Signature Scenes from Marvel Cinematic Universe, across Live-Action Films, Live-Action TV and Western Animation. Unmarked spoilers may follow.
Films:
- Iron Man
- Tony Stark hammering away to create the first Iron Man suit, culminating in him placing the mask down in front of Yinsen. A demonstration of how through ingenuity and perseverance, this playboy billionaire has forged something much greater out of the trials he's experienced.
- A tank shoots at Iron Man. He responds by shooting a missile back, walking away, and the tank blows up behind him. While scenes prior establishes Tony Stark in all his many facets, this moment was where Iron Man was fully established as a badass with technology to rival our "modern" weaponry.
- Nick Fury's iconic appearance in The Stinger. This appearance and his line delivery to Tony about speaking to him about the Avengers Initiative founded the entire franchise and changed comic book movies forever.
- The Incredible Hulk (2008)
- Tony Stark's appearance in the final scene, due to it being the first scene in the franchise to show that this is a Shared Universe.
- Iron Man 2
- The sequence where Tony suits up at the racetrack with an armor compacted into a suitcase due to how cool the armor suit up is and how well the effects for it have aged.
- Thor: Thor regaining his worthiness of Mjolnir and his powers and defeating the Destroyer. It is both an extremely awesome heroic momemnt while also showing Thor's overall Character Development.
- Captain America: The First Avenger: Steve and Peggy's final conversation on the radio. This is primarily due to just how much of an inevitable Tear Jerker it is that Steve will have to sacrifice himself and that they cannot be together.
- The Avengers (2012): The circle shot facing the Chitari army. 6 individuals of various powers, skills and backgrounds, finally uniting as one to "Fight the battles we never could." After all movie building up Loki, his army, and the individual members struggling to work together, this was the moment the superhero team was born on big screen.
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier: The elevator fight. While Captain America was considered alright before this scene, the way it was set up and shot, along with Steve persevering despite being heavily outnumbered, finally reintroduced what a badass Cap was. It's one of the most memorable fights of the movie, and firmly re-established Steve as a tactical and determined fighter that was carried on from then on in the films.
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014): Star Lord dancing through the opening credits. Coming off the dark credits of his abduction, him dancing with 80's music is a reestablishment of what the dominant tone of the movie will be: a bit of Bathos mixed with fun and effective pop culture use. This even spilled into other movies too, with the humor and breeziness coming up often enough in other movies that people started to get tired of it.
- Doctor Strange (2016): "Dormmmamu, I've come to bargain." An extremely memeable scene, it also showed the difference in this hero trying to save the day. That even though he can't beat Dormammu conventionally, his determination, creativity and grit allowed him to create a situation where he would eventually win. And the phrase would become prime meme fodder.
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Yondu's Funeral. In a loud fun run of bold visuals, fun jokes, and sincere explorations of parenthood, this quiet moment near the end of the movie after Yondu's Heroic Sacrifice was a sobering gut punch, as Peter Quill wrestles with grief and understanding that he had a father all along.
- Spider-Man: Homecoming: The Ferry Scene. Showcasing both the best and worst of this Peter Parker. The best in his initiative, quick thinking and ingenuity. The worst in going in without knowing the full context and making a mistake in how he dealt with Vulture's weapons. Leading into his desperate final move of trying to hold the ferry together with his webbing. Something that would be parodied in future spider projects, but well remembered as the middle set piece of the film.
- Thor: Ragnarok: Thor, his lightning powers stronger than they've ever been and crackling around his body, descending upon a pile of Hela's undead warriors in glorious slow-motion as Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" starts up. A wonderful piece of visual framing in a highly visually distinct movie, it still manages to stand out as Thor finally embracing his true power as a God of Thunder, and ready to become the leader and hero that the people of Asgard need at last. It gave Thor a mythical quality in a new way, essentially doing for him what The elevator fight did for Captain America in confirming just how cool Thor is now.
