Best Scenes in Movie History?

[Idnar7]

This is fun "here's Johnny!" Jack Nicolson at his best

 

[HadEnuff]

"aww...I wasn't gonna hurt him"...saw this movie at a young age, and quite a few times since. That line is still among my favorites. Crack a guy across the jaw with the barrel of a Winchester...and say "I wasn't gonna hurt him"...only The Duke.

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

I don't remember the title of this foreign film from a few years ago. It's a murder mystery out of Uruguay or somewhere in South America. But it has this one fantastic scene that starts high above a soccer stadium, and for about ten minutes the camera slowly descends into and around the stadium until it focuses on the bad guy sitting in the crowd, who notices that the police have spotted him. So he takes off running thru the innards of the stadium--all while the camera follows him. It looks like one un-edited scene but it was actually the result of some CGI. It's a great scene, nonetheless. Anyone know that movie?

 

[harley]

I'm sure the PC police will want to use one on me, but I always liked "Sir!... Sir!... Here's a good stick, to beat the lovely lady."

 

[Jerry1]

You’re a G D genius Gump!

 

[lucky penny]

These get me every time: (Warning: spoilers ahead!)

Most satisfying (and chilling) final scene: Wyler's The Heiress (1949). Olivia de Havilland, who was jilted years earlier by the fortune-hunting Montgomery Clift when he mistakenly believed she wouldn't inherit her father's wealth, now coolly agrees to elope with him, but when he returns that night and knocks on the door, she dims the lights and tells her maid to "Bolt the door!", leaving him pounding and shouting her name. De Havilland (who is 103!) won an Oscar.

Saddest final scene: Scorsese's The Age of Innocence (1993). Daniel Day-Lewis, a widower, chooses not to visit his old love in Paris (Michelle Pfeiffer) because, he tells his son who had arranged the meeting, he is "old-fashioned" and too old. (He's probably 50-something & so is she - but she's Michelle Pfeiffer!.) He's outside her building, looks at her window, & you're thinking: Go! Go! But he slowly walks away. The End.

 

[marko]

There's a great scene from Children of Men where Julianne Moore is shot while driving a car. The camera slowly flies in from 30 feet away through the passenger side window, pivots around from the front seat to back seat and back again and flies out the other side amid all kinds of confusion. Amazing!

The same movie also has a shootout scene where someone's blood spatters just a bit on the camera lens. Again, a nice touch!

 

[Silver]

My Cousin Vinny was a really silly movie. But the first time I watched it and saw Marisa Tomei on the witness stand spouting automotive statistics, I cheered! Very clever writing.

One of my favorite movies is Out of Africa. The scene with Robert Redford washing the hair of his lover Meryl Streep was really hot.

And lastly, the scene with Cher and Nickolas Cage in Moonstruck when she slapped him and yelled "Snap Out of it!" was wonderful.

 

[travelover]

This is one of the most exciting scenes I can recall. James Bond gets pushed out of a plane with no parachute and glides toward the bad guy and takes his chute away. Much better on a big screen, of course.

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

My Cousin Vinny was a really silly movie. But the first time I watched it and saw Marisa Tomei on the witness stand spouting automotive statistics, I cheered! Very clever writing....

Her "I'm positive!" answer signals to Vinny that she's on to his theory about "positraction."

That indeed is a great scene. Tomei hit it out of the park in that particular scene, with her timing and mannerisms, and throughout the movie in general. Her Oscar for that performance was well-earned.

 

[jollystomper]

Dirty Harry - bank robbery scene

Network - Howard Beales rant

 

[statsman]

Not a big movie person, but I just saw a part of Big on TV recently. The first scene with Zoltar has stuck with me over the years (Big was surprisingly dark for something labeled as a comedy).

 

[Lewis Clark]

My Cousin Vinny was a really silly movie. But the first time I watched it and saw Marisa Tomei on the witness stand spouting automotive statistics, I cheered! Very clever writing.

+1

I love the all scenes with her entire testimony on the witness stand.

 

[Ian S]

Lots of great scenes in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove where Peter Sellers played three characters including President Merkin Muffley who, in a scene where General Buck Tugidson (George C. Scott) start fighting, exclaims "gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the war room!"

 

[RxMan]

I don’t know if it’s the best movie scene but it’s one of my favorite movie car chases. Steve McQueen in Bullitt.

That car chase scene through San Francisco was incredible. Maybe I just love the Mustang. It did inspire Ford to create the special Bullitt Edition Mustang with that wonderful hunter green paint job.

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

I’ll give you two in the same movie. Cool Hand Luke. Egg eating scene. Then the lady washing the car. Classic

 

[like2]

maybe not the best in history, but pretty dang funny...

 

[Momcpa]

I guess you have to see the entire movie, but when you know what they've been through, and what they accomplished together, the last scene in the First Wives Club. As they sing 'You Don't Own Me' and walk/dance out the door.
But then I really liked the 3 ladies starring in the show...Bette Midler, Diane Keaton, and Goldie Hawn. A light-hearted show with some serious thoughts added in.

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

'Bullitt' Car Chase

I don’t know if it’s the best movie scene but it’s one of my favorite movie car chases. Steve McQueen in Bullitt.

That car chase scene through San Francisco was incredible. Maybe I just love the Mustang. It did inspire Ford to create the special Bullitt Edition Mustang with that wonderful hunter green paint job.

I first saw Bullitt at a local drive-in movie theater. What a thrill this chase scene was, sitting behind the wheel of my car at the drive-in, pretending that I was driving along with Steve McQueen!

 

[CoolRich59]

I was actually going to add the opening scene for Saving Private Ryan when the US troops are landing on the beach at Normandy. Such an epic movie.

Beat me to it.

I sat here for a few minutes to think before reading the thread. While this is not my all-time favorite movie, it certainly is the most powerful movie scene ever for me. Even though the movie came out 20+ years ago, nothing I've seen since has come close to the intensity of that scene for me.

 

[CoolRich59]

Lots of great scenes mentioned in this thread.

I am a fan of great car chase scenes. While the car chase from Bullitt is deservedly famous, the car chase from the Seven-Ups has always been my favorite.

https://youtu.be/9vACWV5sRcY

 

[NW-Bound]

Great scenes in movies?

"Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn".

 

[PandaBear]

“Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your fathers passing”

https://youtu.be/q7CX_5D6y6E

 

[scrabbler1]

This is one of the most exciting scenes I can recall. James Bond gets pushed out of a plane with no parachute and glides toward the bad guy and takes his chute away. Much better on a big screen, of course.

This is my favorite opening scene in a Bond movie. Moonraker was otherwise a mediocre Bond movie.

Another good movie scene isn't necessarily one with anything particularly memorable, just a fine piece of movie making. In the movie, "Goodfellas," there is a scene which showed Henry and Karen entering the Copacabana nightclub through a secret entrance and walking through a maze of passageways through the kitchen before being seated at their special table. Their walk was shown as a long, unbroken cut lasting around 2 1/2 minutes. Fine piece of moviemaking.

 

[Rianne]

Tombstone my favorite movie, this scene among others, my favorite.