Signature Scene / Live-Action Films

Movies/franchises with their own pages:

• Marvel Cinematic Universe
• Saw

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Individual examples:

#

• 300: The scene where Leonidas kicks a Persian messenger into a well in a show of patriotism became the best-known moment in the film as a result of its over-the-top presentation and Leonidas' hammy delivery of the line "This! Is! Sparta!" The scene became a popular subject for parody, especially online, where it generated a popular YouTube Poop meme in the form of Sparta Remixes.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey:
  • The opening scene with the apes and the monolith. In particular, the rising crescendo of Also sprach Zarathustra and the Match Cut between a bone tossed into the air and a 21st-century satellite have both been widely referenced.
  • HAL's betrayal of Dave, by refusing to open the pod bay doors. HAL's "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave" line has been widely quoted as shorthand for a robot turning against its master.
  • HAL's "death" scene, in which he tells Dave how afraid he is, then gradually reverts to how he was when he first started up as Dave takes him apart, is highly memorable as an Alas, Poor Villain moment.

A to C

• Absence of Malice: The scene where everyone is gathered together for a legal accounting is probably better-known than anything else in the movie. This is due to Gallagher's elaborate plan for revenge brilliantly achieving fruition, Megan's Character Development, and One-Scene Wonder Wells showing up.
• The Absent-Minded Professor: The basketball game where the players are sailing through the air due to Professor Brainard putting flubber on their shoes is an extremely memorable and celebrated sequence.
• Ace Ventura: Pet Detective: Ace pretending to talk out of his butt. The scene became so associated with Jim Carrey that many feel that it's to blame for him not being nominated for an Oscar for his performance in The Truman Show.
• Alien: The chestburster reveal, which paved the way for future Body Horror in science fiction. It's literally the only reason the movie got made (well, that and Star Wars had just come out, and Alien was the only sci-fi spaceship script anyone at Fox had laying on their desk). The producers thought the original script was horrible, but the chestburster scene was brilliant, and it was what got the movie greenlit.
• Aliens: The Final Battle on the ship. Ripley finishing her character development in learning to care again and be just as strong as the marines around her. And all for the girl who she didn't regard at first. "Get away from her you BITCH!" became the iconic line of the movie, and the tense battle between 2 "mothers" became legendary in film history.
• American Psycho: Patrick killing Allen with an axe, while playing and gleefully explaining the merits of Huey Lewis and the News's "Hip To Be Square". Just the dichotomy of the horrific violence on screen to the happy go lucky music in the background, makes it one of the most disturbing scenes in all of cinema.
• Annabelle: Creation: The scene where Linda is menaced by the spirit and attempts to scare it off with her toy gun has been called "one of the scariest moments in movie history" by some fans. A large part of what makes the scene so distinctive is how there are so many sounds of the demon approaching in the dark, getting closer and closer to Janice while still remaining offscreen.
• Apaches: Sharon's death by drinking pesticide is the most remembered death in the film, due to managing to be the hands-down most horrifying scene despite (or mayhaps because of) nothing gruesome being shown.
• Artemis Fowl: Mulch stretching his jaw with his hands, and growling "It's feeding time" has rapidly become so on Twitter, with many accounts sharing the clip and commenting on how it seems to perfectly represent what a misfire of an adaptation the film ended up being, plus the boatloads of squick.
• The Blair Witch Project:
  • Heather's snotty, ugly cry as she confesses/apologizes to her mother, as well as Mike and Josh's mothers, taking the blame for leading the three of them too their inevitable deaths in the middle of the Witch's cursed woods. The scene became so integral to the film, it served as the films poster.
  • Heather and Mike encountering the offscreen Witch in her cabin, Heather walking down into the basement scream sobbing Mike's name, to find him propped up in the corner before forcibly dropping the camera, and the film cutting too black. Often ranked one of the scariest endings in film history
• Blood Debts ends the instant the protagonist, Mark Collins, blows up the Big Bad with a grenade launcher, resulting in a freeze frame explaining that Mark turned himself in to the police and is now serving a life sentence. The infamously rushed ending became the most famous thing about the movie and spawned memes in which other films end the same way.
• Bone Tomahawk: It's hard to talk about the movie without someone mentioning that scene, possibly a contender for the most viscerally disgusting scene ever put to film (specifically, warning for the weak-stomached, a man is scalped and then messily ripped apart from the groin down by the troglodytes, having all his guts spill out, on-screen, while he's still alive). This scene is made even more horrifying by most of the violence being subdued up to that point.
• "I wish I knew how to quit you!" from Brokeback Mountain. Parodies have ran it into the ground, but the scene itself is very emotional.
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: What is often cited as the first Twist Ending in film history, the reveal that the entire film was a delusion of the main characters, and everyone in the movie are actually patients of Caligari in a mental asylum.
• Camille (1936): Marguerite's death in Armand's arms. A classic case of It Was His Sled, particularly since the scene is also featured in Annie (1982).
• Casablanca: The airport scene with Rick giving up Ilsa and letting her leave with Victor Laszlo while staying for a better cause is a scene filled with memorable lines, one of which topped the AFI's list of best movie quotes. "Here's looking at you, kid."
• Captain America (1990): Captain America pretending to be sick so he can steal a car, especially the first time, is the most-referenced scene from the movie even when talking about "old Captain America films" in general, due to how hilariously unheroic it is for him.
• Chariots of Fire: The opening scene where the athletes run in slow-motion to Vangelis' score has become so iconic that it inspired many parodies.
• The Chronicles of Riddick (2004): Riddick and some allies racing across the landscape of a planet with a burningly hot sun to reach the only means of escape while their enemies take the same route underground and occasionally come up to shoot at them is the most talked about set piece of the film, especially with the Mêlée à Trois at the end of the race.
• Cries and Whispers: Agnes and Anna's Pietà Plagiarism scene is so famous that it ended up on a Swedish stamp as one of the 5 most iconic movie scenes in Swedish cinema.

