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Ricochet Movie Fight Club: Question 23
Last week we had dozens of fantastic death scenes to sort through before settling down on a top four. A two-vote lead was all that mattered in the end as we saw a baby xenomorph burst forth, killing its host and securing Repmodad victory, and the right to ask: What is the greatest action scene in movie history?
The Rules:
- Post your answer as a comment. Make it clear that this is your official answer, one per member.
- Defend your answer in the comments and fight it out with other Ricochet member answers for the rest of the week.
- Whoever gets the most likes on their official answer comment (and only that comment) by Friday night wins the fight.
- The winner gets the honor of posting the next question on Saturday.
- In the case of a tie, the member who posted the question will decide the winner.
Notes:
- Only movies will qualify (no TV shows) however films that air on television (BBC films, a stand-alone mini-series) will qualify.
- Your answer can be as off-the-wall or controversial as you’d like. It will be up to you to defend it and win people to your side.
- Fight it out.
Movie Fight Club Questions by Week:
- What is the best film portrayal of a book character? Winner: Charlotte with 18 likes for Alan Rickman’s portrayal of Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies.
- What is the best motion picture comedy of the 21st century? Winner: split decision. In an exemplary display of genuine sportsmanship, Randy Webster conceded the fight to Marjorie Reynolds’ pick Team America: World Police.
- What film provides the most evocative use of location? Winner: Taras with 21 likes for Lawrence of Arabia. Wasn’t even close.
- What is the best film that utilizes or is inspired by a work of William Shakespeare? Winner: Dr. Bastiat with five likes for The Lion King, a film inspired by Hamlet.
- Which movie has the best surprise ending, or unexpected plot twist? Winner: Repmodad with 18 likes for The Sixth Sense.
- What pre-1970s black-and-white movie would be most enjoyed by a modern 18- to 25-year-old audience? Winner: E J Hill with 9 likes for a Casablanca. (He didn’t exactly designate it his official answer, and most of the likes may have been for the modern Casablanca trailer rather than for it as an answer to the question, but nobody seemed to dispute it on those grounds, so that’s how the cookie crumbles.)
- What movie did you go to based on the trailer, only to have felt cheated? (i.e., the trailer was 10x better than the movie?) Winner: Back to back wins by E J Hill with 9 likes for Something to Talk About.
- Name the worst movie portrayal of your profession (where applicable.) Winner: LC with 8 likes for Denise Richards’ Dr. Christmas Jones in The World is Not Enough.
- What is the worst movie that claims to be based or inspired by a true story? Winner: Tex929rr with 16 likes for the, “…terrible acting, and countless deviations from history,” in Pearl Harbor.
- What is your favorite little known movie? Winner: A last-minute rally for Tremors made the difference as Songwriter took the week 10 win!
- What is the best movie that you never want to watch again? Winner:
HitlerCharlotte with 15 likes for Schindler’s List. Sorry, Richard Oshea but Jesus won the real fight.
Week 11.5 Exhibition Match (as a make-up of sorts, since Songwriter didn’t get the week 11 question submitted in time) Name the best movie theme song ever? No winner declared but I’m pretty sure it was I.M. Fine with “Moon River.” - Name the best animated feature-length movie of all time. Winner: I.M. Fine with 10 likes for Pinocchio, and justice for I.M. Fine prevailed.
- What is the worst acting performance in an otherwise good film? Winner: In one of the most brutal fights we’ve seen yet Repmodad fended off a furious 12th-round onslaught by Gary McVey to give Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves the win with 20 likes.
- What is the quintessential American movie? Winner: Miffed White Male pulled off the comeback with 20 likes for The Right Stuff. There was a two-way tie at 19 for second place as well.
- What’s the most entertaining movie set during WWII? Winner: Arahant clearly won with Casablanca’s walloping 30 likes despite the withering onslaught by Sisyphus on the final day.
- What is the best movie love story? Winner: Songwriter with 20 likes for The Princess Bride with 20 likes. Up managed to make a strong showing and Dr. Bastiat is still conducting recounts trying to “find” some uncounted votes.
- What’s the best’ buddy’ movie? Winner: Brian Watt wins with 12 likes for The Man Who Would be King.
- What is the worst movie (not a made-for-TV movie) ever made? Brian Watt joins E.J. Hill as the only other back-to-back winner with 16 likes for Barbarella. Brian will get another crack at it by choosing the week 19 question. Can he make it three?
- What is the most frightening non-bloody film you’ve ever seen? The winner: J D Fitzpatrick with Wait Until Dark, starring the lovely Audrey Hepburn getting terrorized over a doll, sort of.
- Which movie has the best duel? Winner: Split decision between Philo for The Princess Bride and Songwriter for Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The winner as decided by week 19 champion, JD Fitzpatrick, was The Princess Bride.
- Which movie based on a true story is the most accurate depiction of those events? Winner: I M Fine with a runaway victory for Apollo 13 with 27 likes.
- What is the most memorable death scene in a film? Winner: Repmodad with the dual birth/death scene from Alien.
I hope the chariot race in Ben Hur wins because there was no such thing as CGI back then, but I think the Lord of the Rings deserves a few nods even with the CGI. The Battle of Helms Deep, the Ride of the Rohirrim from The Two Towers and the battle in Return of the King where Theoden is slain.
Glory and the assault on Ft. Wagner. Glory indeed made all the more glorious fighting as men instead of slaves.
A close second is the escape scene from The Deer Hunter.
Also from The Deer Hunter is a more poetic action scene of Michael climbing the mountain tracking the huge buck.
