My yearly Top Ten Favorite Films list is out, which is always a (very fun) challenge I put a lot of work into. Now it’s time for the also enjoyable task of assembling my favorite movie moments of the year. Narrowing this down is no easy matter (this list initially had over 50 picks), as even some average movies have terrific moments, and there’s so much to try and recall. For 2025, I narrowed it down to, appropriately, 25 memorable scenes. This list represents many fun or crucial instances, ranging from hilarious scenes to musical numbers to action highlights and more. Enjoy! (Note: There are spoilers for some films.)
Favorite Scenes Presented in Alphabetical Order by Film:
28 Years Later – Memento Mori
I was pretty pleased by the return to this zombie apocalypse franchise, mainly because it meant seeing director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland working together again. Their sensibilities this time around felt fully aligned. I think that shows best towards the film’s conclusion. In a series that has previously ended with violent showdowns, this film goes in a different direction. As we find our main character, Spike (Alfie Williams), and his mother, Isla (Jodie Comer), being taken in by the mysterious and isolated Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), it is deduced that Isla has terminal cancer. Kelson arranges to euthanize her, which later leads to Spike being given her skull to place on top of the bone monument Kelson had constructed over the years. While this all may sound morbid, there’s actually a lot of beauty in the way this is all depicted, including Kelson’s consoling of Spike with the phrase memento amoris – “Remember you must love.” I’m very much anticipating Nia DaCosta’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple to see where all of this goes, but even if the current moment is just a calm before the storm, I greatly admired it.
Avatar: Fire and Ash – Varang and Quaritch Seduce Each Other
Finding himself in need of additional forces to help him take down his nemesis, the series’ villain, Col. Quaritch (Stephen Lang), attempts a real Hail Mary play by heading to the village of the Ash people to supply them with weapons and negotiate an alliance with their leader, Varang (Oona Chaplin). What follows is a fascinating ten-minute sequence where the two are alone in her tent. Varang gives Quaritch a hallucinatory drug that pushes him to speak truthfully about his motivations. That said, Quaritch is already so intrigued by Varang that it’s clear he doesn’t need to be pushed over to have any new perspective, though he does begin embracing more of what’s possible with his Na’vi body. From there, a new romantic relationship begins, and it brings out the worst in both of them.
Ballerina – Flamethrower Flight In Hallstatt
While I may not have been as warm to this spin-off entry from the world of John Wick as I am to the prime series, I can’t deny a couple of the action sequences that really deliver. One finds Ana de Armas’ Eve fighting off villains on an ice-covered floor of a nightclub. Another shows Eve using only grenades against a small army in close quarters. My favorite, however, is a sequence late in the film in which one of the main henchmen battles Eve in a flamethrower match. Just one of these tends to light up a scene pretty literally, but dueling flamethrowers becomes a pretty fiery display of dangerous choreography that easily held my attention and kept excitement high.
Black Bag – A Dinner Party For Spies
A superior has informed counterintelligence officer George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) that there is a leak within their ranks, with five suspects, including his own wife, Kathryn (Cate Blanchett). George’s solution: throw a dinner party for all of them and dose one of the dishes with a truth serum that will help lower their inhibitions. At this point, we meet our other prominent cast members, played by Naimie Harris, Tom Burke, Regé-Jean Page, and Marisa Abela. This whole sequence is showing how much fire David Koepp has brought to his screenplay. We watch this party of six in the low-lit modern home of George and Kathryn banter and trade witticisms, only for things to become more serious once a party game is announced. It results in a couple of arguments and a hand being stabbed by a steak knife. It’s a brilliant sequence, and absolute joy emerges when the film later announces that a second dinner party will be held.
Bring Her Back – That Boy Ain’t Right
The Philippou brothers followed up their breakout film, Talk To Me, with something profoundly darker and sadder. Still, that doesn’t mean they didn’t get to have fun provoking the audience. While two siblings have recently been brought into the care of Sally Hawkins’s Laura, she has also already been taking care of Oliver (Jonah Wren Philips). Something is seriously wrong with this child. An aggressively upsetting sequence shows what happens when no one is watching Oliver closely enough and he’s up to his own devices. Let’s just say he treats many things like chew toys, including a very large metal knife at one point. Just crazy.
