Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Motown is Joe-Town!

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Republicans don’t trust women.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

You are here: Home / Medium Cool / Medium Cool – Great Scenes!

Medium Cool – Great Scenes!

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Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

I’ve been watching the series Cross on Netflix this past week as my “treadmill show” and there are a ton of great scenes, including one shocking scene in Episode 6 where I actually blurted out holy fucking fuck!   (I watched the last episode last night, and today started Slow Horses.)

But I think my favorite scene is where one of my favorite characters in Cross is sitting at a table in a bar or a restaurant, waiting for someone to join him, and some redneck rubberneckers at the bar are looking right at him.  He looks at them, and as friendly as any James Garner character, says “First time?”

The rednecks look perplexed, so he clarifies.  “Seeing a black person.”

They turn away.

Such a great little scene.  Couldn’t have lasted even 30 seconds, but so well done.

Then there’s this classic scene:

Any noteworthy scenes in films or shows that you can think of?  Long or short.

Note: for those new to Medium Cool, these are not open threads.

Reader Interactions

222Comments

  2. 2.

    hoytwillrise

    Say Nothing, a 9 part series on FX/Hulu based on true stories/memories about IRA in Northern Ireland in 70’s/80’s; amazing tv, they didn’t have to make up plots. And I kept wondering if this is what the US will devolve to. Am now reading the book whih is based on; plus aural interviews by the participants.

  3. 3.

    Steven Holmes

    Started watching Black Doves on Netflix, sport of a workplace drama with spies and assassins.  Murders with just the right amount of humor.

  6. 6.

    Steven Holmes

    @hoytwillrise: i watched Say Nothing with my wife a couple of weeks ago, it’s hard to find things we both like but this was one of them.

    Oh,  we both also like The Diplomat on Netflix.

  7. 7.

    Mr. Prosser

    When Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday winks at a Cowboy and starts the OK Corral gunfight in Tombstone

  9. 9.

    eclare

    Gosh there are so many, so I’ll go with the classics.  The wedding scene at the beginning of The Godfather. And the last scene in The Godfather, where the door shuts.  Amazing bookends.

    And of course toward the end, the Baptism scene.  So well done.

    Not linking just in case someone hasn’t seen it yet, although that is hard for me to fathom.

  11. 11.

    Chief Oshkosh

    There’s a tiny scene within a scene in Casablanca. It’s in the flashback scene in the Paris cafe, La Belle Aurore, the day before Rick, Ilsa, and Sam are supposed to leave the city. Ilsa is fretting over, among other things, Rick being caught by the Germans. Sam reminds him “Those Germans are gonna come looking for you. And don’t forget, there’s a price on your head!” And Rick replies devil-may-care, “Oh, I left a note in my apartment. They’ll know where to find me.” Just pitch-perfect.

    I’ve pulled that line several times over the years when someone warns me that I’m going to get into trouble (usually with someone in authority, somehow) and they’re going to come looking for me. Every once in a while the person I’m talking with recognizes the

  12. 12.

    Pete Downunder

    I’m a fan of great end of movie lines:

    Casablanca: This is the beginning of a beautiful relationship

    The Front Page: The son of a bitch stole my watch

    Silence of the Lambs: I’m having an old friend for dinner

  15. 15.

    Suzanne

    @hoytwillrise: I read Say Nothing about five years ago, and it was so fucken good. Could not put it down. Like, literally brought it to work and read it on my lunch break.

    The scene that sticks out in my mind is the closing scene of the movie Parasite. I watched that on a plane (as I seldom get to watch movies that aren’t kids’ content). By the end, I was sitting with my face about three inches from the tiny seat-back screen and had both of my hands over my mouth to keep from screaming.

  16. 16.

    Ihop

    Near the end of the stringer bell arc in “the wire” there is a scene with him and Avon looking at the future, reveling in the past but full of portent for what seems to be coming.

    Fucking brilliant.

  25. 25.

    WaterGirl

    @billcinsd: Now I want to watch The Big Sleep!  They don’t make ’em like they used to.

    I love scenes with thunderstorms and rain.

    Now I’m going to have to go hunt down the “feckless” scene in the cathedral from The West Wing.

  28. 28.

    Hungry Joe

    Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder in “The Producers”: Mostel: ”I’m wearing a cardboard belt!”

