Moment of Awesome (Sugar Wiki)/Film/Other Film

1492

 * Christopher Colombus is having a hissy fit and throwing around some monks working on writting Bibles. One of the monks stands up, cracks his knuckles, cross himself, taps Columbus on the shoulder and PUNCHES THAT SUKER IN THE FACE.

Adulthood

 * This. To give context

Air America

 * After figuring out they're being set up, Billy and Babo have to find somewhere to hide from Major Lemond and his cronies, before they run out of gas. Solution? Crash land their small plane inside the much bigger one Billy crashed earlier in the movie, of course!

The American President

 * Andrew Shepherd's speech to the press in the final minutes is one long Crowning Moment of Awesome. Regardless of the viewers' political alignment, the CMoA is his commitment to his political beliefs instead of pandering to the system.

Billy Jack

 * This scene. That is all.

A Bittersweet Life
"Kim Sun-Woo: Don't just sit there. Call Mr. Baek."
 * A Bittersweet Life does not require you to pick. The whole movie is a string of them. Highlights include the opening arsekicking the main character lays down on three men who won't leave his restaurant, his escape from death using a cellphone battery, and his beating a man in reassembling a gun and shooting him in the head while one of his hands is broken.
 * Helped greatly by the amazing cinematography, but the real CMoA would have to be when Kim Sun-Woo finds the seemingly untouchable hat-wearing hitman. The latter, caught off guard, promptly brings his hammer to bear - but Sun-Woo's gun is already pointing him in the face.

Blue Thunder

 * Blue Thunder, being about a Cool Black Helicopter, is already ripe for [=CMoA s=], but the crowner is set up by a scene where Murphy's girlfriend is fleeing from the police while carrying the evidence that will unmask the Government Conspiracy. The cops pull her over on a bridge and it looks like things are lost, when Blue Thunder suddenly rises up with its massive Gatling gun aimed straight at them. The stunned look on their faces is absolutely priceless, as is the ensuing action when a police cruiser is literally sawn in half by the gun.

Boys From Brazil

 * Boys From Brazil definitely has a Crowning Moment of Awesome at the end when Mengele who is about to kill Lieberman pauses when Bobby an, American boy who is really, walks in to find them both battered from fighting. Mengele then tries to convince Bobby that his true self should make him despise Lieberman who is Jewish and that they should kill Lieberman together. Bobby then tells Mengele how much of a weirdo he is, and to add another blow to Mengele's crumbling self esteem, Lieberman tells Bobby the truth that . Bobby, very upset in hearing this,

Brotherhood of the Wolf

 * Fronsac, who is righteously pissed off after, sheds his civilized veneer, dons some warpaint, and proceeds to go on a one-man rampage through the bad guys' hideout. This troper heard the audience give a collective "ooooh" at the severity of the beat-down he dished out to one of the mooks.

Casshern

 * Tetsuya's stand against the robots roughly halfway though the movie definitely qualifies. Beginning with a scream of defiance, he quickly ramps up to carving the robots up with his bare hands and the smashed bits of other robots, mowing them down in droves to get to the leader of the Neo-Sapiens who kidnapped his mother.

The Children's Hour

 * Karen, Audrey Hepburn's character, walking off with head held high at the end.

Chop Kick Panda

 * Copied from a Netflix review "I work at Dream Works. Didn't know whether to send an email to the legal department or Jen. In the end, I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

Death Race

 * Jensen goes to town on the man who killed his wife and framed him for murder. And it is awesome.

Dinner at Eight

 * The last scene.

Dirty Pretty Things

 * The final fate of Sergio Lopez' villain. . It makes more sense in context.

Drillbit Taylor

 * In Drillbit Taylor, the entire last third. It's like Gurren Lagann or Zombieland.

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 * The final scene, showing two boys hugging and kissing -- a first in Danish cinema; this was 1978 -- as an illustration of the commandment 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself' and to the accompaniment of a pop song announcing 'You are not alone...you'll find your way free from their laws' and denouncing 'hate'.

Fists of Fury (aka The Chinese Connection in the West)

 * Bruce Lee takes on a whole Japanese karate dojo by himself and whups them all! This was after they brought his Chinese Kung Fu school a sign which read "Sick Men of Asia," and claimed they would eat their words if any Chinese could beat them. After beating the dojo, Lee tears up the paper and makes two of the students eat it, claiming that if they bother his school again, he'll make them eat the glass.
 * Shortly after, Lee's character is denied entering a park and is pointed to a sign that says "No Dogs or Chinese." The Indian guard lets a foreign women take her dog in, and a Japanese guy tells Lee he'll let him in if he acts like a dog. Lee proceeds to beat up the Japanese guy and his friends and then smashes the sign with a flying kick. This scene received an roar of applause from Chinese audiences on it's first showing.

Flame and Citron

 * Jorgen (Citron), who has been shot, manages to escape from the German soldiers and is resting at the safe house. He dozes off and when he wakes up, the house is surrounded on all sides and he has no way to escape. Instead of giving up, he gets out of bed, grabs his guns, and prepares for his last stand. Not only does it take 30 or 40 soldiers to finally kill him, but he goes down in a hail of bullets after limping around in his pajamas with a punctured lung blasting the shit out of every Nazi he can find.

