Karate Kid II, I think: Daniel is in his climactic fight with the bad guy and is poised to deliver the coup de grace. My memory fades. Doesn’t it go something like:
Daniel, with his hand poised menacingly over the bad guy’s face: “Live or die, your choice!”
Bad guy: “Die!”
Daniel …
“Wrong answer!”; he instead tweaks the bad guy’s nose, leaving him to feel shame. Or something.
That’s another thing, that whole scenario where the hero has the chance to kill the villain (sometimes even is asked to) but lets him live instead, arresting him rather than killing him. Presumably because it’s a form of punishment for him to have to live with his evil misdeeds in jail for the rest of his life.
Oh! Yes, that’s extremely over-done and very annoying. (Though I’m still not sure how it’s related to horses.)
[hijack] Cautionary tale - they may not be amused. Mr. singular pulled a similar trick on our chiropractor in Maine in the 80s, and it was not even a little bit well received - and we had a great relationship with our chiro. She got over it, but it was awkward for a bit.[/hijack]
Meanwhile, back to the topic, (and as seen in that Matrix clip), why the hell do they always throw away the empty gun??? Ya know, it’s pretty easy to buy new bullets. New gun? Not so much…
Subordinate says to a superior, “Sir, we need you down here in the sickbay/lab/morgue/armory/situation room.”
Superior: “What is it?”
Meaningful pause. “You’d better just come down.”
No, no, no. I’m your boss, remember? You are at least articulate enough to tell me, in a sentence, what it is that I’d be coming down there to see. Then I’ll decide whether or not it’s worth my time. Sheesh.
Not exactly. Hackman has a gun and the gun for the prisoner is on a ledge in front of him. The prisoner doesn’t have the guts to go for a fair fight despite what he would have others believe (the author writing his biography in the same room).
But I’m almost 100% sure it’s the ONLY time the scene has EVERY invovled a steam roller, wet concrete, and the victim making fun of the attacker’s stutter while delivering the “kill me” line.
Or that the villain ended up as a top Apartheid-era South African official - Minister of Justice, IIRC.
I don’t think this one can be topped. It’s shocks me down to my shoes on those nearly unheard-of occasions when the bad guy stays dead the first time. I never believe it until the credits roll.
No, I’m talking about the exchange between Hackman and the author. Hackman is trying to show him how hard it is to kill a man. Hackman hands him the loadad pistol, tells him to cock it, tells him to point the pistol at Hackman and says something like “Now all you have to do is pull the trigger, and you and English Bob can ride out of here.” (Hackman makes a mean face.)
But the author doesn’t have the nerve.
Hackman breaks into a grin and says “Hot, ain’t it!”
(Then there’s an exchange where the author asks "What if I give the gun to [English Bob]? Hackman tells him to do it. But English Bob isn’t convinced the gun is loaded and doesn’t take it. That may be what you’re thinking of.)
At least two Batman movies come to mind as well.
The airplane confession is a good one. The plane is going down, and all of the passengers make their life confessions. The last one to be made is sexually embarassing in nature. At that very moment, the flight becomes safe again.
Oh, come now! Am I really the first one to mention the Mexican Standoff?
An oldie, but still a goodie. I’ve seen it on TV at least twice last week alone.
Oh, that one deserves its own thread. A quick list of recent examples:
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Dawn of the Dead
The Departed
I agree. I actually saw a real life instance of this on Cops last night and it played out exactly like it always would in real life:
Drunk Lady (walking towards her back yard): Come back here officer, let me show you something.
Cop: What is it, ma’am?
Drunk Lady: Just come back here and see
Cop (hasn’t moved): MA’AM, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO SHOW ME?
The second time he is dispatched by the partner of the good guy who you thought was dead, but really he was just mortally wounded and has just enough breath left in him to save the good guy’s life one last time.
The ‘good’ guy and the ‘bad’ guy are scrambling, wrestling for the only gun. They stand up, both with a hand on the gun, a shot rings out. Who got it? Slowly they saparate and the bad guy looks down to see a bullet hole in his gut.
Ahhh yes. You are correct.
Every time a teenager with a fake ID gets carded, they ALWAYS say, “Makes me feel like a kid again.”
The disarming the bomb as the timer counts down. The bomb is always disarmed with a second remaining on the timer. This is a scene that is supposed to be suspenseful, but because we’ve seen it a thousand times and know the end result, it is entirely without suspense. Gee, do you think the bomb is going to go off and kill James Bond? He didn’t die in the last 30 movies made since the Kennedy administration, but maybe this time he’ll actually die.