Paradigm wrote:If you mean moments when humanity proves that no matter what the aliens throw at us we can quite literally throw it back in their faces with a smile, then I nominate a scene from Halo 2.

Master Chief: Permission to leave the ship?

Lord Hood: For what purpose, Master Chief?

MC: To give The Covenant back their bomb.

He then precedes to drag a thermo-nuclear weapon out of an airlock, jump out of the ship, freefall through a massive space battle before kicking it into a Covenant ship and riding the explosion back up.

Also, from The Avengers, the moment where Agent Coulson blasts Loki with the Destroyer gun. 'Oh, so that's what it does.'

dementedwombat wrote:The entirety of the movie Battleship was a pretty good one (yes, I actually enjoyed that movie, since I went into it quite prepared over how horrible it would be).

Although, after a seriously too long and in depth discussion with a friend where we dissected that movie and the alien's motivations/technology we came to the conclusion that the "alien attack" was actually a mining fleet who didn't know that our planet was inhabited, and we as a species made the worst first contact it is possible to make (seriously, all the alien BS weaponry and motivation make sense if you think of them as mining tools not actual weapons).

Grey Templar wrote:So many scenes from Stargate come to mind.

 CREEEEEEEEED wrote:
Mine's when they have captured the brain bug in starship troopers, the physic commissar dude touches it, says, "It's afraid" and the half a million mobile infantry just start yelling and cheering, and you can tell the brain bug is crapping its pants
Also basically any battle scene from starship troopers really.

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the Fourth Battalion, Tenth Marines, SECOND Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Saipan, Marianas Islands, 7 July 1944. When the enemy launched a fierce, determined counterattack against our positions and overran a neighboring artillery battalion, Private First Class Agerholm immediately volunteered to assist in the efforts to check the hostile attack and evacuate our wounded. Locating and appropriating an abandoned ambulance jeep, he repeatedly made extremely perilous trips under heavy rifle and mortar fire and single-handledly loaded and evacuated approximately 45 casualties, working tirelessly and with utter disregard for his own safety during a gruelling period of more than 3 hours. Despite intense, persistent enemy fire, he ran out to aid two men whom he believed to be wounded Marines but was himself mortally wounded by a Japanese sniper while carrying out his hazardous mission.

For extraordinary heroism against an armed enemy in the vicinity of Sommocolonia, Italy on 26 December 1944, while serving as a member of Cannon Company, 366th Infantry Regiment, 92d Infantry Division. During the preceding few weeks, Lieutenant Fox served with the 598th Field Artillery Battalion as a forward observer. On Christmas night, enemy soldiers gradually infiltrated the town of Sommocolonia in civilian clothes, and by early morning the town was largely in hostile hands. Commencing with a heavy barrage of enemy artillery at 0400 hours on 26 December 1944, an organized attack by uniformed German units began. Being greatly outnumbered, most of the United States Infantry forces were forced to withdraw from the town, but Lieutenant Fox and some other members of his observer party voluntarily remained on the second floor of a house to direct defensive artillery fire. At 0800 hours, Lieutenant Fox reported that the Germans were in the streets and attacking in strength. He then called for defensive artillery fire to slow the enemy advance. As the Germans continued to press the attack towards the area that Lieutenant Fox occupied, he adjusted the artillery fire closer to his position. Finally he was warned that the next adjustment would bring the deadly artillery right on top of his position. After acknowledging the danger, Lieutenant Fox insisted that the last adjustment be fired as this was the only way to defeat the attacking soldiers. Later, when a counterattack retook the position from the Germans, Lieutenant Fox's body was found with the bodies of approximately 100 German soldiers. Lieutenant Fox's gallant and courageous actions, at the supreme sacrifice of his own life, contributed greatly to delaying the enemy advance until other infantry and artillery units could reorganize to repel the attack. His extraordinary valorous actions were in keeping with the most cherished traditions of military service, and reflect the utmost credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army.

 Wyzilla wrote:

But to write a speech on par of that quality in some of the darkest days our civilization experienced in history, it takes inspiration, it takes emotion, and it requires hope.

Alcubierre drive

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:
More serious now:

How about hitting a comet with a satellite launched probe? That was pretty fething awesome.

We've put people on the moon multiple times.

We advanced flight technology so quickly that one of the Wright brothers lived to see us break the sound barrier.

NASA is currently working on the practical technology and deeper theory that will lead to a functional Alcubierre drive.

Our medical technology in just the last few years have let the lame walk, the blind see, and even given people who are completely paralysed a way to interact and communicate with the world and it's only getting better.

The United States Navy is going to have combat operational rail guns shortly.

Actual, practical personal cybernetics, mostly as replacements for lost limbs are becoming functional reality, even if they aren't quite practical for the average person due to cost.

We just discovered an Earth like planet using the Kepler deep space telescope about 500 light years away, right in the Goldilocks zone. Not only is it our best chance for potentially discovering life similar to us, it might not be a bad second home for humanity one day.

The average person living in the West enjoys a quality of life undreamed of by kings and emperors not even centuries prior.

 dogma wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:

But to write a speech on par of that quality in some of the darkest days our civilization experienced in history, it takes inspiration, it takes emotion, and it requires hope.

Particularly given that it was an incredibly unpopular speech at the time. Even today you'll find plenty of people who dislike it due to its clear anti-capitalist premise.

Hell, the whole movie was viewed as controversial due to the fact that there were a lot of people in the US and Europe that sympathized with the Nazis.

 CREEEEEEEEED wrote:
Peace and equality can expletives deleted. This thread is meant to be about humanity killing aliens and taking their stuff, mostly. But if that's your humanity feth yeah, then each to their own I guess.

 flamingkillamajig wrote:
Xcom in general is a game about owning aliens. It's a lot of fun fighting off an alien invasion and succeeding. Xenonauts also had a similar situation. On the last mission you basically either win and humans and earth get to live a while longer or all life or at least all human life as you know it is destroyed. So yeah no pressure.

 CREEEEEEEEED wrote:
Mine's when they have captured the brain bug in starship troopers, the physic commissar dude touches it, says, "It's afraid" and the half a million mobile infantry just start yelling and cheering, and you can tell the brain bug is crapping its pants
Also basically any battle scene from starship troopers really.