The 10 Best "Holy Crap!" Movie Moments
Nazi faces melting off... Samuel L. Jackson chomped in two by a shark... Just two of the greatest "Holy Crap" moments in film history, spectacles that made entire audiences drop their jaws to the floor and gasp in wonder, astonishment or horror. They were effects unlike anything we'd seen before, and nothing had prepared us for the unreal sights that would grab us by the throat and not let go.
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark "Nazi faces melting off"
The entire movie was a thrill ride, but it was the awe-inspiring effects-filled climax that sealed the deal, when the Lost Ark was finally opened and the Nazis who dared gaze upon its contents melted like candles in an inferno.
2. Jurassic Park "T-Rex chows down on a lawyer"When the despicable lawyer abandoned the helpless kids and hid in the outhouse, only to have the T-Rex knock down the hut, pluck him from the toilet and swallow him whole, we didn't know whether to cheer or crap our pants. So we did both.
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"Ents trash Isengard / Gandalf to the rescue at Helm's Deep"
In a trilogy chock-full of amazing moments, it's hard to top the sequence toward the end of The Two Towers, when the tree-like Ents open a can of whoop-ass on Saruman and his orcs at Isengard, intercut with amazing battle scenes at Helm's Deep, culminating with Gandalf's chill-inducing stampede down a steep hill straight into a massive sea of Uruk-Hai. Simply breathtaking. (Runner up: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - "The battle at Gondor")
4. Deep Blue Sea"Sam Jackson's final speech, then shark bait"
An unremarkable movie is redeemed (almost) when Samuel L. Jackson delivers a rousing speech to a doomed bunch of survivors, filling everyone with hope, only to be shockingly grabbed by the genetically enhanced sharks, yanked into the water, and chomped in two.
5. An American Werewolf in London"The transformation"
Almost quaint by today's standards in make-up effects, in 1978 this film discarded the typical werewolf movie cop-out of having the werewolf transformation occur just outside of the frame, and instead showed us in vivid, hair-raising detail how star David Naughton became the wolf. The scene was ground-breaking then, and actually still packs a punch today.
6. The Matrix"Bullet-time effects"
Sure, we're all now sick of the countless films and commercials employing "bullet time" freeze effects while the camera pans around the frozen scene, but the first time we saw it in The Matrix, it was nothing short of dazzling. Our fave of the several frozen-in-mid-air shots: when Morpheus hovers, about to land a devastating blow on Neo during their training. (Runner up: The Matrix Reloaded - "The Burly Brawl")
7. Titanic"The Titanic sinks"
We all knew it was coming: the ship had to go down. But when it did, it did so majestically. The white-knuckle horror of watching passengers cling to the rails of the upright ship, many plunging to their deaths, banging into parts of the ship as they fell, is a sight we'll never shake. (Not to mention the unspeakable horror of that damn Celine Dion song.)
8. Alien "The chest-burster"
Not only were audiences unprepared for the mess hall scene in which John Hurt crumples followed by a baby alien bursting through his chest, but so, apparently, was the film's cast. Behind-the-scenes tales from the Alien set describe director Ridley Scott keeping the cast in the dark on what they were about to witness in order to capture their true, unrehearsed reactions of horror.
9. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
"The morphing, liquid-metal T-1000 Terminator"
We had seen morphing in a few films before T2, but never on this level. Robert Patrick's evil terminator seamlessly changed shape in many scenes, the most memorable being the scenes involving him getting holes blasted in his head and upper body, tearing him apart like metal silly putty, only to have him pull himself back together.
10. Poltergeist "Psychic investigator peels off his face"
Many who saw the film as kids still can't shake the images of that creepy clown doll, but it was the completely unexpected scene of the psychic investigator's assistant in the bathroom first innocently picking at a blemish on his face, then inexplicably peeling inch after inch of skin off until a bloody mess stared back at him -- and us -- in the mirror.
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