As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked. You have been warned.
- Ghostface, of all people, gets one when he kills Jason Carvey. He specifically uses Jason's monologue about how killing Laura Crane felt like watching a human devolve into an animal and then "just meat" against him as he stabs him to death, asking, "Do YOU feel like an animal, Jason?" No Ghostface has ever been anything close to a good person, but to see one of them give the Casey Becker treatment to someone who, for once, unequivocally deserves it is truly something. And then there's his vicious response when Jason begs about finishing Richie's movie:
- Chad, Mindy, and Anika all stepping in to stop a frat jerk from taking advantage of a drunken Tara. It ends with Sam coming in to tase the guy in the balls.
- After the girl accusing her of being a murderer throws the cherry slush drink at her, Sam gets in a pretty powerful shove on her in before she starts being held back.
- Later at the apartment, upon hearing about the first slate of killings that occurred that night, Sam's first instinct is to instantly pack and run with Tara, with her also making it a point to go to the kitchen to pull a knife out of the board.
- The bodega scene:
- The bodega owner shooting at Ghostface and trying to help the sisters escape. It's a short-lived moment, and he ends up getting killed for his efforts, but it's nevertheless an act of far more bravery than the average person could muster when confronted with Ghostface.
- Similarly, the customer who bucks up to Ghostface when they enter the bodega, even if he has no idea what he's actually up against. Some other guy tries to help, too, but both get shanked by Ghostface.
- Seeing Ghostface use a shotgun is unexpectedly cool, as the previous killers never used guns before their unmaskings. The scene is even called back to at the end by having the killer's pre-credits Jump Scare consist of them cocking the shotgun rather than brandishing a knife.
- Sam and Tara ultimately outsmarting Ghostface by toppling a shelf of groceries over on top of them.
- Ghostface themselves in this scene. Previous Ghostfaces have typically targeted isolated victims, usually alone in a building or part of a building where they could more or less control access and avenues of escape, and they frequently took a beating trying to bring down their victims. Here, Ghostface attacks in the middle of a street (which while not crowded is certainly not deserted), follows Sam and Tara into the bodega, then effortlessly dispatches two bystanders who try to stand up to them. When the bodega owner grabs his shotgun, Ghostface dives out of the way, then sneaks up on and disarms the owner before killing him with his own shotgun, which they then turn on Sam and Tara, significantly upping their threat. The scene does a hell of a job establishing that this is a much more determined, methodical, resilient, and relentless Ghostface than any previous.
- When Gale stops Sam and Tara outside the police station, Sam goes to punch her much like Sidney did early on in their relationship — and she dodges it.
- Also of note is that even with Gale bragging about how she's not so easily blindsided anymore, Tara is still able to blindside her by just socking her in the jaw while she's talking. Even Gale seems somewhat impressed by this.
- Even though it doesn't connect, the combo of everything Sam does in the punch from shaking her head in disbelief, the yank up and then the launch all still has a very skilled and kinetic flow to it that's impressive regardless — and would've easily taken out anyone with little to total Genre Blindness in Gale's place without question.
- During the apartment attack, when Ghostface tries to attack Mindy again, Anika grabs Ghostface to protect Mindy.
- Gale defending herself against Ghostface, gaining the upper hand several times, long enough for help to arrive in the form of Sam, Tara, and the paramedics.
- Even with Ghostface trying to get in Gale's head by gloating about Dewey's death and mocking her for always being in Sidney's shadow, she is able to get in one of the smartest moments in any Ghostface fight — when she can't find him anymore, she deliberately hangs up the ongoing call, asking Ghostface to hold, and redials to pinpoint Ghostface's location by the sound of his phone ringing!
- Gale surviving a sixth time in a genre where returning heroes tend to die pretty quickly is an awesome moment in and of itself. Cotton Weary wasn't wrong to say she has "more lives than a cat."
- Chad surviving a seemingly inevitable death (getting stabbed about a dozen times by two masked Ghostface killers at the same time) yet again, to the extent that many fans now consider him the new Dewey of the franchise.
- Even before he gets taken out, Chad puts up a good fight, as if making up for being the first to go down at the party in the previous movie. Notably, he uses the various objects around him to his advantage, hitting Ghostface with a camera, slowing him down by tossing stuff on the floor, and getting him on the ground. If not for the second Ghostface taking him by surprise, Chad had a decent chance of bludgeoning the first one to death.
- Additionally, Sam and Tara help Chad beat up Ghostface for a while, and their teamwork proves legitimately effective. At one point, both Carpenters restrain Ghostface's arms so Chad can punch him in the face, after which Tara kicks him in the head.
