What's your favorite movie scene of all time?

[Kid_A]

I have two. The first is the classic Vader/Luke duel/revelation from THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. I watched that A&E documentary about the Star Wars movies last weekend, and having not seen the originals in a couple years, that scene still hits me like a ton of bricks.

My other favorite is from THE GODFATHER PART II where Kay tells Michael that her miscarriage was actually an abortion. Seeing the rage slowly build up in Pacino's face during the course of the scene before he finally snaps and hits Kay is one of the best examples of an actor using just his face, and no words at all, to convey pure rage that I've ever seen. I've talked to people who say Michael's defining moment in PART II is the "Kiss of Death" scene, but I think the talk with Kay in the hotel, with the kids right outside in the hall, is far more effective.

But not NEARLY as effective as Vader chopping Luke's hand off.

[veteran_for_peace]

1. Scarface

The scene where Al Pacino is in the giant tub and his wife is complaining about having nothing to do while she is powdering her nose. He tells her to work with blind kids.

[redqueen]

2. Roy on the roof, holding then releasing the dove - Blade Runner. n/t

[MadChatter]

4. The overdose scene

in pulp fiction, makes my jaw drop every time I see it!

[Ready4Change]

9. Another scene from Blade Runner for me.

Deckard clobbers Roy with an iron pipe. Roy is only knocked back, hardly stunned. On the next swing Roy grabs the pipe and yells at Deckard "That's the Spirit!" It's clear Roy is toying with Deckard, and Deckard freaks and runs away in panic.

But really that whole movie is full of "my favorite scenes." I think over time it will be clearly recognized as one of the great films made, along the lines of "Casablanca," "Gone with the Wind" and "Citizen Kane."

[redqueen]

11. Yes... I have a few favorite scenes in it, too

but the rooftop... 'I've seen things...' that gets me.

The whole interaction between Roy and Deckard in that scene is great... 'not very sporting'... 'I thought you were supposed to be good'... 'proud of yourself?'... 'quite an experience to live in fear'.

The whole thing should be my favorite... the final showdown between Roy & Deckard.

[mrboba1]

3. The scene where Andy Dusfresne

crawls through the sewer to get out into the stream and strips off his shirt in the rain to freedom.

That gives me chills...

(oh: Shawshank Redemption, if you didn't know...)

[mrboba1]

5. Second place goes to

Red when he has his parole hearing:

Red : Rehabilitated? Now let me see. You know, I don't have any idea what that means.
Parole official: Well, it means that you're ready to rejoin society.
Red : I know what you think it means, sonny. To me it's just a made up word; a politician's word. So young fellas like yourself can wear a suit, and tie, and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?
Parole official: Well, are you?
Red : There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret. Not because I'm in here, or because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then then, a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try and talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone and this old man is all that's left. I got to live with that. Rehabilitated? It's just a *beep* word. So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don't give a *beep*.

*Approved*

[SarahB]

19. These two, plus this one at the end:

As Red Narrates:

"Get busy living, or get busy dying. That's goddamn right. For the second time in my life I'm guilty of committing a crime: Parole Violation. 'Course I doubt they'll toss up any road blocks for that, not for an old crook like me. I find I'm so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I imagine it's the excitement only a free man can feel. A free man at the start of a long journey, whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border... I hope to see my friend and shake his hand... I hope the pacific is a blue as it has been in my dreams... I hope..."

[mrboba1]

23. the whole movie is just full of 'em isn't it?

god- I love that movie...

[redqueen]

25. It really is

My favorite part... I don't know why, really... is when Andy plays music over the PA.

:loveya:

[mrboba1]

27. He has freedom

in a place where there is no freedom. He shows the power of freedom where it is not allowed. Because it is inside and not a artifact of the physical world, you have freedom anywhere.

:hi:

[redqueen]

30. Yes, but more than that...

It's like he's giving everyone in the prison a much-needed gift... recognizing their humanity and allowing them to soar with him in the music. It becomes something shared between all of them, and his knowingly accepting future punishment for it makes the gift that much sweeter.

