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Name a SF movie, describe your favorite scene.

Alien.

I loved the nostromo landing. To me this was the most convincing scene of a large ship landing on a planet. No other landing scene really made me feel like I was watching a professional crew landing a huge space traveling ship on a planet with atmosphere. While the graphics are dated (they were the best available in the day it was made) they still made it believable.

Yes they cheated a little with the landing occurring in a storm, I admit. But the storm made the difficulty of the landing more believable.

Ending of Blade runner hands down

Also Alien,

The entire Ash is a robot fight scene. As terrifying as the Alien creatures are, Ash and Weyland Yutani are the actual villains and Ash's sudden monsterous turn into a homicidal milk sweating psychopath is probably one of the most terrifying moments of the original movie.

Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back.

"Luke, Use THE FORCE!" and Luke shoots photon torpedoes without optics and indeed use THE FORCE to control the torpedoes right into Death Stars shaft.

Hard to pick a favorite because there are so many great scenes in sci fi movies.

A couple that come to mind for me are:

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith- the opening space battle. Such a cool scene with big spaceships battling it out in all 3 dimensions.

Avatar: The climactic final battle between the Na'vi and the "Sky People". Say what you will about the movie (I enjoy it immensely, personally) but that whole sequence was badass!

Uh, that's in "A new hope" aka "ep IV" or just "star wars", not esb.

Luke doesn't do any shooting of torpedoes into a death star in ESB.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Lone Cat wrote:
Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back.

"Luke, Use THE FORCE!" and Luke shoots photon torpedoes without optics and indeed use THE FORCE to control the torpedoes right into Death Stars shaft.

I enjoy almost every scene in Sunshine, one of my favourite sci-fi movies.

If I had to pick one, I'd say the scene where Mace (Evans) picks Kappa (Murphy) to get the space suit when fleeing the first Icarus. Up til this point the two have been butting heads, arguing, etc. Mace's character is one we don't see often enough in movies - the donkey-cave pragmatist. The guy who's a dick but has the mission at heart (he even disagrees with rendezvousing with the Icarus One for this exact reason - danger to the mission). However, we see a life and death situation and Mace puts the mission first, at his own potential loss. He openly states that Kappa is more important to the mission.

Nice scene.

A friend got me sunshine on blueray because a guy in a podcast we listen to wouldn't stop ranting about it. Sunshine is really great.

Bladerunner.
The whole "Tears in the Rain" scene.

 Lance845 wrote:
A friend got me sunshine on blueray because a guy in a podcast we listen to wouldn't stop ranting about it. Sunshine is really great.

You can nitpick it to death like any movie, but I adore the visuals - another scene that I absolutely love is the following:




I don't own it on bluray but I heard when it was released it was one of the prettiest/best looking blurays out there.

Probably the facehugger scene from Alien, also the bit in 2001 where they're talking about Hal being faulty and you realise he can probably lip read and may not have the humans' best interests at heart. When I first saw that film that was the scene that made me sit up and pay attention

Practically all of Star Wars ESB

Going to have to follow that well worn path

Alien, the initial crew waking up scene, showing just how 'real' the ship is, worn, grimy and definitely not the SF of the pasy

Bladerunner, Tears in Rain

Don't get me started on how much I miss grimy practical effects in science fiction films. :( Actually typing keys and the chunky sound, the beeping and register-printing noises as the huge computer processes stuff. So good.

 Elbows wrote:
Don't get me started on how much I miss grimy practical effects in science fiction films. :( Actually typing keys and the chunky sound, the beeping and register-printing noises as the huge computer processes stuff. So good.

"Grimy" is an edge a lot of old fantasy and sci-fi had which all the modern CGI doesn't have. In fact a lot of more modern stuff is so clean and crisp and lacking in depth. You can really see it when you compare models to CGI spaceships.

As for me its darn hard, but I'd throw two in:

1) Ghost in the Shell original - the intro! A great example of "old style" tech gone advanced that none of the following series (including Stand Alone complex) have ever copied. All those old green graphics, keyboards, etc... I'd also add the mid-film silent story telling segment. A near 10 min segment of the film where there is no action, nothing is said. Just the rains pouring down and you get a hint of the internal troubles the Major is going through.