- Even as he's being brutally stabbed and facing near-certain death, Chad tells Tara and Sam to run for safety.
- Tara goading the Ghostfaces: "Come on, motherfuckers!"
- Just before she and Tara split up to fight the Baileys, Sam straight-up tells the family that Richie was a whiny, limp-dicked loser whom she enjoyed killing, even with Detective Bailey (the lead Ghostface, and Richie's father) holding her at gunpoint. This goads the group long enough for Sam to stab Ethan and Tara to strike Quinn in the face with a brick.
- Tara, though seriously injured, manages to stab Ethan through the mouth and jaw, twist the knife, and leave him to bleed to death.Tara: Now die a fucking virgin.Sam (to Quinn): Looks like you're down another brother.
- Sam nonchalantly shooting Quinn in the head in front of her father Detective Bailey, telling him it's a very effective way of putting down a murderer.
- Right before blowing Quinn away, she also gives a Slasher Smile (as shown in the trailers) that just shouts, "I’m in control of this situation now, assholes."
- Had the gun not been empty, Sam would've instantly taken out two Ghostfaces single-handedly with hardly any trouble.
- The way Sam and Bailey charge toward each other once her gun is empty — causing them both to go over the catwalk — is an epic moment for both of them.
- Sam killing Detective Bailey.
- First, she gives him a Ghostface call to ask him what his favorite scary movie is, to which he screams at her and asks who the police are going to believe between him and her. Her response? "Probably the one who's still alive."
- Sam then emerges in her father's Ghostface mask and cloak, stabs Bailey 32 times (even more than what she did to his son), then, with Tara's silent urging, finishes him off with a knife through the eye.Sam: My father was a murderer, and I'm better than that. (Beat) But you did fuck with our family, so...
- The way Bailey gets broken down by Sam over the course of the climax, culminating with him putting up zero fight and just going out screaming as she brutalizes him. For all that he did and the innocents he killed, it's utterly cathartic.
- Bailey's wearing a bulletproof vest, which while not great against stabbing attacks, would blunt the force of a knife as big as the classic Scream Buck 120. So Sam stabs around the vest, rapidly perforating both shoulders, making it significantly harder for him to fight back if he should somehow turn the tables on her and effectively neutralizing him as a threat in a way that would be survivable if he got medical attention quickly enough, letting her choose whether or not to kill him, and why. Her removing the mask immediately after she has him dead-to-rights just so he can see her face is the perfect icing on the cake.
- That Sam earlier got the drop on Ethan with the knife and, by means of stabbing him, likely figured out where someone with the vest would be most vulnerable also counts both on its own and as preparation for this moment, too.
- Danny getting the police to the theatre despite being told by Sam to leave, showing that he really does care about her and the group.
- Earlier, on the subway car, Danny instinctively steps in the way of Sam when a person wearing a Ghostface mask approaches them.
- Even earlier than that, he was the reason why Sam and Mindy were able to escape Ghostface in the apartment scene with the desperately conceived ladder rescue.
- Mindy managing to figure out who two of the killers were: Ethan and Bailey. Even earlier, she told Ethan that random roommate assignments (the reason he was selected to be Chad’s roommate) can be fixed as one of the reasons why she believed him to be the killer — and it turned out she was right on the money!
- Kirby's Character Development, evolving from a presumed-dead victim in Scream 4 to one of the biggest heroes and most badass survivors of this film.
- After being stabbed and left for dead, she not only survives, but becomes a seasoned FBI agent by the age of 30.
- She survives the climax despite getting shot and stabbed several times, and ends up being the one to put an end to the massacre once and for all through dropping a TV set on the head of the last living Ghostface, Ethan.
- As she reveals to Tara, Kirby actually did die for 4 minutes from her injuries. The way she describes how she bounced back from that is quite powerful:Kirby: When I recovered, I got mad. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life being afraid of monsters. I wanted the monsters to be afraid of me.
- On the villains' side, the climax in the shrine is the first time in the whole series we see two masked Ghostfaces in combat together. Even with how horrific the killers' simultaneous attack of Chad is, it's immediately followed by both Ghostfaces simultaneously wiping their blades clean in synchronization, another first for a Scream film.
- Sam leaving behind her father's Ghostface mask at the end, while it could be her wanting to move on from that part of her life, could now also function as her embracing it as well as her giving both a warning and calling card to future fellow Ghostfaces: "If you come for me, this is the fate that awaits you."
