50 Nastiest Movie Arguments

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Raging rows and blistering bust-ups

Blue Valentine (2010)

A Few Good Men (1993)

The Nasty Argument: Hotshot naval lawyer Danny Kaffee quizzes Colonel Nathan Jessop (Jack Nicholson) on the stand, only to be told "You can't handle the truth!" in an Aaron Sorkin-scripted tirade.

Make-Up Or Break-Up: Kaffee eventually winds Jessop up enough into admitting he ordered the fatal code red.

Chinatown (1974)

The Nasty Argument: Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is sure Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) is hiding something from him. Yet as he beats the truth out of her, he gets more than he bargained for.

Make-Up Or Break-Up: The truth brings them closer together, even as events spiral out of control towards a tragic trip to Chinatown.

Crimson Tide (1995)

The Nasty Argument: Orders are through to launch the USS Alabama's nuclear missiles… but then a second message comes through damaged and unreadable. XO Ron Hunter (Denzel Washington) calmly makes the case that it might be a retraction. Captain Frank Ramsey (Gene Hackman) wants to follow procedure, but is clearly rattled: "I'm Captain of this boat. Now shut the fuck up!"

Make-Up Or Break-Up: Repairs to the radio reveal that Hunter was right, but the authorities do the sensible thing by splitting up the team - Hunter gets his own boat, Ramsey takes early retirement.

There Will Be Blood (2007)

The Nasty Argument: The final scene, where Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) executes revenge for an earlier humiliation by Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) by revealing that he's already drained the preacher's oil-rich land. "I drink your milkshake!" Plainview slurps.

Make-Up Or Break-Up: As Plainview says after he's done with Eli, "I'm finished." That'd be a no, then.

Revolutionary Road (2008)

The Nasty Argument: Unhappy April Wheeler (Kate Winslet) gives husband Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) both barrels - "you were just some boy who made me laugh at a party once, and now I loathe the sight of you" - and then he turns the screws by saying he doesn't want the child she's carrying.

Make-Up Or Break-Up: A definitive break, as Frank's words push April into a fatal, self-inflicted abortion.

Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

The Nasty Argument: The increasingly drunk Martha (Elizabeth Taylor) decides to air her grievances with husband George (Richard Burton). "Getting angry?" she needles him as she tells stunned houseguest Nick (George Segal) that "Georgie didn't have the stuff."

Make-Up Or Break-Up: "Getting angrier?" This doesn't end well, as George retaliates by puncturing Martha's fantasy of the son they never had.

Raging Bull (1980)

The Nasty Argument: When Vickie La Motta (Cathy Moriaty) gives a sarcastic mock-confession to jealous Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro) that she fucked his brother Joey (Joe Pesci), the boxer believes her and heads over to Joey's house to administer a brutal beating.

Make-Up Or Break-Up: It's the beginning of the end for Jake. Joey abandons him, Vickie eventually files for divorce, and he becomes a fat, alcoholic waster.

Do The Right Thing (1989)

The Nasty Argument: Should Sal (Danny Aiello) have African-Americans on his pizzeria's Wall of Fame? By the time the debate has left a man dead and caused trashcan-throwing Mookie (Spike Lee) to ignite a riot, he's probably thinking he should have.

Make-Up Or Break-Up: A hesitant reconciliation between Sal and Mookie offers a slim hope that sanity might prevail.

12 Angry Men (1957)

The Nasty Argument: Stick a jury in a hotbox, and you have an argument that lasts an entire film. But the peak of the communal rage is Juror 3 (Lee J. Cobb) going after voice-of-reason Juror 8 (Henry Fonda) with a knife.

Make-Up Or Break-Up: The anger breaks like a wave, as one by one the jurors realise that Fonda has a point.