[XNASA]

6. In "Dr Strangelove"....

When George C. Scott (Gen. Buck Turgidson) does the backwards somersault while saying, "The Doomsday Machine! A rotten Commie trick!"

Oh, and the scene in 'Fast Times' where Phoebe Cates gets out of the pool. Classic.

[Phillycat]

7. I'm a sap. :)

My favorite is in When Harry Met Sally, at the end, when he comes up to her at the New Year's party and says, "The thing is, I love you. And when you figure out that you want to be with someone for the rest of your life, you want the rest of your life to start right away." (Paraphrased a little.) I just love Billy Crystal in that movie! :loveya:

[rock]

8. Jaws - the contact scene

Captain is sitting with line in water chewing crackers, sherif is trying to tie a knot, college kid is piloting. The line jiggles. Chilling.

[Gothic Sponge]

10. The Marx Brothers - Day at the Races

The examination scene is a masterpiece!

[Kahuna]

12. Last scene in Random Harvest. When Smithy (Ronald Colman)

regains his memory and finally recognizes his wife Paula (Greer Garson)... after twenty years. When he arrives at the cottage they lived in as husband and wife twenty years ago and uses the key he hs been fondling since his accident to open the door. Paula arrives at the gate and watches him open the door. She gently calls out, "Smithy." He turns and looks at her as if he remembers. She calls out again, "oh, Smithy Darling." The scales fall from his eyes and he calls out, "Paula!" and runs to her. They kiss and embrace. <sniff> Great movie for classic movie fans.

Another one that gets to me is when Meg Ryan realizes that Tom Hanks is her mystery man in, "You've Got Mail." When she says, "I hoped it was you," that chokes me up.

[Gothic Sponge]

14. I love Random Harvest.

Great film!

[Ready4Change]

13. Since I get to choose two... from "Star Wars"

The first I mentioned under Blade Runner. The second comes from Star Wars, episode 4.

Luke on Tattoine, watching as it's twin suns set. It was the moment I realized that the movie I was watching was more than just a fun sci-fi flick with cool special effects.

I was watching a retrospective on the making of the Star Wars series and I marvelled at just how much was changed by that movie. It showed that sci-fi wasn't restricted to b-movie status, and in fact could be a box office leader, as well as deal with issues beyond green monsters kidnapping halpless females. It's something that "2001: A Space Odyssey" proved before, but many just didn't recognize.

[non sociopath skin]

15. The final scene of "Casablanca" ....

... gets me in the tear-ducts every time. The ultimate buddy-bonding experience!!

The Skin

[Ready4Change]

39. Dueling national anthems does that for me.

.

[tsakshaug]

16. two of em

Taxi driver- You talkin' to me?

Young Frankenstein- In the grave yard- "Could be worse could be raining"

[lpbk2713]

17. High Noon.

At the very end when Will Cain throws his star in the dirt and hops in the buggy with his bride and leaves em all behind him.

[MrBenchley]

18. W.C. Fields trying to sleep on his back porch

in It's a Gift.

"I'm looking for a man named LaFong! Carl LaFong! Capital L! Small A! capital F! Small o! Small n! Small g! Carl LaFong! Do you know him?!"

My second favorite would probably be the end of Casablanca: "Major Strasser has been shot. Round up the usual suspects."

[Gothic Sponge]

21. LOL! Carl LaFong!

I haven't seen It's a Gift in years! Great film!

[MrBenchley]

37. The grocery store scene with Mr. Muckle the Blind Man

with the angry customer shouting, "What about my kumquats! Kumquats!"

and the picnic scene:

Son: "Pop, that sign said Private Property."
Fields: "Ahhh, that's just to keep the tramps out."

Are right up there too.

I love Mrs. Bissonette wandering in from time to time to intone bulletins in that marvelous voice: "Uncle Bean is sinking fast."

[VOX]

40. "Closed on account of molasses"

"Spreadingest stuff I've ever seen in my life!"

:thumbsup:

[bigmonkey]

38. That Name!

What a spectacular name. Is it German, or French, or Chinese?

[terrya]

20. Gene Kelly performing the title song from "Singin' in the Rain"

Some of the most joyous moments ever captured on film. Pure delight.

