I agree about the Emma Thompson scene in Love Actually. I cry every time, no matter how often I see it.
Shawshank Redemption is a fantastic movie all around. I guess I like the end best when Red decides to break parole.
12 Likes
The Chatty Cathy scene around that time made me laugh for 10 minutes non-stop the first time I saw P,T, and A!
1 Like
Tough question…
I guess I love this above all others. It always makes me laugh.
6 Likes
Speaking of flying scenes, the glider scene in the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair.
3 Likes
The opening scene of Top Gun still gives me goosebumps. My husband was a Naval Aviator. It is just so stunning and exactly how a carrier works.
10 Likes
Jack Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces—“hold the chicken scene.” Priceless!!
4 Likes
I agree about the end of Field of Dreams - from the time Ray recognizes his dad to the “do you want to have a catch?” I am a puddle.
4 Likes
The jumping off the cliff scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. “I can’t swim!”
The running on the beach at St. Andrews scene from Chariots of Fire to the Vangelis score.
8 Likes
I hesitate to post this because I’m not sure if the scene would would qualify as a “finest” in the iconic sort of way the OP meant, but here’s mine:
The tavern scene in a movie called Brooklyn.
It’s the scene I’ve thought about most often. As the grandaughter of immigrants and an instructor to many, many adult immigrants, that scene changed me.
4 Likes
For sure. We first saw it on an XD screen, and it felt like our seats were shaking in the first scene. The third time we saw it with a former Navy pilot who had 500 carrier landings in an F-18, and he thought much of it was realistic (obviously not the 10G’s and some of the air work though).
“Do you believe in miracles?!” From Miracle. That movie gets me every time. I’m on the edge of my seat like I don’t know what’s going to happen
Also love GWTW!
5 Likes
There’s Something About Mary…
when you know what was hanging from Ben Stiller’s ear…It was so ridiculous that I laughed for a long time.
3 Likes
When Capt Am picks up Thor’s hammer.
“Leave the gun take the cannoli” Godfather
“We’re going to need a bigger boat.” Jaws
“I’ll make it.” Hoosiers
“Say what again MF.” Pulp Fiction
“I’m walking here.” Midnight Cowboy
“Are you talking to me?” Taxi Driver
The shoot out scene in Heat.
“Do you feel lucky punk.”
Then end of Tin Cup
5 Likes
For Shawshank, I think the best scene is Red reading Andy’s letter. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.
Homeward Bound when the 3 pets come back. Make you think, briefly, that the old dog didn’t make it back.
3 Likes
The opening scene in Breakfast at Tiffany’s when Audrey Hepburn is outside of Tiffany’s having her pastry and coffee and looking in the store window with her gown on from the night before and Moon River is playing. It gets me every time!
9 Likes
Not sure if they’re the finest scenes, but I like plot twists. Two of my favorites were the “I am your father” scene in The Empire Strikes Back and finding out Bruce Willis is dead in The Sixth Sense.
9 Likes
The whole locker room scene and speech by Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks in Miracle . The speech, the look on the players’ faces, the swelling music as they leave the locker room and take the ice. I just watched it again on YouTube- it gets me every time.
3 Likes
The camera work here is lovely. Going from Sam to Ilsa’s POV the whiffs of smoke in the background and the long still shot of Ingrid Bergman’s face. Play it, Sam - YouTube
5 Likes
I love the piano scene in Big. The sheer exhuberance of it. Big (1988) - Playing the Piano Scene (2/5) | Movieclips - YouTube
9 Likes