Thelma & Louise (1991)

In director Ridley Scott's great feminist road film:

• the scene in the parking lot outside a roadside honky-tonk bar when hardened waitress Louise (Oscar-nominated Susan Sarandon) avenges in retaliation the near-rape ("It looks like you've got a real f--ked up idea of fun") of her unhappy Arkansas housewife friend Thelma (Oscar-nominated Geena Davis) and shoots/kills Thelma's slimy local redneck dance partner Harlan (Timothy Carhart) when he taunts her ("Suck my c--k")
• the fugitives' liberating drive through Utah's Monument Valley as part of their four-day odyssey
• Thelma's encounter in motel room 133 with hitchhiker and petty thief hunk J.D. (Brad Pitt) - who displays how to use a gun (with a hair-dryer)
• the scene of the two female fugitives as they torment a leering, repulsive truck driver with a wiggling tongue when they shoot out his tires and then blow up his gas truck for not apologizing - (his reaction: "Goddamn it, you bitches from hell!")
• the bittersweet ending with its soaring freeze-frame finale when the road-movie buddies - after their flight across the Southwest to Mexico from cop Hal (Harvey Keitel) - drive their 1966 Ford Thunderbird convertible off a Grand Canyon cliff toward ultimate freedom while holding hands after Thelma urges: "Let's just go for it"

Them! (1954)

In director Gordon Douglas' paranoic mid-50s creature feature:

• the scene of police finding a traumatized girl wandering trance-like, near a smashed-up automobile, and blood (but no bodies)
• after she is revived out of her shocked state from a whiff of formic acid, her scream of: "THEM! THEM!!!! THEMM!!!!"
• the scenes of the giant radioactive ants (due to atomic testing in the New Mexico desert) with mandibles on the loose
• the discovery of their nest

There's Something About Mary (1998)

In the Farrelly Brothers' notorious film:

• the paramedic's response to the painful, pants-zipper accident that injures geeky Ted Stroehmann's (Ben Stiller) member - a flashback on the night of his high school prom with dream-girl Mary's (Cameron Diaz) step-father's (Keith David) incredulous query: "Is it the frank or the beans?" and the paramedic's cry: "We've got a bleeder!"
• the scene of Ted's mouth being hooked by a large fishing line
• Ted's scene with a rambling hitchhiker (Harland Williams) who enthusiastically promotes his new product (7 Minute Abs exercise video)
• the gross-out, disgusting image of Mary's upturned hair with a unique brand of hair-gel that was dangling and borrowed from Ted's left ear lobe
• the wild fight scene with the landlady's dog Puffy

There Will Be Blood (2007)

In writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson's Best Cinematography winning, brooding, turn of the century epic about a greedy, savage, and obsessive quest for oil wealth in S. California:

• the astonishing portrayal of opportunistic, ruthless oil man Daniel Plainview by Oscar-winning Best Actor Daniel Day-Lewis: first in 1898 as a silver mine prospector who adopted an orphaned boy named H.W. (Dillon Freasier) after a mining accident and then connivingly bought 'quail-hunting' land from the goat farming Sunday family in the area of Little Boston, California and began drilling for oil
• the scene of the oil platform explosion and fire, deafening H.W. with the blast
• the scene at the California ocean of Plainview realizing that a man claiming to be his half -brother Henry (Kevin J. O'Connor) from Wisconsin was an imposter - afterwards, he killed him by shooting him in the head
• the masterful scene of Plainview joining the Church of the Third Revelation, led by young crazed, charismatic evangelist Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) - in which the oil man was humiliated and forced to repeatedly and publically declare he was a sinner looking for salvation ("I am a sinner. I am sorry, Lord. I want the blood. I've abandoned my child. I will never backslide. I was lost, but now I am found. I have abandoned my child!"), to satisfy member/land-owner William Bandy (Hans Howes) and acquire the right-of-way to build a pipeline through his land
• the scene of Plainview's disownment of his deafened son H.W. (Russell Howard), who decided to go into competition in Mexico against his rich, profligate father - and was told about his non-biological true origins ("You're not my son...It's the truth. You're not my son. You never have been. You're an orphan!...I don't even know who you are because you have none of me in you. You're someone else's. This anger. Your maliciousness. Backwards dealings with me. You're an orphan from a basket in the middle of the desert. And I took you for no other reason than I needed a sweet face to buy land. Do you get that? So now you know. Look at me! You're lower than a bastard. You have none of me in you. You're just a bastard from a basket")
• the final scene in the two-lane bowling alley in his California mansion in which misanthropic Plainview mocked and vengefully berated and forced financially-strapped, deal-making Eli to repeatedly confess: "I am a false prophet. God is a superstition," before telling him he had already sucked the land dry of oil by drainage ("I drink your milkshake, I drink it up!") - and then bloodily murdering him with bludgeoning blows from a bowling pin, with Plainview's final words to his butler: "I'm finished"

They Died With Their Boots On (1941)

In director Raoul Walsh's historically-inaccurate but rousing western/adventure biopic:

