I'll go first: Sarah Conner has almost escaped from the mental hospital when the elevator doors open and the Terminator steps out..."Come with me if you want to live."
The whole "Billy Batts" scene in "Goodfellas" and all the scenes with Officer Marvin Nash in "Reservoir Dogs". About sums up my life in a nutshell...
From "It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses" to the car falling apart outside the tax assessors office, the Blues Brother has a great chase scene. Can't go wrong with them cruising through the mall either.
Taylor discovering the Statue of Liberty as he rides along the coast with Nova on the Planet of the Apes.
The rotation of the mothership in ET. The POV dive into the death star trench. The PT boat attack run on the Jap cruiser in "They Were Expendable."
There's a moment in "Knightriders," the motorcycle-jousting ren-fair movie. Billy (Ed Harris) is losing his authority as king; the other players and crew are discontented; the "black bird" he had visions of has appeared in the form of a young Indian biker, who has joined in an impromptu bike combat that some local bikers instigated after a performance. Billy is wounded and weak, but he fights on, finally dumping the Black Bird on his ass. Billy parks his bike and staggers over to claim his victory. The moment: Weak, barely conscious, Billy stands over the Bird, who is on his back in the dust. Billy places the tip of his sword to the Bird's chest, demanding surrender. In extreme closeup, we see a rivulet of his own blood run down the blade and pool on the bird's tunic. The Bird raises his hands, palms up, in respect and surrender. Billy nods, accepting, and falls unconscious. Billy's friends are there to catch him. The Bird catches his sword by the blade, as if to let it fall would be sacriledge. One of Billy's other "kinghts" also tries to catch the sword, but the Black Bird has already saved it, and the two stare at each other in a moment of wonder, and see that suddenly they're on the same side. Utterly brilliant, perfectly shot, perfectly performed, not a word spoken, and all in the space of 30 seconds.
Oh, and, the other great moment in knightriders is when Pat Tallman pops up out of the bushes topless. Yes. Yes indeed.
"We sat and drank with the sun on our shoulders and felt like free men. Hell, we could have been tarring the roof of one of our own houses. We were the Lords of all Creation."
"I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are better left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and it makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a grey place dares to dream. It was as if some beautiful bird had flapped into our drab little cage and made these walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free. "
The moment in Excalibur when Percival returns to the shore and throws the sword into the water to be caught by the Lady of the Lake. The camera holds on the image for about 5 seconds, the arm holds the sword straight up, then disappears down into the water without even a splash. It was breathtaking.
The Third Man: Harry Lime (Orson Welles)---thought to be dead for the first half of the film--is revealed when a light goes on above a darkened doorway. That mischievious little smile he gives to his very-surprised friend Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton) is a classic. If you've never seen it, I heartily recommend it; it's one of my all-time favorites. [yt="The Third Man"]F_SQyCJega8[/yt] Casablanca: When the German soldiers sing 'Wacht am Rhein' in Rick's Cafe, Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) tells the band to play 'La Marseillaise,' an affront to the Germans which Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), the heretofore politically disinterested cynic who owns the club, permits. The entire club joins in and drowns out the Germans. [yt="Casablanca"]RFcQo_duyJU[/yt] Minority Report: Pre-crime detective John Anderton (Tom Cruise) has come to the hotel room of Leo Crow, a man he has been prophecied to murder, moments before he is supposed to commit the crime. The Pre-Cog Agatha (Samantha Morton), who has forseen the murder, pleads with him to leave before the victim returns to the room and the murder occurs. Although Anderton has no reason or intention to kill the man, during a search of the room he uncovers a collection of photographs of children, including his missing--and presumed dead--son. Concluding that Crow must be the man who had taken and murdered him, Anderton comes to the realization that, yes, he