1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Simply put, there is not an image from a film that has more power and leaves room for more debate than the final shot from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film is generally considered only behind Citizen Kane as the greatest film ever made and is the masterwork of director Stanley Kubrick. To this day people are still baffled at how Kubrick pulled off this film, made 45 years ago, both logistically and theologically. At the film's outset, Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) is pulled into the far reaches of space and time, traveling at amazing speeds until he finds himself in a room, facing new incarnations of his own self at different ages. He finally sees the iconic black monolith in the middle of this room and approaches it, as he does this the film cuts to a most fantastic parting shot. As the camera slowly pans from the moon, to a massive image of earth we begin to see a new orb progress in the side frame. Slowly it emerges as a pod, illuminating light around it, a fetus like "Star Child" innocently looking down at the Blue Planet. The final shot in the film, accompanied by a crescendo from "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" has the "Star Child", a possible re-incarnation of Bowman staring at the camera. Could this have been a sly nod to us from Kubrick that we are looking at the face of a new reborn God-like entity who oversees all or were we just looking at a mirrored image of ourselves? This visual representation is a question that has been answered both ways before, but is ultimately the greatest final shot of all time.