What makes a movie great? Good performances? A solid script? Unique direction? It’s almost always some combination of the various ingredients that go into making a film, and then of course the strange alchemy of how it all comes together. But most memorable moviegoing experiences are marked by moments you can’t get out of your head. The shark coming out of the water in Jaws. The “I am your father” reveal in Empire Strikes Back. And Tom Cruise risking his life for your entertainment in every Mission: Impossible movie.
So as we look back on 2018, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate some truly iconic movie moments from the year behind us. These are the scenes that made us laugh uncontrollably, sob with heartache, or shriek in terror. Check out our list below.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - Miles Puts on the Mask
Even though Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse comes with all different shapes, sizes, and species of Spider-Person, Sony’s animated acid trip is 100% Miles Morales’ story. That’s part of what makes Spider-Verse such a triumph; we watch Miles—even more of your average anybody than even Peter Parker—try and fail and try and fail over and over again to earn a Spider-Man costume more legit than your Party City variation. So when Miles, a kid from Brooklyn, finally does put on his Spidey suit? My goodness, I haven’t felt Spider-chills in a theater like that since the words “Go get’em, tiger” in 2004. Spider-Verse is already a gorgeous movie about taking a leap of faith, but because of the way directors Peter Ramsey, Bob Persichetti, and Rodney Rothmanbuild and build Phil Lord’s into a living, breathing candy-colored world, the audience feels like they’re taking Miles’ leap along with him. - Vinnie Mancuso
A Star Is Born – Ally and Jackson Perform “Shallow”
A Star Is Born is a terrific example of directorial precision, and never is this more evident than in how writer/director Bradley Cooper builds to the big performance of “Shallow.” It begins with Ally (Lady Gaga) and her friend getting into a car, then on a plane, then out of a car, then through a backstage area until they’re standing mere feet away from Jackson Maine performing onstage. But the editing throughout, and Cooper’s use of music to build the tension, is everything, and it tees up this absolutely perfect movie moment when Ally finally comes onstage to sing her original song. It instills this groundswell of emotion in you as an audience member and you’re not exactly sure why. That’s great filmmaking. – Adam Chitwood
Mission: Impossible - Fallout - Bathroom Brawl
The Mission: Impossible -- Fallout bathroom fight became iconic before the film even came out. From the moment we caught sight of Henry Cavill reloading his big brawny shotgun arms in the trailer, the bathroom fight became the stuff of film twitter legend and gif royalty, but fortunately, Christopher McQuarrie gifted us with so much more than one great. Easily one of the best fight scenes of the year, Fallout's bathroom sequence is also the best bit of hand-to-hand combat in the creme de la creme of set-piece franchises. Cavill and Tom Cruise team up for a brutal, impeccably staged fight against stuntman Liang Yang and it’s just the tops. Better yet, McQuarrie puts a blood red button on the moment when Rebecca Ferguson’s scene-stealing Ilsa Faust shows up just in time to save the day and put a bullet in the badie’s head. You might think you’re going to get the standard bloodless Hollywood heroics, but nope, McQuarrie pulls back to reveal the floor is painted in blood, a darkly comic punchline at the end of a breathless bit of action brilliance. — Haleigh Foutch
Crazy Rich Asians - An Intense Game of Mahjong
What a beautiful scene that conveys so much even if you don’t know the specifics of the game being played. In the scene, Rachel (Constance Wu) and Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh) have their climatic confrontation over a game of Mahjong. For many Americans, the game and its rules will be foreign to them. The mastery of Jon M. Chu’s direction is to show who’s playing from a strong position and who’s “winning” even if you don’t understand the particulars of the game. The text and subtext are beautifully interwoven as Rachel uses the Mahjong game to prove her point about how there was no “beating” Eleanor, so she had to sacrifice marrying Nick (Henry Golding) to prove her love for him. The Mahjong scene in Crazy Rich Asians is a master class in editing, camera placement, and tone to convey ideas even if the “language” may be foreign to an American audience. – Matt Goldberg
Eighth Grade - A Totally Chill Pool Party
Oh my GOD, Bo Burnham, why would you do this to us? If you've ever wanted to revisit the crippling, devastating awkwardness of being a tween, Burnham conjures the experience like a cinematic sorcerer and plants you right in the thick of it. Watching Eighth Grade’s pool party scene, you can practically feel the ill-fitting bathing suit digging into your thighs and the chlorine stinging your eyes, not to mention the extreme agony of unadulterated, hormone-fueled insecurity. If you’re of the social anxiety variety, this scene should come with a trigger warning. It an absolutely transportive experience and a stunning demonstration of talent in Burnham’s directorial debut. — Haleigh Foutch
Avengers: Infinity War - Thanos Snaps