is going to kill Crow. A great acting moment by Cruise, unfortunately couldn't find it on youtube. Ratatouille: After learning that the chef behind the great food at Gusteau's is a rat, the malevolent food critic Anton Ego (voice by Peter O'Toole) struggles with how to write his restaurant review, but, in the end remains true to his own character--and his love of fine food--and knowing that upholding a rat as a great chef will undoubtedly be a blow to his reputation, proclaims Remy the rat (voiced by Patton Oswalt) "the finest chef in France." A wonderful turn of events in a wonderful movie. [yt="Ratatouille"]aPfN_zYKxNQ[/yt] Superman: The Movie: In what may be the greatest action piece ever, Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) dangles from a crippled helicopter atop the Daily Planet building. After a few very suspensful moments, she falls...only to be caught by Superman (Christopher Reeve). Then the helicopter falls...and Superman catches it in one hand. Absolute cinematic magic that I never tire of watching. Note also in the clip below that Christopher Reeve (doing a different voice) is the voice of the station operator in the beginning. [yt="Superman: The Movie"]U83YzCXI22U[/yt] Dirty Harry: Inspector Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood), having stopped a bank robbery, confronts the only surviving suspect (Albert Popwell), who is tempted to reach for a nearby shotgun. His powerful handgun pointed at the robber, Harry delivers one of the most famous lines in film history ("...well, do ya, punk?") and convinces the thug to surrender. The thug, though, needs to know if Harry was bluffing and Harry is happy to show him. Iconic; anything like it will immediately be seen as an imitation. [yt="Dirty Harry"]maBJzJgYjto[/yt] Contact: There are a lot of great moments in this terrific film (others include the detection of the signal, the pod sequence, the meeting with the 'alien'), but my favorite may be when astronomer Dr. Arroway (Jodie Foster) is brought to meet her benefactor, the mysterious Mr. Hadden (John Hurt), who reveals that he has deciphered the primer, the key to unlocking the alien message received in a transmission from outer space. [yt="Contact"]HCGwarG5eFE[/yt] The Searchers: When his family is slaughtered and his young niece Debbie taken by Comanches, war veteran Ethan Edwards (John Wayne), accompanied only by family friend Martin (a pre-Star Trek Jeffrey Hunter), goes on the trail for revenge. After years of searching, Edwards and Martin find a Comanche camp and are invited into the wigwam of the leader, Scar. Scar has one of his wives show them a collection of scalps. Just as the audience is recovering from seeing the scalps, they're given another shock, a doozy: the "squaw" holding the scalps is Debbie (Natalie Wood), the missing niece. Martin starts to react, but Edwards, knowing the danger they'd face by starting trouble in the Indian camp, stops him. A very powerful moment in what is probably John Wayne's best film. The youtube clip below has the scene starting at about the 6:00 mark. [yt="The Searchers"]zjz0AjwvlBc[/yt] Run, Lola, Run (original title: Lola Rennt): Lola (Franka Potente) has only 20 minutes to get her boyfriend 100,000 marks that he owes a gangster, or he will have to rob a market. Lola relives these 20 minutes several times (reminiscent of the TNG episode 'Cause and Effect'), each time subtly differently--which results in profound changes to the people with whom she interacts. In one scenario, she robs her father's bank. She bursts out of the bank carrying the money...right into a police SWAT team. As you think "she's busted now," a SWAT officer grabs her and tells her to get out of the area because there's a robbery going on inside. It's at around 8:00 in the following clip. [yt="Run, Lola, Run"]xWNseKbI0o0[/yt] The Usual Suspects: Agent Kujan (Chazz Palminteri), smugly confident he's extracted the whole story behind the murders and fire aboard a ship in L.A. from Vebral Kint (Kevin Spacey), believing the whole crime was orchestrated by Keaton (Gabriel Byrne) in order make himself appear dead, allows Kint to walk. Only after Verbal departs does Kujan start noticing the details around the office where he interrogated Verbal, details that, he realizes only now, were used to manufacture the story Verbal just told him. He--like the audience--realizes that the mythical master criminal Keyzer Soze is real...and has just walked away free. One of the best revelation endings ever. [yt="The Usual Suspects"]5xXH6DQNjCY[/yt]
