It's a Friday - a Good Time to Remember the 100 Greatest Movie Moments Ever (Part 1).

Starring Darth Vader, Superman, E.I, Ripley, Joker, Spiderman, Indiana Jones and many more.

01. “I am Maximus Decimus Meridius...” Gladiator, 2000

Having survived certain death in the Colosseum, Russell Crowe’s soldier turned gladiator comes face to masked face with Roman emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), the ruler responsible for both his reversal of fortune and the deaths of his wife and son. Ordered to remove his helmet, Crowe does so and fixes his nemesis with a steely stare.

“My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius,” he announces. “Commander of the armies of the north, general of the Felix legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son. Husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life of the next.”

A great speech, right? Not according to Crowe, who initially refused to say the last line of that legendary address. “Your lines are garbage,” he told screenwriter William Nicholson. “But I’m the greatest actor in the world, and I can make even garbage sound good…”

02. “Heeeere’s Johnny!”, The Shining, 1980	03. Chess with Death, The Seventh Seal, 1957
Jack Nicholson smashes through the bathroom door and bellows the catchphrase from The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson at a cowering Shelley Duvall. Legend has it that a young Simon Cowell, working as a runner, was charged with polishing Nicholson’s axe.	Medieval knight Max von Sydow forestalls his fate by challenging black-cowled, white-faced Death to a game of chess on a desolate beach. Much parodied, most famously so in Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, in which Death is defeated at Battleship, Clue and Twister.
04. Horse’s Head, The Godfather, 1972	05. Spider Head, The Thing, 1982
No wonder Jack Woltz (John Marley) looks shocked to discover the severed head of prized racehorse Khartoum on his blood-soaked bed sheets. Though a fake head was used for rehearsals, a real one was borrowed from a slaughterhouse for the actual shoot.	Puppets, hydraulics, latex, melted bubblegum, KY Jelly… Make-up maestro Rob Bottin threw everything into The Thing’s creature effects. The standout scene sees a decapitated head sprout legs and scuttle away. “I didn’t want a guy in a suit,” shrugged John Carpenter.

06. Kiss and Head Stomp, Drive, 2011

Swooning romance segues into sickening violence, as Nicolas Winding Refn’s sublimely composed shocker gets Ryan Gosling’s Driver locking lips with Carey Mulligan in slo-mo elevator bliss. Fifteen squelchy stomps on a hitman later, she’s not the only one reeling…

07. Mothership, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, 1977	08. Rosebud, Citizen Kane, 1941
A composite of real location shots, actors in a hangar and stunning model work provide one of cinema’s all-time wow moments, as the blazing mothership lands at Devil’s Tower. John Williams’ blaring five-note communication shakes viewers’ souls all the more.	The elevated camera swoops over mountains of discarded mementos to focus on Charlie Kane’s childhood sled, Rosebud, just as it’s tossed in the furnace. This final-shot reveal explains everything and nothing – Orson Welles later dismissed it as “dollar-book Freud”.

09. Sword Fight, The Princess Bride (1987)

A whirling mix of flashing blades and zinging banter, William Goldman’s left-hand-righthand homage to classic Hollywood swordplay is the consummate clash.

10. Johnny Boy’s entrance, Mean Streets, 1973

‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ bastards: as the Stones burn and the screen glows blood-red, the Scorsese/De Niro bromance swaggers to rock ’n’ roll stardom.

11. Mini Stonehenge, This Is Spinal Tap, 1984

Mock-rock’s dolts set a cringe-com standard with ill-measured Stonehenge stage designs. Various subsequent life-mirrors-art stage-prop upsets (U2, Black Sabbath…) proved Tap’s prescience.

12. ‘What’s your FavourIte Scary Movie?’, Scream, 1996

Drew Barrymore gets a killer call in the opening scene of Wes Craven’s blade-sharp post-modern love letter to slasher movies.

13. Mad as Hell, Network, 1976

TV anchorman Howard Beale (Peter Finch) rants on-air. Audiences agree: they won’t take this any more. Sidney Lumet’s satire now looks like documentary.

14. Carl and Ellie, Up, 2009

Backstory as artful heartbreaker. Pixar mines deep feelings and subtle storytelling in a masterful, wordless montage about a marriage’s highs and lows.

15. Liquid Metal, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, 1991

When Robert Patrick’s T-1000 emerges from the truck explosion turning from thermometer mercury to man, digital FX came gloriously, gloopily of age.

16. Hammer Time, Oldboy, 2003

Ex-prisoner Oh Dae-Su (Choi Min-sik) unleashes furious vengeance, with a flurry of blows that builds from balletic to biblical.

17. Blowing up Bridge, The Bridge On The River Kwai, 1957

Building the bridge for David Lean’s Oscar-laden WW2 epic took eight months, $250,000 and 48 elephants. Its destruction took a mere 30 seconds.

18. Stay Puft, Ghostbusters, 1984

Stomping around NYC like a confectionery King Kong, the 100ft marshmallow brand mascot is one of GB’s most enduring images.

