10. 'Little' Bill Thompson (Boogie Nights)
In one of the film's spectacular tracking shots, we follow Bill as he goes room to room at a New Year's Eve house party in search of his wife (Nina Hartley). He asks several guests but no one has seen her. Tearing away from a conversation, he heads towards a familiar moaning sound emanating from a bedroom door. He opens the door and, although we can't see who's inside, we know immediately that he has found her in flagrante. This isn't the first time either, as she seems to enjoy embarrassing her husband by having sex with other men in public. Bill says nothing but instead closes the door, calmly walks outside, places his drink on the roof of his car and takes something out of the darkness of the glove compartment. As it bobs into frame, we can see that it is a revolver (perhaps Paul Thomas Anderson could've ramped up the suspense by hiding it from view entirely?) and so he returns to the party. As he does so, the countdown to the new year begins. Bill re-opens the bedroom door and fires two shots. Then, on the stroke of midnight, he steps into another room, pulls a rather unnerving smile and then turns the gun on himself. The Eighties are brought in with a bang.