[Zensea]

22. Last five minutes of 8 1/2

starting with when Marcello "shoots" himself, and particularly the moment when he draws back the curtain to reveal the stairs

Also the first five minutes of the movie up until the moment he wakes up

and then there's the scene at the spa with the Wagner music playing...

Ok, the whole damn movie.

[mark414]

24. naomi watts and laura harring in mulholland drive

sorry, i'm such a guy

[dryan]

26. Scene in "Gone with the Wind"...

where Rhett carries Scarlett up the stairs...very sexy!

[skygazer]

28. Monty Python's Life of Brian

The sermon on the mount scene.

"Blessed are the cheesemakers? What's so special about them?"

[SidDithers]

29. Swordfight in The Princess Bride...

Inigo Montoya : You are wonderful.
Man in Black : Thank you; I've worked hard to become so.
Inigo Montoya : I admit it, you are better than I am.
Man in Black : Then why are you smiling?
Inigo Montoya : Because I know something you don't know.
Man in Black : And what is that?
Inigo Montoya : I... am not left-handed.
*Moves his sword to his right hand and gains an advantage*
Man in Black : You are amazing.
Inigo Montoya : I ought to be, after 20 years.
Man in Black : Oh, there's something I ought to tell you.
Inigo Montoya : Tell me.
Man in Black : I'm not left-handed either.
*Moves his sword to his right hand and regains his advantage*

Sid

[BurtWorm]

31. Robert Armstrong, Fay Wray and crew sneak up on Skull Island natives

preparing a virgin to sacrifice to Kong.

Fay meets Kong for the first time.

Kong meets his end atop the Empire State building.

[Culture Mind]

32. Raiders of the Lost Ark

When Indiana Jones faces off against the sword twirling guy as the crowd parts. Twirl twirl *BANG*

[MrBenchley]

44. What struck me about King Kong when I saw it on TCM

the other night is what an amazing movie it is for a country in the depth of the Depression....

A giant ape has just killed everybody Bruce Cabot was with, and all he's got is a hunting knife, but he doesn't even blink..."I'm going after him" When they escape, it's not enough just to get away, "Let's catch him and put him on Broadway!"

Nobody ever says "the plane's only made of cloth and wood, Kong could swat it out of the sky." The attitude is "Screw this. I'm going in."

[TrogL]

33. Eyes wide shut

The ceremony scene with the chanting and the blindfolded guy playing keyboards.

[chiburb]

34. Jimmy Cagney in "White Heat"

Poster added on edit:



When he goes crazy in the prison cafeteria. Unbelievable scene, described here:

"Hundreds of prisoners file into the prison mess hall (in a long shot from an upper tier high above where armed guards patrol the perimeter) - it's a prelude to one of the best scenes in the picture. After all the prisoners reach their places, a whistle is blown to signal them to sit. Prisoners are forbidden to speak to each other, although Pardo whispers "tonight" to Cody - the expected time for their breakout. One of the new prisoners at the end of Cody's table is Nat Lefeld (Eddie Foster) "from the coast mob" - Cody relays a message: "Ask him how my mother is." Through a whispered, inaudible grapevine message (relayed down from inmate to inmate and then back along the dining room table and its row of prisoners, and communicated with the camera acting as if it were the message itself), Cody finally gets the news. He learns from Ryley next to him that his mother is dead. It is as if a fuse has been lit and the sparks rapidly approach the explosive charge.

At first disbelieving, the grief-crazed Cody is stunned, furrows his brow and looks down, and whimpers weakly: "Dead?" He privately moans, his body tensing as he attempts to reject the upsetting news. Then, he rises, grips his steel drinking cup, and pounds it on the table - rapidly becoming an uncontrollable, beserk, rampaging lunatic. Cody climbs up on the table, hurtles himself as if swimming down its length, and rolls onto the floor. As a few of the guards grab him, he slugs and punches them right and left, stumbling erratically while making loud, terrible, and inhuman primal cries and sounds. Finally, he is overpowered, brought under control, and carried away - as he flails away kicking and screaming in mid-air like a caught fish. Helpless, he vainly thrusts his body to escape, sobbing: "Gotta get out of here." When order is restored, the men return to the business of eating, and the guards continue to patrol. "