D to G

• The Dark Knight:
  • The Joker filming his ultimatum to Gotham to get Batman to turn himself in. In a big budget movie, there's something almost brilliant in having Joker's video be filmed handheld style to deepen the intensity of the scene, featuring his cruelty, his playfulness and his almost realistic terror. Audiences hyped up over this big movie were often rendered speechless after the quiet intensity of this scene ending in the joker giving a proper Evil Laugh and cutting out the video before he killed the copycat.
• The Deep (1977):
  • As striking and suspenseful as the diving action scenes are, many fans view this fight scene between The Dragon and a Mauve Shirt buddy of Treece as the best part of the film, with several YouTube comments calling it one of the best fight scenes ever.
  • The opening scene, both for providing the Best Known for the Fanservice moments and for providing a quick and effective introduction to both the beauty and the dangers of diving beneath the ocean.
• Deliverance:
  • The "Dueling Banjos" sequence has become widely known to the extent that any instance in media of banjos being played resulted in viewers making jokes about and allusions to Deliverance, regardless of whether or not it was an intended Shout-Out.
  • The scene in which Bobby is commanded to "squeal like a pig" before he is raped by a hillbilly became notorious, with references to Deliverance in other media often including Black Comedy Rape jokes featuring the phrase. Even the actors got in on it: Ned Beatty was hounded for the rest of his life by fans requesting him to replicate the squealing, whereas Bill McKinney outright had his personal website's domain name be "squeallikeapig.com".
• The Devil Inside ends the instant Ben and Michael die in a car crash, resulting in a black screen informing that the case of the Rossi family is still unresolved and directing viewers to a defunct website "for more information on the ongoing investigation". This ending became the most infamous thing about the movie, ensuring that anyone who watches it will be aware of its conclusion.
• Doctor... Series:
  • Doctor in the House (1954) has the famous "bleeding time" scene. Sir Lancelot explains the "bleeding time", then asks a distracted Simon, "You! What's the bleeding time?", to which Simon checks his watch. It was later referenced in Doctor in Distress (1963) and James Robertson Justice's biography James Robertson Justice: What's the Bleeding Time?.
  • Doctor in Clover: The best-remembered scene in the film is Dr. Grimsdyke livening up the nurses' party with Laughing Gas, thanks to a combination of Joan Sims' Battleaxe Nurse of a Matron breaking into hysterics and Dr. Grimsdyke's head going up Sir Lancelot's kilt.
• Doctor Strangelove: Slim Pickins falling to the ground sat astride an atomic bomb. The shocking conclusion of the movie showing the despair when people let nuclear weapons dictate how they should act. This grand shot was a final iconic showcase of the tragic absurdity the movie had all throughout.
• Dumb and Dumber: Harry taking a huge dump after Lloyd slipped him laxatives. This scene marred Jeff Daniels' reputation as a serious actor for years.
• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: Breaking into Castle Neverwinter through creating an illusion spell of Edgin playing a song. While it seems to work at first, then it starts repeating its song, goes into the Uncanny Valley, and finally gives out a call of "BRAAAATTEEE" as the head sinks into its chest with huge eyes. A result of their sorcerer becoming distracted. The scene was hilariously shocking in a clever use of deliberate bad CGI, while also allowing serious D&D players to recognize a bad role in the middle of this campaign. A wonderful mix of clever writing, inventive special effects, and simulating a Dungeons and Dragons Game that everyone remembered afterwards.
• Encounters at the End of the World: The scene of a lone penguin making its trek towards the mountains, seemingly from it being Driven to Suicide, is the most remembered and discussed scene from the film due to its somber tone and ambiguity. The scene has caused much speculation and discussion over the penguin’s motivations, whether it is aware of what it is doing, where it’s going, and whether or not the penguin was actually suicidal.
