Most Intense Moment in a Movie

PM's poll thread got me thinking. What do you consider the most intense moment in a movie?

Off the top of my head, mine has to be from The Deer Hunter when they are in the prison camp and playing Russian Roulette. I was about 18 or 19 when I saw it and it was one scene that really had an impact on me.

Excellent thread topic Destructis!

My picks,

1. When the Goebbels' children are poisoned by their mother in "Downfall".

2. In "The Piano" when the fingers get chopped off. I won't give any more detail for fear of spoilers.

3. In Last of the Mohicans when Magwa cuts out the heart of Col. Munro.

4. The final pursuit on foot in "Heat" when Al Pacino chases down DeNiro and they have their final showdown at the airport.

I also like the scene in Ronin when DeNiro questions Sean Bean about the color of the boathouse at Hereford.

-Skater

The scene in "Meet the Parents" where Greg opens the bottle of champagne and the cork rockets off and hits Jack's mothers urn with her cremated remains, and it falls and breaks and little Jinxie comes over and pees on the remains.

Pretty intense.

A couple more,

1. The entire Omaha beach landing in SPR.

2. In Star Trek II when the slugs crawl into the ears of Chekov and Terrell.

The most intense moment was when Pee Wee Herman found out his bike had been stolen.


Wheels

Not a movie, but a very intense scene anyway. This scene in The Walking Dead

- The bank heist shoot out in "Heat" still amazes me. Maybe its the sound effects or because its in broad daylight but the moment Shiherlis spots the detectives across the street I 'strap in' and say: "It's ON, mf!"

The scene from The Beast (aka The Beast of War) when the Mujahadeen and Jason Patric are running to attack the stalled Soviet tank at the waterhole. nailbiting stuff with good editing and pacing!

Only two moments in film were so intense they had me literally gripping my chair...

1. The space fight in Serenity
2. The Mech fight scene in District 9

+1

The end of "Se7en".

Aliens - when the beast pops out of that guy........

The scene that got me in Last of the Mohicans was when the British troops and the civilians were going through the forest and realized the Indians were following off to the side. I felt the panic coming on in that one.

The alien popping out of John Hurt's chest is one of the best fright scenes in any film in my opinion. The whole film was a trip in that so much of it took place in the bowels of the ship with water dripping and noises in the semi dark locations.

I was like 6 or so when I saw that movie. And "Carrie" too!

And see? I grew up to be normal!

some of the scenes I consider intense:

-The scrotum piercing scene in "Serpent and the Rainbow"
-Any of the diving/spelunking scenes in "Sanctum"
-The buried alive scene in "Kill Bill Vol. 2"
-The scene where the boy falls into the ice and drowns in "Damien Omen II"
-The scene where Carrie's mother grabs out at her from her grave in "Carrie"
-The assault scenes in "Last House on the Left" and "Irreversible"
-The scene where Nicolas Cage stabs himself with the adrenaline atropine thing then has to crawl out and signal the Hornets off before they drop their ordnance in "The Rock"
-The highly fake yet highly tense fight between the F/A-18F and the SAMs in "Behind Enemy Lines"

v6,
boNes

The Right Stuff is packed with them.
Breaking the sound barrier...
Alan Shepard's launch...
the crash at the end...
the water bottle scene where the nurse guy confronts Shepard. (classic!)

There are many times in that movie that you find yourself holding your breath.

you have not been scared properly until you have seen Boris Karloff stumbling around wrapped in rags in one of the old Mummy movies

Man,that was hard to watch,especially when one of the children may have sussed what was going on but was forced to take the sleeping drug.

Opening scene of Jaws. Dark night swimming and then first the "bump" then the attack.

I will also add when they were checking the boat for the missing person and the head floats out of the hole.

The scene in 'Come and See' where the Kid and the girl have been in the village looking for people and decide to leave. As they walk out the girl looks back and we see what happened to the villagers....I actually had trouble sleeping after that. Intense isn't the word for it.

Joe Pesci's 'In what way am I funny?' routine in Goodfellas still gets me. No matter how many times I've seen it I still think he's going to whack Henry.

The end of Schindlers List.

The scene at the Airport at night in Taking Chance. That's one movie I just can't watch again.

The final confrontation ending in Prince of Persia. Or the part wherein the lead character falls out of Toothless in How to Train Your Dragon.

Sitting in Mrs. Kennedys' living room at 3 in the morning watching Hitchcocks' original Psycho with the lights out. When Mrs. Bates supprises Mr. Arbogast on the staircase, Mrs K tapped me on the shoulder and said BOO!. I cleared 4 feet straight up from a sitting position.

