gglass4269

After watching Inglorious Basterds the other day, and being treated to the opening scene which was the cinematic equivalent of a rocking bj, I was intrigued as to what my fellow dvdtalker's favorite scenes from the movies are. I'm talking about those scenes that make you say "holy shit, did that just happen." Major plot points. Twists you didn't see coming. A shocking death. Right off the bat I;m going to put mine out there. For my $, the Omaha Beach landing of Saving Private Ryan is the best single scene. Ever. it dosn't show you what the landing might of looked like. As soon as that scene comes on the screen, you ARE part of the landing force. Never has a single scene from a movie been so trandenscendent. Afterwards I literally had to go to the bathroom to clean my pants from the awesomeness that transpired in them.

I'm talking about THOSE kind of scenes.



(and please use spoilers if your scene is extra "holy shit-ish")

(thanks!)

Giles

well... recently it was the last forty minutes of 'Red Cliff' (Part II)

hasslein

To Live & Die in LA car chase and locker room scene. Well, the whole movie...

Tom Creo

Conan's mom being beheaded. "Well, the whole movie..."

yoshimi

From the "killing a man is a hell of a thing" speech to the end of Unforgiven.

Blu Man

The Joker Interrogation scene in The Dark Knight. Fucking awesome.

Tom Creo

(NSFW)

RichC2

Dude shooting himself in the face - Out of Sight
Subatmospheric Sky Diving - Star Trek
The finale - Oldboy

AnonomusBob15

the opening for A History of Violence

the domestic violence scene in In the Bedroom.

the ending for The Pledge.

the jules/vince interrogation scene in Pulp Fiction. The single shot in Jackie Brown with Beaumont in the trunk.

Punch-Drunk Love - Adam Sandler, out of nowhere successfully takes on three macho dudes with a tire iron.

the ending for There Will Be Blood.

Mondo Kane

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/SxwrYvxZTaQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/SxwrYvxZTaQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

2:16
....No, wait....3:09
...Alright...7:02 (Final Answer)

EEz28

Reaching Xibalba in The Fountain

Hallway fight in OldBoy

The opera scene in The Double Life of Veronique

The oil gushing then on fire in There Will Be Blood

Aegean2007

2009: District 9 - Wikus first uses alien weaponry in the gang shack
2008: Let the Right One In - pool scene
2007: There Will Be Blood - ending
2006: Children of Men - car ambush / running through building (tie)
2005: Cache - (spoiler, if you've seen it you know)
2004: Collateral - Vincent takes his briefcase back

That's as far back as I can clearly remember.

superdeluxe

Gun battle in Heat

Charge of the Roharim in ROTK

JumpCutz

The opening tracking shot of the archaeoligical dig in Irag in The Exorcist

The masturbation sequence in The Exorcist in all it's overlit glory

The rain swept bridge crossing in Sorcerer

The truck assembly sequence cut to the music of Tangerine Dream in Sorcerer

The last 7 minutes in the abandoned warehouses in The French Connection.

The hotel murder near the beginning of Cruising with the jaw dropping sound design and the characters utterance of "now I'm scared"

And the previously mentioned sequences of To Live and Die in LA along with the the Dafoe/Turturro prison visit sequence.




All the aforementioned cinematic awesomeness courtesy of the genius directorial talents of William Friedkin.

Phod

what movie is the one Tom posted?

Abob Teff

It is a one time shot ... but the first time that you see the dinner/chest-burster scene in Alien ... WOW.

Some other good nominees ...

The in The Mist. I remember being completely distraught and shocked ... my first thought was "Holy f--- ... They can't do that! Nobody in Hollywood does that!"

Dawn of the Dead (remake) -- the scene where the ambulance comes careening in from the left of the screen, hits a car, and then crashes into the gas station and explodes ... however this scene was only awe-striking in theaters -- I remember watching the ambulance all the way from the left of the screen to the right ... almost like a real traffic crash, time slowed down and it took forever to get from one side to the other.

And of course, The Matrix -- the whole movie the first time I saw it. It was a rare circumstance that I knew absolutely nothing about it going in ... not a single plot element or even who was in it.

gglass4269

pretty sure that's from Zombi

jmu878

ummm off the top of my head...

1. The Godfather Baptism
2. Courtroom speech in the Boondock Saints
3. Tyler's beatdown by Lou in Fight Club
4. Why So Serious? in the Dark Knight
5. Tiny Dancer in Almost Famous
6. End of There Will Be Blood
7. The long shot restaurant walk through in Goodfellas
8. Jack Nicholson's intro speech in The Departed
9. The Bear Jew scene in Inglourious Basterds
10. Drinking song in Jaws

UAIOE

Most of "T2" qualifies, but a shout out to the part from when the cops show up at Cyberdyne to the T-1000 reforming is pure awesome.

Superboy

The lobby shootout in The Matrix

The entire ending to Back to the Future. I totally did not anticipate the future being different.

The introduction to Alien 3. I still can't get over it.

riotinmyskull

the beyond

Double_Oh_7

Opening scene from Contact where the camera moves farther out into space and you hear radio signals from the past.

conscience

Boogie Nights drug deal gone bad - the acting, the music, the camera movements, everything.

kenbuzz

For me, hands-down its...

Fail-Safe (1962) - The ending sequence, beginning with the Ambassador's phone call, to the final 10 seconds before the screen goes black.

Honorable Mentions:

Hero - The final massed archery scene.

Moulin Rouge - The 5 minute "intro" scene to the Moulin Rouge itself. Though many have complained about it, I found it visually thrilling - especially on the big screen. HT does not do it justice.

stingermck

This is mine from Die Hard:



The emotion I get from this scene is incredible. John was so screwed, that jumping off the building was his best option. Love it.