# You're Making a Collection of Your Favorite Movie Scenes-List Five You Would Include

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [March 6, 2007, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818 "2007-03-06T16:39:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 7

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**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818/121 "2007-03-12T02:01:11Z")

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The barfight scene in _Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark_ when Indy and one of the bad guys are fighting over a gun. The Evil Guy in Black says “Shoot them. Shoot them both.” Indy and the other guy look at him, glance at each other and shoot the gunman without either letting go of the gun.

Also in _Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark_, the scene where the Nazi salutes and says “Heil Hitler !”; the monkey imitates the salute with a “_squeak SQUEAK !_”, and the Nazi gives the monkey a startled glance and return’s the monkey’s salute with another “Heil Hitler !”

The scene where the Evil Guy in Black approaches the captured girl, pulls out this nasty looking rod, extending it with a snap \< _cue ominous music_ \> . . . then folds it into a triangle and hangs his coat on it.

The scene in _Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade_ where the bad guy drinks from the wrong Grail, withers and dies gruesomely, and the Grail’s guardian says, “He chose . . . _poorly._”

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**Author:** ![archmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@archmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/archmichael)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818/122 "2007-03-12T11:26:43Z")

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I cant rank them in my mind, but here are five that came to mind

1. Whenever Salieri is describing Mozart’s music. F. Murray Abraham is just great.

> [@](#):
>
> Salieri: On the page it looked nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a pulse - bassoons and basset horns - like a rusty squeezebox. Then suddenly - high above it - an oboe, a single note, hanging there unwavering, till a clarinet took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was no composition by a performing monkey! This was a music I’d never heard. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing, it had me trembling. It seemed to me that I was hearing a voice of God.

1. Ash telling Ripley how much he admires the alien

2. In Apocalypse Now, when Kilgore does his napalm speech. A lot of people focus on the “I love the smell of napalm in the morning”, but my favorite part is “Someday, this war is going to end…”. Robert Duvall just nails it. The soul tearing sadness Kilgore feels. That he cant believe he lives in a world where God would take a beautiful thing like war away from him.

3. The end of Dangerous Liaison. Madam de Tourvel is booed away from the opera. She’s looking in the mirror removing her makeup.

4. Azumi. The final test before they become true assassins.

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**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818/123 "2007-03-12T12:38:05Z")

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The scene in Ghost where the bad guy realizes he is dead and gets dragged to hell.

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**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818/124 "2007-03-12T17:32:49Z")

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Mr Jingles resurrection … The Green Mile  
Kerr/Lancaster rolling in the surf…From here to Eternity  
Keano Reeves shooting himself…The Devils Advocate  
The real guy turning up…Finders Fee  
Indiana Jones shoots guy with sword  
Newman kick guy in nuts…Butch C & TSK

Loads more

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**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818/125 "2007-03-12T17:49:50Z")

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Alan Arkin’s leap in “Wait Until Dark.”

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**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818/126 "2007-03-12T17:50:06Z")

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[QUOTE=jsc1953]  
9. Explosive climax of **The Guns of Navarone** (an explanation…not just because the actual explosion, and the guns toppling slowly into the sea, is cool, especially for 1960 special effects - it’s the brief moment of silence, followed by all the ships in the British convoy blowing their sirens, and the distant cheers of hundreds of sailors. Love that scene.

[/QUOTE]

Just one more thing…the build-up to the scene involves much use of cross-cutting between the Guns (and G. Peck, D. Niven) and the convoy. And every shot of the convoy is accompanied on the soundtrack by a few bars of “Rule Brittania”. It’s movie soundtrack cliche rule #1 – any shot of a British naval vessel must be accompanied by Rule Brittania.

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**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818/127 "2007-04-05T12:33:51Z")

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**Life is Sweet** : Nicola and Natalie in the sitting room. “All men are bastards!” “_What?!_”

**Leningrad Cowboys Go America** : The first time the band plays hrock and hroll.

**My Best Friend’s Wedding** : Cameron Diaz saying to Julia Roberts what everyone always says they **would** say if they had to take what rivals for the hero/ine of a romcom generally have to take.

**Menace II Society** : The interrogation scene. “Boy, you done fucked up. You know that, don’t you? You know you done fucked up.” Bill Duke, man.

**The English Patient** : Yeah, I know, but it was all worth it for the scene with Naveen Andrews showing the murals to Juliette Binoche. Actually, it was worth it for all the scenes they were in. And Willem Dafoe’s. If I could make my own cut of EP, it would be about twenty minutes, but it would be a glorious twenty minutes.

