• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Most Painfully brilliant moments in SF...

Actually, in one of his interviews or commentaries on the Criterion DVD, Terry Gilliam says that he didn't mind that the happy ending version has been broadcast on TV. He likes the idea that people can see it and understand what he's talking about when he talks about how vehemently he fought against it for the original American theatrical release. That's part of why the 90 minute happy ending version is included on the 3rd disc of the Criterion DVD.

I can understand that, but what made me mad [and still does] is the thought of people randomly coming across the broadcast and not realizing that wasn't was the only version.
 
Fate Of The Phoenix. Also, Days Of Future Past. Chris Claremont's head must have been a very strange place to live that year.
 
While this isn't quite what the OP meant, I can hardly prevent myself from mentioning Evey's "escape" in V for Vendetta.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IridZC9Pwc&feature=related[/yt]
"God is in the rain."
 
I didn't like Wash's death. Doing a death for the "shock" or "shows I can" factor really seems hollow when I'm watching a movie, or reading a book, or watching a tv show for that matter. And that's really what it felt like to me. They probably would have done it better if it were in a tv show and there were more build up, but as it was it was just another in the list of token deaths put into books/movies/tv. I was pretty confident after it happened, too, that no one else would die, you just need one. >.<

Spock's death was pretty much number one in my book; it totally made sense and fit in with the rest of the movie but at the same time was really painful and powerful.

Another I'd add to the list never actually got made into a movie/tv show, but in Andromeda's Coda, where Harper pretty much grants permission to Trance to do what she needed to to create the best possible future (which inevitably meant tragic outcome for him) was one of my favorite moments anyway, but could have been just incredible (it was actually the first thing that came to mind when I read this post).
 
The life and death of Londo Mollari.

Some may think Babylon 5 was only about politics and battles of epic power on a galactic scale... but really at it's core, Babylon 5 is the tale of a man who when we first meet him has no power yet all the choices he could ever want... and at the end has all the power he could 've ever wanted, yet no real choices left to him at all... Save one.

"To surrender himself to his greatest fear knowing it would destroy him."

Probably one of the best character arcs I've ever seen, and still to this day it gets me every time I watch B5 just how tragically epic a tale it is at it's core.


Londo has so many "fuck" moments. Three of them off the top of my head.


1. The death of Adira

2. His last meeting with Morden on Centauri Prime

3. Standing on the observation deck of that battle cruiser while the Centauri mass drive the Narn into near extinction. That look on his face, and when he finally casts his eyes down, no longer able to look at what he has wrought...man.
 
But you might have been playing as a bad guy anyway. Either way, finding out you're a Darth should be gratifying rather than painful.
 
Even though it was how the story went, and was sort of the point of it all Charlie's final fate in Charlie (from Flowers With Algernon by Keyes) has upset me so badly I have never re-read the book or watched the movie again. In 30 years.
 
Even though it was how the story went, and was sort of the point of it all Charlie's final fate in Charlie (from Flowers With Algernon by Keyes) has upset me so badly I have never re-read the book or watched the movie again. In 30 years.

I saw the Cliff Robertson film ("Charlie") before I had to read the story for school. I agree, very upsetting. And then when I had health issues resulting in cognitive problems (I couldn't think of words, when words are what I love) and not knowing if things would improve hen the meds finally had effect. Luckily for me, things worked, though Hubby believes I got about as much permanent damage to my brain as I did to my heart--he says he notices a difference.


I don't need to. I'm living it.

I'm very sorry for you. So very sorry.
 
The life and death of Londo Mollari.

Some may think Babylon 5 was only about politics and battles of epic power on a galactic scale... but really at it's core, Babylon 5 is the tale of a man who when we first meet him has no power yet all the choices he could ever want... and at the end has all the power he could 've ever wanted, yet no real choices left to him at all... Save one.

"To surrender himself to his greatest fear knowing it would destroy him."

Probably one of the best character arcs I've ever seen, and still to this day it gets me every time I watch B5 just how tragically epic a tale it is at it's core.


Londo has so many "fuck" moments. Three of them off the top of my head.


1. The death of Adira

2. His last meeting with Morden on Centauri Prime

3. Standing on the observation deck of that battle cruiser while the Centauri mass drive the Narn into near extinction. That look on his face, and when he finally casts his eyes down, no longer able to look at what he has wrought...man.

No mention of Londo's most tragic moments can be complete without his flashback scene at his inauguration: (you really need to have seen B5 to get the impact)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN7Mad85AWE#t=04m23s
 
Ender's Game/Speaker for the Dead: Ender finds out he was responsible for the mass murder of the buggers, AND later finds peace in safeguarding their legacy.


Forgot about that.. i read the book as a teenager and didn't see the twist coming so when it hit my jaw dropped and i got so mad at the adults of that book.

They take these potentially supergenius kids and put them through the military ringer until they find the one who looks the most promising and then build up the greated lie of all by making him believe he's still in training while actually he's fighting a major stellar war for the survival of his species and he's winning.. it broke the mind of another kid who was under his command but the adults would have sacrificed anyone to achieve their goal.

That was one hard pill to swallow and the book rightfully has earned its SF classic status.
 
Also, IMO, this is probably James Cameron's best work. Forget about Titanic and Avatar, this film beats them both. Fine, both of those movies were more popular and made more money, but this is a much better film than either of them.
Agree wholeheartedly.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top