Simply, your favourite movie scenes

[Bastet]

I, too, watched Chicago recently, and with pretty much every number, I thought, "This is my favorite."  Then the next one would come and I'd think, "No, this is my favorite."  But if I absolutely had to choose, it would probably be Cell Block Tango.

"You know, some guys just can't hold their arsenic" and "And then he ran into my knife.  He ran into my knife ten times" are my favorite last lines, but I love all the women's stories.  And the choreography is incredible.

[spaceytraci1208]

8 hours ago, ChelseaNH said:

Tuned into Chicago a few days ago just in time for my favorite scene: the Cell Block Tango.  Susan Meisner ("Pop!") is the best, partly because of the choreography and partly because of what she does with it, although my favorite line comes from the "Squish!" section -- "He ran into my knife 10 times."

John C. Reilly's "Mr. Cellophane" is also a standout.  And I'm bummed that I missed Queen Latifah's number.  But Cell Block Tango is the best.

Mr. Cellophane is actually my favorite number from the movie. John C. Reilly breaks my heart in that scene...fantastic performance 

[cpcathy]

My goodness, Mr Cellophane is so beautiful. I always stick around for that song and then just watch the entire film.

[amaranta]

In The Black Stallion, when boy and horse are stranded on the island - the part where the horse and child finally bond and the stallion let's the boy ride him. This always gets to me.  That was one gorgeous film.  I couldn't find a high quality clip, but there was this one (It really should be seen in all it's lush glory though):

Edited April 21, 2017 by amaranta

[amaranta]

Ooh, thought of another one.  Entirely different vein though - the conference on the mound from Bull Durham:

(Sorry to follow my own post; the one above wouldn't let me edit below the clip.)

[Shannon L.]

I love that scene, @amaranta!  It's my favorite in the whole movie. 

The movie Gifted is too new to have clips of different scenes on You Tube, but there is a gorgeous scene where he and his niece are outside talking.  They are in front of an orange sunset and all you can see are their silhouettes.  She asks him about God, while at the same time, climbing all over him like little kids tend to do with big, strong, male relatives.  The dialog is smart, the action is quite realistic and the shot itself is simply stunning. 

[slf]

I will forever love Moira Kelly's mean-as-hell Kate Moseley condescendingly cooing "toepick!" in The Cutting Edge:

Her guffawing is delightful.

Edited April 21, 2017 by slf

[Spartan Girl]

The Lion King

 

Majestic.  No other way to say it.  I get goosebumps just remembering this scene.

I never fail to get the urge to dance at the music of the last bit.

[starri]

With news that Jonathan Demme has passed away, I am reminded again of Silence of the Lambs, which was, is, and I suspect always will be one of my favorite movies.

I've got three scenes to share, and I wish the copies on YouTube weren't so damned lousy.

The opening titles are helped immensely by Howard Shore's magnificent main theme, but they're also perfect at both setting the dreary, foggy mood that's going to hover over the film, and to basically, silently set up who Clarice is, that she can and will fight through anything.

The movie's final moments, with Clarice and Lecter's phone call.  "Dr. Lecter?  Dr. Lecter?  Dr. Lecter?"

And of course, the scene in Memphis with Clarice recounting the story of the screaming lambs.  They had originally planned to shoot a flashback on location in Montana, but watching the dailies, and seeing the performances they'd captured, the immediate realization was "Well, we're not doing that," because they couldn't cut away from them.

I pulled out my beloved, long out-of-print Criterion Collection DVD.  I think I'm going to give it a watch again.

[ChelseaNH]

Avengers: Age of Ultron 

Thor's face when Steve Rogers attempts to lift Mjolnir

[Watermelon]

51 minutes ago, ChelseaNH said:

Avengers: Age of Ultron 

Thor's face when Steve Rogers attempts to lift Mjolnir

AND IT SHIFTS.

[Spartan Girl]

Another Age of Ultron scene: Hulk jumping through the and ambushing Ultron. "Oh for God's sake." ????

[VCRTracking]

Just realizing in both Pretty Woman and My Best Friend's Wedding, Julia Roberts is helped by a kindly hotel employee. Hector Elizondo as the hotel manager in the former and Paul Giamatti as a bellhop in the latter. I always liked both those scenes.