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: The shot where E.T. and Elliott fly in the air while seated on the bike and fly past the moon in the background. To the point Spielberg turned it into the Vanity Plate for his company Amblin.
  • The Special Edition cut of the film is remembered and criticized for the guns being changed into walkie-talkies during the final chase scene, with detractors feeling it removes tension from the scene.
• The Exorcist:
  • The part when Regan's head spins 360 degrees as the rest of her body sits still is probably the most memorial part of the film and is often mimicked in other horror movies/shows/video games.
  • The moody shot of Father Merrin standing in front of Regan's house (depicted in the film's poster) has also been referenced and parodied a lot in other media..
• A Few Good Men: The court scene where the lawyer protagonist wants "the truth", whereupon Nicholson's character answers: "You can't handle the truth!" inspired countless parodies.
• Final Destination 4: Interestingly, a deleted Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene occasionally included in TV airings manages to be the scene that some fans most associate with the movie. The scene takes place after Janet's near-death experience and shows her walking across a street with her eyes closed, testing to see if Death is still after her, and wanting to get it over with quickly if he is. This is followed by a touching moment of relief after she makes it across the road. There's a sense of intensity, but also depth and frailty that really impresses a lot of people who see the scene.
• Flashdance:
  • Two scenes that became Stock Parodies, Alex dropping a bucket of water on herself during "She's a Dream", and the one where she's only in a sweatshirt (it's even the movie's poster).
  • The scenes with the film's two Signature Songs, which for further connection have Alex dancing in a black getup, practice while "Maniac" plays, and the ending audition with title track "Flashdance... What a Feeling".
• Frankenstein (1931): Dr. Frankenstein bringing the creature to life in the middle of a dramatic lightning storm. Parodied, referenced, and reimagined countless different ways as possibly the quintessential act of triumph for a Mad Scientist in cinema.
• The Godfather:
  • The opening scene, where Don Vito Corleone talks with the undertaker, Amerigo Bonasera, about how friendship, respect and etiquette works in the Sicilian mob, is one of the most often referenced and parodied scenes from the films. Nine out of ten depictions of Don Corleone will also be directly based on the way he looks in this scene, dressed in a wedding suit with a rose in his lapel and with his eyes almost completely covered in shadow, and often holding a cat.
  • The scene where Jack Woltz awakes to find the head of his prized racehorse, Khartoum, placed in his bed while he was sleeping. He starts screaming as the scene switches to a shot of the exterior of his manor. This is perhaps the second most referenced sequence from the first film.
  • The baptism scene, where Michael proves that he is even more cunning and ruthless than his father, by having his men eliminating all the family's enemies in one fell swoop. Through a montage of assassinations, interspliced with Michael calmly reciting the baptismal vows as he stands as Godfather at his nephew's baptism, is probably the third most referenced scene from the original.
• The Godfather Part II: The Kiss of Death, delivered by Michael to his brother Fredo. "I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!"
• Godzilla:
  • Godzilla (1954): Godzilla's rampage through Tokyo, what else? This is possibly the single most iconic scene in kaiju history, easily recognized even by non-fans, only comparable to King Kong's climb up the Empire State Building in terms of mainstream knowledge.
  • Godzilla Raids Again: Godzilla and Anguirus facing off in Osaka, with the Osaka Castle between the two. This scene is iconic because it's the very first in a very long line of kaiju battles that would become standard for the franchise.
  • King Kong vs. Godzilla: Kong attempting to stuff a tree down Godzilla's throat, both for being funny and the climax of the Cool vs. Awesome confrontation between the two most iconic movie monsters.
