Greatest Film Climax?

[Pulpmariachi]

I decided I couldn't make this a poll because there are so damn many! I mean, a lot of them are great (The Incredibles, Raiders of the Lost Ark), stunning (Citizen Kane), epic (Lawrence of Arabia), violent (Taxi Driver), and so much more that it is hard to choose from.

Which brings us to this: what's your favorite climax in a movie?

For me, it would be Jurassic Park. I mean, this is the movie that got me interested in making movies in the first place. Those raptors scared the hell out of me when I first saw them (my Dad took me to the theater when I was little against my Mom's wishes. It was the first PG-13 movie I ever saw). The raptors chase the kids, the adults and kids, and then are about to stalk them down when...BAM!! THE TYRANNOSAURS APPEARS OUT OF NOWHERE (probably knocked down the wall somwhere else looking for food) AND EATS ONE WHILE CHUCKING THE OTHER THROUGH A BRACIOSAURUS SKELETON! Years later, my heart still races and I'm always on the edge of my seat, even though I've seen it probably well over 100 times.

Great ending.

Well, how about the rest of you?

[Termination]

Like you said there are many..

I'll go with a more recent film.

The Matrix, when Neo gets shot at the end of the film & gets back up. Then he looks around & sees the Matrix code, stops the bullets from the Agents & kicks Smith's Ass + as an added bonus the other 2 Agents run away this time, instead of the other way around.

[Heineken Skywalker]

Greatest film climax?
Whew! For a second there I thought this thread was going to be about something else!

I don't know if it's the greatest, but the first one that came to mind was JAWS.
Roy Scheider as he takes aim, "Smile, you son of a bitch!" KABOOM!!!

[Bartwald]

To my mind Raiders Of The Lost Ark comes first: the part where they're opening the Ark and the bald guy's face melts down, this was the first onscreen grossness I encountered; couldn't sleep for, like, 3 nights afterwards and to cure myself I went to see the film once again. Worked fine.

Second choice would be Carrie - not just the final jump, but all the split-screen preceding events. Beautiful!

[Phoenix]

For me, when Luke takes down the deathstar in Star Wars Woo Hoo! I can still watch it and CHEER!

[Quorthon]

I'm just going to run off a list of film orgasms, er, climaxes I love:

Jurassic Park
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Return of the Jedi (pre-"Special Edition")
Aliens
Saving Private Ryan
Kill Bill part 1
Gladiator
The Last Samuri
Fire in the Sky
Back to the Future part III
Signs
X-Men & X2
Spider-Man & Spider-Man 2
Dawn of the Dead (original & remake)
Day of the Dead
28 Days Later (Hell, zombie movies in general should always have an excellent ending)
Them!
Total Recall
Predator

That's all I can think of right now...

[Pulpmariachi]

You know, I'm noticing a lot of Spielbergian endings here.... That is very awesome.

[Termination]

Fire in the Sky

Yeah, thats one killer ending. One of the biggest under-rated flicks of that genre. Excellent film!

[Quorthon]

I'm sure some of you may have noticed how much I love this movie, but I gotta add it here: BATMAN BEGINS. That was one helluva good time.

[LivingDeadGirl]

quorthon said:

I'm sure some of you may have noticed how much I love this movie, but I gotta add it here: BATMAN BEGINS. That was one helluva good time.

Glad to hear the enthusiasm for this one...been dying to see it since I first saw the trailer for it.

[spacer]

Climax?
I had plenty ;D

Going back to cinema:
The Best One:
The famous scene in Alien when the little one is ripping through the chest
And in the same flick the first time Alien appears big. WOW

[Pulpmariachi]

And I do have to agree with Quorthon, Batman Begins had a great ending.

[marcel]

How about the "Crying Game." Now there's an unexpected climax if I ever saw one.

m f