[Spartan Girl]

From Deathly Hallows Part 2:

 

 

DAMN YOU, JK ROWLING!

Edited June 29, 2017 by Spartan Girl

[shang yiet]

That launch scene in Apollo 13 when the spacecraft roars to life and shoots up to the skies plus the music really gets me.

[Shannon L.]

56 minutes ago, shang yiet said:

That launch scene in Apollo 13 when the spacecraft roars to life and shoots up to the skies plus the music really gets me.

I like that they include the one astronaut's young, hugely pregnant wife,  witnessing it for the first time and bursting into tears.  It really adds to how overwhelming the moment must be in person:  pride, fear, awe.....It was a nice touch. 

[Zola]

Tom Hanks and "Cast Away"

A decent film that suffers from a rather flat 3rd and final Act. However, the film does contain one of my favourite scenes of all cinema - the moment when Tom, stranded on a makeshift raft, loses contact with his "friend" Wilson, the volleyball. Incredibly sad, but stays in the mind always.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7FLsIidvE8

[spaceytraci1208]

Jamie Lee Curtis' strip tease scene in True Lies is such a great scene. When she falls and pops right back up is hilarious, and as a straight lady, I still have to acknowledge how amazing she looked in that scene. One of the few times I think the "Dumpy housewife" transformed into "Smoking hot babe" was pulled off well 

Edited July 5, 2017 by spaceytraci1208

[Spartan Girl]

THE scene from Kingsman: The Secret Service posted in two parts to include the awesome excuse in the beginning):

 

[Zola]

Blade Runner, and Roy Batty's "All those moments will be lost in time" monologue 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoAzpa1x7jU

[Hybridcookie]

Moulin Rouge has my 2 favourite songs in a row- 'El Tango de Roxanne' and 'The Show Must Go On', but my favourite scene is the one in the middle where Zidler tells Satine she's dying and that she has to convince Christian that she doesn't love him.

Nicole Kidman especially, is amazing in this scene with Satine's whole speech about Christian loves her and that they're leaving together, especially her delivery of "He loves me Harold. He loves me. And that is worth everything. Were going away from you, away form the Duke, away from the Moulin Rouge!.", her reaction to hearing that she's dying and looking toward Marie to see if it's true, and her reactions to Zidler's 'we're creatures of the underworld' speech convincing her to make Christian believe she doesn't love him to send him away (which I also love).

There's also a great moment at the end of 'The Show Must Go On' when Satine stops near Zidler and he gives this sympathetic look, before she you see her square her shoulder and steel herself to go talk to Christian.

Edited May 4, 2018 by Hybridcookie

[starri]

In light of Margot Kidder's passing, the best scene in Superman.

She wasn't a great actress.  What she was, however, was a perfect Lois.

[starri]

Randy Newman's score is everything.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

OK.  Minor movie.  And I already named one above....I adore a scene in Steve Martin's Leap of Faith, where he plays total fraud traveling Christian preacher.  His caravan got stuck in Nowheresville, Kansas and he got to know the locals a bit.   Rev. Jonas Nightengale had the hots for a single mom of a crippled boy.   SPOILERS AHEAD!

Welllllllll, the boy decides to believe and a true miracle occurs at a revival gathering - he starts walking.  For realz.  Jonas and his crooked coterie jump all over this and make grand plans to cash in.  

Then Jonas has a transformation.  He decides he has done enough damage and wants to just move on in his life, and not as a phony preacher.  

The boy, not knowing of this change, finds Jonas hanging out in his empty tent to thank him and to volunteer as an object of proof as Jonas goes forward.  

Here's the phenomenal moment:  Jonas refuses and admits he is a fake.  The boy protests that he really did cure him.   Then Jonas says (paraphrase), "I learned a long time ago to not mess with the real thing.  And YOU, kid, are the real thing."  Man, I love that moment.  So rich with those well-drawn characters and with many theological/faith implications.   Not exactly Saul on the road to Damascus.  But, it'll do for me.

[MissT]

The best scene for me in "Field of Dreams" at the end of the movie when he asked his father if he wanted to play catch.   My god I've seen the movie 50x and it still makes me tear up.   

[Silver Raven]

19 minutes ago, MissT said:

The best scene for me in "Field of Dreams" at the end of the movie when he asked his father if he wanted to play catch.   My god I've seen the movie 50x and it still makes me tear up.   

