Ten Of The Best... Scenes

I'll explain:

The next blog I'm going to do is about my top ten movies. But I'm really rubbish and choosing my top ten movies, even splitting them up by category, so I'm going to take my time with that one and just do this blog for this week.

And when I say 'scenes', I mean scenes from a tv show, movie or book. Any particular scene that just sticks out for being awesome for me. There are some scenes from tv shows that you may not have seen the episodes for, so I'll put a spoiler alert, but to be honest they don't really spoil too much. Or they're just so far ahead of where I know some of you are (Eg, Melissa with Supernatural) that they'll mean nothing to you and won't spoil anything. I'll also try and get a youtube video for as many of the movie or tv show scenes that I can, but you may just have to cope with my description.

So here goes, 

My Ten Of The Best...Scenes

Page 290-305, Dowsing The Dead, The Shapeshifter Series- Ali Sparkes

Okay, without being spoiler-y for those (hopefully few or none) of you who haven't read this book, this scene takes place over 3 chapters and basically features Dax getting crucified. Which makes it really sadistic that this is one of my favourite scenes but I'll explain after a brief description. To keep it simple, Dax goes after a 'baddie' as a falcon which he can shapeshift into, but the 'baddie' manages to telekinetically hold him against a windmill sail until he can be crucified by a nail and a shard of glass, one in each wing. The scene then has someone helping him get down and giving him a phone before leaving him until his friends can find him and help him.

I really do sound sadistic. I've always loved this scene since the moment I first read it. The description of what Dax is going through both emotionally and physically is just amazing. The emotion conjured by Spakes is just so strong that you really feel for the character. Although, as a reader, you know that Dax is going to survive, there's a brief moment when you forget that he's the main character and you genuinely don't know if he's going to make it. Even the wee 'you're not dead but you're nearly dead' dream like sequence is just hauntingly well written. I can't even choose a small piece to write out here, it's all so great. The scene is truly, hauntingly, beautifully well written and full of emotion. Read it and weep. 

The Final Scene, Sacrifice, Supernatural

SPOILER ALERT. THOUGH IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN SEASON 8, YOU WON'T KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING SO IT'S NOT REALLY SPOILING ANYTHING.

After 2 not-so-great seasons, season 8 has been amazing for Supernatural. And then came the finale. Which was epic. To not be spoiler-y, the thing that season 8 has all been about didn't happen, and an idea which was only introduced later on did; but not the way that the audience expected. At all. And then came the final scene (which is shown above if it works). For a show that doesn't always produce the best special effects, this sequence is truly beautiful. You don't even need to understand what's happening to see the beauty. Basically the angels have been thrown out of heaven and are falling to Earth. The music just goes so well with what you can see, and what you can see is truly amazing. Just watch the clip and I dare you to disagree with me. This scene is truly beautiful, and perfectly ends a season.

The Prince's Tale, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows- book and film

The best example of 'set up and pay off' that I think I've ever read. After nearly 7 books of being told through Harry's perspective that Snape is untrustworthy and we should hate him, we find out that Snape has been protecting Harry all along, and we see why he did what he did in the past. The scene is amazingly well written, and connects so well to small plot points or dialogue from previous books. For example, Petunia states in book 5 'that awful boy... tell her about them' meaning the dementors. When reading book 5, you automatically presume that the awful boy is James Potter, but after reading this chapter you can now assume that it was Snape. Which just shows how amazing JK Rowling is at planning things out etc. Snape doesn't seem like the bad guy anymore, he just made a mistake that cost him his best friend and has been trying to fix it ever since.
This scene also seemed like it would be impossible to replicate on screen. But it definitely surpassed my expectations, and I think it surpassed everyone's expectations. The strength of the story was paired with the immense strength of Alan Rickman's acting. The scene packed as much of an emotional punch as it did in written form. I won't put a link here because it's quite a long scene and everyone knows what it looks like.

Storming the Beach, Saving Private Ryan

This is the only scene in this film that I've seen. I'm not a big war film lover, as I don't really like gore in films. Which this scene has plenty of. But the scene is just so realistic, and so long, and so real that I like this. The scene is almost always featured on lists of the best moments in film, and normally I'm not a massive fan of things that critics love, but this scene is just plain good.  The sheer scale of the scene is just insane. I can't really describe this too much as I last saw it in RME years ago, but if you've seen it, you'll know what it great about it.

Boat To Hogwarts/Sorting Hat, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

I think this scene makes more of an impact in the movie than in the book as we get to see Hogwarts for the first time, at the same time as Harry does. Seeing the castle for the first time is a big moment for any Potter fan, as the castle is just so magical looking and exactly how you'd expect it to look. It's even better than you'd expect it to look. It's just a breathtaking scene. The cinematography is brilliant and everything about the scene is just great. And then the scene moves into the Great Hall. And the Great Hall is just as beautiful and just as amazing and just visually stunning. The scene is just amazing, for both previous fans and new fans, it's as simple as that.

Last Fight Scene, Iron Man Three

Ok, to describe this one would be massively spoilery since it's still in the cinema, so I'm not going to. If you've seen it, you know how epic it is, if you're going to see it you'll know how epic it is once you've seen it and if you're not going to see it, then you're stupid.

Basically this scene is just amazing, it's so cleverly done and just so well shot. The special effects (there are lots) never look fake, and it's just a truly stunning action piece. Go see it!

