Those Little Scenes You Love - Spoilers

[happyninja42]

Movies are fun, sometimes the entire movie is great, sometimes the whole thing is utter shit, and sometimes, there is a scene, that even with nothing else taken into context, about the quality of the rest of the film, are moments that just hit you heavy. Where you love a film if only for that scene, or that you acknowledge "yeah the rest is shit, but damn I love this moment."

I recently thought of one, that is in a good film, but that honestly stood out to me more than anything.

Obviously spoilers for...well pretty much any movie someone posts about, so enter at your own risk.


Avengers: Endgame

The opening sequence with Tony and Nebula. Now, I think Endgame is a good film, though I honestly have no desire to see it a second time, but this scene, really touched me when I first saw it in the theater.

Watching the two of them bonding as they think they are dying (or at least Tony is, not sure about Nebula's risk of death to starvation). But, watching them playing paper football, and how Tony keeps trying to figure out how to socialize with this new alien he's never met, and trying to keep his own personality from making problems. You visibly see him, when he's clearly getting tired of the game, but sees that Nebula is TOTES serious about learning this skill based challenge, shake off his frustration, smile, and put his fingers up again. Possibly out of fear, but I think it's more that he's just learned "hey, maybe I shouldn't be smart ass Tony right now, it probably won't help anything, as she is literally an alien that I've known for a few days at most."

And then, when the provisions are running out, and he gives her the bag, how she looks at it, and then pointedly hands it back to him. I think that really says volumes about Nebula, highlighting her growth. She went from a cold, literally mechanical killing machine for Thanos (though I feel it was mostly under duress), where in GotG 1 she just grabs a dude and flings him out of a ship, to fall to his death so she can pilot it. To actually not wanting to see this man, this human, a species she has no ties to, has only known for a few days, maybe weeks at the point of that clip in the montage, but, she's willing to forgo nourishment, because she can clearly see he's worse off than she, and she doesn't want him to die. Maybe not because she likes him, but because she just doesn't want to see him die, and if she can hold that off a bit longer, by letting him have more rations, then so be it.

It's just so wonderfully acted by the two of them, so much silent, and subtle performances, hammering home the time they are spending adrift, it's just, really wonderful.


A Knight's Tale.

This movie is just so much damn fun, from start to finish, but the scene that gets me, is when William is in the stocks, being jeered at by the mob, and his friends show up to defend him. Two bits from this stand out to me.

1. The way his allies show up armed. His best friend shows up with a bo staff, and the blacksmith, she fucking shows up dual wielding smithing hammers, ready to crack some skulls if anyone tries to actually hurt William.

2. When the Prince shows up to save the day, and how he leans in to speak to William quietly, saying "Your men love you, if I knew nothing else, that would be enough...." *smirk* "...but you also tilt, when you should withdraw, and that is knightly too." Then turns, orders him released, and flat out lies to the crowd about William being of noble blood. Just fabricating it, even hammering home that he's the fucking prince, and thus his word is divine (you know because royalty =divine right), and so nobody better DARE question him or his statement. So yes, William is a noble, because I say we found some old documents, now shut the fuck up and go home.

William's final joust.

Now, this one might be more impactful for me, because at the time this movie came out, I was heavily into playing Werewolf: the Apocalypse, and one of the tribes is all about Honor (an actual mystical stat in the game), and nobility/bloodlines. One of the powers you could have as a werewolf of that tribe, was basically Honor = Armor/Strength. You could let the nobility of your deeds and character, protect you in a dangerous situation. So when William is charging at the camera, and they slow it down, and his battle cry is to literally just shout out his name in defiance of the asshole he was fighting, with NO armor on, that was immediately what I thought of. Plus I think it's just a really well done shot, to convey how he's putting everything on the line in that moment.

So what scenes do you love? Even in movies that you think are shit, but damn if that one scene isn't awesome every time you see it?

 

[Asita]

My go-to example for these topics is a certain scene from Superman (1978), and it's really one that you have to see to understand.


