20 Most Intense Movie Scenes Ever

17. Paul Gets Hobbled - Misery

By far the most memorably disturbing and talked about scene from Rob Reiner's classic Stephen King adaptation is the horrifying hobbling sequence, in which crazed superfan Annie Wilkes (an Oscar-winning Kathy Bates) stops her imprisoned favourite author Paul Sheldon (James Caan) from leaving by breaking his ankles with a sledgehammer.

In what's one of cinema's all-time most nauseating moments, Reiner pulls no punches by showing Sheldon's first ankle break without cutting away. It's perfectly built up and executed, resulting in a scene of pure cringe-worthy terror that's practically impossible to forget.

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