19. Shower Scene, Psycho, 1960

No one saw it coming – the heroine of the movie stepping into a purifying shower midway through the narrative, only to be frenziedly hacked to death. We also never see the knife enter flesh; all the cuts (more than 70) were done in the edit suite, with Bernard Herrmann’s stabbing strings intensifying the assault until a disturbing amount of blood (actually Bosco chocolate sauce) swirls down the plughole. Viewers weren’t the only ones traumatised: “I stopped taking showers and I take baths, only baths,” Janet Leigh later revealed.

20. Chopper Attack, Apocalypse Now, 1979

21. Monroe on the Subway Grate, The Seven Year Itch, 1955

This 12-minute assault on a Vietnam village is the most extraordinary sequence in an extraordinary film. Blasting Wagner’s ‘Ride Of The Valkyries’ as they swoop in to unleash hell, the Hueys then napalm the Viet Cong mortars (1,200 gallons of gasoline account for the towering flames) to clear the way for some celebratory surfing. The choppers were provided by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, but – involved in a real war as Marcos looked to quell a revolt in the south – they frequently failed to turn up or flew off prematurely.

Thousands of onlookers turned up on 15 September 1954 to watch Marilyn Monroe stand on a New York subway grate and have her dress billowed up by blasts of air. So many, in fact, that the resulting footage was unusable, obliging director Billy Wilder to recreate the scene on the Fox backlot in Los Angeles. “I hate the term photo-op, but this was certainly the most important photo-op ever staged,” says agency photographer George Zimbel, one of 20 or so snappers on hand to record the iconic moment for posterity.

22. Dance of the Red Shoes, The Red Shoes, 1948

Injecting a note of real horror into Powell and Pressburger’s dark, surrealism-tinged fairytale of a ballerina caught between the demands of her art and her heart, Moira Shearer’s broken-hearted dancer finds her feet demonically possessed. As the red ballet slippers whirl her out of the theatre, in a real-life recreation of the dance-to-the-death of her most famous role, in The Red Shoes, dancing has never looked so terrifying. Martin Scorsese, who knows a thing or two about such things, declared this one of the most beautiful Technicolor movies in the history of cinema.

23. Motorbike Jump, The Great Escape, 1963

With a veritable legion of Nazi soldiers on his tail, ‘Cooler King’ Hilts (Steve McQueen) revs up his stolen Triumph Trophy motorcycle and makes a daring leap for freedom in Switzerland over a barbed-wire fence. McQueen was eager to do the stunt himself but ultimately gave way to his chum Bud Ekins, a motorbike dealer and racer who went on to double for the actor again in Bullitt. “Afterwards, the assistant director came up to me and said, ‘Well, that’s a $1,000 jump if I ever saw one,’” recalls Ekins.

24. Bread Rolls, The Gold Rush, 1925

To enchant Georgia Hale, Charlie Chaplin’s Lone Prospector takes two forks, impales a bread roll on each, and has them do a dance.

25. Keyzer Söze Reveal, The Usual Suspects, 1995

Exiting his police interrogation, Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey) shakes off his limp and is revealed as mastermind Keyzer Söze. Or is he?

26. Woodchipper, Fargo, 1996

Body disposal, Coen brothers-style, as Steve Buscemi’s remains are shredded and splattered in the snow. Only one foot to go…

27. Head In Box, Seven, 1995

Test audiences were so upset by Gwynnie’s box bow-out, we almost got a dog’s head instead. Thankfully, Brad Pitt fought to keep her in there.

28. Police Shootout, The Terminator, 1984

Arnie ad-libbed his most famous line (it was originally “I’ll come back”), sparking one of cinema’s most iconic shootouts.

29. Deer Departed, Bambi, 1942

From spring grass to a booming gunshot. Bambi finds himself alone with the snow. “Your mother can’t be with you anymore,” he’s told. Sniff.

30. Gun vs Sword, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, 1981

Suffering food poisoning, Harrison Ford suggested “shooting the sucker” in place of a planned sword fight with a showy swordsman. History made.

31. Head-Spinner, The Exorcist, 1973

Spewing blasphemy at Father Merrin (Max von Sydow), Regan (Linda Blair) pauses only to rotate her creaking neck through 360 degrees.

32. Runnung Up Steps, Rocky, 1976

“Gonna fly now,” hums the soundtrack as Sly mounts the steps at Philly’s Museum of Art. Almost 40 years later, Creed’s final scene provided a poignant counterpoint.

33. Re-entering Earth’s Atmosphere, Gravity, 2013

Sandra Bullock’s tested astronaut finally burns through to home, crash landing in a lake and clambering, wobbly as a newborn lamb, reborn, to the shore.

34. Daddy Darth, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, 1980

J.J. Abrams’ spoiler control can’t match George Lucas’ Jedi-class secrecy. Another line was scripted (“Obi-Wan killed your father…”) for Empire’s climax; Darth Vader actor David Prowse wasn’t told the truth. Maxing its impact, the stand-off steams with space-gothic symbolism: looming corridors, giddy gantries. This was the fight that fans wanted… Then, as Mark Hamill (who did know) acts up a storm, Vader drops the depth-charge we never knew we needed: “No – I am your father.” In that much-misquoted bombshell, Lucas hit the emotional hyperdrive.