    Also in “The Producers” — Franz Liebken (Kenneth Mars): “Did you know that  the Fuhrer was a TERRIFIC dancer?”

  31. 31.

    Prescott Cactus

    @eclare:

    I had to look it up. It’s been 52 years since the first one.                   We were just kids. . .

  32. 32.

    piratedan

    my favorite scene is from Absence of Malice, it’s when all of the principals come to a meeting room in the courthouse and you have Sally Field, Paul Newman, Al Balaban and a slew of solid supporting actors in the room and then we get Wilford Brimley who steals the movie and helps the slow learners along with what has taken place and does what he can to minimize the social and political carnage that has taken place while Sally Field hangs herself and her profession.

    followed by Field in her newsroom being interviewed for the follow up piece regarding the events that have transpired.  As she’s answering a question, the colleague asks in tote “That’s True isn’t it?” and Sally responds, “No, but it’s accurate”, which kind of serves as a ribbon on the entire affair.

  35. 35.

    Jeff Del Papa

    During the post meal torpor on T day, watched a British drama “Slow Horses”.  About a special, separate section of MI-5 where agents that screwed up get put out to pasture, (or at least to serve out some penance).   Some humor, some internal political backstabbing, some right wing terrorists, etc.

    I enjoyed it, and expect it will get added to my rota.  At least the first season is available on Amazon, but to see later seasons might take Apple TV.

  41. 41.

    BellaPea

    One of our favorite movies is Harvey. We watch it every New Year’s Eve. Lots of good scenes, but one of the funniest is at the asylum and Vida hands Elwood his bathrobe, and he says “Well, thank you Vida.” like it’s no big deal to just hand him a robe in the middle of all of the chaos. Jimmy Stewart was a national treasure. And so funny, the scenes with Vida (forgot the actress’ name, but she was a hoot) and the moment when Vida turns around to see the portrait with Elwood and Harvey on the mantel.

  52. 52.

    Phylllis

    William Holden’s realization that the light bulb is the key to the mole in Stalag 17. Some of the best wordless acting on film.

  57. 57.

    frosty

    @Jeff Del Papa: ​ @WaterGirl: ​
     Four seasons are available on Apple TV. I’m midway through the third and expect to finish it and cancel the subscription after $9.99 for one month.
    I read all the books. Each season is one book. They’re worth watching even if you’ve read the books. Gary Oldman nailed the characterization of Jackson Lamb.​

  59. 59.

    arrieve

    I just watched the baptism scene in the Godfather again, and that may be the greatest movie scene ever.

    But I’ve always loved this scene–the end of Notorious, where Cary Grant is rescuing Ingrid Bergman from the Nazis. (And you don’t usually think of Hitchcock as sexy, but Cary and Ingrid were hot.)

  65. 65.

    tam1MI

    I’ve been watching the series Cross on Netflix this past week as my “treadmill show” and there are a ton of great scenes, including one shocking scene in Episode 6 where I actually blurted out holy fucking fuck!   (I watched the last episode last night, and today started Slow Horses.)

    But I think my favorite scene is where one of my favorite characters in Cross is sitting at a table in a bar or a restaurant, waiting for someone to join him, and some redneck rubberneckers at the bar are looking right at him.  He looks at them, and as friendly as any James Garner character, says “First time?”

    The rednecks look perplexed, so he clarifies.  “Seeing a black person.”

    They turn away.

    I love the scene in the first episode where Cross is questioning the asshole white supremacist who claims his superiority is because of genetics and Cross replies, “Genetics.  Oh, right.  Same reason my dick is bigger than yours”.

  72. 72.

    zhena gogolia

    @arrieve: Hitchcock is always sexy!

    ETA: What about that kissing scene earlier in Notorious?

    Or Grace Kelly kissing him in To Catch a Thief?

    Kim Novak in Vertigo?

  76. 76.

    sixthdoctor

    @Chetan Murthy: Miller’s Crossing is my favorite movie of all time. Everyone in it is amazing. I don’t know which scene I like more, Jon Turturro’s monologue in the woods or Gabriel Byrne’s walk in the woods with the Dane. I’ll probably think of six others after I press Post Comment.

  80. 80.

    Trivia Man

    @Chief Oshkosh: “The germans wore grey, you wore blue”

    And his delivery on “A guy standing on a station platform in the rain, a comical look on his face…”

    I use a variation at work all the time. “Remind the driver the dock closes at 18:00. Or he’ll be sitting in his truck all night with a sad look on his face.”

