20 Most Intense Movie Scenes Ever

1. Russian Roulette - The Deer Hunter

And finally, the #1 spot goes to the emotionally shattering finale to Michael Cimino's incredible 1978 classic war drama.

The third act sees Mike (Robert De Niro) heading back to Vietnam to track down his pal and fellow soldier Nick (Christopher Walken), who has gone AWOL.

Mike eventually finds him playing Russian roulette with seemingly no memory of his pre-war life. In an attempt to lure Nick out of the game, Mike enters himself to play against him.

A palm-sweatingly tense exchange of trigger-pulls ensues, before Mike speaks to Nick and appears to break through his traumatised exterior, but a moment later, Nick pulls the trigger again, killing himself.

The utter horror of seeing Mike cradle Nick's corpse as the blood-thirsty crowd makes a ruckus, with no sudden interjection of sentimental music, cements this as the most emotionally and dramatically intense scene in cinema history.

What are your favourite intense movie scenes? Got anymore to share? Shout them out in the comments!