  • Invasion of Astro-Monster: Godzilla's victory dance after he and Rodan defeat King Ghidorah on Planet X (it's actually a reference to Osomatsu-kun). It's one of the first truly "human" moments of Godzilla, which would become the norm for later Showa era films that were more targeted towards children.
  • Destroy All Monsters: The scene of all the kaiju gathering at the base of Mt. Fuji to fight Ghidorah, simply for being the biggest gathering of Toho's various kaiju in one place to date (even if several of them only get a few seconds of screen time).
  • Godzilla vs. Hedorah: Say it with us now. Godzilla flying. This is probably the most infamously silly scene in the whole movie, if not the whole franchise, which is really saying something because the entire movie is notoriously bizarre.
  • Godzilla vs. Megalon: The sequence of Godzilla's gravity-defying dropkick is another scene which is the contender for most infamously silly scene in the entire franchise, showing how the character has strayed deep into Lighter and Softer, Denser and Wackier territory. The film itself seems to recognize how stupendous the moment is, because it plays the kick twice.
  • Godzilla vs. Destoroyah: Godzilla's death, which made up a large portion of the film's advertising, and is a major crux of the story's plot. Simply for the fact Toho decided to actually kill off their most popular character and actually went through with it in a well-executed manner.
  • Godzilla (1998): The scene where Godzilla scales the side of a skyscraper and shrieks while illuminated by lightning is one of the most iconic moments in the movie, being homaged not only by fanart of the movie (for a given value of "fan") as well as the opening of Godzilla: The Series.
  • Godzilla vs. Megaguirus: Godzilla's leaping body-slam attack, complete with an eye-widening Oh, Crap! from Megaguirus, for being a randomly funny scene in a movie that otherwise takes itself relatively seriously, and is often compared to the previous dance, drop-kick, and flight in terms of silliest moment in the franchise.
  • Godzilla: Final Wars: Godzilla's Curb-Stomp Battle against Zilla in Sydney. Simply for being such an obvious and high-effort Take That, Scrappy! towards the notoriously disliked Godzilla (1998).
  • Godzilla (2014):
    • The HALO jump sequence of the soldiers dropping into San Fransisco was one of the most featured scenes in the film's advertising and is often considered one of the most awe-inspiring scenes in the entire franchise due to the tremendous sense of scale and devastation.
    • Godzilla charging up and firing his Atomic Breath for the first time. In part due to the first American Godzilla movie's complete absence of it, the film built it up very slowly to maximize its impact to show Godzilla's Signature Move on a budget that's never been seen before.
  • Shin Godzilla: The first time Godzilla fires his Atomic Breath, for its awesome visual effects and cinematography that bring it to life on a scale of destruction unseen in previous films.
  • Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): Godzilla firing his Atomic Breath straight up into the sky as a Pillar of Light. The scene was featured extensively in advertising, and one of the most notable scenes of Godzilla's Atomic Breath used for for visual spectacle in the franchise rather than merely attacking.
  • Godzilla vs. Kong: Kong socking Godzilla in the face during their first confrontation at sea. It's the rematch six decades in the making finally brought to life in a +100 million dollar blockbuster, and it gives the audience exactly what they came to see in stunning detail.
  • Godzilla Minus One: The sequence with Godzilla pursuing the little tugboat out at sea has been lauded for being a unique and thrilling scene in the franchise, more akin to Jaws than anything else seen prior.
• From Ju On and its American remake The Grudge, the sequence of the main character (Rika/Karen) taking a shower and Kayako's hand appearing in their hair. Its often listed among the greatest shock/horror moments in film history, the Remake even building the entire ad campaign around the moment.
• The Great Dictator:
  • The speech at the end of the movie, considered to be one of the greatest speeches in cinema history.
  • Hynkel dancing with an inflatable globe is also very remembered.

