50 Greatest Movie Scenes Of 2011

Tangled

The Scene: Our supposed prince charming of the piece, Flynn, is tied up by Rapunzel. Unconscious, Rapunzel’s pet chameleon inspects the strange specimen – and takes a liking to sticking his tongue in Flynn’s ear.

Best Bit: “May I just say? Hi,” smoulders Flynn. And Rapunzel knocks him out with a frying pan.

Contagion

The Scene: The film’s closing moments, in which we discover just how the MEV-1 virus was created – by pigs eating bananas containing a bat virus. You couldn’t make this stuff up. (Or, OK, you could.)

Best Bit: The not-so-subtle finger pointing at deforestation as the cause of most of our planet’s problems.

Fast Five

The Scene: As brilliantly over-the-top as you’d expected. Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) gets into a turbo-powered car and drags a crate behind as the police close in.

Best Bit: Dom uses the massive metal crate to bust up the police cars.

Attack The Block

The Scene: Our gang of boys bumps into a gang of girls in the block of flats, culminating in an awesome face-off with the alien invaders.

Best Bit: The girls fend off an alien in their bedroom, beating it with anything that comes to hand – and actually doing a good job.

Dont Be Afraid Of The Dark

The Scene: Director Troy Nixey sets up a deliciously dark mood in his film’s disturbing prologue, in which a desperate man bashes out the teeth of one of his maids using a chisel.

Best Bit: We don’t see a single tooth get busted, but we do hear them scatter across the stone floor. Shudder.

Midnight In Paris

The Scene: Gil (Luke Wilson) travels back to 1920s Paris for the first time, where he meets Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald (Alison Pill and Tom Hiddleston).

Best Bit: Gil is taken to meet Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll).

The Ides Of March

The Scene: Political campaign-worker Stephen (Ryan Gosling) turns from meek underling to demanding shark as he confronts presidential candidate Mike (George Clooney) in a dark kitchen, and threatens to expose his secrets.

Best Bit: The biting interplay between the characters, as each attempts to better the other.

The Extraordinary Adventures Of Adele Blanc-Sec

The Scene: We discover just what unfortunate incident led to Adele’s (Louise Bourgoin) sister becoming a vegetable.

Best Bit: In glorious slow-mo, a giant hat pin flies through the air and embeds in Adele’s sister’s skull. Yeow.

Paul

The Scene: Graeme, Clive, Paul and Ruth bond around a campfire in a scene that’s clearly been inspired by Easy Rider . Which only makes us love it more.

Best Bit: Ruth completely flips out after smoking her first joint. Then passes out. Thank God.

Insidious

The Scene: An effective little scare scene near the beginning of this goose-pimpler, in which Renai (Rose Byrne) wakes up to see a man walking outside her window...

Best Bit: In a cleverly-played shocker, the pacing man suddenly appears inside the bedroom. GAH!

Thor

The Scene: Thor (Chris Hemsworth) takes on the Destroyer in a little Midwestern town, even though he’s been stripped of his godly powers. Ah, the heart of a lion that one.

Best Bit: Thor gets a thrashing, and then his powers return to him in a flurry of CGI gorgeousness.

The Fighter

The Scene: You feel every blow as Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) gets into the ring and takes a beating from a fighter 18 pounds heavier than he is.

Best Bit: The blood splatters onto the boxing ring floor.

Source Code

The Scene: Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) kisses Christina (Michelle Monaghan) as he finally solves the train code. Meanwhile, Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) turns off his life-support.

Best Bit: We see Stevens as he is outside the code, or at least what’s left of him…

Archipelago

The Scene: Only one of the most awkward dinner scenes ever, as Edward (Tom Hiddleston) and his family go out for dinner during their summer break.

Best Bit: Mother Patricia (Kate Fahy) can’t decide which table to sit at, and turns the entire meal into a dithering disaster.

Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol

The Scene: One-hundred-and-thirty floors up, we witness a massive fight that involves hand-to-hand combat and ends in a big bad getting shoved out the window.

Best Bit: The fighting, of course.

127 Hours

The Scene: Aron (James Franco) finally gets to a point where he’ll actually cut off his own arm in order to escape the rocky hell he’s landed in. In a moment that’ll cause most heart palpitations, he breaks his arm and then begins to saw through it with a blunt knife.

Best Bit: That stomach-churning moment when Aron’s forced to sever the nerve in his arm. We all scream along with the soundtrack.

The Skin I Live In

The Scene: Vera (Elena Anaya) tricks her maker Robert (Antonio Banderas) into thinking she’s fallen for him, and then gets out her gun…

Best Bit: Robert's mother Marilia (Marisa Paredes) bursts into the room, and a gun appears from under the bed.