• the tale of the life of the infamous General George Armstrong Custer (Errol Flynn) from his time at West Point to the climactic action scene of his final conflict against Chief Sitting Bull at the Battle of the Little Big Horn massacre
• previously the scene of his heart-rending farewell goodbye to his wife Elizabeth "Libby" Bacon (Olivia de Havilland) who senses disaster and then collapses to the floor when he leaves

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)

In director Sydney Pollack's Depression-Era drama:

• the cruel scenes of the brutal, predatory days-long dance Monster Marathon at the Aragon Ballroom in Ocean Park, California (on Santa Monica pier)
• the beleaguered, pained and anguished contestant-couples competing for the grand prize of $1,500 ("It isn't a contest, it's a show")
• the character of marathon master of ceremonies Rocky (Oscar-winning Gig Young) noted for his phrase: "Yowza! Yowza! Yowza!" and for warning: "There can only be one winner, folks, but isn't that the American way?"
• the 'derby' dance-sprint scene of contestant Gloria (Jane Fonda) dragging and stumbling along with her weak-hearted partner-sailor Harry Kline (Red Buttons) across the finish line - and realizing that he had died in his arms of a fatal heart attack
• the surprise nihilistic ending - the shooting death of Gloria - shot in the head outside the music-hall (and her imagining herself falling in a grassy field) by her dance partner-drifter/farm boy Robert (Michael Sarrazin) who confessed: "They shoot horses, don't they?"

They Won't Forget (1937)

In director Mervyn LeRoy's courtroom drama:

• the famous scene of 15-year-old Mary Clay (Lana Turner's debut as "the Sweater Girl") taking a tight-sweatered walk down a Southern town's street

Thief of Bagdad (1940, UK)

In this imaginative Arabian Nights fantasy produced by Alexander Korda - a loose remake of the original Douglas Fairbanks silent classic of 1924:

• the sight of 50 foot tall genie or Djinni (Rex Ingram) in a tiny bottle
• the character of clever and poor Bagdad thief Abu (15 year-old Sabu) who helps save handsome Prince Ahmad (Jon Justin) and the beautiful Princess (June Duprez) from the villainous, black-clad Grand Vizier Jaffar (Conrad Veidt) by a ride to the rescue on his magic carpet
• the fanciful elements including a toy horse that can fly, Abu's battle with a giant spider in its huge web, and a dog that was originally a boy

The Thin Man (1934)

In director W.S. Van Dyke's comedy-mystery - the first film of the very popular series:

• the wisecracking, sophisticated, witty, and clever exchanges between detective couple Nick (William Powell) and Nora Charles (Myrna Loy)
• the scene of Nora's noisy and sprawling entrance into a restaurant laden with Christmas packages and dragged by their dog Asta
• the sequence in their bedroom in which Nick punches out his wife to protect her from a gunman's line of fire
• Nick's scene with a pop/airgun shooting balloons off their Christmas tree
• the dinner party scene in which Nick invites all the suspects and step-by-step analyzes all the crimes and solves the mystery

The Thing (1982)

In John Carpenter's remake of the 1951 classic horror film:

• the repellent autopsy scene, in which Norris (Charles Hallahan), a member of an Antarctica research team experiencing sub-zero temperatures and extreme paranoia, has a heart attack -- as a doctor attempts to revive his heart with resuscitation paddles, his stomach becomes a fanged, gaping maw that bites off the doctor's forearms; also, the head separates from the body, sprouts spider legs and scurries away
• the shocking scenes of the blood test used by R. J. MacReady (Kurt Russell) and Windows (Thomas Waites) to 'smoke out' the alien creature as the participants sit tied together and have their thumbs sliced open - with the blood sample from Palmer (David Clennon) indicating that he is infected - and his incineration by MacReady
• the scene of discovering that Blair (Wilford Brimley), slowly going insane, has escaped the storage shed by tunneling under the ice

The Thing (From Another World) (1951)

In director Christian Nyby's (and producer Howard Hughes) science-fiction thriller (remade by John Carpenter as The Thing (1982)):

• the scene of the discovery of the alien frozen in ice in the Arctic
• The Thing's (James Arness, later famed for the TV western Gunsmoke) scary thawing and appearance after its ice-block encasement melts
• the scene of setting the Thing ablaze
• the tense sequence in which Bob's (Dewey Martin) geiger counter reveals the monster is coming closer and closer - and is revealed behind a closed doorway
• the startling moment when the team opens the door -- and shockingly, The Thing is right on the other side of the door, and they manage to slam the door on its claw
• the Thing's electrocution
• and the final warning/bulletin radioed by reporter Ned Scott (Douglas Spencer) from the North Pole: "...Watch the skies, everywhere! Keep looking, keep watching the skies!"

