it” for someone there is absolutely no need to be dismissive of their opinion. I have spoken.
In Miracle on 34th Street when the little Dutch war orphan girl meets her Sinter Klaas. Gets me every time.
From StarShip Troopers 3, I have to say it’s the last line of the movie that “makes it” if anything does. After the stirring and inspirational recruiting spiel that every SST movie ends with, the screen goes black with the narrator saying “Service Guarantees Citizenship!” While the rest of the movie seems uneven and poorly done, that last line is just chilling.
I’ve heard of unique masturbation fantasies, but that’s a new one! (especially since those carriages are so big–what did the other occupants say?)
This is an old one – in The Night of Iguana (with Richard Burton and Deborah Kerr), the scene where Shannon and Hannah talk about human connection and spirituality while Shannon is bound up in a hammock, recovering from his breakdown. Twice in the past few years I’ve stumbled upon that movie while flipping through the channels, and I simply had to stay and watch until I saw that scene.