  83. 83.

    arrieve

    @zhena gogolia:

    What about that kissing scene earlier in Notorious?

    Or Grace Kelly kissing him in To Catch a Thief?

    Kim Novak in Vertigo?

    All great, and sexy (though Vertigo is not my favorite Hitchcock). Cary and Ingrid just had a sizzling chemistry and the suspense of that final scene is amazing.

  86. 86.

    Trivia Man

    Marge: we need to get help!

    Homer: let’s call Batman!

    Marge: (with disgust) we need a scientist

    Homer: (surprised by her ignorance) Batman’s a scientist

  89. 89.

    Just look at that parking lot

    My favorite line from Caddyshack  takes place during the late night conversation between the Chevy Chase and Bill Murray characters.

    Carl: “You got a pool over at your place?”

    Ty: “We got a pond in the back and a pool. Pond would be good for you”.

  90. 90.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Omnes Omnibus: Seriously, go watch it now! I like it even more than “Blazing Saddles”, which is saying a lot. There is a scene with singing and dancing to “Putting on the Ritz” that is wonderful  that I can’t say any more about without ruining it.

  92. 92.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @eclare: one of my favorite movies of all time. Billy Wilder was a genius. He made so many great movies. Double Indemnity, anyone? Especially the scene where Fred McMurray first meets Barbara Stanwick and they have that smart flirtation dialogue about driving.

  93. 93.

    The Unmitigated Gaul

    @hoytwillrise: Fyi, “Voices From The Grave,” by Ed Moloney, based on extensive interviews with the major participants on both sides – IRA and Loyalists – is much, much better.

  96. 96.

    Renie

    @hoytwillrise: ​
     

    That was an excellent series but I felt they focused too much on the Price sisters. I was surprised Martin McGuiness was never mentioned or Bernadette Devlin. Found it amusing that at the end of each episode the disclaimer by Gerry Adams that he was never in the IRA. He’s not fooling anyone.

    As a constituent of the horrible Peter King, he was always trying to fund raise for the IRA but he never said IRA.

  100. 100.

    Splitting Image

    One of the best scenes in any movie relative to the quality of the rest of the film is Roger Moore’s cameo in Curse of the Pink Panther. Do not watch the rest of the movie.

    The Princess Bride has at least ten scenes that could qualify as the scene, depending on my mood: the sword fight, the battle of wits, “mawwiage”.

    Gene Hackman effortlessly stealing Young Frankenstein from a seriously talented cast. I don’t think he’d ever been in a comedy at that point.

    I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the Black Knight, which I re-watch endlessly. “It is but a flesh wound!”

    The recognition scene at the end of City Lights. Charlie Chaplin’s very greatest moment.

    The Netherfield dance in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice. Excellent match of camera work and choreography.

  103. 103.

    khead

    @Phylllis:

    Ach so!

    More:

    “Well, if this is it ol’ boy, I hope you don’t mind if I go out speaking the King’s”

    The party scene at the end of The Caine Mutiny – “I’m a lot drunker than you are so it’ll be a fair fight”

    “That’s right. I’ve killed women and children. I’ve killed just about everything that walks or crawled at one time or another. And I’m here to kill you, Little Bill, for what you did to Ned.”

  104. 104.

    WTFGhost

    For some reason, some of my favorite scenes are ones where the ridiculousness of the situation is displayed. Like, Jimmy Durante is asked by a cop “what are you doing with that elephant, mister?” and his response is “What elephant?”

    Even better was Scrooged, after the obvious bit of physical humor, what does Murray say? “Bitch hit me with a toaster,” because… well…

    Favorite cartoon scene ever: Tom and Jerry, Tom wearing a hat to disguise himself. The safari hunter runs up, grabs off his hat, and pitches it away. “A HA!” he declares.
    Tom reaches up, grabs *safari hunter’s* hat, pitches *it* away, and goes “eh heh” (since T&J don’t speak).

    Also: now that I’ve responded, I just want to make sure I’ve said it at least once: to suffer a fool is to permit their presence without driving them away. To unsuffer a fool would then be to make them unwelcome. If you wish to call me a pedant, I shall take my business to some *actual* establishment, since this is not, I’ll note, a place of business.