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**Author:** ![Dob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Dob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dob)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818/128 "2007-04-05T13:49:02Z")

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“I want my father back you son-of-a-bitch” scene from Princess Bride. Always gives me the chills.

Bridge scene in Fellowship of the Ring. One of the few scenes in the movie that lived up to my own imagnation of what I thought of when I read that part. perfect.

First 15 minutes of Raiders of the Lost Ark. that is what movie making magic is all about!

The “All I want for Christmas” musical number from Love Actually. Always puts me in a holiday mood, even in July.

have to think on some others…

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**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818/129 "2007-04-05T17:17:03Z")

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Some wonderful ones and some I might have included in my list, but that being said…

**Red River** with John Wayne, Montgomery Cliff and Walter Brennen. The Yeehaw scene at the beginning of the cattle drive.

**The Party** with Peter Sellers. The bathroom scene. I am smiling just thinking about it.

**Fantasia** The dancing hippos. I’m really smiling now.

**Arsnic and Old Lace** with Cary Grant. Grant’s reaction to finding the first body.

**My Darling Clementine** with Henry Fonda, Walter Brennen, Ward Bond, Victor Mature and Tim Holt. The scene where Mature as Doc Holiday finishes the frightened actor’s Hamlet soliquoy then goes into a coughing fit.

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**Author:** ![Camelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f17d59/32.png) [@Camelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Camelot)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818/130 "2007-04-05T19:02:33Z")

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**Contact** - the discovery of the signal.

**Apollo 13** - the “was it the door?” scene between Mrs. Lovell and her son. Also, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin sit at the TV with Lovell’s mother. “Are you boys in the space program, too?”

**Life is Beautiful** - the scene where Guido rides in on the vandalized horse.

**Good Will Hunting** - “My wife used to fart in her sleep” and the entire scene that follows.

**As Good As It Gets** - the restaurant sequence in Baltimore.

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**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818/131 "2007-04-05T20:17:01Z")

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**Glengarry Glen Ross** - the scene between Jack Lemmon and Kevin Spacey, when Spacey has his realization after Lemmon says… you know the one.

**Leon, the Professional** - when Stansfield is hearing Beethoven while they’re tossing the apartment. (" I like these calm little moments before the storm. It reminds me of Beethoven. Can you hear it? It’s like when you put your head to the grass and you can hear the growin’ and you can hear the insects. Do you like Beethoven?")

**Sideways** - the scene between Miles and Maya, starting in the kitchen, and ending out on the back porch when they each describe why they like pinot. It’s perfect.

**Mr. Holland’s Opus** - walking into the auditorium at the end, and the symphony.

I’ll think of more…

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**Author:** ![Camelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f17d59/32.png) [@Camelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Camelot)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818/132 "2007-04-05T20:52:59Z")

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Ooh, I want to add a 6th.

**Mr. Holland’s Opus** - the Rowena/bus stop scene

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**Author:** ![freekalette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@freekalette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freekalette)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818/133 "2007-04-05T21:15:58Z")

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1. **The Ring** , when samara crawls OUT OF THE TV!!! _shudder_
2. **Dumb and Dumber** , when Harry uses Mary’s broken toilet.
3. **American Beauty** , the plastic bag.
4. \*\*Final Fantasy Unlimited \*\* (technically a series, but _shrug_) when the opening scene’s TRUE meaning is revealed.

And my #1 pick, from my favorite anime…  
**Metropolis** , the Ray Charles sequence.  
Great lists, everyone!! Keep 'em coming!! Oh, and another vote for the first look at the dinosaurs in **Jurassic Park**. That’s actually the most powerful movie moment I’ve ever experienced.

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**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2007, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818/134 "2007-04-05T23:09:50Z")

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I didn’t see it, but I assume it’s in here someplace.

The _Indianapolis_ scene from _ **Jaws** _.

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**Author:** ![teemingONE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@teemingONE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teemingONE)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2007, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818/135 "2007-04-06T01:05:55Z")

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Man, I am bookmarking this thread and I am going to watch all these movies when I get the chance. (again and some for the first time)

Good thread!