2) Starwars 8 both the hyperspeed attack scene and the "red sand" battle (esp the early phase). Both are examples of beauty and art in sci-fi that I feel has been lacking in many years. That they were twinned with action was a bonus. Say what you like about the story structure, the cinamatography and artistry that went on in that film is something that I think they've lacked in modern sci-fi for a very very long time. Action and firing more and more lasers and such have dominated for a long while (and yes I say that whilst aware that Starwars original was one of the more heavy on laser effects films of its time - esp when compared to star trek which many battles were almost more like fencing with one or two laser beams)

Total Recall

It has got to be were Arnie meets the lady of the night with three boobs on Mars right?

Predator.

When it's down to Dutch and the Predator.

It really sets out in stone that the Pred isn't a murderer as such - but a Hunter. Dutch stands up to it, armed with primitive weapons. And the Predator, wordlessly, honours that approach. It's gonna be hand to hand, down and dirty. May the best being win.

Of course, he proves a bad sport when nuking himself - but maybe that was more about keeping Predator tech out of our hands?

That scene really makes the most of the physical screen presence of both actors, and takes an already good film, and pushes it into the realms of excellence.

 Cryptek Keeper wrote:
Name a SF movie, describe your favorite scene.

Gonna cheat a little.

Legends From Beyond The Galactic Terrorvortex: Gloryhammer

0:32

Angus McFife XIII has clearly just said goodbye to the mysterious hermit /submarine commander Relathor and the Barbarian/ Cyborg / Demigod Hootsman of Unst. If you are coming at this fresh, or from the previous two albums, you would have no idea what Angus McFife XIII is about to do. (This is the first part of the story that dropped as a preview, though its actually midway through the story of LGFBTGTV.)



Because they omitted a ton of exposition and lead with that scene, the whole video had a lot more impact and I was immediately pulled into the story.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

Of course, he proves a bad sport when nuking himself - but maybe that was more about keeping Predator tech out of our hands?

I wonder if that's a Predator version of the Prime Directive? Maybe they wouldn't have attacked Dutch had they known he would become Governor of California, as that would be viewed as interfering with our development as a species.

I still love The Thing, especially the whole "blood test" scene.

I don't think this thread would ever be complete without mentioning the big battle scene from End Game.

I mean....wow. Not so much punch the air, as tearing up as the defenders all step forth. Just....wonderful, wonderful stuff. Especially the look on Thanos' face.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oooh, and the nebula battle in Wrath of Khan.

Sure, it's kind of lowkey. But for my memory (and I've never really watched TOS, for my sins) it was the first time we properly saw starship combat where both sides had limited sensors, and no shields.

It shows the experience and ability of both crews - and how, despite having suffered a sucker punch, The Enterprise crew are far more than plot armoured. They're very, very good at their job, able to think in 3D, which as Spock exposits, was Khan's shortcoming in that scrap.

That we, the viewer, get to see things from the outside as well, as the two ships coast past without properly realising? Just wonderful.

"Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say YES!"

There are a lot of scenes I could pick from, but that one line keeps coming to mind when trying to think of just one scene to answer the topic question.

Forbidden Planet the Great Machine scene



Monster from the Id



The Thing, watch the skies:

Aliens.
Extract from the Hive scene ("Marines we are LEAVING!" + that music it had as they tried to escape #mindblown).

Honorable mention:
Sentry guns VS Aliens scene.

2001: A Space Odyssey
The sequence where the ship docks with the space station, set to the Blue Danube Waltz.

Would you like to know more?

 helgrenze wrote:
2001: A Space Odyssey
The sequence where the ship docks with the space station, set to the Blue Danube Waltz.

That's a wonderful scene and a really great depiction of docking manoeuvres.

Right now I would say the climatic scene in Godzilla King of the Monsters. They've been doing this count-down for something like the last fifteen minutes of the movie and adding a count-down makes you wonder what's going to happen. I personally thought it was spectacular. That's when it when from 'giant dinosaur' to 'Huh, maybe Treat Williams had a point earlier in the film.'

Possibly controversial....Terminator 3, when we finally get to see Skynet enact Judgement Day.

The film is flawed, sure. But that was a helluva payoff for our tried patience!

Aliens has some of my top scenes. "Get away from her, you bitch"! is a classic.

I'm not sure about favorite, but the SF scene that made the biggest impact on me was back in 1977, seeing Star Wars as a kid, watching that ISD come onto the screen... for several minutes.

Makes a heck of an impression on a six-year-old, let me tell you.

This is a very tough task.... But. .

Man of Steel 2013 -

When Zod gives his speech before getting frozen
"I will fiiind hiiiiiiim!!!!"
Pretty much Zod being Zod throughout the movie.