35. Tee Pale Man, Pan’s Labyrinth, 2006

Mournful and malevolent, the Pale Man is a blankfaced monstrosity whose hanging flesh shrouds a gaunt torso atop bone-thin legs. Before him sits an untouched banquet, for it is children he feeds on. When heroine Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) steals a grape, the Pale Man awakens, squishes a pair of eyeballs in his palms and mercilessly stalks her. Guillermo del Toro says, “I felt it was more disgusting for the creature to be feeble and horribly hungry and cruel, than for it to be strong.”

36. “Tears in Rain”, Blade Runner, 1982

37. The Opening, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, 1977

As legend would have it, the greatest soliloquy in sci-fi history was improvised by Rutger Hauer on the eve of filming. The truth is less poetic – Hauer hacked Roy Batty’s lengthy monologue down to its bare essentials and added a killer final line: “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears… in… rain.” His instincts were on the money – it’s a moment of soaring humanity, cementing Blade Runner as a work of profound substance and giving its head replicant an iconic send-off.

A star-studded stretch of space is dwarfed by a barrelling Star Destroyer, which obliterates half the screen as it rumbles overhead.

38. “You maniacs!”, Planet Of The Apes, 1968

Astronaut Charlton Heston buckles before the Statue of Liberty – a sandy rug-pull so immense novelist Pierre Boulle wished he’d written it in the original book.

39. Beach Assault, Saving Private Ryan, 1998

More than 1,000 extras, some of them actual amputees, participated in Steven Spielberg’s visceral recreation of the Omaha Beach landings.

40. L-train Chase, The French Connection, 1971

Not every collision was planned in the scene in which ‘Popeye’ Doyle tries to keep pace with an elevated subway car.

41. Twist Contest, Pulp Fiction, 1994

Travolta and Thurman don’t just twist to Chuck Berry. They also throw in the Swim, the Hitchhiker and the Batusi.

42. Sex Scene, Don’t Look Now, 1973

Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie’s love-making looked so authentic they’ve spent the last 40 years denying they really did it.

43. “I’m spartacus!”, Spartacus, 1960 

Stanley Kubrick felt the scene where the slaves claim to be Spartacus was “a stupid idea”. Kirk Douglas overruled him.

44. Angel Bells, It’s A Wonderful Life, 1946

Karolyn Grimes, now 76, still gets asked to recite Zuzu Bailey’s famous line about angels getting wings whenever bells ring.

45. Graveyard Shootout, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, 1966

Three men, three pistols and 96 edits. Not for nothing does Quentin Tarantino call this “the greatest moment of cinema since its invention”.

46. Crop Duster, North By Northwest, 1959

Lured to the middle of nowhere, Cary Grant is relentlessly pursued by a biplane in one of Hitchcock’s tensest set-pieces.

47. Bucket of Blood, Carrie, 1976

Poor Carrie White’s worst fear (“They’re all gonna laugh at you!”) comes true when, moments after being crowned Prom Queen, she’s drenched head to toe with a bucket of pig’s blood. Karo syrup and food colouring provided the claret, though Sissy Spacek, who rubbed Vaseline in her hair to audition for the role of Carrie, volunteered to be dunked in the real stuff. She also insisted that her own hand was used for the movie’s famous shock ending, gamely enduring a live burial and waiting without complaint until action was called.

48. Harry Lime Appears, The Third Man, 1949

“Oh, God, so many cats,” recalled Carol Reed of directing moggies in his Viennese noir’s skin-tingling centrepiece. Helming Orson Welles was hardly easier: time-keeping wasn’t the man’s main virtue. But Welles made a date for his first appearance as Harry Lime, a post-war racketeer thought dead. The setup is delicious: cats, shadows, shoes, light and… action! Welles grabs his moment like a cat takes a mouse, eyes twinkling and smirk curling. Cinematic reveals don’t come more devilishly charismatic.

49. E.T. Flies, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, 1982

50. Fake Orgasm, When Harry Met Sally, 1989

Universal Studios honcho Sid Sheinberg compared watching Steven Spielberg’s fable of intergalactic friendship to “a religious experience”. But E.T.’s most transcendent moments took root in grounding reality. While Spielberg drew on his parents’ divorce, effects supervisor Dennis Muren sought out the best real Moon view for the shot of E.T. and Elliott taking flight. Mixing Go Motion effects and earthy realism with the swoon ’n’ soar of John Williams’ score, Spielberg gave us a heart-lifting epiphany we could believe in.

Reiner’s wry, evergreen romantic comedy turns its satire on relationships deliciously salty, over sandwiches at Katz’s Delicatessen in Manhattan. Determined to prove to Billy Crystal’s self-styled playboy that women hoodwink him in bed, Meg Ryan’s prim best friend fakes a table-beating, hollering good time, fully clothed, before returning calmly to her coleslaw. It took Rob Reiner a day of demonstrating the full-on moaning fakery he wanted to get the shy Ryan to strut her stuff. And yes, it’s the director’s own mother who insists that “I’ll have what she’s having”.