Now, I have a generally poor opinion of the Superman movies, but I love this scene because it perfectly showcases the work Christopher Reeve put in to sell Clark Kent as a convincing alter ego. Slouching, raising his voice an octave, changing his speech pattern, never quite meeting people's gaze...at a glance, the Christopher Reeve at 0:23 legitimately does seem like a different person than the Christopher Reeve at 0:31, and he's done nothing but change his physicality. It's brilliant.

 

[Gordon_4]

My go-to example for these topics is a certain scene from Superman (1978), and it's really one that you have to see to understand.


Now, I have a generally poor opinion of the Superman movies, but I love this scene because it perfectly showcases the work Christopher Reeve put in to sell Clark Kent as a convincing alter ego. Slouching, raising his voice an octave, changing his speech pattern, never quite meeting people's gaze...at a glance, the Christopher Reeve at 0:23 legitimately does seem like a different person than the Christopher Reeve at 0:31, and he's done nothing but change his physicality. It's brilliant.

That scene should be both required watching AND the screen test for all actors who wish to play Superman.


I saw this in cinemas when I was but 8 years old and thought dinosaurs were awesome. For that three minutes or so I believed they were real once again. Sam Neil plays the quiet, awestruck and life affirming avatar for all dinosaur loving kids and kids at heart to perfection.

I mean sure the movie is a cautionary tale and shit very quickly rockets fanward, but for just a moment all is right in the world and it is beautiful.

 

[Hawki]

So, trying to think of "little scenes." As in, for instance, the Jurassic Park one, while a great scene, isn't "little," in that it's more of the most iconic scenes in the film. Hmm...

Okay. Scenes that others might not have thought of:

-Oblivion: The scene where Jack and Vicka swim in the pool together and kiss.

I'm using this scene as an example because a) Oblivion's criminally underrated IMO, and b) there's a lot more going on in that scene then what that description indicates. I'm almost certainly reading too much into this, but when you consider the wider plot of the film and its context (context that's yet to be revealed), there's a kind of double meaning. Like, I guess I have three readings going into that scene alone. The first reading is "well, this solidifes that they're a couple." The second reading is "so, it was all a lie." The third is deeper. Like, considering that both are clones, and are unwittingly partaking in the destruction of Earth, and considers what happens to both at the end, there's a kind of quiet tragedy. That on one hand, the Tet can't fully remove their humanity. But on the other, both are still living a lie.

I'll give a honourable mention to the Raven Rock monologue.

-Pan: Again, this is a movie that I think is...okay, not exactly underrated, but overhated. As in, it's not good, but I actually really enjoyed it, if that makes sense. I'd say the underappreciated scene is where Peter's mother says goodbye to him for the last time. Now, the scene in of itself isn't actually special, and if we're going for more obvious iconic scenes, there's a few to choose from. But if we're going by "little scenes," I'm choosing this one because it's ultimately the climax of the film's theme, which is, IMO, "death."

I can't really go into this without dissecting the film's theme (and again, almost certainly reading too much into it), and that could fill a post by itself, but, um, yeah.

-Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest: The opening scene. I mean, again, there's no shortage of iconic moments, but I forget where I read it, but someone once pointed out that DMC was atypical at the time in how dark it is tonally. Both in regards to its predecessor, and in films at the time. But even then, the opening itself sets the tone perfectly.

-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: This is easily my least favourite of the sequel trilogy, and in part it's due to a lack of iconic scenes. Like, for instance, going back to Revenge of the Sith, where Anakin and Palpy discuss Plaguis, it's a "little scene," but everyone knows it already. Still, Rise isn't without merit, and one scene I will give credit for is when Lando shows up with the fleet. Where Pryde asks where the Resistance got the fleet from, and the FO officer answers "it's not a fleet sir, it's just...people." It's a simple line, but it says a lot, and frankly, one of the few redeemable parts of the whole final battle sequence.

-Terminator 2: Judgement Day: Where Arnie describes the activation of Skynet. I'm bringing this up because of course, the first two films have no shortage of iconic scenes, but I'm giving a shoutout to this one, in that it might not come to mind. But bear in mind what's happening - it's an info-dump, and a non-visual info-dump at that, with a lot of dry facts (e.g. exact days and times). But it says a lot, and it's absolutely chilling, in that it not only makes Skynet's rise plausible (within the confines of the film), but even sympathetic, bearing in mind that we've already come off the scene of "it's in your nature to destroy yourselves."

