The Best Moments in Sci-Fi and Fantasy History

Dark Star: Doolittle tries to convince the sentient bomb from exploding.

Doctor Who - The Empty Child: "Are you my mommy?"

 

These.

Also, the original King Kong: The crew trek across the foreground while the camera pans with them, revealing the thrashing body of the just-shot Stegosaurus in the mid-ground. Awesome.

 

Seconded. Their entire civilization is bombed into oblivion and the first place the Colonials go is a fraking party planet?


And yeah Battlestar 1980 makes the original BSG look like art.

 

Well, that narrows it down to about 20 times

Yes, I know you mean Meridian


A few Stargate ones from me:

Humans becoming the "Fifth Race"
Lost City (the entire 2 parter)


Atlantis breaking the surface
The Siege of Atlantis

 

The end of Brazil, if that counts as sci-fi.


Blink. All of it.

 

Firefly: "Out of Gas"....The last 5 mins of this episode are spectacular. Mal wakes up in the infirmary to see his crew has returned even though he hasn't recalled them, ultimately saving his life. The exchange that follows is very sweet, and as he passes out we get the final flashback(in an episode set in 3 timelines no less), the first time he gets a glimpse of his ship. Very brief, fantastic music, he almost looks complete =)

The Princess Bride: Greatest sword fight ever recorded, not to mention the fantastic exchange before hand. "You seem a decent fellow, I hate to kill you"..."You seem a decent fellow, I hate to die"

Time Bandits: In the middle of Sherwood Forest, surrounded by a band of grimy horrid thieves, Robin Hood(John Cleese) emerges from his tent clean as a whistle, green tights and all. "And you're a robber too. How long have you been a robber?"..."Four foot one"..."Good lord!! Jolly good. Four foot one? Well that is a long time isn't it?

 

I have to say I never understood what people saw in that movie.
As for the sword-fighting, can't agree with you there. Even though it's Bob Anderson's choreography, even the fight scenes in the prequels were more interesting and compelling. Heck, Highlander has some of the simplest and yet beautiful choreography that is so very much more interesting than Princess Bride.

Maybe if I'd somehow been able to buy into the whole PB movie in some way, it might have interested me more. As it is, I view it the same way as StarDust--highly over-rated, over-hyped, and disappointingly dull.

 

The Nautilus and the squid fight from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The design for the Nautilus and the squid fight won Disney a pair of richly deserved Academy Awards and gave Disney one of its most iconic moments.

 

Ewok posted:
The Nautilus and the squid fight from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Which movie?

 

I honestly can't tell if you actually don't know what I'm talking about, or are pulling my leg. Which is it?

 

- Have to second the Princess Bride duel between Westley and Inigo. Fantastic couple of character portraits wrapped up in one of the the great swashbuckling sequences in film.

- Ditto the "time to die" sequence of Blade Runner. There's no small amount of SF film and television material dealing with robotic rebellion, but this film still does it best.

- Yoda lifting the X-Wing in Empire. This was Luke catching a glimpse of a larger world, just as the film as a whole showed that Star Wars could move beyond the boundries of the original and still be great.

- Padme's "rumination" sequence in Sith. Probably Lucas's most poetic directorial moment.

- Ripley's death in Alien 3. Alien is the critical fav, Aliens the popular masterpiece, but I prefer the third installment to them both. Ripley's "victory" here is at once horrific and operatic.

Also, quickly:

- Donnie Darko "Mad World" ending
- Riders of Rohan come to the rescue in Return of the King
- "Hold on lady, we going for a ride" in Temple of Doom
- Death of Cole in Twelve Monkeys
- umm, any Kate Winslet scene in Eternal Sunshine

 

Wow, good post, ezekiel. I agree quite strongly with almost all of those! Though I would extract the Temple of Doom moment, and insert a Raiders moment in its place:

[image=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3473/3294225511_5d687c33db.jpg]
"Don't look at it, Marion!"

(Sorry about the autograph; it was the only image ofg this scene I could find!)

 

Well:

http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0027258/

 

Glad you agreed with some of my picks. And, yeah, I am one of those wacky Temple of Doom lovers. If I had to compile my top three Lucas-related productions, I don't think I could leave ToD out.

 

Top 3 Lucas: The original Star Wars, Temple of Doom, and Captain EO.


I'm only half-joking.

 

Read my whole post again.

Does that clarify things?

 

1)The revelation that the monster in Forbidden Planet actually came from the mind of Dr. Morbius.

2)Olympus Mons on Mars is actually a giant atmosphere production machine in Total Recall.

3)Jeff Bridges getting scanned into a computer system in Tron.

 

Just re-watched 'The Abyss' for the first time in years recently ... great film.

In regards to ID4 and trailers, I would actually nominate the trailer BEFORE ID4 ... the Star Wars Special Edition trailer.

I just got goosebumps with the scene of the X-Wing bursting out of the little TV screen into full screen cinematic glory!

 

OK, I am actually going to focus on "history" on this one!

As a kid, I was amazed by the scene in Jason and the Argonaughts, where the skeletons come to life and fight:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_and_the_Argonauts_(film)

The special effects by Ray Harryhausen were amazing for the time!

 

Another of my favs is when Perseus holds up Medusa's head and turns the Kracken to stone in Class of the Titans.

Also have to go with Taylor seeing the head of Lady Liberty in Planet of the Apes.

 

"Get away from her you BITCH!" (until Alien 3 ruined EVERYTHING!)

 

My favorite Battlestar Galactica moments tend to involve Helo and Sharon. Big moments for me are when Sharon makes the choice to leave behind the Cylon and take her chances with Helo, when Helo makes the decision to protect Sharon from Starbuck when Sharon and Starbuck first meet, and when Helo shoot Sharon to get her on the Cylon baseship. All three moments are fantastic.

 

The introduction of Ob1 to Anakin in TPM always struck me as a cool/sad moment because we knew what was coming.