10 Best "All Hope Is Lost" Moments In Movie History
2. The Incinerator - Toy Story 3
The genius of Toy Story 3's incinerator scene is that everything we know about movies tells our logical brains that we're not about to watch some of the most beloved icons of modern children's entertainment get melted to goo, and yet, the damn magic of filmmaking still convinces us it might happen anyway.
Deep into the threequel's third act, Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), and the other toys find themselves on a landfill conveyor-belt heading straight for an incinerator, courtesy of the deceptively strawberry-smellin' villain Lotso (Ned Beatty).
What's truly stirring about the scene is that, after a brief struggle, the toys realise there's no way for them to escape their situation. Rather than fight to the bitter end, they link hands, silently agreeing to go to their ends together.
But as the heroes inch closer to the fiery abyss, they're miraculously rescued by squeeze toy aliens, using the landfill's industrial claw.
It's one of the most intense sequences you'll ever see in a "family-friendly" movie, yet the utter absence of hope only makes the toys' last-minute salvation that much more cathartic. Incredible.