(I'm going to give a shoutout to Dark Fate's equivalent scene. It's not quite as good, but it does a similar job.)

So, yeah. Not the most iconic scenes of all time, but perhaps some more obscure ones.

 

[happyninja42]

-Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest: The opening scene. I mean, again, there's no shortage of iconic moments, but I forget where I read it, but someone once pointed out that DMC was atypical at the time in how dark it is tonally. Both in regards to its predecessor, and in films at the time. But even then, the opening itself sets the tone perfectly.

For me, it was the scene where Barbossa is showing them "the way" to Davey Jone's Locker, and he's taking them to the maelstrom. They're all freaking out, realizing they are about to capsize, and Barbossa is literally swinging from the riggings, laughing his ass off, because he's died twice now, and has zero fucks to give for the fear of death. Just, the sheer joy that he's exuding on screen made me love him even more than I already did at that point.

-Terminator 2: Judgement Day: Where Arnie describes the activation of Skynet. I'm bringing this up because of course, the first two films have no shortage of iconic scenes, but I'm giving a shoutout to this one, in that it might not come to mind. But bear in mind what's happening - it's an info-dump, and a non-visual info-dump at that, with a lot of dry facts (e.g. exact days and times). But it says a lot, and it's absolutely chilling, in that it not only makes Skynet's rise plausible (within the confines of the film), but even sympathetic, bearing in mind that we've already come off the scene of "it's in your nature to destroy yourselves."

For me, I would say it's the sudden, and immediate shift in John's personality, when he realizes "it's all real." He goes from being a complete little douchenozzle, to suddenly worrying about everyone. The way he just loses it on the Terminator when he almost shoots that guy, and he declares that you can't kill people. Why? Because. He doesn't really have any well devised reason, but the apocalypse is real, he's now the leader of it, and he's responsible for the lives of ALL of humanity against total destruction. So...yeah, don't kill people. I enjoyed that shift in his mentality, when he had to completely re-assess his life up to that point, all the things he was angry about, no longer mattered. All the things he felt were a betrayal by his mother, were legit methods to try and protect him. And he took it fairly well, and adapted accordingly.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

When Dudley Smith asks Exley about "Rollo Tomassi" in L.A. Confidential.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Seth Brundle's final monologue to Ronnie in The Fly. The one were he states he's an insect who dreamt he was a man and loved it, but now the dream is over and the insect is awake. It's fucking genius and I love it. Not only is Goldblum's acting superb, it cuts to the heart of Seth's horrific existence; The life as a normal man he had not too long ago is but a distant, forgotten dream, and the nightmare has become reality. Also, referring to himself as an insect who woke up drives home how fast eveything went from 'alright' to 'absolute body horror disaster'. It's one of the best scenes in cinema.

 

[BrawlMan]

John Carpenter's The Thing has a lot of subtle moments. From the way the "wolf" acts sneaky and suspicious. When in actual reality, the animal actor is a wolf-dog that was super shy on the set and on camera. And they were able to make him look real sinister with little to no effort.

Bebop and Rocksteady's friendly relationship in TMNT: Out of the Shadows. Despite being criminals and the bad guys, you can tell they genuinely actually care for each other. Lovable idiots.


When the turtles first meet April in the 2014 version.

Its subtle, but the way each of the Turtles explains what they are to April says something about their personalities
Leonardo: Well, miss...we're ninjas.
Raphael: We're mutants.
Donatello: Technically we're turtles
Michelangelo: Oh, and we're teenagers, but we can still have "adult conversations"

• Leo says they are ninjas, showing his dedication to his training. Raph says they're mutants, indicating his surly outlook and how he focuses on what makes him an outsider. Scientific-minded Donnie points out what they are in a literal sense, and youthful and energetic Mikey says they're teenagers while still trying to appear more "grown up" than he really is.

 

[happyninja42]

A comment in the Rate the Last Film You Watched thread, reminded me of an example I forgot.

