Noah Henry Morriss

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100 Movie Moments

Here’s a big list of 100 movie moments that stick out to me. I was inspired by a list in Patton Oswalt’s book Silver Screen Fiend, and thought it’d be fun to give it a try.

I set a timer for an hour and went at it without doing any research or being able to google anything. I did name check song titles afterwards for specificity.

Spoilers ahead, read at your own risk.

  1. All That Jazz: “Everything Old Is New Again” Dance
  2. Local Hero: Victor’s song
  3. True Stories: John Goodman’s rendition of “People like Us”
  4. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: “Hushabye Mountain”
  5. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang:The dancing toys. When Dick Van Dyke looks in the mirror.
  6. Mary Poppins: David Tomlinson’s face during “A Man Has Dreams”
  7. The American Astronaut: Hertz Donut
  8. Amadeus: Intro scene to Mozart’s Symphony No. 25 in G minor, K. 183
  9. Five Easy Pieces: Chopin scene
  10. American Graffiti: “Here I sit, suckin’ on popsicles”
  11. Hellraiser: Frank’s rebirth
  12. Blood Simple: Bullet holes
  13. Watership Down: Intro scene done by John Hubley
  14. The Jerk: “He hates these cans!”
  15. It’s a Wonderful Life: “Auld Lang Syne” Ending
  16. Harold and Maude: Fourth wall break
  17. The Muppet Movie: “Life’s Like a Movie”
  18. The Muppet Movie: “I have a dream too, but it’s about singing and dancing and making people happy”
  19. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: “You lost today kid, but that doesn’t mean you have to like it”
  20. Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure: “Tequila” dance
  21. Night of the Hunter: “Once Upon a Time There Was a Pretty Fly”
  22. Bicycle Thieves: Walking away hand-in-hand ending
  23. Down By Law: Ice cream scene
  24. Blue Velvet: Dean Stockwell’s “In Dreams” rendition
  25. Dune (1983): Harkonnen introduction
  26. The Exorcist III: Dream Sequence
  27. The Illusionist: “Magic isn’t real”
  28. Brazil: Michael Palin’s death
  29. Blade Runner: “Tears in rain” speech
  30. The Truman Show: Truman’s escape
  31. Batman (1989): “You can call me, Joker”
  32. Nashville: “It Don’t Worry Me”
  33. Batman Forever: Jim Carrey’s scream as Batman approaches
  34. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas: Charles Durning
  35. Vertigo: Dream sequence
  36. Toy Story: “We’re flying!” “No, we’re falling with style”
  37. Singin’ in the Rain: “Make ’em Laugh”
  38. Kiki’s Delivery Service: Catching Tombo
  39. Raising Arizona: Diaper chase scene
  40. Back to the Future: Skateboard chase
  41. Back to the Future: George McFly punching Biff (and all of Crispin Glover’s performance, really)
  42. The Shining: Jack’s conversations with Lloyd
  43. Home Alone: Church scene
  44. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory: Gene Wilder rolling
  45. Nightmare Before Christmas: “Jack’s Lament”
  46. Casablanca: Singing “La Marseillaise”
  47. A Clockwork Orange: Opening
  48. The Elephant Man: Escaping the circus
  49. The Graduate: Pool to bed transition
  50. Lost Highway: “We’ve met before”
  51. Young Frankenstein: “Puttin’ On the Ritz”
  52. The Darjeeling Limited: “Look at those assholes”
  53. The Fly: “I’m an insect who dreamed he was a man and loved it, but now the dream is over and the insect is awake”
  54. Repo Man: “Ordinary $&@#ing People”
  55. Forgetting Sarah Marshall: Dracula puppet show
  56. Hair: Berger’s death
  57. 2001: a Space Odyssey: Bone to spaceship transition
  58. Being There: Ending
  59. Better Off Dead: Hamburger dance
  60. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: “We’re going the wrong way”
  61. Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Paul Reuben’s death
  62. Dodgeball: “If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball”
  63. Ghostbusters: Stay Puft Marshmallow Man
  64. Groundhog Day: Saving the day montage
  65. Rushmore: “Oh, I’m a little lonely”
  66. Amélie: Box of old treasures
  67. Oh Brother Where Art Thou: KKK meeting failure
  68. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: Flamethrower
  69. Paper Moon: Madeline Kahn
  70. Poltergeist: Meat scene
  71. Breakfast Club: Shop class lamp
  72. Smokey & the Bandit: “Two Diablo sandwiches and a Dr. Pepper”
  73. The Abyss: Michael Biehn’s performance
  74. The Incredibles: Opening interviews
  75. My Neighbor Totoro: Tree growing dance scene
  76. Tommy Boy: Chris Farley talking to waitress
  77. The Third Man: Harry Lime introduction
  78. The Thing: Defibrillator scene
  79. The Secret of Nimh: Sword fight
  80. Wallace and Gromit in The Wrong Trousers: Train chase
  81. Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Holy hand grenade
  82. Toy Story 2: “But I don’t wanna use my head”
  83. Fantastic Mr. Fox: Rat fight
  84. Stand By Me: Lardass story
  85. Frankenhooker: Patty Mullen’s face
  86. Possession: Subway tantrum
  87. The Sandlot: “Forever”
  88. Saving Mr. Banks: “Let’s Go Fly a Kite”
  89. Saving Private Ryan: Tom Hanks’ end
  90. Invasion of the Body Snatchers: “They’re here!”
  91. Paris, Texas: Walking on opposite sides of the street
  92. Stromboli: Tuna scene
  93. Ed Wood: Martin Landau
  94. Aguirre: The Wrath of God: Left surrounded by monkeys
  95. Naked Lunch: “Did I ever tell you about the man who taught his asshole to talk?”
  96. Limelight: Chaplin and Keaton
  97. Nightmare Alley (1947): “Wait. I just happened to think of something. I might have a job you can take a crack at. Course it isn’t much and I’m not begging you to take it, but it’s a job”
  98. My Darling Clementine: Hamlet recitation
  99. Under the Skin: Deflation
  100. Giant: Old, drunk James Dean