Apollo 13: At the military school, after the time for re-establishing contact has gone by. Watching the boy trying to be brave, and his classmates not knowing whether to look at him or not, just tears me up.
(Also, “If they could get a washing machine to fly, my Jimmy could land it.”
The thing that makes the scene so poignant is that, moments before, the Giant was doing what he was ‘built’ to do: Destroy. But he’s taken Hogarth’s lesson to heart: You can be whatever you choose to be. And at that moment… He choses to be Superman.
Scene chokes me up. Every time.
“I go. You stay. No following.”
What a great movie.
I thought of a fifth one:
In 8 Mile, at the end during the freestyle rap competition when Rabbit totally schools Papa Doc. I love it when the beat ends and he just keeps going, and the Papa Doc can’t even say a word in response.
•Michael York’s 1971 flik Zeppelin—the German raid. It’s just so…steampunk. 
•The Quick and the Dead—Russell Crowe and Sharon Stone’s standoff. (What really makes it is Crowe’s dialogue. "Kill me, Ellen. Kill me! KILL ME!" Yow.)
(In the original The Thing the party discovers an object under the ice. They each stand at what they see as an edge and hold hands to determine the shape. They are holding hands in a circle. That is when they know they have found a flying saucer and everything changes.
The scene in Hot Shots! when Washout inadvertently lands his jet in Las Vegas, complete with Tom Jones music. Loved it!
Going to have to second the Luke vs. Darth Vader fight in Return of the Jedi. That whole part from “If you will not turn to the dark side, then perhaps she will.” and Luke going crazy all over Vader’s hand. The music, direction, and choreography was perfect. Absolutely haunting.
Also, same movie, shortly thereafter when Emperor Palpatine is giving his monologue and lighting up Luke’s life. “Young fool, only now, at the end, do you understand. You feeble skills are no match for the power of the dark side. You shall pay the price for your lack of vision. Now, young Skywalker, you will die.” I know Luke was unarmed, but it really impressed upon you how powerful the Emperor was, as he’s zapping Luke and telling him how he never stood a chance.
Pulp Fiction, when Butch is singing along to the radio and runs into Marsellus at the intersection. That look on Butch’s face when Marsellus identifies him. “Well, motherfucker.”
Fight Club. The ending, when the buildings are blowing up to Where Is My Mind. Probably my favorite ending of any movie I’ve ever seen.
Can’t be bothered to read the rest of this thread so I don’t know if it’s been mentioned.
Untouchables - Baby rolling down the stairs mid-shootout. Slo-mo was just right. Best shoot-out ever.
Here are some of my favorites. A few of these may already have been mentioned, sorry about that.
**Pride and Prejudice ** , the latest remake. The party scene, which is done in one long contnuous shot, if I recall correctly. I specifically enjoy Miss Bingley’s remark, along the lines of “Next they’ll take out a piglet and ask us to chase it.”
Big Night. The omelet scene at the end.
Shrek. The montage of Shrek pining for Fiona, as Fiona prepares to marry Farquaad. To me, what makes the scene work is the song “Hallelujah”, one of my favorite Leonard Cohen songs.
And Now My Love. The opening montage showing the female protagonist’s grandparents in black and white, then, in color, her parents meeting on the train home from
a concentration camp, then later conceiving her as a parade passes under their window, and finally her mother dying as she gives birth to her.
Napoleon Dynamite. The whole election day scene, not just Napoleon dancing. Pedro’s speech, “If you vote for me, I will make all your dreams come true”, and how everything changes as Napoleon walks home from school.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The trio runs into Draco as he attempts to photograph the hippogriff being killed, and confront him. Hermione has finally had enough of Draco and his putdowns, and punches him in the face, causing him and his buddies to run off like a bunch of cowards. Afterward, Hermione says, “That felt good!” Ron says, “Not good. Brilliant!” The expression on her face says it all.
I have skimmed the thread and I can agree with The Unforgiven - Last shootout scene. That was good.
Finding Nemo; the seagulls. “mine, mine, MINE…!”
Miracle; when the winning goal is scored. Yes, I knew what was going to happen and I cheered anyway.
ST: The Voyage Home; when they’ll letting Spock out in the park. “Are you sure you won’t change your mind?” “Is there something wrong with the one I have?”
Ghostbusters; too many scenes to count, but the one when they first look at the firehouse is a standout. I love Harold Ramis in that part.
