Moments of Pure Awe

[OdoWanKenobi]

This thread is to share those moments in movies or tv that just make your jaw drop and your eyes stare in awe at what you're seeing on screen. Moments that could be called magical.

My personal favorite (And one I'm sure many will say) is when the first sight of the Brachiosaurus in Jurassic Park. The visuals along with John Williams's fantastic make this moment an absolute classic. It's one that will forever remain in my mind.

 

[firehawk12]

The last one I had was during the end of Act 1 of Call of Duty 4. I honestly didn't know what was going on and it just blew my mind.

 

[zakkrusz]

The battle of Helms Deep in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Valkerie battles in Macross Zero
The Battle of Endor in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
The animation of the Sakura trees in bloom in Clanad: The Movie
The Battle of Geonosis in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

...come to mind at the moment.

 

[Arthur Frelling Dent]

My personal favorite (And one I'm sure many will say) is when the first sight of the Brachiosaurus in Jurassic Park. The visuals along with John Williams's fantastic make this moment an absolute classic. It's one that will forever remain in my mind.

To be honest, I thought the Brachiosaurus looked fake and was disappointed by my first look at the much hyped CGI. However, pretty much every other scene with a dinosaur in that movie left me in awe the first time.

 

[HRHTheKING]

The entire movie "Jurassic Park"

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

Probably the first flyover of the waterfalls in Planet Earth on Blu-ray. Just amazing to see, even after I had already seen it in broadcast HD.

 

[Aragorn]

If I say Phoebe Cates, Betsy Russell and Kelly Preston, will guys old enough to remember the 80s know exactly what I'm referring to?

 

[Neroon]

If I say Phoebe Cates, Betsy Russell and Kelly Preston, will guys old enough to remember the 80s know exactly what I'm referring to?

If I say .....

.... will it clue you in as to how old I am?

 

[SPOCKED]

The great "reveal" in City Lights (and an awesome deleted scene where Chaplin - for about 7 minutes IIRC - tries to remove a stick from a storm grate with onlookers is a true marvel).

 

[Australis]

Another Planet Earth shot, of a mountain goat, then pulling back and back and back until the goat disappears and we can see the whole mountain.

Matter of fact just about every single shot in Planet Earth is jaw droppingly amazing.

 

[captcalhoun]

The Battle of Geonosis in Ep 2

The Battle of Coruscant in ROTS

The pod-race in TPM

The Defiant attacking the Borg Cube in FC

Spider-Man webbing across NY in any of the three films.

Hulk smashing the tanks in Ang Lee's movie - diss it all you like, that was awesome

Blackout tansforming in Transformers

Magneto levitating the police cars in X-Men 1

Helms Deep in LOTR, Pelanor Fields in LOTR and the tower of Isengard in LOTR

The pan across the Discworld in Hogfather at the start

The shooting down of the F/A-18 in Behind Enemy Lines.

the Starfleet/Klingon task force at the end of "Call to Arms"

 

[Neroon]

There have been several such moments for me in my movie viewing history. The first one which came to mind was the reveal of the sheer size of the Rohirrim, gathering to attack the Pelennor. The music swells as the camera "pulls back" and you see the width and depth of their numbers. The sun breaks through the clouds behind them, in a very symbolic manner. The death cry goes up and then the charge begins....

 

[FPAlpha]

There have been several such moments for me in my movie viewing history. The first one which came to mind was the reveal of the sheer size of the Rohirrim, gathering to attack the Pelennor. The music swells as the camera "pulls back" and you see the width and depth of their numbers. The sun breaks through the clouds behind them, in a very symbolic manner. The death cry goes up and then the charge begins....

Exactly.. i saw this the first time at the premiere in the cinema and i just went "Oh Shit" when we saw the numbers and they charget the Orcs.

The Battle at the Pelennor Fields has to be some of the most awesome battles ever filmed.. from the Siege to the Rohirrim and the fight against the Mumakil (those big ass Elephants).


Other awe inspiring moments:

Hero.. the entire movie. Such beauty in pictures together with awesome fight scenes and music

Matrix.. pretty much every fight. "Dodge This", "I know Kung Fu! - Show me!"

The all out lightsaber battle between Obi Wan and Darth Vader/Anakin in Star Wars 3 (the first few minutes before it became the ridiculous Lava battle)

 

[Kemaiku]

Just recently in "The Colour of Magic", the birth scene, that was amazing.

 

[SeerSGB]

Have to go with all geek moments for mine:

-- Drydock Reveal (TMP)
-- 80% of the V'ger scenes in TMP
-- Spacedock Reveal 1701-A (TVH)
-- Final shots of the Enterprise in TUC
-- Spock's Burial (TWOK)
-- Battle of Endor (RotJ)
-- Battle of Hoth (ESB)
-- Battle of Yavin (ANH)
-- Battle of Coruscant (RotS)
-- Mustafar Duel (Rots)
-- Call To Arms Federation Fleet Reveal (DS9)

 

[Neroon]

Looking back over the scenes listed and detailed so far, it strikes me that there's a similarity amongst most of them. It seems as if to produce "awe" most folks need to see huge numbers in larger-than-life situations. And that is more than understandable.

Does anyone have one of these "moments of pure awe" which are not of that variety? The reveal of the NCC-1701-A in the early portion of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" might just be one of them. It certainly is an awe-inspiring kind of moment for me, seeing a long lost love for the first time in many years. But is it possible to be awed so much by more quiet moments?

 

[intrinsical]

Just about the entire episode of Battlestar Galactica, Season 3, Exodus Part 2 was jaw dropping for me.

Galactica dropping like a burning comet while launching Vipers..
Pegasus charging in to Galactica's rescue..
The look on Saul Tigh and Starbuck's face..
The raw joy of celebration at the end.

 

[Kegek]

Hm. Some from the top of my head:

* Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite in 2001: A Space Odyssey
* The battle of Dan-no-ura in Kwaidan
* The computer chip and the city in Koyaanisqatsi
* Moloch and the M-Machine in Metropolis
* The rite of meditation on the Fantastic Planet in Fantastic Planet

 

[FordSVT]

This thread is to share those moments in movies or tv that just make your jaw drop and your eyes stare in awe at what you're seeing on screen. Moments that could be called magical.

My personal favorite (And one I'm sure many will say) is when the first sight of the Brachiosaurus in Jurassic Park. The visuals along with John Williams's fantastic make this moment an absolute classic. It's one that will forever remain in my mind.

Yeah, I still get a bit misty when I see that shot, probably left-over emotional damage from 1993.

But it was the first time that I saw something on screen and said "Holy shit, something that shouldn't be able to look alive on screen does just that!" It looked real.

All of the really groundbreaking moments in CG that came before it (like The Abyss, T2, etc.) still had a ways to go before really challenging the uncanny valley, but Spielberg really hit it out of the park with that movie. I still think of it (and maybe T2) as the first "modern" SFX movies. Anything made before looks decidedly dated.

And don't get me wrong, JP did an amazing job with animatronics as well. The full scale T-Rex and triceratops were amazing and still probably unsurpassed by anything outside of the JP movie trilogy.

 

[Joy]

The lighting of the fire towers in LOTR: Return of the King. The beauty and majesty of those mountains were made even better with the awesome cinematography. It made me cry.

Joy