Oh, God.  I cry every time.

AI: Artificial Intelligence.  David curls up into the bed with the dying clone of his mother, to stay there for eternity, and Teddy joins them.  Oh, God, I am tearing up just thinking about it.  I can't even watch that movie any more, it makes me a sobbing wreck.

[spaceytraci1208]

While Val Kilmer's "Doc" is my favorite character, my favorite overall scene in Tombstone comes courtesy of Kurt Russell

Edited May 20, 2018 by spaceytraci1208

[starri]

Soapdish is a mostly inoffensive (the villainess, played by Cathy Moriarty, is revealed to be a trans woman at the end of the film, which is pretty uncomfortable today), otherwise charming light dramedy from 1991.  At the emotional low point in the movie, Sally Field's fading soap star Celeste Talbert goes to the mall with her friend, the soap's writer, played by Whoopi Goldberg.  Whoopi pretends to recognize Celeste, and then a crowd of fans gather to tell Celeste how much they love her.

It's exactly the kind of thing I can easily imagine Susan Lucci doing on a bad day, and I find it delightful every time.

Edited August 25, 2018 by starri
The autocorrect of Soapdish to Slapdash is kind of funny.

[methodwriter85]

10 hours ago, starri said:

Soapdish is a mostly inoffensive (the villainess, played by Cathy Moriarty, is revealed to be a trans woman at the end of the film, which is pretty uncomfortable today), otherwise charming light dramedy from 1991.  At the emotional low point in the movie, Sally Field's fading soap star Celeste Talbert goes to the mall with her friend, the soap's writer, played by Whoopi Goldberg.  Whoopi pretends to recognize Celeste, and then a crowd of fans gather to tell Celeste how much they love her.

It's exactly the kind of thing I can easily imagine Susan Lucci doing on a bad day, and I find it delightful every time.

 

I don't know, Susan Lucci doesn't seem nearly as desperate and insecure as her counterpart was. Sally did nail her style of acting, though. Susan's daughter did say once on a VH1 show that when she shopped with her mom as a kid, the retailers would get dollar signs in their eyes and close their stores for the VIP treatment. Tori Spelling had a similar anecdote in her first book. Now, THERE'S someone I can see doing that, particularly her gay BFF being willing to do it.

Anyway....I was obsessed with this scene as a kid with an overbearing mother and a Madonna/Whore complex that I somehow managed to pick up even as a gay boy:

Deanie's breakdown in Splendor in the Grass (1961)

Still upset she lost the Oscar to Sophia Loren.

I'm one of the few gay men who don't obsess over Brokeback Mountain, but this was just a sublime piece of acting and a great example of less is more:
Ennis's phone call to Jack's wife

One thing I loved about how they made up Anne's character in that scene is that they gave her a period-appropriate fried blonde feathered hairstyle and really thick pancake make-up, like an older woman trying to hide her wrinkles. I just love the subtext of this scene- "Look, I know you were screwing my husband for decades. Jack got killed by some rednecks for cruising. And you also know that we're never going to admit what really happened to preserve our family's reputation. But I'm going to give you this nice pretend story and some closure on your relationship with him. You deserve that much."

Cal crying in Ordinary People (1980)

Just beautiful and elegant and gutwrenching. Very quietly but knowingly destroying the person you were married to for at least 20 years, because you realized that you can't stand who they are as a person.

Edited August 26, 2018 by methodwriter85

[starri]

[IWantCandy71]

I can no more name "one" favorite movie scene any more than I can a favorite book. Favorite movie kiss, however ?

That's easy. Renee Zellweger and Vincent D'Onofrio in The Whole Wide World, the "based on a true story" movie of the creator of Conan the Barbarian and the minor Marvel character Soloman Kane, Robert E. Howard.

You have to watch the entire movie to really get how breathtaking and yet sad, this scene is. Robert Howard committed suicide at the young age of 30-and the movie implies it is at least partly because of the break up of the romance with Zellweger's character, Novalyne Price.

It's been years since I've seen the movie, but talk about something that will make you bawl your head off at the end.

Edited April 30, 2019 by IWantCandy71

[anna0852]

Avengers......Assemble!

And entire act that came after.

[starri]

The First Wives Club is a fun little trifle of a movie.  

This scene never fails to put me in a good mood.

