Umberto D. (1952, It.)

In Vittorio De Sica's classic Italian New Wave tearjerker:

• the melodramatic plight of elderly retired pensioner Umberto Domenico Ferrari (Carlo Battisti), whose slashed monthly pension causes his heartless and tyrannical landlady (Lina Gennari) to evict him to rent out his room to prostitutes and their johns
• the close-knit, dependent relationship between him and his faithful dog Flike
• Umberto's touching relationship with caring young pregnant house-maid Maria (Maria-Pia Casilio) - with the transcendent scene of her morning routine in the kitchen making coffee
• the tearjerking, ambiguous ending in which Umberto, unable to give away his dog, contemplates suicide by stepping in front of a speeding train near a park while holding Flike -- the dog yelps and squirms away before Umberto can step in front of the train, and for the first time, runs away in abject fear from his beloved master
• Umberto coaxing the forgiving Flike back to him by having the dog perform tricks with a pine cone
• his play with the dog in a long shot as the film ends, despite having no place to stay and no income

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)

In Philip Kaufman's erotic adaptation of Czech novelist Milan Kundera's novel:

• the love triangle between libertine Czech doctor Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis) (known for his ultra-suave seduction line: "Take off your clothes") and his naive wife Tereza (Juliette Binoche) and bowler-hat wearing free-spirited mistress/painter Sabina (Lena Olin)
• the choreographed scene of an uninhibited nude photographic romp between Tereza and Sabina

Unfaithfully Yours (1948)

In writer/director Preston Sturges' dark and cynical domestic comedy:

• all three fantasy scenarios (to the music of Rossini, Wagner, and Tchaikovsky) of the proposed murder of American wife Daphne (Linda Darnell) while self-assured but jealous orchestra conductor/husband Sir Alfred De Carter (Rex Harrison) conducts a symphony
• the slapstick scene of the disastrous, real murder preparations using his first fantasy plan, especially with a home recording machine
• the final scene of the couple's reconciliation when Alfred at last realizes how deliriously silly he's been - he embraces and kisses his loving wife, who's never been unfaithful, and has no idea that he has been plotting against her - as he tells her: "A thousand poets dreamed a thousand years. Then you were born, my love"

Unforgiven (1992)

In actor/director Clint Eastwood's Best Picture-winning revisionistic western:

• the shooting in the outhouse, followed by the stark scene under a lone tree when widower and retired-reformed bounty hunter William Munny (Clint Eastwood) tells the young Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett): "It's a hell of a thing, killin' a man. You take away all he's got an' all he's ever gonna have....We all have it comin', kid"
• the final scene of retributive justice when Munny finds his tortured and murdered friend Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) and seeks unglamorous revenge in the saloon of the frontier town of Big Whiskey against corrupt Sheriff 'Little Bill' Daggett (Oscar-winning Gene Hackman) ("I've killed women and children. I've killed just about everything that walks or crawled at one time or another. And I'm here to kill you Little Bill, for what you did to Ned")

The Uninvited (1944)

In director Lewis Allen's mysterious and atmospheric 'old dark house' ghost story:

• the scenes of the sudden opening of French windows in a haunted house on the Cornish seacoast
• the appearance of the ghostly phantom at the top of the stairs
• the seance

Union Pacific (1939)

In director Cecil B. DeMille's action-packed epic western:

• the scenes of the spectacular train wreck/crash (into a toppling water tower downed by the Indians) during a milestone raid/attack on the moving train
• the exciting follow-up scene of a second train with troops coming to the rescue
• the celebratory scene as the golden spike of the first trans-continental railroad was driven into the last rail in 1869

An Unmarried Woman (1978)

In director/writer Paul Mazursky's serious and groundbreaking (but dated) feminist film:

• the portrayal of the character of mid-30s wife/mother Erica (Oscar-nominated Jill Clayburgh) who was suddenly dumped by husband Martin (Michael Murphy) for a much younger woman - and her throwing up reaction afterwards into a trash can - accompanied by her obvious confusion, humiliation, and anger towards all men
• the scene in which Erica "erased" Martin's memory by removing all of his belongings and piling them into the living room
• the scene of her one-night stand with smooth, gold necklace-wearing co-worker and swinger Charlie (Cliff Gorman)
• her more reciprocal relationship with handsome artist Saul (Alan Bates) who presented her with a painting
• her final realization that she was in control of her own life as an unmarried and independent woman