Eddington – Sheriff vs. Terrorists
Ari Aster’s look back at the COVID-19 pandemic’s lockdown period begins as a sort of social commentary and comedy of errors, fueled by bad-faith arguments and politicians. It takes a pretty sudden shift into neo-Western thriller territory by way of the Coen Brothers, and by the end of the film, we are forced into an incredibly tense shootout that still hasn’t lost its sense of humor. Joaquin Phoenix’s Sheriff Joe Cross is being hunted by “terrorists” that have been flown in for “reasons.” Joe is chased into town, where he’s able to break into a gun store and arm himself. Handled almost like a video game shooter, the work by Aster and cinematographer Darius Khondji maximizes the anxiety of this scene by keeping us close and following Joe as he constantly swings around his massive machine gun, shooting at random. Regardless of how things play out, the fact that it all ends up both dark, violent, and somewhat amusing is key to why this moment lands so hard.
Freaky Tales – Hank, the Video Store Owner
Posts from the cinescenes
community on Reddit
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s funky 80s-set anthology film is partially about celebrating Oakland, California. During the film’s most emotional segment, starring Pedro Pascal as Clint, a criminal trying to go straight, he visits a video rental store that also stocks the supplies he’s looking for. Before getting his hands on what he needs, Clint encounters the video store’s owner, Hank, played by Bay Area native Tom Hanks. Hanks’ Hank engages Clint in a conversation about the greatest underdog movies of all time, and between the clever script and Hanks’ slightly condescending yet well-meaning delivery, it’s an entertaining scene that balances movie trivia and a comedic undercurrent. It’s the kind of thing a great cameo can offer.
Friendship – Licking The Toad
For anyone already familiar with Tim Robinson’s comedy or who has become a new fan based on HBO’s The Chair Company, Friendship provides a pretty great distillation of what makes his brand of humor work. Set up to play like an intense, somber thriller if adjusted by mere degrees, we instead watch an awkward comedy about a seemingly normal guy who doesn’t get why his neighbor doesn’t want to be friends with him. At one point in the film, Robinson’s Craig decides he should go on a drug trip by licking a toad in the back of a department store to maybe find some clarity. What follows is a lot of build-up towards what essentially amounts to nothing, and the sequence is hysterical for just that reason.
Grand Theft Hamlet / Hamnet – The Play
Grand Theft Hamlet is a unique documentary told through the interface of Grand Theft Auto Online. It’s about two actors/friends who ended up hosting a live, virtual production of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” inside the game. Hamnet is a period drama that dramatizes how the famous play came to be in the first place. Both feature an obvious conclusion – letting the audience actually witness the play. The results are very effective in both formats, making it easy to create a tie, of sorts. While I wasn’t the biggest fan of a scoring choice made in Hamnet, it’s undoubtedly quite emotional to watch how the play is handled in that film, given all the context that comes with it. With Grand Theft Hamlet, we may not be seeing much of the play in full, but we do get to see a couple of scenes play out, with the added humor of watching other players and NPCs create chaos around the performers.
