1. This scene in Gladiator: “My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.”

2. The Orphanage – What I think should have been the very last scene (SPOILERS ->) when the protagonist is dead, and is finally able to be with her son again. An ending that was creepy, crushingly sad and exultantly happy all at once.

3. Another Orphanage moment – there is a scene where the protagonist plays a game of “What’s the Time, Mr Wolf” with the spirits of children. Exquisitely drawn out and terrifying. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to play that game again.

4. Saw – The movie itself is fairly meh (but far superior to the sequels), but the one redeeming moment is the end of the film, when he stands up, and closes the door behind the two victims. Spine-tingling.

5. As Tom mentioned, Terminator 3 is, in my opinion, the best of them all for that one scene. At the end of the film, we realise that Skynet is not what it appeared to be, and we also see how Connor became the leader of mankind. Brilliant scene. Too bad about the rest of the film.

So there’s another five, again off the top of my head. As Tom said, sometimes you watch a movie just to watch one moment. That moment can turn a dull movie into a great one.

Almost Famous: Yes, I know Dave chose this film as well, but I’ve chosen a slightly different scene. At the beginning, after the concert that William goes to, he’s outside talking with Penny Lane. She says to him “I want to live in Morocco for one year…wanna come?” and William says “yes…ask me again”… I’m sure many of you remember the scene. I don’t know why, but that scene…I don’t know… I just love it.

Across the Universe: Bit of background needed. I was not a particularly big Beatles fan. I’d heard about a scene in this film of Bono singing “I Am The Walrus”, and wanted to see it. I was with Dave and Sarah from this blog and was going to show them the scene. For some reason, we decided to just watch the film from the beginning… And Holy fuck! This film is amazing. So now, one of my most memorable scenes is “I Am The Walrus”. The first few notes hit, and the wall behind Bono starts moving in all kinds of trippy ways… WOW.

A Scanner Darkly: The note from the author of the book as the credits start to roll. If you’ve seen the film, and STILL don’t understand why this bit’s memorable, do a bit of research. Every time I watch this film, and I’ve seen it at least 10 times, I get this huge tingling in my spine. It’s insane.

Into The Wild: The scene when Kristen Stewart starts singing at the hippy camp. Ok, by this point in my top 5 I have to acknowledge something. I have this thing of putting myself in the shoes of the characters involved. This scene, much like the scene I mentioned in Almost Famous, is something I want to have happen to me. I want to end up somewhere, and be completely blown away by the voice of some incredible girl, and I’ll fall in love instantly.

Almost Famous: Yes, the same film, again. With a slightly different scene… I know it’s around the same time as the Tiny Dancer scene, but i cannot remember off the top of my head if it precedes it or comes after. Anyhow. The point when William says to Penny “I want to go home”, and she simply says “shhh…you are home”, and leans her head on his shoulder… You have no idea how much I want to be in his place…

Interesting Top 5? I think so. But I have watched every single one of these films multiple times for the simple aim. To get to THAT moment.

And it’s worth it, and it’s what makes them memorable.

It is somewhat liberating writing a list like this with no forethought – you end up with items that may have been shunted out of a thought-out list, even though they are great moments. Perhaps ‘top 5′ is a misnomer.

Anyone else have a top 5? Remember! Don’t think, just do!

Terminator 2. Arnie riding a motorbike into the aquaduct, dressed in leather, dark glasses, spinning the shotgun around his hand to single handedly cock it. – As a young kid I honestly thought this was the absolutely epitome of epic coolness.

Life as a House. Spoiler alert. “My father built you a house”. One of the only movie moments to bring a tear to my eye. And it does it every single time, on cue.

Star Wars: A New Hope. When Han shot Greedo. These aren’t ordinary heroes, this guy is bad ass. He’ll kill to protect his interests. Will he be worth the trouble, or jeopardize our entire mission?

Star Trek: First Contact. When Captain Picard is accused of being Ahab, and cuts mental. Mostly because he knows it’s true. If his chest had been a cannon he’d have shot his heart upon it.

Almost Famous. Singing ‘Tiny Dancer’ on the tour bus. I sing along every time I watch that film, and every time I hear that song because of it.

I tried to do what Drew did here, and shoot from the hip with this list, even now more moments come to mind (Across the Universe occurred to me about 2 seconds after Almost Famous, but I’ll leave them in the order I thought of them)