Followed as a favorite only be the end of the very same movie:

"In the famous, climactic scene ending the film, he defiantly scrambles higher and higher around a holding tank with curving stairs circling the steel bulbous sides. At the top of the sphere, he even gleefully fires upon Ryley as he turns himself over to the police. Cody is the only one left, cornered high atop one of the gas storage tanks at a dead end - he taunts the cops with a cocky retort: "Come and get me." Jarrett laughs maniacally as he is repeatedly wounded while standing astride the globe-like tank - or on top of the world itself - by Fallon's high-powered, scoped-rifle fire. As he recocks his gun, Fallon quizzically wonders about the mirth of the villain as he self-destructs: "What's holding him up?"

Rather than giving in and submitting to the lawmen, a cackling, psychotically-mad Cody staggers around on the top of the platform as more bullets tear into him. Now out of his mind, he deliberately empties his pistol into the giant gas-tanks of the chemical plant to ignite them and immolate himself. The men below run from the flaming area, fearing for their lives. And then Cody hysterically lifts his face skyward, holds out both arms, and cries out to his dead mother that he has fulfilled her oft-repeated advice to him - immortality:


Made it, Ma! Top of the world!
With defiance, he dies in the tremendous 'white heat' explosion - a mushroom cloud, apocalyptic-style blast that shakes the earth. Following Cody's suicidal, angry death, an emotionless, unsympathetic Fallon provides an additional epitaph as clouds of smoke billow up and firelight flickers on his face:


Evans: Cody Jarrett.
Fallon: He finally got to the top of the world. And it blew right up in his face.

[VOX]

42. "A copper! A copper! How d'ya like that, boys? A copper..."

"And his name is Fallon. And we went for it. **I** went for it. Treated him like a kid brother. And I was gonna split fifty-fifty with a copper. Maybe they're waitin' to pin a medal on him!"

Classic stuff!!! :toast:

[Surf Cowboy]

35. The Bar Shootout in "Desperado"

Man, now that's some comic-book violence. Great stuff!

[RandomKoolzip]

36. The last scene in Harold and Maude....

Where it looks like Harold is driving his hearse off the cliff...the hearse crashes and explodes into a ball of flame at the bottom of the cliff....the camera then cuts to Haold on top of the cliff, with his banjo, picking "If you want to sing out," then walking slowly away. Beautiful.


Some others:
In Rushmore: at the dance at the end, Max is dancing with his teacher and tells the DJ to put on something...DJ puts on "Ooh La La" by the Faces...I can't watch this scene with bawling my eyes out.

Also the first twenty minutes of "Up in Smoke" constitute some of the funniest moments I've ever been a party to.

[bif]

41. The one in "Candy Stripe Nurses" where...

No. Nevermind.

[HughBeaumont]

43. "Oh, and Charlie . . ."

Willy Wonka : Don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he'd ever wished for.

Charlie Bucket : What happened?

Willy Wonka : He lived happily ever after.

[DelawareValleyDem]

45. Jack Nicholson

trying to order toast in the movie Five Easy Pieces.

Or, from the movie Sneakers"

PanHandler:

The governments took away my home.

Bishop (Robert Redford): {pointing to picture of Bush Sr.} Talk to him!

[Ron Green]

46. Mine keep changing, of course, but two are:

Charles Foster Kane's slow, halting walk through the grand hall of his castle, caught in the mirror and then two mirrors and then many mirrors as moves across the screen.

The brilliant "long trolley" shot in the hospital camp in "Gone With the Wind." What a sense of the enormity of war casualties.

[yvr girl]

47. So many to choose from

When Harry Met Sally - the 'I'll have what she's having' scene (one of the funniest lines in a movie ever.)

Shawshank Redemption - When Andy breaks free

A League of Their Own - When the telegram is delivered, gets me everytime.

Casablanca - lots in this movie, the goodbye at the airport, the flashback, 'You played it for her, you can play it for me' scene.

Appolo 13 - 'Gentlemen, what are your intentions.'

Saving Private Ryan - D-Day, the night they spend in the church, listening to Edith Piaf in the village

I could go on and on.