Flight of the Phoenix

 * Both the original and the remake- the ending. They build a plane out of pieces of another plane! And it flies!

From The Hip

 * The otherwise Z-grade 80's Judd Nelson film From The Hip is loaded with awesome whenever Nelson's "Stormy" Weathers is in court, and pretty much ONLY when he's in court (especially when he ), but the two big Mood Whiplash moments of the film definitely count as CMoAs:  . I'm still trying to figure out why they didn't just make the whole movie a thriller...

Harakiri

 * In the samurai movie Harakiri (1962),.

He's Just Not That Into You

 * There is one for Jennifer Connelly's Character Janine:

Honeymoon in Vegas
"Jack: I've got a major problem. My fiancÃ©â€™s been kidnapped and taken to Hawaii, I've got to get there now.
 * Cage's scene in the airport with Ben Stein.

Ben Stein: Well I'm trying to make arrangements to get to Milwaukee for my nephew Douglas's wedding on the 21st.

Jack: You're not even FLYING today?

Ben Stein: No! Consumer Reports said that if I make my travel arrangements two weeks in advance...

Jack: YOU SEE THIS LINE? WE ARE ALL FLYING TODAY!

Airport Lady: Please sir, if you don't get back in line, then...

Jack: THEN WHAT?! I'll be ARRESTED? PUT... IN... AIRPORT JAIL?! Just get your ticket and move on, okay, get your GODDAMN ticket, and move on!

(applause from other people in line)"

Judgment In Nuremberg

 * When Spencer Tracy's Chief Justice givs his judgment address that takes into account the defense's insightful explanation of how prevailing attitudes shared by all helped contribute to the Holocaust while still giving a convincing guilty verdict to the defendants.

Lone Wolf McQuade

 * Chuck Norris, setting the tone for Walker, and for the numerous "Chuck Norris Facts" lists (loosely quoted from Roger Ebert's review, that is from memory). "The villains shoot him, they think he's dead. They bury him in his supercharged customized pick up truck. McQuade wakes up, pours a beer over his head, floors that sucker and drives it right out of the grave. It's that kind of movie."

The Man Who Would Be King

 * Containing the greatest set of last words that have ever been sung, by Sean Connery's Danny Dravott. After attempting to take over Kafiristan and doing quite well at it, Danny and Peachey are found out. Danny, having posed as a god, is condemned to walk out to the middle of the bridge built in his own honor, and wait while it is cut, as his last friend watches. Danny goes out onto the bridge, stands there a moment looking out to the horizon, then yells to his captors, "Can't you n-s cut?!" (That line wasn't in the movie, for obvious reasons) Then, to pass the time, he sings "The Minstrel Boy," paired with the words of a Protestant hymn. Peachey joins him from the cliff's side in song, their voices combining into a ballad of courage and faith. And then the bridge is cut, and "like a penny-whirligig... it took him half an hour to fall."

Mean Machine

 * It's second half injury time of the big match, with the Cons and the Guards tied at 2-2. The Guards have just had a free kick from 35 yards. Monk saves it, and a Cons defender boots the ball up to the halfway line. Everyone starts running up the pitch as ex-England captain Danny Meehan nutmegs it past the Guards sole defender. He controls it, runs on, takes it round the goalie, who manages to fumble the ball away from Meehan and make him trip. Meehan rolls, runs after the ball, and controls it on the edge of the six-yard box in front of an empty net. He holds it up as he checks to see where everybody else is, then makes a slow ground-level pass across the goal. Way out in front of everybody else is Cons substitute Billy the Limpet, who has been enthusiastic but useless so far, and earlier missed from a similar position. With a sound effect like a fighter jet making a supersonic flypast, Billy hammers the ball square into the back of the net. Cue the final whistle and the Cons celebrations.

Men of Honor

 * "Nine hours, thirty-one minutes. Perfect assembly." Not a CMoA for the speaker (his came later), but for who he was saying it to...
 * "Now dammit; cookie! Square the rig and approach the rail!!. Shockingly, Carl Brashear does it, with ONE freakin' leg!.

Mike Bassett: England Manager

 * The title character has spent most of the movie so far being beaten on the pitch and mocked off it, and it all comes to a head at the press conference before England's final, must-win group game against Argentina. In the face of more abuse, all he does is recite Rudyard Kipling's "If" and finish with the words "Ladies and gentlemen...England will be playing four-four-fucking-two"

Miracle

 * Al Michaels reprising his real-life call for the ages (and personal CMOA) as the clock runs out on the American hockey team's victory over the Russians: "Do you believe in miracles?! YES!!"

Mystery Team

 * Duncan launching the cherry bomb at

Mongol

 * Mongol ends with one: all Mongols fear thunder, except Genghis Khan, who calmly rides through the terrified ranks and pulls them all behind him. Khan's wife gets one too, when she gets herself to Khan's jail cell disguised as a rich local, bribes the guards to take her there at night, then when they try to force more money out of her, forces the key from them at knifepoint.