True. Not many people realize how incredibly far it is from Nome (presumably where the Russians would land in AK and no road out) to the northern border via the Yukon. And with only three highways and nowhere to hide they’d get picked apart pretty cleanly before the got anywhere near British Columbia.
But, the fantasy assumes nuclear weapons were also in play, so take out Seattle, Eilson and Elmendorf AFBs and maybe they could land troops and logistical support via ship around Vancouver…its a fun problem to think about.
I think I’ll go with the mall scene in The Blues Brothers:
Official answer.
A very satisfying “action scene” from the same movie (Language Warning!):
Band of Brothers, scene with Speirs charging through an armored division of Nazis outside of Bastogne.
Final answer.
I have forgotten how much I love that scene. Thanks.
I disagree with all of these answers. Why? Because chaos is… well, chaos. Especially when so few of us have experienced it on that level.
Much harder is to take a well-known event, recreate it for the camera and we accept it as much as we do the original event that we witnessed first hand. That’s why the greatest action sequences on film are the game action in Miracle, the story of the Lake Placid Olympic hockey team. Every pass, every deke and fake, every flip of the stick had to be choreographed as much as a Fred Astaire dance routine. Diector Gavin O’Connor did a masterful job.
Final Answer.
By the time I discover these threads, they already have three pages of responses. This is why I’ll never win.
But the answer is the Truck Chase/Fight from Raiders of the Lost Ark. All real stunt work. And amazing stunt work, too. This is the movie I show to my kids who have grown jaded by the computer generated “stunts” in modern movies. I show them this, and they’re like “uh-huh.” And then I tell them it’s all real. And then they’re impressed.
Too late for me to get enough votes to win. But this is the correct answer.
I almost forgot this scene from Act of Valor
I agree. The rescue sequence in Act Of Valor is probably the best action sequence there is. From the HALO and SWCC boat insertions to the ‘Hot Extraction’ scene. Nothing can beat it. It’s use of actual live fire and real SEAL’s adds to the authenticity (especially in way the SEAL’s move). As a note, my wife (who loathes action movies got out of her chair when she first saw it to cheer on the SEAL’s)
This is my FINAL selection.
P.S. As a side note one of the SEAL’s was the son of an old friend of mine.
Solid, solid choices here. “Ronin” is one of my favorite movies, and the car chases in it are tremendous. The suggestion of “Hard Boiled” is very good, because what John Woo did with fight sequence choreography in that movie (and originally in “A Better Tomorrow“) continues to echo down to this day. And I mean c’mon, they just can’t make a movie like “Ben Hur” these days, so that has to be on the list as well.
Let me add three more.
The first is “The Wild Bunch” which, like “A Better Tomorrow” is still influencing the action movies of today.
The second is one of the more emotional and gut wrenching scenes ever put on film, Shugart and Gordon’s rescue of Mike Durant in Blackhawk Down. “Greater love hath no man….”
The last one is a favorite of all my
gun nut friends, errr, fellow shooting sports enthusiasts, the bank robbery scene from “Heat.” No other action movie captures the overwhelming noise and chaos that comes when rifles are being fired in enclosed spaces.Final answer: Heat.
I watch this every year on my birthday, my kids call it Dad’s hockey movie. The best thing the filmmakers did was to cast real hockey players and teach them how to act instead of the other way around. Speaking as a defenseman, the hit Jack O’Callahan makes in the semifinal game is my favorite part. Sadly the actor who played him, Michael Mantenuto, committed suicide in 2017. He was also a decorated veteran.
Wow, you guys are bringing the heat on page three. All of the entries from #69 on are worthy of the title. @drewinwisconsin the post always goes up on Saturday morning Pacific Time, just FYI.
I’ve never watched the movie. Guess I don’t want it to override my memory of the actual game. We went to Lake Placid several times to take our son to hockey camps there. I’d go into the arena and sit in the stands, just trying to imagine what it was like to be there for that game.
I can’t imagine it would. The film is far from perfect but I definitely rank it as one of my top five sports movies, and the best hockey movie for sure.
My brothers and I had an old VHS tape The Greatest Sports Moments of the 80’s hosted by Al Michaels. It was in a countdown format and the #1 was the Miracle in Ice. We watched that tape until it warped itself out.
Sort of a low bar, I would think.
I had seen an interview with Hitchcock and he talked about this scene in particular. It wasn’t in the original script. They rented some farm to use in some shots and the crop duster came with the farm. He said that the budget was tight and they tried to get a better price by excluding the crop duster from the deal. But it was a package deal – take it or leave it. So they had a crop duster. He said “If I’m paying for the plane it’s going in the movie“ and they came up with this scene ( pardon the pun ) on the fly.
the Winged Hussars:
Exactly. It doesn’t take much to top Youngblood, Slapshot, Mystery Alaska, or Mighty Ducks 3.
Only about 3,000 Winged Hussars, and 15,000 other guys.
Slap shot!
damn, just saw I was late
As good as it is as a comedy surrounding hockey, it’s not really a sports movie any more than The Fish That Saved Pittsburg is a basketball movie.
The machine gun revenge scene from The Island.
Michael Caine…
A Browning ma-deuce…
A gang of inbred, modern buccaneers…
Is it just me, or does it seem wrong to refer to the landing scenes from Saving Private Ryan as an “action scene”?
Same with any of the other war films mentioned that are portraying “real life”.
But I wouldn’t have a problem if someone nominated (for example) something from The Dirty Dozen.
From Last Man Standing, a stylish crime/action movie with a silly plot. Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken, and even Bruce Dern. I want one of these 30 round magazines for my 1911’s.
A good future question would be best shoot out.
And Last Action Hero: every action movie trope in one scene.