Highest 2 Lowest – Puerto Rican Day Parade Chase
It was disheartening to see some accusing Spike Lee of being off his game for the first parts of Highest 2 Lowest, as if he didn’t have complete ideas in mind of how to shoot the film from the start and let it evolve based on the station of his lead character, Denzel Washington’s David King. During a truly bravura sequence of filmmaking that involves handing over ransom money to the kidnappers, we witness a high-wire juggling act. Lee has us keeping track of David, the cops, and the various mopeds that hand off the money to one another as a distraction. As this is going on, Lee is switching between digital camera work and 16mm film to capture wild close-ups of people responding to various aspects of the situation. And that’s not all, as this whole sequence is scored live by Latin jazz king Eddie Palmieri and the Salsa Orchestra. Given that this is all occurring during Puerto Rican Day, the chaos is only enlivened by the great music. Palmieri unfortunately passed away shortly before the film was released, but this sequence now also serves as a great tribute to his work, offering a tense and exciting moment.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You / Marty Supreme – Watch Out For Ceilings
A common denominator between these two films is Ronald Bronstein. He’s married to If I Had Legs I’d Kick You director Mary Bronstein and serves as producer. Ronald is also the co-writer and editor of Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme. With that in mind, there is another common denominator. Both films feature a crazy scene where the apartment ceiling collapses. It’s certainly more thematic in ‘Legs,’ though there is a similarity in the disturbing visuals that come as a result. In Marty Supreme, the sequence almost plays like a comedic puncline, but it’s both an essential part of how the plot moves in a new direction and a funny bit of business in a macabre sort of way.
It Was Just An Accident – The Familiar Squeak Returns
Director Jafar Panahi packs plenty to consider in his stealthily made drama-thriller, It Was Just an Accident, but even after everything we see leading up to the film’s climax, there’s a small but vital moment that closes out the film and has stuck with me ever since. Without entirely describing what takes place, just know that the film had previously done the work to make certain aspects about the characters clear. A callback to one of those features could mean several things, and I was so onboard with the ambiguity at play and the different avenues I continue to consider regarding what would happen next. At the same time, Panahi is not above recognizing how his own legacy and approach to filmmaking apply directly to the scene. It’s richly layered and wonderful for it.
The Life of Chuck – Buskers Forever
This movie won the Toronto International Film Festival Audience Award in 2024. As a result, Neon acquired the film and eventually decided to release it in the Summer, with an ad campaign centered mainly on Tom Hiddleston dancing in the street. The Life of Chuck is an unconventional film that utilizes a reverse narrative to tell its story. Primarily due to the film’s marketing, it failed to capitalize on whatever buzz it once had, but that doesn’t take away from its quality. If anything, there are stronger acting beats throughout Chuck, especially in the film’s first act. However, seeing Hiddleston just stop himself in the street because he can hear the drumming from a busker on the corner, and then begin to dance his heart out, really is a joy. What does it mean? Why does he do it? The film eventually provides more reasoning, but as this stands as a sequence of pure delight, it’s all right thereon the screen.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning – Cruise Stunts On Everyone Again
I quite enjoyed The Final Reckoning for delivering what I want from a Mission: Impossible movie and for going into overdrive with the sheer spectacle. So much so that I can’t really separate the film’s two wildest sequences for this list, both filmed with IMAX cameras, the first is seeing Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt’s attempt to reach a sunken submarine in an experimental diving suit, and all the movie magic that comes with selling us on the idea that he is deep underwater, alone, and constantly pushed into more and more peril while trying to achive his objective and escape. The second is the dueling bi-plane sequence, which features Cruise wingwalking, strapping himself to the actual wings of the biplane, moving from one plane to another, while thousands of feet in the air, and, of course, eventually performing multiple skydiving stunts where the parachute catches on fire (doing this enough times to set a Guinness World Record in the process). Cruise is truly going all out by any means necessary to entertain, and it pays off greatly with the audience.
The Naked Gun – Sasafrass Chicken In D, and Make It Extra Lumpy Boys
Casting Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin in a new take on The Naked Gun directed by The Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaffer was a huge win. Based on Popstar, the Chip ‘n Dale movie, and all their SNL skits, I knew the film was in good hands. What I didn’t count on, however, was seeing co-star Pamela Anderson absolutely hold her own against both Neeson and the film’s villain, played by Danny Huston. These are top talents, and yet here she is with one of the film’s many hysterical scenes. I certainly had many options to choose from, but watching Anderson’s Beth Davenport attempt to distract Huston’s Richard Crane through improvised scatting is a stroke of genius. From the nonsense sounds she makes to the intense stare she begins to have to the random crying followed by a, “I’m okay,” mid-scatting session, this is one of the many great gags in a film that has piles and piles of them, but one I really wanted to shout out.
