Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

The Borg Queen

The sexy, cunning Borg Queen (Alice Krige) used time travel to enslave Earth's humanity in the 21st century (the year 2063).

Her memorable entrance featured her organic head, shoulders and spinal cord descending from the ceiling and latching onto her synthetic, artificial body, as she announced:

Are you ready?...I am the Borg... I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many. I am the Borg...I am the Collective.

As head of the Borg, her mission was to absorb or assimilate all other species or cultures into the collective consciousness. To captured android Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) (with an implanted emotion chip) from the USS Enterprise, she claimed:

By assimilating other beings into our Collective, we are bringing them closer to perfection.

Lolita (1997)

Dolores "Lo" Haze

In director Adrian Lyne's controversial version of Vladimir Nabokov's novel (and a remake of Kubrick's 1962 film), the first view of young "nymphet" Dolores Lolita (or "Lo") Haze (14 year-old Dominique Swain) was sunbathing in the backyard piazza-garden, where a lawn sprinkler soaked her pale sundress.

She was viewed by obsessed professor Humbert Humbert (Jeremy Irons). He was being shown the house as a possible place to board during the summer of 1947 before teaching at Ramsdale's Beardsley College in the fall.

He was stunned by the sight of Lolita and remarked: "beautiful" - referring to Lolita rather than widowed Charlotte Haze's (Melanie Griffith) garden of lilies.

Lo's upraised legs twisted and turned sensuously in the falling water. She was reading a magazine filled with pictures of movie stars.

When she glanced up at him, she smiled - revealing her braces' retainer. Smitten, Humbert was convinced to stay and rent a room, and he asked for the amount of rent.

U-Turn (1997)

Grace McKenna

Director Oliver Stone's western-styled film noir, similar to Blood Simple (1984) and Red Rock West (1993), was a bloody, violence-filled black comedy about deception, jealousy and greed. It opened with disreputable, pill-popping lout/gambler Bobby Cooper (Sean Penn) stuck in the remote town of Superior, Arizona while his overheated red Mustang convertible was being repaired for a busted radiator hose.

He had walked to town where he caught a glimpse of the film's gorgeous femme fatale temptress in a tight orange dress: "half-breed" Apache Grace McKenna (Jennifer Lopez). The first sight of her was a flashy, blurry scan of her chest. She was coming out of a store carrying packages (drapes), and he followed the flirtatious female down the street to her Jeep, and assisted her with the heavy boxes.

Although she was referring to her recent purchases, he was thinking of something else when she said:

You ever see something and just knew you had to have it?

After introducting themselves to each other, she invited him to her house, to help her install them.

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski

The long opening voice-over (partially quoted here) by The Stranger (Sam Elliott) introduced and described the film's main character: bearded, and long-haired Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges). A tumbleweed rolled along in late-night Los Angeles to the tune of the song Tumbling Tumbleweeds, sung by Sons of the Pioneers:

Way out west, there was this fella that I wanna tell ya about. A fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself 'The Dude.' Now, 'Dude' - that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then there was a lot about the 'Dude' that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place so darned interestin'.

They call Los Angeles the 'City Of Angels.' I didn't find it to be that, exactly. But I'll allow there are some nice folks there. 'Course I can't say I've seen London, and I've never been to France. And I ain't never seen no queen in her damned undies, as the fella says. But I'll tell ya what - after seeing Los Angeles, and this a-here story I'm about to unfold, well, I guess I seen somethin' every bit as stupefyin' as you'd see in any of those other places. And in English, too. So I can die with a smile on my face, without feelin' like the good Lord gypped me.

Now this a-here story I'm about to unfold took place back in the early '90s - just about the time of our conflict with Sad'm and the I-raqis. I only mention it because sometimes there's a man - I won't say a hero, 'cause, what's a hero? But sometimes, there's a man - and I'm talkin' about the 'Dude' here. Sometimes, there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that's the 'Dude' in Los Angeles. And even if he's a lazy man - and the 'Dude' was most certainly that, quite possibly the laziest in Los Angeles County, which would place him high in the runnin' for laziest worldwide. But sometimes there's a man, sometimes, there's a man. Wow, I lost my train of thought here. But, aw, hell. I've done introduced him enough.

The Dude was first viewed with sunglasses and shuffling along in the flourescently-lit dairy section of an almost-empty Ralph's supermarket - opening and smelling the contents of a quart container of Half-and-Half. He was wearing a long open gray overcoat, dirty white T-shirt, his PJ bottoms, and slippers.

At the checkout counter, he wrote out a check for $.67 cents.

American Beauty (1999)

Angela Hayes

The film's blonde teenaged femme fatale, Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari) was briefly seen sitting on the front bench of the bleachers during a Rockwell High School basketball game, next to her fellow cheerleader/girlfriend Janie Burnham (Thora Birch).

Angela's major and dramatic entrance was a few moments later, however, during a half-time Dancing Spartanette routine to the tune of "On Broadway." The music slowed down as Janie's father Lester (Kevin Spacey), sitting high in the bleachers, became entranced, transfixed and focused on Angela.

Staring at her and sexually desirous of her in his fantasies, his jaw dropped as the spotlight fell on her and she became the only one on the gym-floor in his view - and he was the only one in the stands.

She teasingly winked at him and then performed (in his projective mind) a personal, one-on-one clothed striptease for him. She gave a knowing look, then unzipped the front of her uniform, causing a torrent and profusion of red rose petals to spill forth from her bare chest.

After a smash-cut back to the full cheerleader group, the band hit its final note and the Spartanettes struck their final pose.

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)

Mini-Me

In Dr. Evil's (Mike Myers) Headquarters in Seattle within the "Starbucks" Needle, Evil's Number Two (Robert Wagner) presented Evil with his perfect clone "except one-eighth your size" - dubbed Mini-Me (Verne Troyer).

As he was introduced, his silhouette was seen distorted (and in full-size), but when the door opened, the camera was forced to pan downward as Mini-Me ran forward.

Dr. Evil remarked: "Breathtaking," as lightning flashed.