Jackie Chan vs Jet Li, The Forbidden Kingdom

There's not much I can say about this scene. It's just Jackie Chan fighting Jet Li with Michael Anganaro getting beaten up in the process. Chan and Li are two of the biggest names in martial arts films so getting the two in a movie and then in a fight is just amazing. So yeah, this scene is amazing because two awesome fighters kick the shit out of each other (and poor old Michael) in awesome ways. End of story.

Final Chapters, Sons Of Destiny, Darren Shan

In a short summary, Darren (main character) finds out that either he or Steve (bad guy) is destined to destroy the world, so he lets himself get killed and kills Steve in the process. His soul then gets made into a Little Person so he can go to Paradise (vampire heaven) but he gets put in the past where he scares himself away from ever seeing the Cirque where both he and Steve became vampires in the first place, thus stopping the prophecy of one of them bringing destruction, gives the diary he's kept for the whole experience to a guy to give to him when he gets older so he can publish them (meant to be the book series) and then dies and goes to heaven. It's all a bit complicated really. As much as I hate the fact that the book goes "lol joke, we've changed the past so none of it ever really happened", it is totally unexpected, and probably the only way to end the books without ruining the series. Plus I quite like the idea that vampires etc are real, and that Darren won in the end.

However, the real magic in this scene is how well it ends everything. It's a tragic ending, with Darren dying, but at the same time the Darren that died was the one that had suffered for years. In dying, he managed to save both Steve and himself from years of misery as vampire and vampaneze, and also saved the world from whichever one would bring about it's destruction. So in a way it's a victorious ending. The fact that both manage to exist equally shows just how good an author Darren Shan is, and just how good these ending chapters were.

The Fifth Timeline, Remedial Chaos Theory, Community

The description from wikipedia: In the fifth timeline, Jeff rolls a 1 and Troy has to go. He leaves in a hurry, so as not to miss anything interesting, and slams the door, which causes the diorama boulder to slip and roll onto the floor. Annie trips on it and falls on the coffee table. Her bag lands on the floor, which causes the gun inside to fire, hitting Pierce in the thigh. Britta's joint ignites the spilled liquor. Troy returns to a scene of chaos, with the troll staring directly at him from amidst the flames .
 Although this entire episode was amazing, this particular scene in which everything goes wrong is just amazing. Truly hilarious and just so different to anything else on tv. I can't find a youtube video, but if you haven't seen it, just watch the episode. Although the darkest timeline should have been left in this episode, and not used in the season 4 finale. But I'm not going to talk about that.

This scene was just hilarious and just so well done and just ugh watch it! I had to pause the episode until I finished laughing.

End Scene, Swan Song, Supernatural

Let me set the scene: Sam has been possessed by Lucifer and is about to try to start to apocalypse when Dean shows up to try to talk Sam into overpowering Lucifer. It's the ending to five seasons worth of build up and it's suitably dramatic, and then Castiel shows up and goes "Hey, assbutt!" and it's just brilliant. For those of you who are not educated in the wonders of Supernatural, Castiel is an angel and insults are not his strong point. It's just such a brilliant moment in such a brilliant scene, which continues on to Lucifer beating Dean to a bloody pulp before seeing an army man stuck in the car that reminds him of Dean, letting Sam overpower Lucifer and trap him in hell. It's the perfect balance of drama, humour, emotion and ass-kickery that it's just an awesome scene. Plus it's narrated by God, what more do you want? Definitely worth watching all five seasons for. And definitely deserving of a place on this list.

Honorable Mentions

End Scene, Season 5, Chuck (would have been on the list, but waaay too spoilery, but up there at the top)
Sam's Death Scene and Azazel's Death Scene, All Hell Breaks Loose (Parts 1 and 2), Supernatural

Lassie Jerky and Shawn Takes A Shot In The Dark (entire episodes), Psych

"Yer a wizard, Harry", Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

John's Phone, A Study In Pink, Sherlock

I'll add to this if I remember anymore over the next couple of days

*UPDATE*
Looked back at this and I can't believe I forgot the final scene from 'Deez Nups', Psych. I can't say too much about it because it's super super spoilery but let's just say that for an episode all about a wedding this scene was totally unexpected. Which just made the emotion of the scene hit even harder than it would have done. The emotion was amazing, the chemistry between the two actors is electrifying (I would hope so, they've been dating for 7 years) and the entire scene just played out so well, and ugh it was so good. I sat for about 5 minutes after it just staring at the blank screen in as much shock as the characters. That's when you know a good scene.

This blog has been written rather quickly while I've been trying to sort out music etc for the talent show, and so I didn't get enough time to research as much as I would have liked to. There'll be more book/tv/movie scenes that I adore that didn't make it on this list purely because I haven't seen/read them as recently as the ones above so I don't remember them off the top of my head as much. But I still like to think this is a pretty good list.

Due to my complete inability to limit my favourite films to ten, I'll do them in categories like action, comedy, kiddie films, etc. And I'll choose what category I'll do for next week at a later time when it's not nearly 1am and I've got an alarm set for 7am. 

I'll finish with Chuck Shirley/God's end quote from Swan Song:

No doubt - endings are hard. But then again... nothing ever really ends, does it?
Caitlin out

PS, you think my scenes are good? Let me know! Think they're crappy? Let me down gently!