20 Movie Scenes That Are Totally Flawless
2. The Bridge - Sicario (2015)
What makes Sicario's border crossing sequence so impressive isn't the shootout at the end, but the build-up and the immeasurable tension that comes with it. For nearly ten minutes, director Denis Villeneuve continuously promises violence - an ambush, most likely - only for it to never come.
By the time FBI agent Kate Mercer (Emily Blunt) and her new team stop by the US-Mexico border, the intensity has reached an almost unbearable level. They're stuck in traffic with nowhere to go, and several of the cars around them are full of drug cartel soldiers plotting to kill them.
When the violence does come, it's over very quickly, and like Kate the audience is forced to wonder what exactly is going on.
Sicario is a moody, atmospheric thriller about the drug war that reaches its peak with the border crossing, and thankfully it doesn't let up from there.