Seems mild nowdays I guess, but at the time.


Martin Sheen going after Col. Kurtz in "Apocolype Now".

Door chopping in "The Shining".

The squeal like a pig part in "Deliverence"

That big hole in the guy in "The Quick and the Dead"

The scene in Casino Royale where LeChifre has Bond tied naked in the chair with the seat torn out and he's swinging that big rope with the knot on the end...
makes me squirm in my seat

If you're speaking emotionally intense, the last episode in the HBO series "John Adams" was a jarring experience. Not in recent memory can I think any program that choked me up like that.

The guy? I'd thought these were memorable actors.
Alien = John Hurt
The Quick and the Dead = Gene Hackman

Neo waking up in the pod

Galactica jumping into the New Caprican atmosphere to sortie Vipers

The death of PFC Stanley Mellish in SPR

Well, I didn't want to give the whole movie away. lol

Medic Wades death choked me up more.. Mom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU1Jvs-FsbI

I'm completely with you on this one. What an amazing coincidence that both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

While terrible, Wade's death lacked the desperation that Mellish's did, for me. I never walked out of a movie before because a scene was too powerful. I did when Mellish was begging for his life. I simply could not take it. A very powerful scene that I am, to this day, still afraid to watch.

I found Schindler's List to be quite intense... The whole movie.

I only saw it once and although I bought it since, I cannot make myself watch it again.

Murphy's violent death scene in Robocop, the taunts from the bad guys, and the flashbacks to his wife and son whilst he's laid dying. That whole sequence was haunting.

Adam Sandler dying at the end of Click. And it was worse because it was ADAM SANDLER.

When Bambi's mother got shot.

Yes,but it was a damn good shot though.In mid-air too.

Also...

When Sharon Stone crossed her legs in 'Basic Instinct.'

Yes. And the slo-mo drool from the cops mouths.

Amen to that. SPR was the most intense war scene I have ever witnessed.
The guy looking for his severed arm on the beach. Yikes.

Another one I remember was going to see Midway with my Dad back in the 1976.
Ensign Gay getting bullets in his hand on his famous failed Devastator - Torpedo Squad 8 run.
I was about 10 years old and when the fighter pilot in the F4F catches on fire it was pretty intense to me at that age.
I remember the flesh on his arms and hands being charred and he was putting it out with a fire extinguisher.

I will see that in my nightmares from now on:


My Dad said when he was flying in the Pacific that was some of your worst fears "ditching" or "drowning" or "catching on fire".

Christopher Walken running through the jungle in Platoon while they looked down on him from the helicopter.

Intense scene but I think you mean Willem Dafoe. Christopher Walken was in the Deer Hunter.


Wheels

Yeah sorry, on Vicodin from getting some dental work done. Will be on them the next couple of days so if my posts sound a bit disjointed for the next few days, you will know why.

Getting Dental work done bites.


Wheels

He also was in... Suicide Kings

Given my love of bicycles that moment really hits home for me. People will try and steal your beloved bike thats priceless, there are some cut throat people in this world!

I haven't seen Suicide Kings. From what I see at IMDB it has a pretty good cast.


Wheels

You KNOW you can hear the music in your head...

The Hangover, when "Fat Jesus" is challenged by the kid with the taser gun at the police station.

Cheers,
Slug

Pita getting kidnapped in "Man on Fire." It makes you think back to the opening scene in the movie where you are shown what can happen to child kidnap victims. From that point on I was ready to accept any and all methods that Denzel's character Creasy might use to find the perpetrators and arrange their meeting with God.

Ace Ventura finishing his "meditation" in "When Nature Calls".

Cheers!

Rick...

Failsafe - when the President (Henry Fonda) orders the Air Force to nuke New York City.

This.... It was on this past weekend and I literally walked out of the room when that scene started.

The Stanley Mellish scene. I've seen it once and I won't be watching it again.


Wheels

Mellish scene was tough to watch. Like everyone else I find myself going to get a drink during that scene.

My toughest tho has to be in Stephen King's "The Mist." The end scene...as a father at the time of a 1 yr old son I left the theatre speechless. Couldn't imagine that feeling.

I did not discover that movie until I heard the same director would be bringing The Walking Dead to TV. What a mind-F that last scene was...

Kubrick got the idea for aligning the monolith with the moon and sun from ancient Babylonian mythology.

I forgot about that one. I read the short story ( which ended differently ), so when I saw this film, at the end, I gotta admit, it stuck with me for a couple of days.

The one that sticks out for in my mind is the scene in Saving Private Ryan where the german soldier knifes the GI in the heart

Yeah, that's the one that gets to me the most. The slow knife is hard to watch.