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**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2007, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818/136 "2007-04-06T01:20:36Z")

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– Blind man (Gene Hackman) and Monster - Young Frankenstein  
– Cellar climax – Psycho  
– Mt. Rushmore scene – North by Northwest  
– Final shootout – Magnificent Seven  
– Horse head – The Godfather

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**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2007, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818/137 "2007-04-06T02:45:24Z")

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in no particular order…

1. Rescuers Down Under or perhaps Harry Potter & the POA - kis flying with aid of giant eagle / Harry flying with the aid of hippogriff

2. Color Purple: Ceely sees her sister return, they run to each other and embrace

3. Home at the End of the World: hard to choose… kid and his brother in cemetary little kid floats into the air, adult Bobby and Jonathan dance on the roof

4. Serenity - either River runs to find the reapers, or the firefly and reaper ships bursting through the static cloud towards the alliance ships

5. The Big Blue - diver boy dreams of his room filling with water and swims away with the dolphins

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**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2007, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818/138 "2007-04-06T03:53:31Z")

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One of my favorite scenes, not mentioned yet, is the “invention of the hula hoop” montage set to the Khachaturian music in **The Hudsucker Proxy**.

I also love the whole baseball game scene from **The Naked Gun** (“Look! It’s Enrico Palazzo!”)

Hospital shootout from \*\*Hard-Boiled \*\* (basically the last 40 minutes of the film)

The tofu shop scene from **Wing Chun**

Any of Jet Li’s fight scenes in **Fist of Legend**

The paparazzi / John Woo send-up from **Men Suddenly in Black**

“So you think I’m funny?” scene from **Goodfellas**

Many more (Mexican standoff in **The Good, the Bad and the Ugly** ; cave scene from **Raiders** , etc.)

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2007, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818/139 "2007-04-06T06:01:27Z")

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Ten great scenes that I don’t think have been mentioned yet

Cleavon Little taking himself hostage in _Blazing Saddles_  
Harrison Ford bringing a gun to a knifefight in _Raiders of the Lost Arc_  
The “I Will Go Sailing No More” scene in _Toy Story_  
Cary Grant dealing with Leslie Caron’s snakebite in _Father Goose_  
Lupus catching the ball in _The Bad News Bears_  
The assault on Casanova Frankenstein’s mansion in _Mystery Men_  
Tom Hanks meeting the Thai druglord in _Volunteers_  
James Spader giving his victum “one minute” in _2 Days in the Valley_  
The bank robbery shootout in _The Long Riders_  
Neve Campbell and Denise Richards drop by Matt Dillon’s place in _Wild Things_

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**Author:** ![anamnesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@anamnesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anamnesis)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2007, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-making-a-collection-of-your-favorite-movie-scenes-list-five-you-would-include/394818/140 "2007-04-06T07:37:32Z")

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The problem with mine is that I love virtually all the scenes from these films, making it hard to pick just one scene from each. Equally difficult, as others have said, is to pick just _five_ films, but these are some scenes which move me emotionally.

**Scent Of A Woman** - Colonel Slade’s speech before the Baird student body and disciplinary committee determining Charlie’s fate. I knew there was something about this scene, but the genuine message about being a person of character took several viewings for me to truly appreciate. Really, any scene by Pacino in this film works. It is my favorite performance by any actor, in any film, ever. The tango scene is obviously also a nominee. Pacino is the movie.

**Aliens** - So many great, tightly executed and technically incredible scenes to choose from here, but I’ll go with Ripley and Newt emerging onto the landing platform of the atmosphere processor only to discover Bishop is not there while the entire complex is becoming the depths of hell. The Queen emerges from the dark shadows of the elevator as Ripley, now essentially Newt’s surrogate mother, tells Newt to close her eyes. Much excitement ensues, with some of the best traditionally produced scenes (by that I mean non-CGI) ever put to film.

**Big Fish** - Ed Bloom’s son Will, a reluctant pragmatist who resents his father’s outlandish autobiographical tales, creates his own outlandish tale at his father’s side as he lays on his death bed, incorporating all of the characters from his father’s life in a wild romp of fantasy, imagination and heart.

**The Iron Giant** - The titular character discovering (upon falling off a cliff while fleeing from an unprovoked attack by a paranoid Cold War era U.S. military) that he can fly, just like Superman could in the comics he’d read. This scene always makes me cry, as does the final scene where he stops a nuclear missile in orbit at the apex of its launch trajectory … just like Superman would have done.

**The Wrath of Khan** - The battle in the Mutara Nebula, all the way through to Kirk’s speech at Spock’s ceremony. The most recent film, **Nemesis** , also paralleled this, wherein Data’s endeavor to become human comes full circle in his personal sacrifice for for the greater good. This also happens in **Terminator 2** to an extent, and even though Ahnult was programmed to protect, the message at the end of an artificial being learning the value of life is essentially the same.

Clearly, I have some kind of thing for non-human characters achieving their endeavor to become human by personally sacrificing themselves. I suppose Bishop counts too, right? 🙂

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