The Third Man (1949)

In director Carol Reed's classic drama of intrigue:

• the moody scenes of a shattered, post-war Vienna in the film's opening
• the haunting zither music soundtrack by Anton Karas
• the graveyard scene as black marketeer Harry Lime (Orson Welles) is buried - with his American pulp novelist friend Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) and his lover Anna (Alida Valli) in attendance
• the famous scene of presumed-dead Harry Lime's delayed appearance in the film - from a shadow inside a doorway when an overhead light illuminates his enigmatic, smirking face and a cat snuggles at his feet
• the scene of the accusations of the little, moon-faced boy that Martins is a murderer
• the image of a mournful Anna lying in bed and wearing Harry Lime's monogrammed pajamas
• the legendary encounter between Lime and Martins at the top of the Prater Ferris wheel high above a Viennese fairground (and Lime's callous "cuckoo clock" speech once they have descended: "In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed - but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock")
• the balloon-man scene
• the thrilling chase sequence through the sewers after Lime - with his fingers appearing through the street grating;
• the exquisite closing sequence of Anna's long and deliberate walk in between a row of trees and past a waiting Holly after Lime's second funeral

The 39 Steps (1935)

In Alfred Hitchcock's British suspense classic:

• the fatal stabbing in the back of the counterspy female agent Annabella Smith (Lucie Mannheim) in Richard Hannay's (Robert Donat) apartment
• the famous scene transition blending the scream of the housekeeper discovering the corpse to the shrieking whistle of a train
• the master spy Professor Jordan's (Godfrey Tearle) display of the missing portion of his little finger on his right hand before he pulls out a gun and shoots Hannay point-blank - followed by a superb fadeout
• the forced handcuffing together of the two major characters - Hannay and Pamela (Madeleine Carroll) and the uncomfortable situations they find themselves in
• Hannay's memorable political speech
• the final sequences of the questioning of Mr. Memory on stage, the assassination attempt and Memory's confession as he's dying, while chorus girls kick on stage behind him and a handcuffed Hannay joins hands with Pamela in the foreground - in the closing image

This Gun For Hire (1942)

In director Frank Tuttle's adaptation of Graham Greene's novel:

• the electrifying pairing of screen partners in this early film noir: the expressionless, baby-faced, cat-loving hired killer Philip Raven (Alan Ladd in his first major role) and peek-a-boo blonde-haired femme fatale Ellen Graham (Veronica Lake) - especially during their overnight train ride to Los Angeles
• the scene of Raven's murder of Albert Baker (Frank Ferguson) and his secretary (through a kitchen door)
• the shadowy scene of the police tracking the couple in a deserted gasworks factory at night and then in a railroad yard the next day (with Ellen serving as a disguised decoy)
• the couple's getting-to-know each other during the long night in a railroad car and the unfortunate death of meowing cat Tuffy - ending his luck
• Raven's monologue about his victimization as a child, how he acquired a disfigured wrist, the murder of his aunt, and his time in a reform school ("...They stuck a label on me, killer, shoved me in a reform school and beat me there too, but I'm glad I killed her...")
• and the climactic finale in which Raven acquires a written confession in the Nitro Chemicals executive offices from corrupt, double-crossing, peppermint candy-loving fat man Willard Gates (Laird Cregar) and wheelchair-bound Alvin Brewster (Tully Marshall) (who are selling secrets about the chemical composition of poison gas to foreign agents (the Japanese)) before their deaths
• Raven's own demise from gunshot wounds after asking Ellen: "Did I do alright for ya?"

This is Spinal Tap (1984)

In this low-budget rockumentary by director Rob Reiner:

• the bogus heavy-metal British band in the US to promote their new album Smell the Glove
• the lyrics of "Big Bottomed Woman" and the memorable song fusing Bach and Mozart (or M-ach) titled "Lick My Love Pump"
• the scene of British heavy rocker Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) bragging about his collection of guitars and his Marshall amp to rocumentary cinema verite film-maker Marty Di Bergi (Rob Reiner) - boasting that the amplifier can go "one louder" up to a volume setting of eleven ("These go to 11")
• Derek Small's (Harry Shearer) 'enhanced' embarrassment when caught at an airplane security check
• the scene of the lowering of a miniature Stonehenge to the stage with midgets cavorting around
• the band's convoluted attempts to walk from their dressing room to the stage at their Cleveland concert ("Hello Cleveland!")
• the last line of the film after the end credits - Nigel's response when asked if he would be happy being a shoe salesman: "Well, I don't know. What are the hours?"

This Island Earth (1955)

In the cerebral 1950's science-fiction film by director Joseph M. Newman:

• the scene in which big foreheaded, white-haired alien Metalunans ensnare Dr. Cal Meacham (Rex Reason) and Dr. Ruth Adams (Faith Domergue) in their tractor beam and take them to the surrealistic doomed planet of Metaluna
• their encounter with slave "Mut-Ants" (giant insects with an enlarged, exposed brain)
• the scene in which Cal, Ruth and benevolent Metaluna emissary Exeter (Jeff Morrow) escape the destruction of Metaluna
• the attack by a stowaway Mut-Ant
• Exeter's sacrificial suicide (by crashing his saucer into the ocean) after telling Cal and Ruth to leave in their biplane