20 Most Intense Movie Scenes Ever

13. The Pawn Shop Basement - Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction Bruce Willis Ving Rhames
TWC

After Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) and Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) end up fighting in a pawn shop, the owner of the store subdues them and brings them to his basement, where Zed (Peter Greene) rapes Marcellus.

Butch manage to escape his constraints and goes to leave the shop, but his conscience gets the better of him and he returns back to the basement with a samurai sword, killing Maynard (Duane Whitaker) and leaving Marcellus to take care of Zed.

It's a pitch-perfect exercise in escalating tension that gets very, very weird, ahead of a cathartically violent payoff. It's by far the most uneasy and anxiety-inducing scene in the entire film.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.