50 Greatest Movie Scenes Ever
26. The Exorcist Arrives - The Exorcist
A movie scene so iconic a single image from it became synonymous with the horror genre as a whole, Father Merrin’s arrival at the MacNeil household is steeped in dread. This is the moment the entire film has been building towards - it’s literally what the title promised before the movie began - the arrival of The Exorcist.
However, Merrin’s arrival doesn’t inspire confidence that everything is going to be alright. Getting out of the cab, bathed in the unnatural light of the suburban streetlamp and with a beam welcoming him to the room he’s always been destined to die in, the priest cautiously enters the home.
At the same time, director William Friedkin flashes to a haunting close-up highlighting the eyes of Pazuzu, making it clear that neither of these two enemies are leaving unscathed. The silence of his welcome is sabotaged from a howling beckoning in the bedroom above, as the demon cries out his name.
After so long teetering, the boundary between natural and supernatural has been broken, leaving only a battle between heaven and hell to come.
[JB]
25. Sincerely Yours - The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club is, from its clothing to its music to its spirit, intrinsically, quintessentially 80s, but over 30 years on it continues to feel fresh and resonate with new generations, and the reason why can be found in its ending.
As the film's journey shows us, none of these people fit simply or solely in the box that high school - and especially the authority figures who run it - have decided to place them into. That's something everyone can relate to, no matter where or when you went to school, or what label was forced upon you. The teachers don't understand that, but John Hughes certainly does, and signs off in the best way possible.
As Brian writes in the group essay, "each one of us is a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal." It's about shaking off, even just for a fleeting moment one Saturday morning, the shackles of who or what you're supposed to be; of being able to fully express yourself, and understanding how others - even if you're the nerd and they're the jock - are going through similar struggles. As John Bender walks off across the field, Simple Minds' Don't You (Forget About Me) blaring out, he raises his fist. It's a moment of pure triumph for all of us.
[JH]
24. I’ll Have What She’s Having - When Harry Met Sally
When Harry Met Sally isn’t a particularly “nice” movie in traditional romantic comedy terms, but it is an incredibly well-written movie. It’s also wonderfully clever in its insistence that we empathise with a sociopath with serious emotional issues in Billy Crystal’s Harry.
It’d be easy to cite him “getting the girl” as the best moment in this masculine anxiety comedy or even the payoff from when he has sex with Meg Ryan’s delightful Sally, but neither is as good as when she destroys his fragile ego.
The scene in the diner that sees Sally reveal the truth of the fake orgasm was an OG meme-able moment and a hilarious island of sense in a male fantasy of control and forgiveness and it’s beautiful, top to bottom.
[SG]