Airplane!; where all the passengers are lining up to “slap” the hysterical woman.
** Tombstone**- Wyatt lets Johnny Tyler know he is sitting in his chair.
Just Cause-Ed Harris calls Sean Connery a liar three times.
Freeway-Reese Witherspoon pistol whips Keifer Sutherland three times.
Spinal Tap-The band discusses the deaths of their drummers.
The Sound of Music-Puppet show.
And as others have said, the end of Unforgiven,specially when Clint says “Alright,I’m comin out…” and the ending of The Good,The Bad,and The Ugly starting with the part that has Eli Wallach running around the cemetery.
Forgive me if I repeat one already said:
- Miracle Max’s from The Princess Bride
- “I’ll have what she’s having” from When Harry Met Sally
- The final courtroom scene in Legally Blonde (guilty pleasure - substitute the final courtroom scene in My Cousin Vinny if this one makes you feel too dirty.)
- The 15 Commandments from History of the World, Part 1
- “You still alive, baby?” from Mr. and Mrs. Smith
In no particular order:
School of Rock - The encore through to the end of the credits (“It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock & roll”).
Local Hero - Any scene really, but I’ll single out the scene where the two guys wake up in the car which they parked in the middle of the road in the dense fog at night. When daybreak comes they discover themselves in the middle of the gorgeous Scottish countryside, with the aforementioned Mark Knopfler score soaring in the background.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind - The first look at the mothership, through to the first communication by musical notes ultimately shattering the glass of the control booth.
Casablanca - The whole movie really, but I’ll specify the final scene on the airstrip, with the singing of “As Time Goes By” a close second.
2001: A Space Odyssey - The Blue Danube sequence as the ship docks to the space station, product placement notwithstanding.
Honorable Mention:
Quick Change - The mention of Randy Quaid above reminded me of the classic scene where Bill Murray and Randy Quaid have robbed a bank and can’t get out of nyc, and Quaid gets down on his knees on the sidewalk and begs for a cab, “just one f***ing cab!”.
How about some musical scenes (not necessarily from musicals)- A few already mentioned- Night of the Hunter “leaning, leaning…” so creepy! and the barn raising dance from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and “Play the Marseillaise!” from Casablanca (tears!) definitely make my list, but here are 5 that I think haven’t been mentioned…
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The final scene from Paths of Glory, with Susanne Christian (later Christiane Kubrick) singing “The Faithful Hussar” to/with the troops (tears!)
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“Lonesome Polecat” from 7B for 7B - I love the reckless way they swing those axes, and the lines “A man can’t sleep, when he sleeps with shee-eep (woo-oo-oo-ooooh, wooo-oo-oo-oo-oooooo) Can’t make no vows/ to a herd of co-ows” I went through a period of watching this movie at least twice a month for about 2 semesters. I didn’t have cable, and I just kept alternating between Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Rosemary’s Baby, and a few others.
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Paul Newman singing “Plastic Jesus” in Cool Hand Luke (tears! plus bonus Harry Dean Stanton singing action)
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Elisha Cook, Jr playing drums at Ella Raines in Phantom Lady (foreplay… to murder! I love him in anything, and this scene is just incredibly intense.)
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Susan Tyrell singing “Witch’s Egg” from The Forbiddden Zone (certainly no tears here!)
I actually got to take a class last semester that was essentially 5 hours a week of this- it was a studio class with open homework, the only requirement was that we had to do a project the related to the cinema in some way. Each week the teacher would bring in tapes and tapes and show clips on a variety of themes, techniques, motifs etc. Truly an awesome class, and we did learn a lot and some of us actually did good work too! I got to show the Forbidden Zone clip in that class, and almost showed the * Paths of Glory* clip in my lit class during a presentation about the battlefield horrors of the Great War as reflected in the work of Yeats, Joyce and Woolf. The class got crunched for time though, so I just showed the “take the anthill!” scene from the same film.
*** I’m sure I missed a mention of at least one of these, I keep having to stop reading the thread to actually do my job (gasp!), and trying to reformat my list as I read through the thread got [whiny voice] tooooo harrrrrd! [/whiny voice] but let’s just say I’m going for a theme here, not originality.
This scene permanently ruined “Singin’ in the Rain” for Mrs. Watcher.
Using the Walter (Wendy) Carlos renditions of Beethoven in this movie were but one manifestation of Kubrick’s genius.