  110. 110.

    tam1MI

    @kalakal:”To the question, ‘What were you doing naked in Central Park, in Bethesda Fountain, at 3 in the morning?’ Swann replied, ‘The back stroke.'”

  112. 112.

    Suzanne

    I know this is not an open thread, so can we have a separate thread to discuss what is unraveling today at Saydnaya prison in Syria?! This is an unbelievable event. This is history, this is as meaningful as the liberation of the concentration camps in 1945.

  114. 114.

    Memory Pallas

    One of my favorite scenes from Breaking Bad:

    Jesse: Beans? What are we going to with them Mr. White, grow a magic beanstalk and escape?

    Walter White: No, we are going to process them into…ricin.

    Jesse: Rice n beans?

    (helps if read out loud)

  120. 120.

    Splitting Image

    One more:

    Back in the sexist sixties, movies often did that one scene where the hero has to meet a Professor Cartwright, the famed nuclear physicist, or a Dr. Sanderson, the brilliant surgeon, and when the person in question shows up, the camera tilts up from a pair of high heels to reveal that the dignitary is *gasp* a woman. The hero always does a double-take and they end up having a romantic relationship.

    They did this in the pilot episode of Get Smart, where Max meets Agent 99 for the first time. Only instead of doing a double-take, Max leaps into action and the pair of them immediately start chasing after the bad guy. Ten minutes later, Barbara Feldon takes her cap off for the first time, and then Max does a double-take and says “You’re a girl!”

  124. 124.

    JMG

    1. The opening scene in “Once Upon a Time in the West” when Charles Bronson gets off at the train station and the three gunmen (including Jack Elam and Woody Strode) meet him and one says, “Looks like we brought one horse too few.” Bronson smiles and responds, “No, you brought two too many” and of course shoots them all in the next 10 seconds.

    2. In the pilot of “Get Smart” the villain, a Chinese superspy with a hook for a right hand, holds the hand up to a captured Max and asks, “Do you what men call me, Mr. Smart?” Max responds, “Lefty?” It’s 60 years and that memory still cracks me up.

  127. 127.

    Craig

    One of my favorite scenes in cinema is from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. When Butch and Sundance have scraped by back to Etta’s house realized Who Those Guys Are, and figure to get the fuck out. Sundance dickishly tells her ‘ if you want to come, I won’t stop you’ We’re outside in the open where Etta went to leave the boys inside to make their plans. Conrad Hall lights and frames it beautifully with Etta in the foreground off the porch and a lit window and door. Sundance walks out onto the porch and dickishly tells her ‘What I’m saying is, if you want to go, I won’t stop you. But the minute you start to whine or make a nuisance, I don’t care where we are, I’m dumping you flat.’. Butch has appeared in the window and says ‘Don’t sugarcoat it like that, Kid. Tell her straight.’ Etta barely turns to them, she stays with us and then tears all our hearts out. ‘I’m 26, and I’m single, and a school teacher, and that’s the bottom of the pit. And the only excitement I’ve known is here with me now. I’ll go with you, and I won’t whine, and I’ll sew you socks, and I’ll stitch you when you’re wounded, and I’ll do anything you ask of me except one thing. I won’t watch you die. I’ll miss that scene if you don’t mind.’ Katherine Ross and George Roy Hill make this sweet, smart, tough women have the heaviest scene in a movie just chock full of snappy dialogue. Still just makes me cry.

  128. 128.

    Craig

    @JMG: That train depot scene is insanely cool. Leone took lots of that from High Noon, but like a great cover song he improved on it and made it his own.

  129. 129.

    Yutsano

    @WaterGirl: ​
    …

    I am beyond disappoint.

    Also: you have assignments. I don’t care about your clients or your sleep schedule. Go watch these things. Naow.

  134. 134.

    NotMax

    One more.

    The scene when the lamp is switched on in a darkened living room in Play Misty for Me.

  138. 138.

    brendancalling

    I love the cornfield scene from “Casino,” where Nicky and Dominick meet their demise (sorry for any spoilers, but that movie is from 1995 and you should have seen it). The cinematography is fantastic, calling to mind “North by Northwest.”

  144. 144.

    raven

    In the first of Fargo a guy gets murdered in a strip club/cat house. He’s lying face down with a huge knife in his back and Deputy Molly Solverson says “What do you want me to put down for cause of death”!!

  149. 149.