- Black Panther (2018): The crowning ceremony. After establishing the base lore of Wakanda, the initial skills of T'challa and the future villain, this unique ceremony fully established T'Challa's other key personality traits: mercy and honor. Fighting without powers, he and M'Baku fought long and hard, and even after being wounded, T'challa wanted his opponent to yield because "Your people need you." And it's capped off by the gesture of Wakanda Forever, which would be forever ingrained in popular culture as a new point of African-American pride in having the coolest superhero in the world for a few months.
- Avengers: Infinity War:
- Thor's entry into Wakanda. The most prominent "get up and cheer" scene in the movie, where Thor comes to the earth heroes's rescue, showing his struggle to make a new weapon was secure, and solidifying how cool and strong he'd become through his 2 film transition between Thor: Ragnarok and this film.
- Half the universe turning to dust. When the franchise was built on the heroes winning at least something, this unambiguous example of The Bad Guy Wins was highly shocking to audiences. And despite some speculation beforehand that this might happen, it still left an impact on everyone as the darkest ending to date in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where the heroes failed.
- Avengers: Endgame: The return of the dusted heroes from across the universe, culminating in Captain America finally outright saying "Avengers, assemble". The first (and possibly only) time so many superhero actors and actresses appeared together on screen, the uniting culmination of "The Infinity Saga" from which superhero movies may never reach again in scale, scope and series long investment.
- Black Widow (2021): The opening credits sequence due to its intense nature, the chilling parallels to real life human trafficking rings, and of course, Think Up Anger and Malia J's foreboding rendition of "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
- Spider-Man: No Way Home: Ned summoning Peter Parkers from two different universes. Their appearance is one of the (if not the) most anticipated heading into the film, and seeing that come to fruition was such a good payoff.
Live-Action TV:
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Season Four: "Self-Control" can rival "Turn, Turn, Turn" as the series signature episode. Whether it's Fitz and Simmons thinking that the other is an LMD, Daisy vs. LMD Mace, LMD May blowing up the Playground, and the final Wham Shot of the Framework revealing a world ruled by HYDRA, everyone who watches the show has a signature scene from this episode. "The Return" also has Fitz and Aida's conversation in the containment unit, and Aida's Freak Out after he rejects her.
- Daredevil (2015): The Hallway Fight scene in "Cut Man" is clamored by fans and critics alike as one of the show's high points for its excellent cinematography and the realistic manner Matt is exhausted after the ordeal.
- Luke Cage (2016): Season 1: Luke plowing through numerous henchmen while "Bring Da Ruckus" plays over the soundtrack. In particular, the image of Luke being unfazed while his blue hoodie is riddled with bullets has become iconic due to its political undertones.
- WandaVision: The Villain Song, "It's Agatha All Along!" sang by the titular witch, highlighting how she has been messing with the Hex all this time. It's highly famous due to its catchy tune as she gloatingly mocks Wanda for not noticing her even when she was right under her nose.
- The recurring motif that ends every episode of the miniseries: a brief flash of a tv screen saying "Please Stand By" before cutting to the credits. It helped push the theming the show had for being a show about tv series across the decades. And it created a memorable place for fans to groan that the episode was over.
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: John Walker killing a defenseless man in public with the shield. It created a memorable image of Blood on the Shield. And from that blood, it showed how after the ambiguity of the last few episodes, John Walker had truly tainted the legacy of Captain America. This then created a pivot point to change Sam more to Bucky's perspective about retaking The Shield, and drove Sam's arc for the last half of the miniseries.
- Hawkeye (2021): The car chase with all the trick arrows. Adapting a memorable sequence from the 2012 comic, it showcases the show's whimsical tone, the Clint-Kate dynamic, and of course, Hawkeye's arsenal.
Western Animation
- What If…? (2021): Thanos, Big Bad of the main universe, now a Ravager and a good guy in the Star Lord T'Challa episode. It wasn't teased at all in trailers, and was one of the more memorable worldbuilding moments for the episode on how T'Challa's presence had changed Marvel's cosmic arena. While there was plenty of fun and shock in the other episodes, none was more surprising than that moment.