Man of Steel. REALLY didn't like this film, but damn if this scene wasn't cool as hell to me. I just loved the sequencing of it.


I just love how Jor-El keeps popping up from other angles so he's always there for her to see and guide her. The whole "behind you.....to your left" *hand gesture* "nope, closing those goons off" And she's just moving, and he's just orchestrating the whole thing. That was the one time when watching that film that I genuinely felt I was enjoying myself. Wish more had had that feel to it.

 

[happyninja42]

Another one!

Now the movie isn't a bad one in my opinion, far from it, I fucking LOVE this film. But in a film almost entirely made up of awesome scenes, this one gets me every time.

Captain, CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow, being hanged, and they're reading off his crimes. They just sort of blur into the background as they are rattled off, losing focus as the main characters continue to talk about the situation. And then they go back after droning on, to my favorite "Impersonating a cleric, of the church of england" and they cut to Jack, who momentarily looks a little confused, and then remembers, and just sort of giggles to himself thinking 'aah yes, good times..." he even looks over at the executioner, grinning as if to share the memory. I just love that moment so much.


It's at around 0:43 in this clip.

 

[MrCalavera]

 

[BrawlMan]

That is one my movie I should not have watched at the age of 10 on HBO.

 

[happyninja42]

That is one my movie I should not have watched at the age of 10 on HBO.

Eh, I saw it in my 20s and it was still unpleasant. The way he treated the prostitutes alone made me very uncomfortable.

 

[BrawlMan]

Eh, I saw it in my 20s and it was still unpleasant. The way he treated the prostitutes alone made me very uncomfortable.

This movie makes Fight Club look surprisingly elegant by comparison. I saw that when I was 10 too.

 

[Mister Mumbler]

Shawn of the Dead

Now, it is an amazing movie all round, but one moment in particular sticks out. Unlike most other pieces of zombie media, the military is conspicuously absent for most of the movie outside of a quick shot of a convoy going through London early on, and just when it seems all is lost, they fly in and kill all the zombies in one fell swoop.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I can't say I LOVE these films/scenes, but given the visual medium, they certainly had an impact on me, so I appreciate them greatly.

In not-so-distant retrospect, "3 O'clock High" is an absolutely awful late-'80s movie with few redemptive qualities, but given I wasn't even 10 years old when I first saw it, Buddy Revell as portrayed by Richard Tyson uniquely cemented in my young mind that high school might actually have T-800 Terminators roaming the halls, and this movie actually scared me; I probably wasn't going to have to join a human resistance against sentient machines, but I HAD to go to high school one day, and I wasn't prepared for shit like this. So much so, that after only being reminded of this film today, +30 years later, I still can't find anything funny about it for the psychological damage it caused. Campy? Sure, but funny? Let's just say 8-year-old me is still waiting on the punchline.


Also, the scene with The Pale Man from "Pan's Labyrinth." No matter how many times I see it, it never ceases to cause a great deal of anxiety in me; a nod to the make-up effects, the tension which is expertly built and the utter horror of the whole scenario.

 

[ObsidianJones]

I'm going to cheat a little. Because it's me. You know me.

This is the speech from the Great Dictator, but spliced with Hans Zimmers' music. It will always touch me. It will always put tears in my eyes.


And that's heavy. So let me be happy for a bit

My go-to example for these topics is a certain scene from Superman (1978), and it's really one that you have to see to understand.


Now, I have a generally poor opinion of the Superman movies, but I love this scene because it perfectly showcases the work Christopher Reeve put in to sell Clark Kent as a convincing alter ego. Slouching, raising his voice an octave, changing his speech pattern, never quite meeting people's gaze...at a glance, the Christopher Reeve at 0:23 legitimately does seem like a different person than the Christopher Reeve at 0:31, and he's done nothing but change his physicality. It's brilliant.

The thing I love about that scene is this is God. This is literally God. He can do anything and no one can stop him.

And he's afraid of what someone will think about him. Out of love. Will she love him for Clark? Will she be just thrilled that Superman, one aspect of who he is, is interested in her?

It is why Superman is one of my favorite characters in Fiction. He is first and foremost a simple man. His powers are secondary at best, but always in the way at the worst. He's just... Clark.