    Pete Downunder

    When I was a kid I loved the Maverick TV show with James Garner. One scene I remember takes place at a card table in the saloon. The baddie bets Maverick that he can cut the ace of spades. Maverick shuffles the deck and hands it to the baddie. The baddie draws a big knife and cuts through the entire deck, grinning like he won. Maverick then displays that he has palmed the ace of spades. Great stuff.

  150. 150.

    FelonyGovt

    The last scene in Lost in Translation where Bill Murray says something to Scarlett Johansson but we don’t hear what it is.

  151. 151.

    Pete Downunder

    One of my favorite opening scenes, I think it was in Charade, is in a funeral home or church. Mob boss lying dead in an open coffin. A series of disreputable characters come in to view the body. Each one surreptitiously either holds a feather under the corps’s nose or pokeshim with a pin. Each assuring himself he’s really dead. No dialog at all.

  152. 152.

    coin operated

    The scene with Matt Damon and Robin Williams sitting on a park bench in Good Will Hunting:

    “Something occurred to me. And I fell into a deep, peaceful sleep, and I haven’t thought about you since!”

  153. 153.

    NotMax

    More.

    Livia admonishing the gladiators she “knows all the tricks” in I, Claudius.

    “His name is a killing word” from Dune. Also “Usul, we have wormsign the likes of which even God has never seen.”

    Vir keeping his promise to Londo about waving at him in Babylon 5. (Deliberately left this one vague because spoilers.)

    And the Daffy Duck scene. Also from that series:

    Garibaldi: “I can’t read Narn.”

    G’kar (thrusting the Book of G’Quan at him): “Learn!”

  154. 154.

    Craig

    @sixthdoctor: I’m a sucker for Leo’s Danny Boy sequence where he shows The old man’s still an artist with a Thompson. The match cut from Tom’s window to Leo’s to transport us across time and space. The dumb assassins. The smoke through the floor. Leo gunning the shit out of everything and yet still being a chump. Beautiful.

  155. 155.

    NotMax

    #153 fix.

    More.

    Livia admonishing the gladiators she “knows all the tricks” in I, Claudius.

    “His name is a killing word” from Dune. Also “Usul, we have wormsign the likes of which even God has never seen.”

    Vir keeping his promise to Londo about waving at him in Babylon 5. (Deliberately left this one vague because spoilers.)

    And the Daffy Duck scene. Also from that series:

    Garibaldi: “I can’t read Narn.”

    G’kar (thrusting the Book of G’Quan at him): “Learn!”

  158. 158.

    Craig

    The scene in True Detective season 1 where Woody and Matthew are in the car and Woody is talking about how ‘ I thought we agreed that the car was a place of quiet contemplation’ paraphrase.

  165. 165.

    WaterGirl

    @zhena gogolia: Funny, I can picture all 3 of them perfectly as they were in that movie, but I coildnever have coe up with the name of Ned Glass.

    You remember names so much more than I do.  I remember faces!

  166. 166.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Renie:

    That was an excellent series but I felt they focused too much on the Price sisters

    The book on which it is based is more about the Price sisters – especially Dolours – than the other people covered: Brendan Hughes, Gerry Adams, Jean McConville, and her daughter Helen. McGuinness and Devlin are not really part of the story the author is telling.

  167. 167.

    FelonyGovt

    My Cousin Vinny, defense counsel listens to the prosecutor’s summation, gets up and says, “Your Honor, everything he said is bullshit. Thank you”. Sits down.

  168. 168.

    dm

    There are a ton of these in Hayao Miyazaki’s movies.

    In Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind there’s a moment when the young Pejitean gunner sees Nausicaa approaching on her glider, arms outstretched, to stop them shooting, and he blanches, dropping his gun.

    Totoro’s big gawpy yawn with Mei sitting on his belly.  Plus the Catbus changing its destination sign to “Little Sister”.

    There’s a similar scene in Laputa where Pazu is hanging from his flying machine, to grab Sheeta from the top of the burning tower.

    And, of course, there’s the moment when the clouds part and Pazu and Sheets see they’ve landed amid the ruins of Laputa.

    Possibly the finest such “Miyazaki moment” is the numinous scene in Princess Mononoke when Ashitaka first glimpses the grove of the Forest Spirit.

    Porco Rosso saying, “I’d rather be a pig than a Fascist.”

  170. 170.