Nothing Sacred

 * This troper saw a brief scene from this 1937 film, which stars a newspaper reporter and a woman who has a terminal illness. The woman's lying in bed, having more or less given up on life, and the reporter picks her up, professes his love to her, and hits the ice pack off her head. He then proceeds to fight with her (physically), throwing her back onto the bed a few times, while still telling her about his love.

Nothing to Lose

 * In this 1997 movie starring Martin Lawrence and Tim Robbins, main character Nick Beam (played by Robbins) undergoes a breakdown and then goes on a driving rampage with an unwilling passenger, T-Paul (played by Lawrence) after T-Paul fails to carjack him; and all this happens after Nick sees his wife in bed with his boss . Near the end of the film, after a phone call to confront his wife, he and T-Paul are confronted by two crooks who've been dogging them throughout the entire film, with all of them having guns drawn on each other. One of the crooks loudly declares that he's a KILLER, and demands to know what Nick is. Nick's response? A cool and confident followed by blasting the crook's pistol out of his hand with a shotgun, followed by him and T-Paul subduing both crooks and leaving them tied up in the alley for the police to find.
 * See the whole thing here, at 5:58. (WARNING: The highlighted spoilers are in the same clip.)

Ray Harryhausen

 * Harryhausen's first Hollywood job was working with his idol Willis O'Brian on Mighty Joe Young-- a personal moment of awesome. The ending of the film fits better in Crowning Moment of Heartwarming in comparison to King Kong's Downer Ending. Since that's the film that inspired Ray, it makes the moment DOUBLE-AWESOME.
 * Joe saving children from a burning orphanage might seem cheese, but if wasn't played absolutely straight on all counts, and if the animation of Joe was in any way sub-par, it just wouldn't have worked as this and a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
 * The climactic skeleton fight in Jason and the Argonauts is stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen's CMoA.
 * Personally, This Troper always found Harryhausen's greatest scene to be the fight with the 6-armed statue of Kali in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. You will never see a cooler swordfight.
 * This troper finds the Miklos Rosza score for the Kali fight Crowning Music of Awesome as well.
 * The Valley of Gwangi - Cowboys versus Dinosaurs using LASSOS! There is nothing about that one scene that isn't awesome.
 * Clash of the Titans - Ray's Medusa changed how we view that mythological character and can still scare people today--not to mention the horrible complexity of the shot itself.

Rocket Science

 * Rocket Science is a film about a teenager with a terrible stuttering problem joining a debate team, which you might not think would lend itself to much awesomeness, but trust me, it does:
 * He throws a massive cello through someone's window.
 * In attempt to overcame his problem, he sings ones of his speeches. The song actually rhymes and forms a coherent argument.
 * His big 'screw you' speech just before the end, somehow made more awesome by how hesitant he sounds and how much he stammers.

Scent of a Woman
"Mr. Trask: Excuse me, Mr. Slade?
 * And while Al Pacino's on our mind: the speech he gives around the end:

Frank Slade: No, I don't think I will."


 * Also from Scent, the entire sequence when he's test-driving the Ferrari. A blind man not only handles a sports car at a definitely unsafe speed, he even manages to talk his way out of a ticket - the cop who stops him never realizes he's blind.

Soul Surfer

 * The now one-armed Bethany stands on her Surf board for the first time.
 * Also, surfing the final wave in the film's climax (particularly, the funnel scene).

Ten Inch Hero

 * Jensen Ackles buys tampons. Wearing a kilt. It needs to be seen. Needless to say, it's also a CMo F.

Whatever It Takes

 * The "Titanic Dreams" prom is a huge one..

Years of the Beast

 * Years of the Beast, an otherwise mediocre Apocalyptic drama, sold itself based on one moment. Some background: This troper attended a Christian school where this movie was shown as part of a study of the book of Revelation. Late in the film, The Dragon (a vehemently pro-regime sheriff who seems to have it in for this one group of people) catches up with the protagonists fleeing the Antichrist's regime, gets the drop on our hero Stephen in the middle of nowhere, puts a gun to the back of his head, and snarls at him not to move. Stephen pauses for a second... then spins around and punches him in the jaw before he can fire, knocking him to the ground. The entire class, which hadn't been particularly invested in the film before now, cheered.

Yor:The Hunter From The Future
"Spoony: "Yor shots a giant bat out of the sky with a bow, which kills it in one hit and freezing its corpse in instant rigor mortis. He then picks up the stiffened carcass, heaves it over his head and then uses it to hang glide into the cave, to deliver a flying missile drop kick to a purple cavemen. And all the while this sight is so glorious, so metal, so packed full of sheer manly balls, that his theme music kicks in and starts trumpeting again, that Yor is the Man!""
 * Yor's attack on the cavemen is what made Spoony come up with the warning that is the image in the Moment of Awesome page.

Other

 * Perhaps this belongs in Real Life or Live Action TV, but it occurred at the Oscars so it's movie-related. At this year's show, Will Smith presented an award for effects. Before doing so, he noted that though summer blockbusters rarely receive any prominent awards, he loves them anyway, saying that they have "explosions, special effects, and, oh yeah, fans."