H to K

• Happy Gilmore: Happy's brawl with The Price Is Right host Bob Barker, with Bob winning the fight. It won the first MTV Movie Award for "Best Fight", and many attribute this film, especially this scene, with generating a surge in popularity for TPIR.
• The Hateful Eight: Warren describing to Smithers in graphic detail how he forced Smithers's son to walk stark naked through miles of frozen wilderness, promised to grant his dying wish for a blanket in exchange for fellating him, and after this task was done, didn't give him the blanket anyway. This is a very memorable scene in the regular cut of the movie, but even more so in the roadshow release, because it's followed immediately by the intermission.
• Hereditary: The sequence ending the first act where Peter tries to drive his anaphylactic younger sister to the hospital, only for her lean out the window for air and get abruptly decapitated by a telephone pole the car passes, followed by Peter's shocked drive home with the body and him lying awake until he hears his mother's anguished screams at the discovery in the morning. The scene upends the trajectory of the film, which had up to then seemed to be a familiar story about Charlie as a Creepy Child, and its shocking and raw emotional impact introduces the film's themes of grief and insurmountable trauma.
• Hounddog: The only scene that ever gets mentioned and made the film so notorious is the part where the little girl main character, Lewellen, played by then 12-year old Dakota Fanning, is raped, due in large part to the controversy about making a child actress enacting a rape, so much so that the film is often just referred to as "the Dakota Fanning rape movie".
• The Incredible Journey: Tao, the Siamese cat, being chased by a lynx and fighting a bear to defend an injured Bodger are two of the most frequently praised parts of the film in the decades since its release.
• Independence Day: The aliens' destruction of the White House, which drew cheers from many audiences.
• Indiana Jones:
  • Raiders of the Lost Ark:
    • Indiana outrunning a rolling boulder trap as he escapes from the temple. It's one of the most iconic death traps in fiction, and is often parodied in various ways.
    • The swordsman in Cairo performing a flourishing sword gesture and challenging Indy, which he responds to by shooting him the chest and moving on. The shooting the swordsman almost didn't make it into the film, and only happened because Harrison Ford was sick and suggested "just shoot the guy".
    • The opening of the Ark of the Covenant and how it melts the Nazis' faces off. The scene has been parodied many times and is a common meme.
  • Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom:
    • Indy and Short Round nearly being crushed by a Descending Ceiling with spikes sticking out of it, including reaching back into the room at the last moment to grab his hat. A showcase of how Indy will refuse to let the small things of himself go, and something that will be parodied many times afterwards in different situations as well by other movies.
    • Mola Ram ripping a man's heart out with his bare hands. This singular scene is the best encapsulation of why this film proved controversial in its time with only a PG rating. In response to complaints and the fact that there wasn't a proper middle ground between PG and R, Spielberg helped influence the creation of the PG-13 rating to better qualify what kind of movie this was in the future.
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The scene near the climax in which Indy must work out which of the chalices is the real Holy Grail. It's a relatively simple puzzle, but it's made memorable in large part because of Donovan's fate after choosing the wrong one ("He chose poorly.")
    • Indy taking a leap of faith onto a walkway that was carved to be invisible from where he was standing. Throughout the series, he'd been a skeptical professor who nonetheless was forced into quests for the divine. Realizing he can't think his way out of this last challenge, he fully follows the notes of his father, and is rewarded for his faith. And thanks to the fantastic direction from Spielberg, we see that there was a logic to it all too. A perfect encapsulation of the journey that Indiana went on this movie, as well as a moment of true courage.
