# Scenes Where the Character's Whole World Falls Apart and Fades Away
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-where-the-characters-whole-world-falls-apart-and-fades-away/131000
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 5, 2002, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-where-the-characters-whole-world-falls-apart-and-fades-away/131000 "2002-10-05T21:29:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2002, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-where-the-characters-whole-world-falls-apart-and-fades-away/131000/21 "2002-10-07T05:07:43Z")
In **Godfather II** when
Michael confronts Fredo at the Havana New Year’s Eve party and gives him the kiss of death after telling him, “I know it was you Frodo. You broke my heart.”
(Damn it! That’s what happens when the previous topic you were in was a L.O.T.R. thread.)
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### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2002, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-where-the-characters-whole-world-falls-apart-and-fades-away/131000/22 "2002-10-07T05:09:12Z")
In **Godfather II** when
Michael confronts Fredo at the Havana New Year’s Eve party and gives him the kiss of death after telling him, “I know it was you Fredo. You broke my heart.”
(Damn it! That’s what happens when the previous topic you were reading was a L.O.T.R. thread.)
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### Author:  [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2002, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-where-the-characters-whole-world-falls-apart-and-fades-away/131000/23 "2002-10-07T05:11:28Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Katisha \*
> \*\*“Ay, no; no, ay, for I must nothing be…”
>
> I love that play. I could talk about it for hours. 😉 \*\*
MMMHMMM. Had to read it for class last week, and I think I’ve got a new entry in my list of favorites.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2002, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-where-the-characters-whole-world-falls-apart-and-fades-away/131000/24 "2002-10-07T05:59:04Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by NDP \*
> \*\*In **Godfather II** when
>
> Michael confronts Frodo at the Havana New Year’s Eve party and gives him the kiss of death after telling him, “I know it was you Frodo. You broke my heart.” \*\*
“It’s an old Gondorian message–it means Boromir sleeps with the fishes.”
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### Author:  [@Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo_Boo_Foo)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2002, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-where-the-characters-whole-world-falls-apart-and-fades-away/131000/25 "2002-10-07T06:18:55Z")
May I offer an Australian film?
It’s quite highly regarded. It’s called “Picnic at Hanging Rock” and I refer to the scene where the school’s headmistress begins to ‘lose it’ after some of her charges go missing in the nearby mountain ridge on a day trip in the bush.
The renewals for the upcoming semester start to dwindle and she realises the school (and all her world that goes with it) is facing a disaster.
It’s a dreamy, almost non fulfilling film - and yet it stays with you. Interestingly, like “The Truman Show”, Peter Weir directed that one too… as well as “Witness” too didn’t he? Obviously, he’s good at that sorta thing.
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### Author:  [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2002, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-where-the-characters-whole-world-falls-apart-and-fades-away/131000/26 "2002-10-07T16:37:32Z")
Dark City. If you’ve seen it, you know. If not, it’s a spoiler, so just go see it.
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### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2002, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-where-the-characters-whole-world-falls-apart-and-fades-away/131000/27 "2002-10-07T20:30:58Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Dark City. If you’ve seen it, you know. If not, it’s a spoiler, so just go see it.
When you do, however, remember to
fast-forward past the pointless first couple of minutes to the scene with Rufus Sewell in the tub. Otherwise, it really will be spoiled for you.
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### Author:  [@Avalonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avalonian)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2002, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-where-the-characters-whole-world-falls-apart-and-fades-away/131000/28 "2002-10-07T23:27:14Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by KneadToKnow \*
> \*\*I think the classic example of this (well, for the last 25 years or so) has to be Luke Skywalker learning his true parentage. \*\*
Blah. There are _many_ better examples, some already pointed out in this thread. _Requiem for a Dream_ perhaps the best one. Eeesh. FAR more disturbing than Hammill’s little whiny wail in _Empire Strikes Back_.
Oh, and for **Fear Itself** a minor nitpick… Morgan Freeman opened the box. The fit didn’t hit the shan until Brad Pitt learned what he saw in it. _evil grin_
For my own choice, I’d have to throw in for my all-time favorite film, _Fearless_. Depending on which chronology you use (real-time or movie-time), the world-altering scene is either at the beginning or the end of the story, but either way it’s an emotionally-wrenching doozy, set to Gorecki’s “Symphony #3”. Wow. It always leaves me breathless.
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### Author:  [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2002, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-where-the-characters-whole-world-falls-apart-and-fades-away/131000/29 "2002-10-09T02:26:36Z")
Oh the joy’s of someone recognizing the origin of my nom de plume!
First one that comes to mine is the look on Ray Liotta’s face in Goodfellas when he picks up the morning paper in the WPP.
Other movies with similar scenes include
Shallow Grave
Thelma and Louise
A Place in the Sun
Dog Day Afternoon
Indecent Proposal
Of Mice and Men
and perhaps Boy’s Don’t Cry.
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### Author:  [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2002, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-where-the-characters-whole-world-falls-apart-and-fades-away/131000/30 "2002-10-09T06:08:35Z")
Every scene in Memento.
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### Author:  [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2002, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-where-the-characters-whole-world-falls-apart-and-fades-away/131000/31 "2002-10-09T06:15:56Z")
I think **Pleasantville** represents a reality that falls apart and fades away.
A damn beautiful movie.
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### Author:  [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2002, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-where-the-characters-whole-world-falls-apart-and-fades-away/131000/32 "2002-10-09T14:20:18Z")
A weird little movie starring Elliott Gould, called _Inside Out,_ about an agoraphobic who leads a very busy life from inside his apartment, using all the latest high-technology devices of the mid-1980s _snort_.
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### Author:  [@ResIpsaLoquitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ResIpsaLoquitor)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2002, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-where-the-characters-whole-world-falls-apart-and-fades-away/131000/33 "2002-10-09T15:16:30Z")
In _Star Wars: The Phantom Menace_, when Chancellor Vallorum is nailed with a vote of no confidence. Man, does he look bummed.
_Superman_: The hero finds Lois Lane’s dead body.
_Inherit the Wind_: WJ Bryant’s character (his fictional name is escaping me right now) has his beliefs blown apart during Darrow’s interview of him.
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