Hanna

The Scene: Hanna (Saoirse Ronan), trapped in a CIA safe house, kills evil Marissa’s double and makes a bid for freedom – taking down numerous security guards on her way.

Best Bit: The whole giddy sequence is a masterful bit of suspense – boosted brilliantly by the Chemical Brothers’ fantastic score.

Submarine

The Scene: Oliver (Craig Roberts) attempts to woo his teen dream by buying her a prawn cocktail and festooning his bed with petals.

Best Bit: Jordana (Yasmin Paige) walks off, non-plussed. Heart. Trodden. On.

Blue Valentine

The Scene: Before things all go to hell, Dean (Ryan Gosling) croons a version of ‘You Always Hurt The One You Love’ to Molly (Michelle Williams) outside a shop.

Best Bit: Molly dances for Dean. Adorable.

Red State

The Scene: Last survivor Travis (Michael Angarano) escapes his religious nutjob captors and makes a run for it.

Best Bit: Travis gets shot down and killed by a police officer who mistakes him for a member of the evil sect. Hope. Shattered.

Rabbit Hole

The Scene: Mourning couple Becca (Nicole Kidman) and Howie Corbett (Aaron Eckhart) attend grief counselling with other grieving couples, and have to sit and listen to absolute tosh like: “God had to take her. He needed another angel.”

Best Bit: “Why didn’t he just make one?” counters Becca, who’s not feeling the schmaltz.

Immortals

The Scene: The Gods take on the titans, and well and truly kick their arses. Tarsem Singh’s visuals come into their own.

Best Bit: The slow-mo sword-wielding. Drool.

Troll Hunter

The Scene: As this Norwegian mock-doc comes to a chilly close, our titular hunter and his camera crew attempt to take down a troll the size of a mountain – armed with just a 4x4 and a massive light.

Best Bit: The troll starts to turn to stone.

Scream 4

The Scene: At the climax of the slasher fourquel, Jill (Emma Roberts) reveals her twisted motivation for killing all of her friends – and attempting to kill cousin Sidney. “I don’t need friends, I need fans!” How very modern of her.

Best Bit: In order to make her cover story look legit, Jill throws herself into walls and coffee tables to beat herself up. Total psycho.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows

The Scene: Sherlock (Robert Downey Jr), Watson (Jude Law) and fortune teller Sim (Noomi Rapace) are chased through a frosty forest, where bullets whistle past their ears and splinter trees.

Best Bit : The big guns are brought out – literally – as a formidable new firearm is unleashed on our trio.

Super

The Scene: Libby/Boltie (Ellen Page) gets unexpectedly shot in the head and killed during a raid on Jacques’ ranch.

Best Bit: The ensuing rampage carried out by the Crimson Bolt (Rainn Wilson).

Tree Of Life

The Scene: We watch the creation of the universe, as galaxies develop and we zoom in on a newborn Earth, where volcanoes vomit fire, dinosaurs wage their own private war, and asteroids rain down on the planet.

Best Bit: A meat-eating Ornithomimus takes pity on an injured Parasaurolophus and leaves it be.

Adventures Of Tintin: Secret Of The Unicorn

The Scene: Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis) suffers from dehydration in the desert and begins to recall stories about his ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock, captain of the Unicorn.

Best Bit: The dastardly Red Rackham emerges, swathed in shadows, as the boat burns around him. A fantastic image.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

The Scene: Cross your legs gentlemen (and ladies, actually), as Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) doles out her own super-physical, super-violent vengeance against sadistic rapist Nils (Yorick van Wageningen).

Best Bit: Lisbeth says: “Hold still, I’ve never done this before.” Then gets out the tattooing needle.

Ironclad

The Scene: William d'Aubigny (Brian Cox) has all of his limbs unceremoniously severed before he’s catapulted against the castle. Very queasy-making.

Best Bit: When you realise that King John (Paul Giamatti) really is that mad, and he’s going to do d’Aubigny in good and proper.

Super 8

The Scene: As Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) and his gang shoot a film by the rail track, a pick-up truck drives right in front of an oncoming train, causing one heck of an almighty crash.

Best Bit: The train buckles and explodes as our central gang attempt to escape getting smashed to smithereens.

Horrible Bosses

The Scene: Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston) sucks on a banana. And a hotdog. And a popcicle. All in an attempt to woo impressionable young Dale (Charlie Day).

Best Bit: The fact that Dale falls for the act and sleeps with the crazy bitch.