    WaterGirl

    @FelonyGovt:

    My Cousin Vinny, defense counsel listens to the prosecutor’s summation, gets up and says, “Your Honor, everything he said is bullshit. Thank you”. Sits down.

    That’s awesome!

  171. 171.

    kalakal

    Dr Strangelove – “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here, this is the War Room!”

    and Major Kong ” Shoot, a fellah could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff”

    Kong unjamming the H-bomb

    2001  The pod bay doors scene and

    Hal’s death

    A really moving scene is in Silent Running when one of the drones is destroyed and the other one is looking at it. The drones can’t speak, have no faces, and are not humanoid yet somehow a real sense of loss is conveyed

    I also remember being totally wowed by the opening scene of Star Wars

  174. 174.

    kalakal

    Any of Donald Sutherland’s scenes in Kelly’s Heroes 

    If you put together all the insane stunt openings to James Bond movies you have one hell of a movie

  175. 175.

    Tehanu

    I have two favorites.  One is in The Expanse, the scene where Detective Miller finds Julie Mao, who’s been partly subsumed by an alien intelligence at the heart of the captured asteroid Eros, and convinces her/it not to crash it into the Earth; it’s one of the most moving and heart-stopping things I’ve ever seen, and Thomas Jane and Florence Faivre act the hell out of it.  The other is the moment in Casablanca where Ilsa tells Rick she doesn’t know what to do and that he will have to do the thinking for both of them, and he says, after a pause so brief it’s hardly there, “All right.  I will.”  No matter how many times I see that movie, that moment never fails to thrill me in my deepest heart.

  176. 176.

    Craig

    The post coital scene in Chinatown. Shot from above to start. Then Jake starts to put together what’s really going on as Mrs. Mulwray gets squirrelly and he breaks her taillight to follow her. Which leads to the brutal ‘ my sister and my daughter…….. Understand?’.

    They rarely make them like that nowadays.

  178. 178.

    dm

    I’ve always been kind-of fond of that scene in the Star Trek movie with the whale rescue: “Actually, I’m from Iowa.  I only work in outer space.”

  181. 181.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Three in movies:

    The Han and Leia scene in the Falcon where he kisses her and they’re interrupted by Threepio.

    The entire song scene, “The Ecstasy of Gold” from “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”.

    And of course, the best 8 seconds in film history:

    Casablanca Shocked.

    One in TV, the fantastic opener scene in The Wire:

    Brother Mouzone and Omar.

  182. 182.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @NotMax:

    Livia admonishing the gladiators she “knows all the tricks” in I, Claudius.

    Oh man, Livia’s death scene with k-k-Claudius and the realization he’s fooled her all these years.  Brilliant.

    And, of course, John Hurt as Caligula coming back:

    “Typical!”

  183. 183.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    OMG, how could I forget this scene from ‘Orphan Black’:

    I got refund.

    Orphan Black should have had a series dedicated to nothing but Helena.

  185. 185.

    thruppence

    Kathleen Turner in Body Heat: “You’re not very bright, are you? I like that in a man. “

  188. 188.

    Chris

    Any noteworthy scenes in films or shows that you can think of?  Long or short.

    I’m a terrible liberal; some of the funniest scenes in films and shows to me are the ones ended by an abrupt and unexpected gunshot.  The scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.  The hostage scene in the Firefly pilot that’s ended by Mal walking in and shooting the dude without breaking stride.  Too many Denny Crane moments in Boston Legal to count.

  191. 191.

    Chris

    Dialogue-wise, I think my favorite conversation in the English language in a scene from Clue:

    Scarlett: “Well to be perfectly frank, I run a specialized hotel and a telephone service that provides gentlemen with the company of a young lady for a short while.”
    Plum: “Oh yeah?  What’s the address?”
    Green: “So how did you know Colonel Mustard works in Washington?  Is he one of your clients?”
    Mustard: “Certainly not!”
    Green: “I was asking Miss Scarlett!”
    Mustard: “Well, you tell him it’s not true!”
    Scarlett: “It’s not true!”
    Plum: “Is that true?”
    Scarlett: “Nah, it’s not true.”
    Green: “Ah ha, so it is true!”
    Wadsworth: “A double negative!”
    Mustard: “Double negative?  You mean you’ve got photographs?”
    Wadsworth: “That’s sounded like a confession to me.  In fact, the double negative has led to proof positive!  I’m afraid you gave yourself away.”
    Mustard: “Are you trying to make me look stupid in front of the other guests?”
    Wadsworth: “You don’t need any help from me, sir.”
    Mustard: “THAT’S RIGHT!!!”

