If Independence Day is on, I gotta see the scene with the doggy narrowly escaping hellfire in the tunnel.
I figured the dog would make it. Filmmakers kill off kids before they kill off dogs. But I did like the scene. My favorite from the movie is when Randy Quaid’s shoulders slump when he realizes what he has to do.
The opening scene of Saving Private Ryan definitely. IMO it qualifies for the best war movie ever purely on the back of that scene. I 100% agree with critics who say the rest of the movie is pretty generic unremarkable, but that open scene is so so good that it still makes it the best war movie better ever (think of it as the best short film about war ever, that had an unremarkable full-length sequel 
)
Also the shootout scene in Heat, though the rest of the movie is the perfect juxtaposition to that, but that makes the movie.
My personal “that one scene” is the final scene in Shawshank Redemption. As I first watched this during an all night movie marathon at my university halls of residence (they’d have them in the social hall above bar) suitably imbibed for the show I ended falling asleep during the scene where Andy smuggles a rope into his cell and you are left to assume he’s going to kill himself, so for the next few years until I saw it on video, I thought the movie had a dark ending
Trinity: “Dodge this”
The Quantrill family in The President’s Analyst.
The SICILIAN SCENE in TRUE ROMANCE.
At the start of the scene Christopher Walker’s character has all the power. But the power slowly changes during the scene and at the end Dennis Hopper’s character talked himself out of torture and did not give up his son.
Oh, yeah. The Branagh version. My absolute favorite bit of Shakespeare.
And I found that scene in Apaloosa I mentioned. “My mistake. Three coffins,” – The man with no name.
The whole scene in the restaurant is my favorite part of that movie. Always makes me hungry for roast chicken too.
In The Magnificent Seven when Charles Bronson (O’Reilly, one of the Seven) has words with the village boy.
Village Boy 2: We’re ashamed to live here. Our fathers are… cowards.
[O’Reilly takes the boy over his knee and spanks him]
O’Reilly: [harshly] Don’t you ever say that again about your fathers, because they are not cowards! You think I am brave because I carry a gun? Well, your fathers are much braver because they carry responsibility, for you, your brothers, your sisters, and your mothers. And this responsibility is like a big rock that weighs a ton. It bends and it twists them until finally it buries them under the ground. And there’s nobody says they have to do this. They do it because they love you, and because they want to. I have never had this kind of courage. Running a farm, working like a mule every day with no guarantee anything will ever come of it. This is bravery. That’s why I never even started anything like that… that’s why I never will.
Mules, not flip flops, but all that maribou is impressive!
Not gonna lie, that actually made me cry.
I watched this entire film last year because I watched it a billion times in childhood and I wondered if it held up.
My God, does it ever. It’s a beautiful piece of storytelling. Even with that opening scene where Grant is scaring the pants off the kid with the raptor claw, which I can now see serves the dual purpose of foreshadowing and establishing Grant’s antipathy toward children at the same time. Not a wasted moment in that film.
That reminds me of a scene in El Condor, between Jaroo (Lee Van Cleef) and Dolores (Imogen Hassall).
Jaroo: Aren’t you a little rough on the kid?
Dolores: It’s my privilege. I’m his mother. He’s my little bastard.
Jaroo: That’s no way to talk about a child!
Dolores: Do you want to marry me?
[Their eyes lock. They glare at each other. He flinches.]
Dolores: Then shut your mouth.
A great scene, but IMHO the arrival and subsequent charge of the Rohirrim was the quintessential scene in ROTK.
Fellowship of the Rings has to be the YOU SHALL NOT PASS! scene on the bridge.
If we’re talking bank heists, The Dark Knight Rises.
I’d marry her
It was actually Fellowship of the Ring, not rings. The Jackson movie kind of troubled me because Gandalf kept asking Frodo, “Is it safe?” and I was having flashbacks to Zell’s style of dentistry.
The Killing - Sterling Hayden robs the racetrack office while wearing a clown mask
The Dark Knight is a heck of a fun movie, but if you don’t see the Joker’s pitch to the crime bosses, you have missed the movie.
Speaking of pitches in comic-book movies, there’s something to be said for the bit where the Vision has to admit that there may be no way for him to make the people in the room trust him…
The opening scene of Lolita. I frequently criticize Kubrik for his weakness in getting performances out actors that have a genuine feel – too often they seem wooden and over-produced – but he knew well enough to let Sellers loose on a scene. The rest of the movie is difficult, but that first scene is awesome.
And, sticking to black-and-white, the scene at the end of The Ox-Bow Incident, where the letter is being read to the tavern. The composition, Fonda’s mouth and Morgan’s eye, is perfect.