There are several for me.
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990): When Splinter and Danny are talking, and Splinter asks about his parents. And gives a line that’s become even more powerful since I lost my dad last year - “All fathers care for their sons.”
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Waking Life: Really this whole movie, because it’s just scene after scene of interesting ideas and great dialogue, which, thanks to the way the movie is built, doesn’t need to be super-connected. But I guess the scene i keep coming back to is when Wiley is with an old man in what looks like a bar. It ends with a powerful line: “Which is the most dominant human trait - fear? Or laziness?”
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Johnny Mnemonic: “I! WANT! ROOM SERVICE!” Just a great delivery and a real show of how he’s gotten to the end of his rope.
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Midnight in Paris: Hemingway’s introductory scene.
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Casablanca: The ending especially, but also La Marseillaise vs. the Nazi anthem.
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The Third Man: The Merry-Go-Round scene. It’s a chilling look into villainy, and the obvious fact that Harry Lime was not always the monster he is in the film - because he can’t look at his victims as people. It’s why The Lives of Harry Lime worked as a radio show.
The Marseillaise scene is an excellent choice - a lot of the actors in that scene were actual refugees from the Nazis, so their emotions were genuine and powerful.
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I come back to the opening scene in The Newsroom all the time… It seems more and more relevant every time.
It’s a great choice by the director how everyone scowled when they didn’t get the canned bullshit answer disguised as an enlightened one. How this one panelist decided to break the mesmerized charade and you see confusion and anger in peoples’ eyes.
BUT… that “we used to be” line is also lazy nostalgic whitewashing of a mountain of incredibly inconvenient, sordid history.
Great choice! A sincere answer bracketed by two cliched answers!
Restate my assumptions scene in PI https://youtu.be/ShdmErv5jvs
Now that is one spectacular choice.
That phone call ruined the philosophical mood for the audience as well as for Max. We are supposed to be in Max’s head more than just observing him.
The final scene of Last of the Mohicans - https://youtu.be/gD82Psv64Uw
Such an emotonally charged, beautifully shot scene with the perfect rising score. I get a lump in my throat every time I watch it.
The fight scene in Kung Fu Hustle, where the 3 fighters ban together against the gang terrorizing the town. The music is also perfect in that scene.
Kung Fu Hustle is a great movie.
I initially read this as favorite films and came to say The Princess Bride or Clue. But for favorite scenes, I’d say the one where Inigo is growing impatient waiting for the Man in the Mask to scale the mountain or the part of Clue where the butler races around the mansion trying to explain the murders
I’m gonna double dip here in the comments and add my second favorite, the Rogue Two scene from “The Empire Strikes Back”.
The bank heist opening of The Dark Knight is perfectly structured and paced.
Heat: The moment Val Kilmer’s smile switches to him opening fire in a busy LA street, along with the next 5-10 minutes of action.
Supposedly that scene so technically accurate, it is used in assault rifle training, all eyes asked to concentrate on what Kilmer does.
The final showdown in “Kelly’s Heroes”.
The last “two dollars” bit that leads into the ski race in “Better Off Dead”.
When Bond chases the parkour guy at the beginning of “Casino Royale”.
The Day of the Dead parade that opens “Spectre”.
The Match Cut and Ali’s Well scenes from “Lawrence of Arabia”. Most beautiful cinematography ever, IMO.
That Casino Royale scene might be in my personal top five. After having drifted away from Bond since the last one I had really enjoyed - that would be The Living Daylights - while watching this Madagascar parkour I felt the spark rekindle completely.
EDIT: #1 in my old classics bucket list is to someday watch Lawrence Of Arabia on the big screen. I think the restoration and remaster was overseen by Martin Scorsese.
I don’t feel the need to revisit this scene as it shows up in my head a lot. It really haunts me.
And now I can’t think of scene I actually want to revisit.
The tears in the rain scene, Blade Runner
The Empire Strikes Back asteroid chase, a perfect blend of music and action.
Samuel L. Jackson in Jurassic Park. Everytime I pull out in traffic I tell my family, “Hold on to your butts!”