• Jaws: Chrisse's death at the very beginning, when she decides to go skinny dipping alone in the middle of the night, and is dragged around by an unseen shark, and finally while screaming, is dragged underwater, never to resurface again. The moment many have claimed scared them from ever going back into the ocean, and topped Bravo's 100 scariest movie moments.
• The Jazz Singer: Al Jolson saying: "Wait a minute, you ain't heard nothing yet", which was the first line ever spoken in a sound movie.
• James Bond
  • From Dr. No, Bond Girl Honey Ryder emerging from the ocean in a white bikini and hunter's knife, unequivocally one of the most iconic moments in OO 7 that it has been parodied and recreated, even within the franchise itself.
  • The sensual, blatant Double Entendre-laden bedchamber scene between James and Tatiana, in From Russia with Love, is used during screen tests for casting the next Bond and Bond Girl.
  • Goldfinger, Bond strapped to a table with a high-powered laser coming towards him as he faux calmly asks "You expect me to talk?", and Goldfinger's iconic response, "No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die." Often listed in the analogs of the all time greatest film villains.
    • Likewise Bond discovering Jill Masteron killed from asphyxiation after being covered in gold paint, became such a startling image, Shirley Easton posed for the cover of "Life" magazine, while recreating her gold painted image.
  • James's windsurfing down a tsunami in Die Another Day, for just how infamously bad the CGI was at the time.
  • Bond's Heroic Sacrifice, after being infected with the nanobots that would jump from person to person until they kill Madeleine and his daughter, making his entire existence a threat against them, in No Time to Die. While Daniel Craig had insisted this would be his last James Bond movie, there was a strong feeling that they would never kill James Bond at the end of the actor's run. And yet they did, ending this modern bond on a triumphant but sober note as the franchise begins a new path forward after the definitive end of this version.
• Jurassic Park: "Welcome to Jurassic Park!" Grant tears off his sunglasses in abject amazement at something he sees when the Jeep stops. He puts his hand on a distracted Ellie's head to turn it so that she can see what he sees. The scene builds in an anticipation as she also rips off her sunglasses in the same level of astonishment. What could they be looking at? Finally, the camera moves for a truly grand reveal of an absolutely enormous brachiosaurus as the main theme begins to swell. The scene remains iconic because this is the first time the audience also sees the dinosaurs for the first time, so the intended reaction is for us to feel what Grant and Ellie are feeling at the same time. It's capped off by Malcolm's memetic exclamation: "You did it! You crazy son of a bitch, you did it!"
• Jurassic World: Even though the movie was...divisive amongst some audience groups, everyone agreed that the best scene of the entire movie was the dinosaur fight at the end. As the movie had saved using a Tyrannosaurus Rex until the kids had the idea for "more teeth". Completing Claire's transition from mere hesitant executive to Action Survivor. And giving a magnificent team up as T-Rex and Raptor fights the Indominus Rex with several iconic shots as they rampage around the main guest area. Culminating in the Mosasaur leaping out of the water to drag the indominus to its watery grave. A thrilling climax that is far more memorable that most of the scenes before it, reestablishing that with all man's hubris in creating cool new dinosaurs, nature always finds a way to win.
• Just Before Dawn: The rope bridge attack is bound to come up when you look for information about this movie, due to being one of the most effectively creepy moments of the film and having a secondary character struggle impressively hard to survive and use the remains of the bridge to climb to safety.
• King Kong (1933): Kong fighting a T-Rex on the island and, of course, climbing on top of the Empire State Building battling airplanes. This final scene has become so famous that it is a Stock Parody: the "King Kong" Climb.
• The Church fight in Kingsman: The Secret Service, thanks to Galahad's badass fighting skills and the film's excellent usage of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird".
• Kingsman: The Golden Circle: Eggsy having to slip a tracker into a woman's nether regions, complete with an all-CG depiction of the interior of her vagina. The scene raised controversy as to whether or not Matthew Vaughn had gone too far with the franchise's signature off-color humor.