I'm surprised no one's said this: The scene in Taken, where Liam Neesen is on the phone with his daughter knowing she's about to be abducted.

That, or a different kind of intense, the cross-exam of Jessup in a Few Good Men.

Odishon.

A couple scenes from "Brothers." First, when Toby Maguire's character is forced to kill the other Marine, and second, the scene at the end with Jake, Natalie, and Toby outside with the gun.

Speaking of dental work, "Is it safe?"

funny you should mention that, i just watched that movie again 2 days ago and was really impressed with the whole thing. it was much better than i remembered.

Radar,

Good call on Mellish. Wow. The "Waitaminute! Waitaminute! Gah...gah.....g....." was rough.

OK, now that I've branded that in everyone's mind who's ever seen it.

Have a nice day!

v6,
boNes

I watched this film a couple years ago for the first time. Man, what a mind-frak that was!

I forgot about that one, but it is definitely on my list. I really have a problem watching something where a child is involved in getting hurt too. Even in Pet Sematary when the truck is coming and you know Tige is about to get run over. I saw the movie after reading the book and I knew that part was coming and it was still difficult.

In no real order:

Old woman crawling along the ceiling in Exorcist 3
Most of Night of the Living Dead (Was 13 when I saw it)
Space battle in Serenity (was totally awesome especially for the fact that our heroes were unarmed) & the scene where Wash buys it
Final scene in the ghost story Don't Look Now
Pencil stabbing scene in Evil Dead
House attack in Straw Dogs
Most of the original Last House on the Left (turned it off it was so intense)
Castration scene in In the Realm of the Senses (great date movie, not!)

When Pee Wee has to save the animals in a burning pet shop and there are snakes in "Pee Wee's Big Adventure".

Cheers!

Rick...

The assault of the 54th Mass on Ft. Wagner in "Glory".

I don't remember seeing that. The same thing happened in Legion.

It was quick, which made it even scarier. Might have Exorcist 2...dunno. Was in the mid 80s

Any of the depth charge scenes from "Das Boot".

Another comes to mind.

Trevor Howard in Brief Encounter, where he fails to encounter her briefs.

So many:

The whole of the "Exorcist"
The whole of "Hamburger Hill"
The whole of "Serpico"
The whole of "Alien"
The D-Day and the medic dying in SPR
The shelling in the Ardennes Forest in "Band of Brothers"
The last Semi-trailer heist in the "Fast and the Furious"
Everything after they reach the Do Lung Bridge in "Apocalypse Now"

Here is the Mellish scene (with a translation):


Because I still speak and understand a fair bit of German, I've been asked to interpret it more than once. It definitely ranks among the most disturbing, especially when I first saw it.

I must have missed that scene...


Wheels

Od Dae-Su discovery of the truth in "Oldboy"

Seven Samarai where the good guys gets killed
The castle attack scene in "Ran"
THe last sword battle in "The Sword of Doom"
The last episode of Season 1 and 4 of Dexter
When Neo was shot
WHenever Chigurh appears in "No Country for Old Men" when you don't know who lives or dies.

When Kathy Bates whacks James Caan's ankle with the sledge hammer in Misery.

That is another cringe worthy one.


Wheels

It was Exorcist.
This scene will make you shudder too:

+1 for the bank heist shoot out in "Heat" one of the best

One of the best car chase scenes " To Live in Die in LA" a very close 2nd to "Bullit"

Well some good ones already, so for something I hadn't seen mentioned, the climax of The Departed.

When Robert De Niro (Noodles) gets it up with Elizabeth McGovern (Deborah) in Once Upon a Time in America.

The lady did protest too much, methinks.

How about that scene in "Collateral" where Tom Cruise is being all friendly and talkative to that musician at the bar and then he reveals quite calmly that he's there to kill him and then does it?

"Luke, I AM YOUR FATHER!!"

I'm thankful I missed it at the theatre because I can't take it either.

WTF?!

Yeesh!

Sweet, I just peed my pants.... how am I supposed to walk to my car now?

The scenes in Hard Candy when Ellen Page was preparing to remove the guy's package.

I would like to add to that ...any scene in any movie where the guy gets hit in the nuts. My legs cross involuntarily when I see that.

"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" from beginning to end.

If you've not seen it (it's not been mentioned here) you should.

I see a pattern developing here.

How about Kathy Bates in Misery

The bit in The Battle of Britain where Squadron Leader Colin Harvey's plane goes up in flames and he can't get out. You see it spinning down and the pilot struggling while on fire.

Why does this picture make me think of Natalie Merchant if she stopped smoking?

Why is my scalp all tingly after seeing that? LOL