The Untouchables (1987)

In director Brian De Palma's epic crime/gangster drama of the Prohibition era:

• Treasury agent law enforcer Eliot Ness' (Kevin Costner) vow - to veteran Irish street cop James Malone (Oscar-winning Sean Connery) - to "get" notorious prohibition criminal Al Capone (Robert DeNiro) (who threatened: "I want this guy dead! I want his family dead! I want his house burned to the ground! I want to go there in the middle of the night and piss on his ashes!")
• Malone's wizened and repeated question and advice ("What are you prepared to do?" - "You wanna know how you do it? Here's how, they pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way, and that's how you get Capone!")
• the violent board meeting featuring a raging Capone with a baseball bat
• the climactic shoot-out scene in Chicago's Union Station - an homage or tribute to the Odessa steps sequence in The Battleship Potemkin (1925), in which a baby carriage (with a baby inside) rolls down a long flight of stairs

Up (2009)

In Disney's/Pixar's exquisite life-affirming animation:

• the emotionally deep, powerful and effective wordless 4-minute montage of 'married life' -- a man's entire relationship with his wife up until her death - in the person of two young kids who met and later married: balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen (voice of Ed Asner) who worked in a zoo and adventurous, tomboyish Ellie (voice of Elie Docter)
• their life journey of growing old, including buying and fixing up a dilapidated two-story home (soon threatened by encroaching city developers), painting their names (and leaving handprints) on their mailbox, taking frequent picnics to a hillside where they laid on their backs and observed cloud animal shapes, dreaming of having a family and setting up a nursery room but experiencing childlessness (miscarriage), his presentation of "My Adventure Book" to her with their mutual dream of going to Venezuela's Paradise Falls by saving spare coins for the journey (but they were never able to go, due to other obligations and debts), her tying of his necktie (numerous times to indicate the passage of time) as their hair greyed, his purchasing of tickets to Venezuela but the abrupt interruption of her failing health and death, and his expression of bereavement at her funeral before returning home alone - as the montage ended
• the scene of Carl's soaring up in his helium-balloon lifted wooden home over the city
• his slow-building camaraderie with chubby stowaway Wilderness Explorer scout Russell (voice of Jordan Nagai) as they sailed to South America

Urban Cowboy (1980)

In James Bridges' western romance:

• the authentic western music (by the Charlie Daniels Band, Bob Seger, Boz Scaggs, Bonnie Raitt, Kenny Rogers, and Linda Ronstadt) performed throughout the film
• the character of cocky two-step dancer and studly Bud (John Travolta) in Houston's honky-tonk bar/dance hall Gilley's and his first meeting up with cute cowgirl Sissy (Debra Winger) ("You a real cowboy?")
• their first dance together (with a Lone Star beer bottle in his back pocket)
• the scene in which bull-riding ex-convict Wes (Scott Glenn) swallows and chews up a worm while drinking a bottle of tequila
• the scene of Sissy's sexy, gyrating ride on the mechanical bull to inspire Bud's jealousy

The Usual Suspects (1995)

In director Bryan Singer's twisting, puzzling and complicated film-noirish thriller:

• the scene of the police lineup of five tough and savvy criminals (the ones on all the film's posters, in an NYPD line-up hauled in after a Queens, NY truck hijacking)
• the film's lengthy scene of limping, weaselly con man Roger "Verbal" Kint's (Oscar-winning Kevin Spacey) questioning by federal customs agent/officer Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri)
• Kint's wily tale of the notorious, mysterious, devilish crime lord Keyser Soze's early life and his description of the first time he ever heard of Soze ("The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist...and like that, he's gone. Underground")
• the criminal mastermind's coldbloodness with Hungarian rivals followed by his disappearance ("Nobody's ever seen him since. He becomes a myth, a spook story that criminals tell their kids at night")
• the resolution of the identity of the mythic Keyser Soze (Kevin Spacey himself) at the surprising conclusion - when Kint slowly loses his limp while walking away and when Kujan scans the interrogation office's bulletin board, drops his coffee mug (with the logo for Kobayashi Porcelain), and is stunned to realize that most of the names in Kint's fabricated, swindler story (about Kobayashi–Keyser Soze–Dean Keaton) appear on the bulletin board