The Artist

The Scene: The silent movie comes to a head as George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) considers suicide. Meanwhile, Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) gets in the car and races toward his house, certain something’s wrong.

Best Bit: We won’t spoil it for you.

Drive

The Scene: We get a demonstration of Driver’s (Ryan Gosling) skills behind the wheel right at the start of the film, as he evades the cops during a job not by burning the rubber, but by working calmly and efficiently.

Best Bit: The part where Driver hides in a well-placed parking lot, knowing the authorities won’t find them there.

The Kings Speech

The Scene: The montage sequence in which Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) gets Prince Albert (Colin Firth) to do all manner of strange exercises to get rid of his stammer.

Best Bit: Carter sits on Firth’s chest as he does exercises. As you do.

Incendies

The Scene: Nawal Marwan (Lubna Azabal) pretends to be a Muslim in order to board a bus that will take her to the orphanage where her son has been taken.

Best Bit: The bus is attacked by Christians with guns. Showing her cross, Nawal escapes death, but the rest of the travellers are not so lucky, as the bus is burnt to cinders.

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2

The Scene: Hermione (Emma Watson) drinks some polyjuice potion and transforms herself into a Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter) lookalike in order to break into Gringotts Bank.

Best Bit: Any bit where Carter perfectly nails Watson’s body language. It really is uncanny.

A Separation

The Scene: The film comes to a close as Simin (Leila Hatami) and Naader’s (Peyman Moaadi) divorce is finalised, and their daughter Termeh (Sarina Farhadi) is asked which parent she wants to live with.

Best Bit: The final credits cut in before we find out Termeh’s decision.

True Grit

The Scene: Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) takes on Lucky Ned Pepper (Barry Pepper) and his gang single-handedly.

Best Bit: Cogburn gets trapped under his horse. Luckily, LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) is watching out for him, and shoots Pepper from hundreds of yards away.

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

The Scene: Years after Magneto uprooted the Golden Gate Bridge in X-Men: The Last Stand , it’s the setting for another sci-fi brawl as Caesar (Andy Serkis) leads his ape army against the humans.

Best Bit: The gorilla hurls itself at the helicopter.

Snowtown

The Scene: Serial killer John Bunting (Daniel Henshall) carries out his latest torture/kill and this time recruits young Jamie (Lucas Pittaway) to help him.

Best Bit: Bunting forces his victim to record a fake voice mail that he’ll use to cover up the murder. Chilling.

Black Swan

The Scene: Natalie Portman takes our breath away as she tackles the final part of Swan Lake, and begins to transform into a bird – feathers and all.

Best Bit: That shot of her with wings outspread, chest jutting toward the audience. Dazzling.

The Guard

The Scene: FBI agent Everett (Don Cheadle) gathers the police force together to discuss capturing three international drug smugglers who are operating in the Connemara.

Best Bit: “I thought only black lads were drug dealers,” says a baffled-looking Boyle.

Kill List

The Scene: It’s death by hammer for an unlucky librarian in this neat chiller from director Ben Wheatley.

Best Bit: The bit with the hammer. No, really.

Bridemaids

The Scene: Getting the shits is never funny – unless you’re in a spiffing wedding dress shop trying on bridesmaids outfits when they strike. See boys, girls can be funny. And gross.

Best Bit: Bride Lillian (Maya Rudolph) legs it out into the street, only to suffer the same indignity as her friends. Crestfallen, she sinks to her knees on the tarmac.

Melancholia

The Scene: Not so much a scene as a collection of operatic montages that open Lars von Trier’s deathly depressing but gripping end-of-worlder.

Best Bit: Kirsten Dunst stands staring down at her hands in disbelief as electrical charges spread out from her fingers.

Final Destination 5

The Scene: The bloody brilliant scene of destruction on a bridge, as it collapses and the poor people stuck on it get variously skewered and squished to death.

Best Bit: A girl plummets to her death, only to get impaled on a boat’s mast – and her innards spew out at us in 3D.

X-Men: First Class

The Scene: Bondian guitars twang in the background as Magneto (Michael Fassbender) heads to Argentina and takes down two of Sebastian Shaw’s ex-henchmen in a bar.

Best Bit: Magneto uses the bartender’s gun to shoot one of the Germans. He then hurls a knife at the bartender before telekinetically zapping it back into his hand to use against the remaining baddie. This guy’s cool.

We Need To Talk About Kevin

The Scene: Kevin (Ezra Miller) locks a load of helpless students in the gymnasium in order to carry out his sadistic killing spree.

Best Bit: Kevin looks on unemotionally as he lets loose a torrent of arrows, and we only hear them hit their marks.

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.