 

[Asita]

The thing I love about that scene is this is God. This is literally God. He can do anything and no one can stop him.

And he's afraid of what someone will think about him. Out of love. Will she love him for Clark? Will she be just thrilled that Superman, one aspect of who he is, is interested in her?

It is why Superman is one of my favorite characters in Fiction. He is first and foremost a simple man. His powers are secondary at best, but always in the way at the worst. He's just... Clark.

Eh...Not to belabor the overall point, but I never really liked that logic because at the end of the day Clark is an act for him. It's an identity largely sold by him hiding his virtues and more or less fabricating faults to make people disinterested in him. For ease of explanation in this, I'll refer to the character's true self by his birth name of Kal-El. Kal is not the meek, stumbling, bumbling, stammering goofball he pretends to be as Clark. While I wouldn't go quite so far as to say that Superman is Kal-El when he's not pretending to be Clark, he very blatantly puts more effort into changing his patterns and behavior as Clark than he does for Superman.

 

[ObsidianJones]

Eh...Not to belabor the overall point, but I never really liked that logic because at the end of the day Clark is an act for him. It's an identity largely sold by him hiding his virtues and more or less fabricating faults to make people disinterested in him. For ease of explanation in this, I'll refer to the character's true self by his birth name of Kal-El. Kal is not the meek, stumbling, bumbling, stammering goofball he pretends to be as Clark. While I wouldn't go quite so far as to say that Superman is Kal-El when he's not pretending to be Clark, he very blatantly puts more effort into changing his patterns and behavior as Clark than he does for Superman.

Oh, I completely agree. That's why I said that Clark is just one aspect of who he is.

He is a simple man with the abilities of a God. He is unassuming. He does wish for the best for everyone. He is Clark. He is Kal-el. He puts on the Leader Hat when he is Superman. He puts on the Bumbling act when he's Clark. But what he is something in the middle. A good man who would live a simple life if he could.

If Clark/Superman was in our real world? He wouldn't have donned the Suit. He would just farm, be a good friend to everyone he meets, and just live his life as happily as he could.

 

[Asita]

Oh, I completely agree. That's why I said that Clark is just one aspect of who he is.

He is a simple man with the abilities of a God. He is unassuming. He does wish for the best for everyone. He is Clark. He is Kal-el. He puts on the Leader Hat when he is Superman. He puts on the Bumbling act when he's Clark. But what he is something in the middle. A good man who would live a simple life if he could.

If Clark/Superman was in our real world? He wouldn't have donned the Suit. He would just farm, be a good friend to everyone he meets, and just live his life as happily as he could.

No doubt. You know what probably my favorite Superman story was? "For the Man Who Has Everything", specifically because it showcases exactly what you're saying; his deepest and most heartfelt desire is to live a simple life surrounded by family.

My bone of contention, as it were, centered on "would she love him for Clark", which never strikes me as the right question considering how much of the Clark he is around her is performative. To put it slightly differently: The Clark Kent that people at the Daily Bugle know is very different (and deliberately so) from the Clark Kent that Ma and Pa Kent know, and the latter is the more "authentic" Clark. There's another scene that I like to cite from the Donner Cut for Superman II. The reasons for it are very similar to the scene I cite from the first Superman (namely, the impact of Reeve's physicality).


A semi-popular summation of that is something to the effect that at 3:43 we see Clark Kent and at 3:44 we see Superman with glasses. However, I think a more nuanced perspective is that at the latter moment we don't see Superman so much as we see Clark simply drop the act, too stunned that Lois would actually pull the trigger to put on any pretense. This gives us a glimpse at "authentic" Clark while he's having difficulty processing what just happened, which lasts until he starts crossing his arms and fully transitions to his Superman persona...which he briefly drops again when Lois reveals the deception. It's admittedly a largely academic distinction, but it's reflective of my view that while neither of them are his true self, his persona at the Daily Bugle is further from the truth than his persona as a Superhero is. Put a different way, in a world where he was normal, I easily see him living a humble, happy, and helpful life, but I don't see him acting as mousey as the "Clark Kent" in the Bugle does.