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How do?

Obvious sister thread to the Sci-Fi one.

For me? You can stick you’re Charge of the Rohirrim, near perfect as it is.

This?




This is pretty much perfect. Conan’s prayer and defiance at the start. The way it plays out. Just.......wonderful. And not to knock The Charge of The Rohorrrim? All purely practical effects.

Mag. Nif. I. Cent.

Ohh there's loads but I think I'll jump in and say the first time we see Drago in full body in Dragon Heart.

Up till then dragons were mostly either stop motion, enlarged iguanas or rather dubious costumes. They even tease the audience in the film by having the first scene a very standard "dark cave" where you hardly see the dragon at all; keeping him in back and only letting you get a hint here and there (which was the other trick to having a dragon in your film in that era - have it but don't show it).


After that it gets hard for me to pick a scene because I'm more likely to just start naming scenes until I'm naming enough scenes to just name the whole film.

It doesn't have the spectacle of the Rohirrim charge, or the dread of the Nazgul at Weathertop, or the off-the-charts badassery of Aragorn facing the Uruk horde at Amon Hen, but I'm going to go with a pick from the Desolation of Smaug, Bilbo's 'burglary' and subsequent confrontation with said Dragon.

To me, it's to iconic scene of The Hobbit. First, lodged into my memory by the stellar BBC audio drama version, then the book (supplemented by the amazing illustration, Alan Lee I believe) and finally realised, perfectly, in the film. The scale of the treasure horde and the Dwarven architecture does a wonderful job of accentuating both Bilbo's diminutive presence and Smaug's immensity, so much of the dialogue is taken straight from the book and Cumberbatch turns in a wonderful performance. And while the CGI of The Hobbit is ropey at times, I don't think there's ever been a more majestic, imposing, believable dragon committed to screen yet.

Freeman is at his best in this scene as well, striking that perfect balance between Bilbo's sheer exterior terror and the depths of his inner bravery, at once completely out of his depth and achieving something only he could. No strength of arms or sleight of hand, just a battle of wits and a reliance on that most powerful of things, the courage of Hobbits.

What really puts it over the edge for me is that as I say, it's a scene I've had a version of in my head for as long as I can remember, and when they get around to putting it in the film, they do it in a way that lines up with that perfectly with that vision. There's no reinvention, no new spin on it, it's just the perfect realisation of one of the most iconic scenes in fantasy literature.

The Rohirrim charge is probably one of my favorite scenes in any fantasy movie.

Almost every scene in Spirited Away is incredible (the movie earns its reputation as one of Miyazaki's finest works), and pretty much any scene in the forest in Princess Mononoke is either incredibly majestic or utterly disturbing (in a good way).

I also feel like, while an otherwise awful film, the penultimate action sequence of At World's End deserves serious props for originality and excitement. I've rewatched that movie just to see that scene more than once.

"...a sword-day, a red day, and the sun rises!"

That's all that needs to be said.

Best fantasy scene? That's a rough one. There are quite a few really really good ones.

As much as I disliked the Battle of Winterfell, that quick shot of the dragon flying above the undead army and breathing down on it was one of the best dragons ever.

Smaug in the Hobbit movies was pretty solid. I was a trifle disappointed they made him more bat or wyvern than classic dragon, though.

Possibly the best fantasy fight scene is the duel in The Princess Bride. Full marks to the Conan battle above, too, but for me seeing two fencing 'masters' go at it full-bore... just.... slowly enough so I can see what's happening.

(I was so excited to see my first fencing match... and so terribly disappointed when I realized I had no idea what had happened in the second, second and a half the the matches occurred in...)

I think we're definitely far too short of quality fantasy films. The ones that stick out to me aren't actually LOTR (though a super solid trilogy), etc. But things from my childhood.

Artax perishing in the swap in Never Ending Story (super sad as a kid)

How scary the wolf/Gmork creature is when confronted at the end of that movie was super freaky as a kid.

Willow, damn near all of it. Just a fantasy, wonderful fun romp with cool practical effects etc. I'd say there are very few scenes though which strike me with awe, etc.

The first thing that came to mind after reading the thread title was Boromir giving his life to save the hobbits, so I guess it must be that. Aragorn's duel with the leader Uruk after that was wonderful icing on the cake too

The Fire Mares from Krull

Mad Mardigan from Willow

Not just the Fire Mares scene, but the follow up as they assault the Black Fortress and you see Rell has refused to accept his fate and is coming to help. Still get chills.


Legend. The whole movie. I can seriously rewatch that daily and never get tired of it.

That is truly a hard question, but I think my favourite scene would be when King Aragorn and everyone kneels for the Hobbits in Return of the King, it always hits me hard.

End fight scene in Big Trouble in Little China between Lopans crew and Egg Shens.
All hell just breaks loose. What a great scene.

