History SignatureScene / LiveActionFilms

** ''Film/ANewHope'': 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 Creator/GeorgeLucas 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.

* "Film/WalledIn": 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.

* "Film/WalledIn": The opening scene depicts a young girl named Julie about to be murdered by burial in cement, screaming for her father.

** ''Film/PlanetOfTheApes'': The TwistEnding 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 SignatureLine that accompanies the scene.

* ''Film/JurassicWorld'': 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 ActionSurvivor. 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 it to its 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.

%%Zero Context Example** A close second is the piano duel between WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck and WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck.

%%Zero Context Example* ''Film/DoctorStrangelove'': Slim Pickins falling to the ground sat astride an atomic bomb.

* ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'': The scene where Darth Vader tells Luke that he's his father became the most famous moment from the film (if not the ''Franchise/StarWars'' 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 [[LukeIAmYourFather a trope]] on this very wiki, and is so well-known among the general public that it regularly shows up on analysts' lists of the most iconic plot twists.

%%** ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'':
%%Zero Context Example*** Indy and Short Round nearly being crushed by a DescendingCeiling with spikes sticking out of it, including reaching back into the room at the last moment to grab his hat.
%%Zero Context Example*** Mola Ram ripping a man's heart out with his bare hands.

%%Zero Context Example*** Indy taking a leap of faith onto a walkway that was carved to be invisible from where he was standing.

%%Zero Context Example** Bond's HeroicSacrifice, 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 ''Film/NoTimeToDie''.

* ''Film/RogueOne'': [[CurbStompBattle Darth Vader massacring several Rebel soldiers in a hallway]] -- which became one of the most acclaimed scenes in the entire ''Franchise/StarWars'' franchise for its spectacle and [[OneManArmy display of his power]] to the extent that ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'' recreated it in the trailer revealing Vader as a GuestFighter.

* ''Film/{{Aliens}}'': The FinalBattle on the ship. Ridley 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.

* ''Film/OnTheBuses'' 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.

* ''Film/{{Jaws}}'': Crissy'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 sensual, blatant DoubleEntendre-laden bedchamber scene between James and Tatiana, in ''Film/FromRussiaWithLove'', is often used during screen tests for casting the next Bond Girl.

*** 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 "Time" magazine, while recreating her gold painted image.

%%Zero Context Example* ''Film/{{Jaws}}'': Crissy'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.

%%Zero Context Example** From ''Film/DrNo'', Bond Girl Honey Ryder [[SexySurfacingShot emerging from the ocean]] in a white bikini and hunter's knife.

%%Zero Context Example** ''Film/{{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."

* ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'': Dorothy opening the door and stepping into the Technicolor land of Oz, the first major use of color in film history.

** ''Film/GodzillaVsHedorah'': 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 [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs the entire movie is notoriously bizarre]].