On Becoming Guinea Fowl – Relative Roadkill
In the middle of the night, Shula (Susan Chardy) is heading home to Zambia when she finds her Uncle Fred dead in the road near a brothel. Wearing an African mask and a bodysuit that looks like something out of a Missy Elliot music video, Shula approaches the body, looking silly, in a film that is not short on other darkly humorous moments. Once realizing what’s happened, she makes calls and encounters a cousin who doesn’t make the situation any easier. It’s an intriguing kickoff to a film that focuses on grief and family secrets. However, it’s these opening moments that serve as the film’s most memorable, painting an odd picture of an event, allowing director Rungano Nyoni’s film to keep us on our toes.
One Battle After Another – River of Hills
Something I’ve held onto about Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another is that, despite the effort to make it feel like a sweeping action thriller, it’s still an incredibly intimate character journey. The film’s climax is epic in scope, as VistaVision allows us to watch a car chase unfold across these enormous, paved desert hills. And yet, the scene boils down to three people. An assassin, Chase Infiniti’s Willa, and her father, Bob, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Each is in pursuit of the other, driving at high speed. Jonny Greenwood’s unconventional score still drives up the tension. The verticality of the hills and the camera’s placement convey the distance shortening between certain cars. All of this comes to a head in a clever and spectacular way. A moment of violence informs part of the outcome. A huge emotional release informs the next. It’s great cinema.
Sinners – “I Lied To You”
It’s wild to think that many people saw their scene of the year all at the same time, given how much unanimous praise not only went to Ryan Coogler’s period action-musical-horror-drama, but specifically to the conceptually amazing sequence where Miles Caton’s Sammie performs a song so transcendent that it summons spirits from the past and future to join in. Sinners is so ambitiously made that I could pluck out a number of great moments. However, watching Sammie perform “I Lied to You” and seeing it evolve into an elaborately constructed sequence resembling a single long shot that incorporates a wide variety of individuals from different points in time and concludes with the roof literally blown off the juke joint is truly something else.
Sirāt – No One Is Safe
I was already plenty intrigued by what seemed like a road movie meets a society culture-clash in Óliver Laxe’s Sirāt. The film seemed to be trying to inform me of other ways of life amid a possible alternate timeline where war-like events could break out. Then, suddenly, something changes the group’s dynamic. It’s presented in such a direct way that at first I couldn’t really fathom what had occurred. Apologies for being vague, but since the film is such an interesting watch and one of my favorites of the year, it is best experienced without knowing too much. Based on another startling moment, all I can say is that in the world of Sirāt, no one is safe.
Sorry, Baby – Panic Attack
While it’s not necessarily all ups and downs for Eva Victor’s Agnes in Sorry Baby, there are bright spots. However, given her history, Agnes is quickly brought down by triggering elements. A key scene finds her learning new information about a man who sexually assaulted her. It triggers a panic attack while she is driving, leading her to stop her car right in front of a sandwich shop. The owner comes out yelling that they are closed, only to realize what is happening. This is Pete, played by character actor John Carroll Lynch, sporting a solid New England accent. He’s able to provide the help she needs and even offers her a sandwich once she’s calmed down. It’s a very human moment in a deeply felt movie full of them, but it’s pretty brilliant and low-key powerful.
Splitsville – “No Knives”
Much of the hilarious anti-romantic comedy Splitsville focuses on how Kyle Marvin’s Carey and Michael Angelo Covino’s Paul basically can’t stop cucking each other, despite the open marriage situation that had been established. A major fight breaks out during one of the early confessions between them. In the previous film these actors made, The Climb, we watched several elaborate sequences unfold over the course of a single long shot. This fight sequence is handled somewhat similarly, with elaborately choreographed moments in decently long takes, lots of comedic bits interspersed, and the culmination of these two guys actually plowing through a second-story window into a pool. It’s both hilarious and one of the best fight scenes of the year.