 

[starri]

 

[Spartan Girl]

One of my favorite scenes of the LOTR movies has to be Elrond’s grim foretelling of Arwen’s future in The Two Towers. Everything in that sequence is just perfection: the music, the cinematography, the dialogue, Arwen’s veiled widow garb, and that closeup of Liv Tyler’s face as that single perfect tear slides down her cheek and that sob/gasp as it hits her that even when she becomes mortal, she’s still going to outlive Aragon by thousands of years. It’s a gut punch.

[Shannon L.]

I love so many moments in the entire Marvel series, but if you were to ask me my favorite, the first two that would pop into my head are the elevator fight and the street fight in Captain America:  The Winter Soldier.  Another, very brief moment in that film that I love is the moment when Steve flings his shield at him and he whips around and catches it. 

[proserpina65]

Sense & Sensibility, the scene where Col. Brandon first lays eyes upon Marianne as she's playing the pianoforte in Sir John's drawing room - Alan Rickman's utterly mesmerized expression is perfection.

[caracas1914]

Loved the violence then topped off by the humor at the end of "Blood Simple".    Mistaken identities and  black humor;  what a fine cocktail the Cohen Brothers perfected in their first film.

 

Behind closed doors,  the Frances McDormand thinking she's defending herself against her estranged husband.

 

"Well Ma'am if  I see him, I'll sure give him the message."

That line kills me.  

[starri]

This gets me every single time. 
 

Nicole Kidman doesn’t have the best voice, but she sells the hell out of it. And goddamn, does Baz Luhrman know how to film her. 

[BlackberryJam]

This from The Fisher King.

 

[ProudMary]

Casablanca: La Marseillaise

The Social Network: You Better Lawyer Up

 

[ellenr33]

"I'm a doctor, why the hell am I talking to you? Piss off!" 

[Shannon L.]

@ellenr33  there are so many brilliant scenes in that one.  I love the way a distraught Violet says "I killed the boss!  You think they're not going to fire me for that?".   And this scene is one of my favorites:

 

[Bastet]

Every scene of 9 to 5 is my favorite.  I can't find Violet's terrific "I'm no girl, I'm a woman" scene on YouTube, but here's Doralee's legendary "change you from a rooster to a hen with one shot" threat:

 

 

[Shannon L.]

From Love, Simon, any scene with the drama teacher.  Unfortunately, I can't find a clip of my favorite scene (after one of the Cabaret rehearsals), but this one is great, too, starting at 1:08

 

[Bastet]

I liked Love, Simon more than I expected to, and that cafeteria scene is a big part of why.

[Shannon L.]

3 hours ago, Bastet said:

I liked Love, Simon more than I expected to, and that cafeteria scene is a big part of why.

Yeah, every so often there's a movie centered around teenagers that I'm surprised that I liked more than I expected.  This was one of them.  The reason I like the Cabaret rehearsal scene is because we're theater nerds:  I used to sit and listen to the theater kids in school rehearse and the last 2 years of high school, I was working back stage.  My husband was in theater (on stage) in high school and his mother played show tunes all the time, and our daughter was working back stage at school plays and musicals since 9th grade and is now in her junior year at college, majoring in Theater Arts with a focus on lighting design.  So, we got a big laugh out of that scene--and nodded a few times in understanding.  :)

[andromeda331]

On 1/13/2022 at 10:54 PM, ProudMary said:

Casablanca: La Marseillaise

 

The best scene in the whole movie. So well done. I love the emotion from various characters as they sing it.

[Constant Viewer]

16 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

On 1/13/2022 at 11:54 PM, ProudMary said:

Casablanca: La Marseillaise

 

Expand  

The best scene in the whole movie. So well done. I love the emotion from various characters as they sing it.

I remember hearing that a  lot of the extras were refugees. Madeleine Lebeau(Yvonne) and Marcel Dalio (Emil) were married and barely managed to escape France before the Nazis invaded.

[ProudMary]

There are at least half a dozen scenes from Casablanca that could have made this list, but they all relate to smaller interactions between characters, as do most of the other scenes listed in this thread. Casablanca's La Marseilleaise scene encompasses much more, especially as the film was released at a point during WWII where it was far from a given that the forces of good would prevail. And, it resonates deeply at this point of world history where we now find ourselves.