Favorite movie scene

- Howard Beale meeting Mr. Jensen in the boardroom in 'Network'

- The closing scene to 2001: A Space Odyssey in the white room

- the coin toss scene in the gas station in 'No Country for Old Men'

- Truman bowing and walking out of the building to end 'The Truman Show'

 

What? No Heathers scenes on here?

 

And more others, now that I've thought of them:

In the "Grapes of Wrath", when the ex-preacher helps Tom Joad in a fight, then when the sheriffs come, tells them he should be arrested. Cops ask why, and the ex-preacher grins, "I talked back."

"Twelve Angry Men", when Fonda whips out an exact duplicate of the murder weapon knife.

"Airplane": When the kid meets Kareem/Roger Murdock in the cockpit.

"Naked Gun": When Drebin gets involved in the rundown play as the umpire.

 

To me nothing encapsulates politics better than Henry talking to Governor Jack Stanton outside of Freddie Picker's mansion at the end of Primary Colors.

Jack Stanton convinces himself and Henry that he needs to play hardball and play dirty in order to win and then he will appeal to our better nature. That self-rationalization of the ends justifying the means happens to every politician of every political stripe. Fantastic stuff.

 

The Marlon Brando pass the butter scene in Last Tango in Paris

 

'Course, both Bushes played hardball and played dirty in order to win their first terms . . . and
then remained the dirtbags they've always been.

 

In Caddyshack, when someone sees a Baby Ruth floating in the pool

 

Outstanding call. A lot of that movie was like the beginning of the wussification of Clint Eastwood. Then he finds out Ned's dead and starts drinking that bottle of whiskey, and you see the demeanor change. When he walks into the bar and cocks the shotgun, it's like the triumphant return (and last stand, as it turned out) of badass Eastwood.
Great, great scene.

 

The entire last scene with Scarlett and Rhett in Gone With the Wind, after Melanie has died and Scarlett rushes home to try to tell Rhett of her feelings.

His complete and absolute dismissal of her, in the most unfeeling ways possible complete with fantastic dialogue, gets me every time.

"My darling, you're such a child. You think that by saying I'm sorry, all the past can be corrected."

 

The last scene of Primal Fear.

Too many to count in Platoon. "You want reality? I am reality. Go ahead - kill me."

Ed Harris watching Mary Elizabeth Mastriontono drown in The Abyss and carrying her back to the main ship.

 

Great thread, so many awesome scenes mentioned already, couple of my faves.

Henry V - Kenneth Branagh's St Swithins speech to the troops before their battle, blows the Mel Gibsons Braveheart speech away.

Last of the Mohicans where Daniel Day Lewis tracks to find Madeline Stowe. No dialogues, great action, editting and music.

On the Waterfront - Marlon Brando's "I could've been someone, I could've had class" speech. Great dialogue by an amazing actor.

This thread makes me want to bust out some movies.

 

The shootout in Heat is the best one I've ever seen (for some reason, the gunfire sounds better in that scene than in any other movie I've seen), but the diner scene is also an absolute classic. Pacino telling DeNiro that he likes him but if it's between him "and some poor bastard whose wife you're going to make a widow, then, brother, you are going down," followed by DeNiro pausing a beat, considering what he's just been told and saying, "There's a flip side to that coin ..." Just a pitch perfect scene between the two of them and perhaps the last time they weren't parodies of themselves in movies.

The opening battle and the first Colosseum battle in Gladiator.

The night scene on the boat in Jaws when Quint tells of the U.S.S. Indianapolis.

The opening battle of Saving Private Ryan.

Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken in True Romance.

The two scenes at Teddy KGB's in Rounders.

The car ride with John Doe in Seven. "You're no messiah, you're a movie of the week. You're a fucking t-shirt, at best."

The lightsaber duel in the dark between Vader and Luke in Return of the Jedi is amazing. Luke's rage taking over after Vader threatened Leia and John Williams pumping up the drama with the score. People can take their shots at Lucas all they want, but that was an amazing scene.