Superman – Lois Interviews Superman
A big part of why James Gunn’s Superman is the first great Superman movie in over four decades is that it chooses to actually place a lot of focus on what it means to be an indestructible superhero, calling all of the shots, and the ramifications that could actually have. Wisely choosing to set the story a few years into Superman’s tenure, we get to see a relationship between Lois Lane and Clark Kent that’s new but already in progress. Early in the film, we watch Clark challenge Lois to interview him, only for her to use her skills as a reporter to really press him on the legal and ethical implications of his actions. Thanks to a sharp script, both characters are presented as individuals seeking the best possible outcome, with neither appearing entirely right or wrong in their approach. Yes, there’s plenty of solid action interspersed throughout Superman, and I’d be happy to talk plenty about the joy that is the reinvention of Mister Terrific. Still, I love how much this early dialogue scene speaks to what’s right about this film, along with another great speech by Clark towards the end.
Train Dreams – Connected To It All Through Flight
The power of these scenes comes from the culmination of everything that came before. Thanks to the imagery on display, what I’ve just been watching, and the Will Patton’s perfect narration, I just a great feeling from what’s occurring in the final moments of Train Dreams, which is best represented just by quoting it here – “When Robert Grainier died in his sleep sometime in november of 1968, his life ended as quietly as it had begun. He’d never purchased a firearm or spoken into a telephone. He had no idea who his parents might have been, and he left no heirs behind him. But on that spring day, as he misplaced all sense of up and down, he felt, at last, connected to it all.”
Wake Up Dead Man – Calling Up Louise
In the middle of trying to solve a murder mystery, Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc and Josh O’Connor’s Father Jud realize they need a piece of information from a construction company. Jud calls the company and is greeted by Bridget Everett’s Louise. Small side note – Everett just ended her run on the three-season HBO series Somebody Somewhere, which is absolutely terrific. It’s an important note, as Louise starts as something of an irritating block to Jud, who is just trying to get some information. And then things take a sudden turn. Louise calmly asks if she can talk to Jud about something and then asks if he can pray for her. Blanc, meanwhile, shows impatience but quickly understands he must now wait. Jud also realizes that while the murder is serious, he’s also been treating it like a puzzle to be solved when more serious matters still require his attention. It’s a brilliant piece of screenplay construction on the part of Rian Johnson, who matches the fun of the mystery with a reminder of what Jud should truly be after.
Weapons – A Wave In The Woods
Zach Cregger’s horror hit, Weapons, features a variety of tense, scary sequences and memorable moments. It was also tough not to focus on the excellent release that is the film’s wild finale involving a big chase. With that said, an image I have not gotten out of my mind since seeing this film is simple yet frightening. During the portion of the film focused on James (Austin Abrams), the homeless druggy burglar, he is found running from Paul, the cop he inadvertently injured. While in the woods, attempting to hide, he sees something in the distance. We, the audience, are not aware of who this character is as of yet, either, but it appears to be a person with red hair, randomly waving at James. The next scene finds James hiding in a tent, only for something to approach and begin to unzip the door. All the work has been done to make this about as scary as it needs to be, and while there’s a fakeout here, the lingering image of a figure waving at James from a distance in the woods has not been forgotten by me.
Hardest Cuts: The Baltimorons – Improv Set, Black Bag – Lie Detector Test, Bugonia – Using the Calculator, Friendship – The Garage Scene, Highest 2 Lowest – Rap Battle, Jay Kelly – Dramatic Menu Ready, MegaDoc – Coppola vs. LaBeouf, The Naked Gun – Snowman’s Jealousy, The Phoenician Scheme – Basketball, The Secret Agent – Foot Control, Weapons – Gladys Gives Chase
***
And that will do it for my list of favorite movie moments. There were many to go through, and narrowing it down was a task unto itself. What say you? Did I miss something really special? What were your favorite movie moments of 2025?