  193. 193.

    VeniceRiley

    I absolutely adored the last few minutes of The Diplomat this season. They know how to finale a season on that show! Holy cow.

     

    But the best scene ever shot is Ripley stomping in a loader in Aliens “Get away from her, YOU BITCH!”

  194. 194.

    hueyplong

    Can’t say it’s enjoyable, but one of the most intense scenes is Hans Landa interrogating the French dairy farmer at the beginning of Inglorious Basterds.

    Lets you know who you’ll be dealing with over the next couple of hours.

  195. 195.

    Chris

    Action scenes and especially chase scenes: I get snobby about this at times, I think eighties, nineties, and to some extent 2000s action movies (i.e. what I grew up with) had some truly spectacular shit going on, due to budgets and production values being bigger than ever, but CGI having not yet swallowed up the entire art of practical effects.

    The truck chase from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

    The tank chase from The Last Crusade.

    The truck chase from Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

    The Harrier jet sequence from True Lies.

    The tank chase from Goldeneye.

    The motorcycle chase from Tomorrow Never Dies.

    The horse chase from The Mask of Zorro.

    The parkour scene from Casino Royale.

    At some point a few years back, it occurred to me that it was getting rarer and rarer to see that kind of really good action sequence.  The ones in modern movies increasingly just don’t grab me.

  196. 196.

    Central Planning

    This scene was hilarious to me when I was about 20… The boat scene in Weekend at Bernie’s where Bernie is tied in the back of a speed boat. He bounces out and is dragged behind the boat as they zip around the harbor. Bernie smacks into the channel markers in the harbor and you hear the *CLANG* (sound, not another word) every time he does.

    OK, I still think it’s pretty funny because it’s so ridiculous. Here’s the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCTAERXB5kI

  197. 197.

    artem1s

    Can’t leave out Pulp Fiction. So many scenes but gotta go with  the line that makes me laugh out loud every time.

    Which wallet is it?

    The one that says bad motherfucker on it.

  200. 200.

    divF

    The final scenes from Alien where Ripley stakes herself out as bait, singing “you are my lucky star”.

  205. 205.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @hueyplong:

    In the five minutes or so that James J Wells, Assistant Attorney General for the Organized Crime Division delivers one quotable line after another.

    “You had a leak? You call what’s goin’ on around here a leak? Boy, the last time there was a leak like this, Noah built hisself a boat!”

    “Elliot, what’d you figure you’d do after government service?”

  206. 206.

    piratedan

    @Melancholy Jaques: it’s incredible how Brimley’s character just shows up and cuts thru all the facade and bullshit and just owns the scene and how everyone else just feeds him.  It’s a collaborative effort where this scene is the absolute crux that the film turns on and they allow the breath of fresh air to come thru and clean out the house.

  207. 207.

    prostratedragon

    Sorry I’m so late to this, I’ve got a million of ’em. Some are so elusive I can’t say why I like them so much. Some involve those giddy moments when scales finally fall from people’s eyes, such as the HAL and Dave moments in 2001, already mentioned. After the tension at the cue here, the release when Dave gets to work is cathartic.

    Or the sequence in Vertigo that begins with a devastating, “Can’t you see?” and leads to a similar catharsis (before the tragedy). Same movie also has my favorite character introduction. You can see everything that will happen right there.

  208. 208.

    prostratedragon

    Several scenes from All About Eve, including: The ladies room colloquy between Eve and Karen, featuring one heck of a joint lock; sonn after this, Eve will ask Addision my favorite line in this movie, “Why did you call me a killer?”

    The first part of this Claudia Caswell highlight film, where Miss Caswell goes to do herself some good, with a poignant rhetorical question.

  213. 213.

    TBone

    I was so perplexed trying to think of a favorite scene last night (too many to count, so I just froze up, then ended up in YouTube rabbit holes watching scenes).

    This morning, I thought of one because of the recent STFU post.  Netflix’s Grace and Frankie:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HHF9ONATi_U

  220. 220.

    JustRuss

    @Just look at that parking lot: I love that scene in Caddyshack.  Two men who have known each other for quite some time and really don’t like each other playing two men who have known each other for quite some time and really don’t like each other.

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