L to P

• Labyrinth of Evil became famous in the fanedit community for Padme surviving and later being seen holding a newborn Leia on Alderaan. This scene revolutionized the fanedit community, and created a broken base between those who prefer the canon fate of Padme and those who want her Spared by the Adaptation.
• Love Actually:
  • Mark visiting Juliet with cue cards and boombox. Eventually became a Memetic Mutation.
  • Karen's breakdown after she realized that Harry cheated on her with Mia. It's often considered one of the most heartbreaking scenes in movie history because of how shaking is her calm and later Stepford Smiler attitude.
• Mac and Me: Eric rolling off a cliff into a lake, popularized by Paul Rudd showing the clip every chance he got while appearing on one of Conan O'Brien's shows.
• The Matrix
  • Morpheus offering Neo a choice between the blue pill, which will allow him to live in blissful ignorance in the Matrix, or the red pill, which will show him the truth. Not only is it a key moment in the story with memorable dialogue, but it's also frequently used as an allegory of various sorts.
  • The lobby shootout, in which Neo and Trinity take down a squad of armed guards in a slow-motion shootout, is considered the action highlight of the movie.
  • Neo bending over backward in order to dodge an Agent's bullets, and avoiding all but two of them, is one of the most recognizable shots in the film. It illustrates our Bullet Time page, as it is the overall Trope Codifier. Also famous enough to be the subject of several parodies, with one especially hilarious one in Kung Pow! Enter the Fist.
• The Matrix Reloaded
  • Neo fighting dozens of Smith copies in the park after his meeting with the Oracle is an intense action sequence that's considered the action highlight of the film.
• Men in Black II: Serleena devouring a mugger alive with little effort. In part because of how sudden and out of left field it is, and because it features Lara Flynn Boyle in high heels and lingerie, and the way it plays out feeling like it was deliberately trying to lean into kink territory. A lot of people remember the movie most for this scene in particular, if nothing else.
• Midnight Cowboy: The alleged Throw It In! where Rizzo is almost hit by a taxi as he and Joe Buck cross the street and shouts "I'm walkin' here!" while banging on the taxi's hood. It's become a Stock Parody for New York scenes (or just for characters with a New York attitude) in other media.
• The Military Policeman and the Dismembered Beauty: The murder scene near the end, which is notable for traumatizing a young Shigesato Itoi and serving as the inspiration for Giygas.
• Miracle at Midnight: The Nazis launching their raid on Rosh Hashanah and finding most of their Jewish targets already gone into hiding is one of the more iconic bits of the film.
• Murphy's War: Murphy taking off in the repaired plane, gradually mastering the controls, and then going on a bombing run against the sub is one of the most talked about parts of the movie.
• Napoleon Dynamite: Napoleon dancing on stage to "Canned Heat" has inspired countless gifs.
• On the Buses films:
  • On the Buses has Stan's skid test, ending with Blakey being thrown off the bus and skidding across the tarmac, which was even used in the trailer.
  • Mutiny on the Buses has Stan's disastrous safari tour where he and Blakey get up close and personal with a lion and several monkeys. The production crew knew this would end up being a popular scene too, and prominently featured it in the poster and trailer.
• Pennin Manathai Thottu: The "Kalluri Vaanil" sequence, which spawned the "Benny Lava" meme
• The Phantom of the Opera '25: Christine unmasking the Phantom, revealing his skull-like face, a seminal moment in the history of makeup effects. Audience members were reported to fainting or fleeing the theater in their horror.
• Planet of the Apes
  • Planet of the Apes (1968): The Twist Ending of the film. After surviving in the midst of a seemingly alien world ruled by apes, the astronaut has found his freedom, gained a "mate" with Nova, and left the influences of the Apes. However, that's when he finds out the awful truth: The Statue of Liberty is here, meaning that this wasn't an alien world, but Earth all along in the future. Thus the punchline to this whole adventure is that man destroyed itself to make space for the apes. A tragic end to one of the great Scifi stories of the 1960's. And one which everyone remembers due to the Signature Line that accompanies the scene.
  • Rise of the Planet of the Apes: Caesar's confrontation with Dodge. Growing in solidarity with Apes, and confident of his place in the world, Caesar finally confronts his abuse. Leading to a Call-Back response that carries a new weight. "Take your stinking paws off me you Damn Dirty Ape!" "NO!" This is the first time an ape speaks on screen, and it's Caesar's true transition into a revolutionary leader for the apes. It was a great way to contrast between the past and future of the franchise, and well remembered afterwards.
• Pulp Fiction: The entire scene in which Jules interrogates and then executes Brett. Nearly every single part of it is some sort of meme, and even many people who have never seen the movie know it and can quote it extensively due to Pop-Cultural Osmosis.
• Psycho: The Shower Scene, where Marion Crane gets stabbed to death by Norman Bates, is deeply ingrained in pop culture and can be easily recognized even by people who never watched the film. The brutal and surprising death of the Decoy Protagonist had a powerful impact on audiences, becoming an object of study by cinematographers and psychologists alike, on top of inspiring many homages and parodies in various other works.

