The end of John Wick. You’d expect him to make the douchebag suffer, but nah. Walks up, pop, walks away.

Alt: The absolutely wild over-the-top fight choreography in Equilibrium. “Not without incident.”

Alt: The indomitable human spirit. The last fight in Gurren Lagann hits like absolutely nothing else. The only part in that series that approaches Simon’s speech at the end is ______'s big last speech. “This is Simon’s soul… Team Dai-Gurren’s soul… Humanity’s soul… And actually, it’s my soul! Do you really think it’s gonna be wiped out by the likes of you!?”

I love those silly scenes where someone has to take a dozen weapons out of various parts of their outfit before entering a room for a high stakes conversation.

Also kind of love when villains get adopted into the protagonist’s group.

And whenever there’s any kind of mini-universe/layered reality.

Seconding the comment about closed loop time travel.

Edit: also NONLINEAR STORYTELLING. I love that shit. Arranging plot points for symmetry and emotion or thematic resonance rather than just focusing on “what” happened.

This is very stupid but I have to admit I enjoy when the MC in an action/thriller movie just blows shit up and kills the bad guys etc AND… All cops are cool with that. Nobody arrests them, no questions asked, they just walk away at the end like it happens in Die Hard for example. I find it strangely ridiculous and satisfactory somehow.

I especially enjoyed the subversion of the tired, old “compromising position” trope in the film State and Main (a very funny movie that I highly recommend, BTW)

An actress was trying to seduce a writer (who was in a relationship) while the two of them were in a room alone. The writer’s girlfriend suddenly walked in. I sighed. I was ready for the tiresome argument, tears, the “it wasn’t what it looked like” explanation, and eventual reconciliation that we’ve all seen a million times. A boring, overused plot device.

Instead, the writer’s girlfriend recognized the situation immediately. She knew what her boyfriend was like (shy and naive) and knew the actress had a reputation for aggressively pursuing casual flings. Instead of reacting like sitcoms would have you believe, she behaved like an adult with a brain. The writer was even surprised that she wasn’t more upset. The whole thing was pretty funny, and the story went on.

———-

OP, you remind me of something I noticed watching the Dahmer miniseries on Netflix. It’s not mentioned directly, but you do see his apartment get messier over time. It’s like he just gives up all but the most basic cleaning, and lets the mess get worse. At one point, he gets some fish, but eventually the tank is just filled with a gross sludge. What happened to the fish is never explained.

I love all sorts of gearing up/building/getting ready scenes.

For example in the movie “Shooter” the scene where they go thru walmart buying supplies. In the movie “A bugs life” the scene where they’re building the fake bird. In “Chicken Run” the scene where they build the airplane to escape with. In “Dawn of the Dead” where they’re prepairing the two busses to escape the mall.

It’s not a rare thing, but having a character that has been gone or away surprisingly turn up and finish another characters sentence.

When done right it’s just such a powerful move, which often spark a strong reaction from the viewers.

I love the scene where the main character in their path for righteousness changes the mind of multiple other characters, one by one in the increasing order of difficulty, only for the last tough and resilient one to admit their loss.

I am very selective about the stuff I watch. None of the mainstream comic with fan-services, only proper novels or collections, or original pieces of art. So, I think one of the best scenes I’ve seen in the history of cinema with this scenario is in the 12 Angry Men. This is also reflected in the manga Monster, where the inspector admits his defeat against his faulty bias towards the doctor.

I love it when a movie about hackers shows that the good guys get around town on rollerblades whereas the bad guy rides a skateboard. That way the audience clearly understands that he’s evil.

Unfortunately it’s only been done once, in the 1995 classic film “Hackers.”

This applies to movies, games, comics etc

I really like when there’s some kind of super form the main character has that’s difficult to control/can only be used temporarily, and by the end of their character arc they are just permanently in that state/can be effortlessly

For example, banner and hulk merging into professor hulk and just being able to chill in that state

Or Goku and gohan getting to the point where they can just chill and go about their daily lives in super Saiyan

:::

I enjoy that moment when the seemingly invincible ruling class of the setting is finally vulnerable, exposed with all its weaknesses, and may even experience some hurt and loss for a change.

One example that immediately comes to mind is Equilibrium, where the emotion-stifling dystopia is revealed to be the passion project of one particular asshole who only allowed himself the privilege of his own passion.

I like when movies work in scenes in which there are too many girls and too few cups.

Basically the part of movies where the characters come to realise their whole life or perception of the world was a deception.

Example Spoilers:

• Truman show at the end when the boat hits the studio wall
• The Island when EM and SJ run out of their compound and they realise it was a hologram
• The Matrix when Neo wakes up in the power plant

Movies where there’s a prolonged feeling of spiraling and being helpless as things around you fall apart before your eyes. Mother, The Fall, and The Father all at least had moments of this.

They’re great movies I’d highly recommend and it can be a bit hard to explain the scenes especially without spoilers and a general plot summary so I’ll leave it at that.

It’s more than the horror movie trope of accidentally killing someone and it feels deeper in a way and more attention grabbing.

When a woman needs a plumber. Even better when they the younger brother can get involved, but not really necessary for every scene, I’m just a Luigi fan.

Closed loop time travel. Where the results of someone travelling back in time are already there for us to see, even before we get to the point where they jump back.