From a technical point of view? this Skeksis dining room scene from The Dark Crystal (pretty stoked for the new series).

For entertainment? chalk up another vote for Princess Bride duel (the single best swordfight bin all of cinemadom).

 Elbows wrote:
I think we're definitely far too short of quality fantasy films. The ones that stick out to me aren't actually LOTR (though a super solid trilogy), etc.

Sadly it seems that instead of spawning a legion of copy-cat films, the Lord of the Rings sort of blasted everyone so hard that they gave up before they started; then of course the Marvel and DC films leaped in pretty fast and started to dominate a lot of the fantasy style market.

I agree we have a big gap of good quality big budget fantasy films; though there's a nice selection of sort of B grade films that are decent enough, just not good nor big enough to get huge accolades and the like. 8th Son and the like.

combining a heroic death and quite possibly the least convincing bit of "acrobatics" ever...

.. that roll ?

Good stuff.

Fight scene in Princess Bride. It’s still one of the best fantasy movies of all time just in general.

The summoning of the Knights, from Excalibur



Dragonslayer...dragon says hello.



And the greatest fantasy scene evah!

I do like this one alot

Equal Best:

Crossroads scene in Willow is the gritty standout moment of an otherwise amazing but cheesy film.

In Spirited Away when all of the spirits start arriving atthe bathhouse from their ferries.

Honourable mentions:

So many moments in Labyrinth, generally involving Hoggle.

The bit in Stardust when when you realise the ship captain is not a mean murdery type.

The duel in The Princess Bride.

The Opening reveal of Hobbiton in The Fellowship of the Ring.

well sequals out soon




and of course one of many awesome scenes in Time Bandits




and ...

 Mr Morden wrote:
I do like this one alot

Well, hell. If we're counting The 13th Warrior (based on Michael Crichton's 'Eaters of the Dead'...a Beowulf re-telling that he wrote on a bet from a fellow professor...) then...the whole damn movie. It's my favourite film.

'Forth now, and fear no darkness!'

Eeeek….Goosebumps even now!

But kind of never noticed the serious lack of great fantasy films. At least in recent years. LOTR is just such a heavyweight it dwarfs everything.

An honourable mention would be Danearys burning getting the unsullied and ordering them to kill all the masters and setting them free with the dragon burning the banners.

 Fifty wrote:


The bit in Stardust when when you realise the ship captain is not a mean murdery type.

Possibly the funniest scene in any fantasy movie ever.
Robert De Niro in drag is quite possibly the funniest thing I ever saw on the big screen!

The Court Jester starring Danny Kaye.
Final fight scene with Basil Rathbone. The switching between serious and comedy is spot on.
And yes, the blonde is a very young Angela Lansbury.

Lady Hawk. Great movie.

 helgrenze wrote:
The Court Jester starring Danny Kaye.
Final fight scene with Basil Rathbone. The switching between serious and comedy is spot on.
And yes, the blonde is a very young Angela Lansbury.

I'll be honest, the most conflicted I've ever been in my life was when I saw Angela Lansbury in a Victor Mature movie.

I think my favorite fantasy movie scene is probably the Battle between Uther and Vortigen in Merlin (1998)

Is the gear lame? Yes. But it is just a great and sorta realistic there is no fancing twirling nothing just people beating each other to death with swords, axes, and clubs. While also being an escalation of the battle between Merlin and Queen Mab. Now it is technically a 'mini-series' but it became a full VHS movie release that was the only version I watched as a kid.




If that doesn't count my favorite fantasy scene is probably this from the old Dragonheart. (man the cgi has not aged well but i do like the scene, but the puppet looks amazing)


A character to whom that point was this stick in the mud because of his failure to teach his student to be good finally comes to terms to whom he should be. (we shall never speak of the sequels.)

Speaking of swordplay...
The Three Musketeers (1948)
Starring Gene Kelley as D'artagnan
This scene is early, just after the Cardinal's men break up the duals with the Musketeers.

The Barbarians (1987).

A better movie was never filmed. Watch this scene in all it´s glory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVPr-YM6-E8

It's hard to pick a single scene from Highlander, but I'll nominate either the tower battle between Ramirez and the Kurgan, or the sequence after that where Connor just settles down and lives peacefully with the love of his life--but of course, it's not a happy ending, because she's growing old while he remains unchanging. Who Wants To Live Forever on the soundtrack just seals it as a perfect sequence.

That movie was really "lightning in a bottle", wasn't it? The franchise spent decades trying to recapture the magic of the first film, and it never quite worked. Maybe because the strength of Highlander was the sense of mystery and wonder--sometimes you can explain that without reducing it, but often it's not possible (anyone who's unhappy about the Star Wars sequels--trust me, it could have been sooooo much worse ).