As the Marvel Cinematic Universe rolls on in the years to come, I don’t know how much the Thanos Snap in Avengers: Infinity War will stand out as a defining moment, but it was certainly one of the biggest moments of 2018. It’s rare for a villain to “win”, and while Avengers: Endgame could be a gigantic “undo” button, for the time being, Thanos (Josh Brolin) was victorious. And to the Russo Brothers’ credit, they played the scene right. They provided a nice twist with “You should have aimed for the head,” before the snap, admitting that it cost him “everything” when he’s speaking to the child Gamora, and then you slowly see the consequences of the Snap with beloved heroes turning to dust. If you look just at The Snap and ignore the demands of the franchise machine to bring back dusted heroes, then it’s one hell of a payoff to ten years of the MCU. – Matt Goldberg
A Quiet Place – A Silent “I Love You”
Few people went into John Krasinski’s horror film A Quiet Place expecting to sob, but arguably the film’s biggest tearjerking moment comes when Krasinski’s character is, uh, in peril and offers up a moment of pure, unequivocal love for his daughter. The look on Krasinski’s face when he begins to sign, “I have always loved you” broke me into a million pieces. – Adam Chitwood
Mandy - The Bathroom
There haven’t been many more relatable sitcom moments over the years than Community’s attempt to decipher whether Nicolas Cage is good or bad at acting. No matter which side you fall on—I love that man, personally—you have to admit that director Panos Cosmatos channeled Cage’s “thing” to perfection in his heavy metal fever dream, Mandy. Somehow, in a movie that features demon bikers, chainsaw fights, and an ungodly amount of cocaine, the most memorable scene sees Cage alone in a bathroom, wearing nothing but a three-quarter sleeve t-shirt and blood-stained tighty-whities, bottle of whiskey in hand. In the immediate aftermath of his love, Mandy Bloom (Andrea Riseborough), being murdered by the Children of the New Dawn cult, Cage’s Red Miller sits on a toilet and goes wild in his grief. It’s a primal, pantsless scream of a scene. What’s truly insane about the scene is how it’s not so insane at all; it’s probably closer to a real depiction of violent grief and loss than most movies would dare to touch on, just raw screaming when words couldn’t possibly be enough. - Vinnie Mancuso
Game Night – “Oh No He Died!”
There is one line delivery in John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s sorely underseen comedy Game Night that will never not be funny, and it’s all thanks to Rachel McAdams. As a would-be assassin gets sucked into a plane, McAdams’ character celebrates—she’s free! And then, in a moment meant to remind the audience this is just a group of friends whose game night went horribly wrong and not some band of super agents, she realizes the awful truth: “Oh no he died!” Perfection. – Adam Chitwood
Widows – A Tracking Shot Is Worth 1,000 Words
Filmmaker Steve McQueen is known for his remarkable tracking shots in films like Hunger, Shame, and 12 Years a Slave, and while his new film Widows is certainly of the popcorn blockbuster variety, he still uses the tracking shot to underline the film’s themes. In an absolutely inspired decision, we watch as Colin Farrell’s would-be alderman Jack gets into his car in an impoverished Chicago neighborhood where he’s just been campaigning. But instead of following him inside the car, the camera stays mounted to the hood, and we watch as the car drives only a few blocks to Jack’s “home”, all the while the wealth disparity in this tiny section of Chicago becomes abundantly clear. The shot says a lot while Jack drones on about how he never wanted to be a politician anyway, and the dichotomy between this wealth disparity and the entitlement that allows Jack to be so flippant about his future is not lost on the audience. – Adam Chitwood
First Reformed - Ethan Hawke Makes a Drink
There's no shortage of iconic imagery in Paul Schrader's shattering psychological drama First Reformed, which stars Ethan Hawke as the solitary reverend Toller who finds his faith and sanity crumbling beneath him after a haunting encounter with an environmental extremist that shakes him to his core. "Can God forgive us for what we’ve done to this world?” That's the question that plagues reverend Toller's mind, and even as he protests his church's eco-abusive corporate funding, he drinks himself to death, polluting his body into illness. In one of the film's most visually striking and instantly iconic moments, the reverend mixes himself a most unusual, repulsive cocktail -- whiskey, straight up, with thick stream of Pepto-Bismol swirled in. You look at that thick neon-pink sludge with its repulsive bursting bubbles and it's like a window into Reverend Toller's fractured faith and psyche. — Haleigh Foutch
Hereditary – The Car Ride from Hell
It becomes very clear early on in Hereditary that you’re in the hands of a director who knows exactly what he’s doing. The tension builds masterfully throughout, as writer/director Ari Aster’s attention to shot composition is exquisite. But that mastery also results in extremely effective filmmaking, which is why it makes my stomach churn just thinking about a certain car ride. Alex Wolff’s Peter is rushing his car through the deserted streets as his sister Charlie (Millie Shapiro) squirms in the backseat, in the midst of an allergic reaction. You know something bad is about to happen thanks to the pitch-perfect editing, but it’s what Aster chooses to do with the camera after that event that makes all the difference. We track Peter’s POV as he hesitates—“Do I look? Can I look?” When the audience finally does see the aftermath, it is (rather unfortunately) completely unforgettable. – Adam Chitwood