Q to T

• The Raven (1963): A fair number of genre fans who've never seen the movie and don't plan to have still heard of the climactic Wizard Duel between Vincent Price and Boris Karloff.
• Raw Deal: Kaminsky's Establishing Character Moment where he chases his jeep after a phony motorcycle cop and catches the wily fugitive with unorthodox tactics is considered the most memorable scene of the movie by many people.
• Rocky: Rocky's Training Montage run through the streets of Philadelphia, particularly his running up the art museum steps, to the tune of "Gonna Fly Now".
• Rocky V: Even though the film remains the most forgotten and hated installment, most viewers agree that the climactic street fight between Rocky and Tommy is one of the most memorable fight scenes in the series due to its unique nature and choreography.
• Rocky Balboa: Rocky's motivational speech to his son has gone down in legend and eclipsed the actual boxing in the movie.
• A Serbian Film: Newborn Porn. The sheer depravity of the scene is enough to make it stand out in an already extremely violent and controversial film. The scene is essentially the entire reason the film's page is locked.
• Scream: The opening sequence where Casey, played by Drew Barrymore is terrorized over the phone and eventually killed by Ghostface. Iconic for the massive fake out to the audience as Drew was easily the biggest star in the film to be dead within the first 10 minutes, and the modernizing of the slasher film, between the meta commentary on horror films as Ghostface is quizzing Casey on her knowledge of scary movies, and the fact that the killer was using a cellphone. Every film in the franchise since has tried to recapture the magic of the opening.
• The Seven Year Itch: Marilyn Monroe standing above the subway vent, which subsequently lifts her skirt. It became a stock parody, the Marilyn Maneuver.
• Splice: Chances are if anyone mentions the movie, they're mentioning either the scene where Clive has sex with his pseudo-daughter Human Hybrid Dren, or the scene where Dren metamorphoses into a male and rapes his mother Elsa, both for just how disturbing nauseating said scenes are (so nauseating that being forced to film the second scene made the actress involved quit acting).
• Star Wars:
  • The Phantom Menace: The "Duel of the Fates" lightsaber duel between Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Darth Maul, for its music, and the lightsaber choreography, which is considered among the best fights in the entire franchise.
  • Rogue One: Darth Vader massacring several Rebel soldiers in a hallway — which became one of the most acclaimed scenes in the entire Star Wars franchise for its spectacle and display of his power to the extent that Fortnite recreated it in the trailer revealing Vader as a Guest Fighter.
  • A New Hope: The first shot of the film after the opening crawl. While the crawl helped bring audiences "up to speed", the first shot gave audiences an idea of exactly what George Lucas was trying to do with this movie. As after the pulpy opening, we start over an alien world, where a spaceship flies over, and then an ENORMOUS spaceship flies after it, going and going for much longer than expected. Thus showing that this movie will be a pulpy story told with high-quality special effects. Audiences were practically hooked from the start, and it set the groundwork for turning Star Wars into the franchise it would become.
  • The Empire Strikes Back: The scene where Darth Vader tells Luke that he's his father became the most famous moment from the film (if not the Star Wars franchise as a whole) thanks to it being a shocking retcon which ended the movie on a cliffhanger that wouldn't be resolved for three years, which was a rarity in cinema at the time. The scene consequently became a widespread subject for parody in popular media over the decades, named a trope on this website, and is so well-known among the general public that it regularly shows up on analysts' lists of the most iconic plot twists.
• Summer School: The scene where the class uses horror movie special effects to freak out a replacement teacher holds iconic status in the eyes of many genre fans.
• S.W.A.T. (2003):
  • The opening hostage standoff and its aftermath are pretty well-known for how it has both fast-paced action and deconstructs an archetypal Cowboy Cop moment with a series of Surprisingly Realistic Outcomes.
  • The scene of a bunch of gang-bangers attack a police convoy to try and spring the captive Montel is familiar even to some people who haven't seen the whole movie due to how strategic and well-armed the gangbangers are and how it is a memorable part of the trailer.
• Sword Fish: Halle Berry's topless scene which finally made her a star.
• The Ten Commandments (1956): The parting of the Red Sea. If you know nothing else about Moses, chances are you still know this scene.
• They/Them (2022): The scene where the gang sings P!nk's "Perfect" is the most famous scene in the movie.
• Top Gun: Maverick: The enemy fifth-gen fighter pulling an amazing High-Speed Missile Dodge supermaneuver in the climactic dogfight. The said dogfight itself is usually the most searched & viewed clip of the film, and the said scene is guaranteed to be the most replayed part.
• The Toxic Avenger: The kid getting his head crushed by a speeding car. This scene is often cut from the movie, which has only added to its fame; the DVD actually has a large message on the front cover advertising that the scene is included.
• Twister: A cow being carried by the tornado. Helped by a memorable reaction line, "I gotta go. We got cows!"

U to Z

• V for Vendetta: Just the image of V at that desk giving his original speech. How iconic is it? It inspired an internet subculture.
• Walled In: The opening scene depicts a young girl named Julie waking up to find herself trapped in a confined space just in time to realise she's about to be murdered by burial in cement.
• Went the Day Well?: The kindly postmistress attacking a Nazi with an axe is one of the movie’s most talked about moments.
• When Harry Met Sally...: Sally's very public and very loud fake orgasm, widely considered the film's funniest scene, has been parodied so often even people who have never watched it have quoted Estelle Reiner's famous punchline: "I'll have what she's having."
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit:
  • The now iconic scene of Eddie falling in Toon Town. Why is it so iconic? It features the first, and probably only, time that the two most famous Cartoon Characters in history, Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, share a scene together.
  • A close second is the piano duel between Donald Duck and Daffy Duck. Being so early in the film, it's a clear blend of the 5 best parts of the movie: clever cameos, story progression through the interactions with said cameos, fantastic animation, smart use of props to make the animation convincing while in the real world, and comedy.
• The Wind in the Willows (1996): "Secret of Survival", being an incredibly catchy Villain Song that also stands out for being a dark scene in an otherwise lighthearted film.
• The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy opening the door and stepping into the Technicolor land of Oz, the scene that hooked many people on Technicolor when the film first came out.
• Wuthering Heights (1939): The image of Heathcliff and Cathy together on the moors, which is seen on the cover of every home media release of the film.

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