The Greatest Motion Picture Sequences -- Part 5
The ending when Harry comes to get Sally on New Year's from WHEN HARRY MET SALLY ... (1989) --- This was a very unique romantic comedy, showing two people, Harry and Sally, played by Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, take 12 years to finally realize they're meant for each other. This ending scene has Harry walking the streets remembering back on those 12 years of times with Sally, and he begins walking faster, until finally he's running, and shows up at the New Year's Eve party and finally expresses to Sally all the things he loves her for. They kiss as the New Year arrives, and live happily ever after. I can't count how many movies have ended with the couple finally getting together, but after Harry and Sally's 12 years of trying to get there, this one seems very unique.
Rocky and Adrian kiss for the first time from ROCKY (1976) --- You may be asking, okay, so they kiss? What's the big deal? I pick this sequence because of its honesty -- for once, we see a very honest portrayal of the first kiss and the tension of being alone together. And it's such a tender scene -- Adrian, being so shy, has trouble opening up to Rocky. He invites her over to his apartment after they went ice skating together (which is another tender scene) and they slowly become intimate. It's really for the honesty, and for seeing Talia Shire's performance as she sheds the huge layers of something (pain perhaps) to give herself to Rocky. She removes her hat and glasses, and we not only see her face really for the first time, we see the exposed inner soul of a shy woman, and both performances make this a very honest and tender love scene.
John McClane dropping explosives destroying bottom part of the building from DIE HARD (1988) --- This sequence simply wowed audiences who saw it in the theatre. It's toward the beginning of the terrorist takeover of the tower, when John McClane, played by Bruce Willis, proves he means business by strapping a bunch of explosives and a computer monitor to a chair, and flinging it down on the elevator, killing two of the terrorists and damn near blowing up the entire building, at least most of the bottom. The best line comes immediately after this scene from the annoying police detective trying to take
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