Black Panther - Killmonger's Final Scene
"Bury me in the ocean with my ancestors that jumped from ships because they knew death was better than bondage." Damn Ryan Coogler, you went in. Michael B. Jordan's absurdly magnetic performance as Erik Kilmonger comes to a heartbreaking conclusion after the villain's disappointing showdown with T'Challa, but if the big fight was a CGI mess, their final tête-à-tête is one of the Black Panther's finest moments. Make no mistake, Kilmonger is a ruthless murderer, but Coogler put his heart and personal history into his villain, making him a complex zealot who's dangerously easy to empathize with, even when you can't quite sympathize. Your heart breaks for the innocent kid he once was, a “kid from Oakland, running around believing in fairy tales," and for the way he ultimately became what he despised; a ruthless colonizer who overturned another society in favor of his own. His final moments are the kind of bold and charged filmmaking you can't believe made it into a Disney movie, but Black Panther's biggest swings against the norm are its best moments, none more impactful than Kilmonger's goodbye, — Haleigh Foutch
Annihilation - A Dance to Remember
I love this scene not only because of how weird it’s willing to get, but because it’s a beautiful encapsulation of the movie’s scenes. If you see Annihilation as a movie about self-destruction, then the only way for Lena (Natalie Portman) to “defeat” her mirror, is to move with it and accept it. For some audiences, the scene may be too trippy and bizarre, but for me, I love the boldness with which director Alex Garland was willing to express his vision even if he knew that it would confuse some audience members. Annihilation never spells anything out for the audience, which makes studying it and talking about it so much more rewarding, and by the time you’ve reached the dance scene, you’re either on board with the movie or you’re not. – Matt Goldberg
Bad Times at the El Royale – A Unique Duet
Few people saw Bad Times at the El Royale in theaters, which is a shame because it’s certainly one the year’s most compelling films. The ensemble mystery is filled to the brims with music, and standout Cynthia Erivo plays a struggling soul singer who finds herself stuck at the titular motel with a band of strangers. But in a striking sequence, Erivo sings a haunting a capella version of “Can't Hurry Love” in an effort to mask the sounds of Jeff Bridges… doing something. Erivo sings her heart out in a soulful performance, but the whole sequence has an added layer of palpable tension given the voyeuristic tendencies of the titular establishment. – Adam Chitwood
Suspiria - Volk
In Suspiria, dance is magic, and it's never more terrifying or awe-inspiring than in the final full performance of Volk. Costumed in draping red fabrics, the women of the Markos Academy perform Madame Blanc's great work; a dance of protest and rage against fascism she composed during World War II. Meanwhile, poor Sarah makes her way through the hidden under ground halls of the dance academy and discovers the hideous remnants of the coven's failed spells until the ground opens up beneath her, snapping her leg in the process. By the pure power of magic, her leg closes up, the bone protruding just under the skin, and she finishes Volk on stage with the rest of Madame Blanc's girls. The Volk sequence isn't just a visually stunning sequence, not to mention masterfully shot and edited, it is also a crucial moment in the story -- the first time all the key players are united in one place, a prelude to the final ritual, and it's the first time we realize the full extent of the wicked and perverse failures of Helena Markos' tenure as mother. Poignant, terrifying, and visceral, with stunning visuals and the spookiest track on Thom Yorke's score to match. the Volk performance is an example of the surreal heights Suspria accomplishes in its best moments. — Haleigh Foutch
Venom - The Lobster Tank
In an ideal world, the Oscars would set aside a category not for the “best” performance of the year, but the most insane, an award that Tom Hardy’s balls-to-the-wall portrayal of Eddie Brock in Venom would take home this year in a landslide. And the clip the Academy would show during the nominee announcements would definitely, 100% be the incredible scene set inside an upscale restaurant that sees Brock—now bonded with the alien symbiote named Venom—crunching down on strangers’ dinner, elbowing waiters in the face, and finally climbing into a lobster tank, a moment made all the more amazing by the fact that by it was a beat that Tom Hardy decided on doing when he showed up to set that morning. It’s a sweaty, bug-eyed masterclass in physical commitment to the character’s absurdity from Hardy, and pound-for-pound, pancreas-for-pancreas, turd-for-turd, might be the most purely entertaining scene of 2018. - Vinnie Mancuso
To catch up on all of Collider's Best of 2018 content click here. Peruse links to our recent features below.