20 Most Satisfying Movie Moments

By Adrian Smith / November 19, 2013

15. She Walks - Gravity (2013)

Alfonso Cuaron's recent technical masterpiece makes it its mission to stop you from breathing for even a second - that is, until its very final moments. That's to say, almost the entire film takes place in the clutches of space, where Sandra Bullock's Dr. Ryan Stone must content with debris, fire hazards, and the lack of - you guessed it - gravity itself. But after 90 gruelling minutes of being put through the galactic grinder, Stone finally makes it back down to Earth, whereupon it's never been quite so satisfying to watch a human being standing up, getting to grips with gravity, and realising just how wonderful having your feet firmly on the ground ultimately is.

14. The Basterds Kill Hitler - Inglorious Basterds (2009)

When writer/director Quentin Tarantino sat down to write Inglourious Basterds, he also set out to re-write history. Which is another way of saying: Quentin Tarantino doesn't care much what what really happened, as witnessed by the majorly cathartic climax he attaches to final reel of his WW2 movie. Whereas most of us presumably went into the cinema assuming that the eponymous Basterd's mission to kill Hitler would fail, Tarantino takes us down another route: just when we think it's over, the Basterds break onto Hitler's private balcony and machine gun him to death. Hey, don't pretend that wasn't incredibly satisfying to watch, not to mention the fact that it's tapping into some kind of deranged fantasy we've all likely had.