The 10 unforgettable movie scenes of 2017

There are single moments in films that can elevate everything around it. In 2017, these were the scenes that we couldn’t wait to discuss, argue about, and replay.

Ridley Scott made a big-budget Alien prequel-sequel so he could get two Michael Fassbenders in a room talking about Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ozymandias.” When Walter (American-accented, kind) confronts David (British-accented, angry), it’s a tense acting showcase. And then Michael Fassbender kisses himself. Can you blame him? —Darren franich

A racist Detroit cop pretends to execute unarmed black men during the 1967 riot to scare other suspects into giving him answers. It’s a nightmare that only intensifies when a dim-witted officer doesn’t understand the rules of the game. With all due respect to razor-toothed clowns, it’s the most terrifying sequence of the year. —Jeff Labrecque

Usually Marvel films save the big cameos for after the credits. But one of the funniest surprises of Thor: Rag-narok came early on when Matt Damon, a friend of star Chris Hemsworth, pops up as an Asgard community-theater actor playing Loki in a production about Loki’s life. What’s the Asgard version of a Tony? —Tim Stack

If you didn’t realize why Pixar’s Día de los Muertos-set Coco was named after a random side character, it all made sense in the film’s powerful emotional climax, wherein a desperate Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez) begins to sing an old family melody to help his great-grandmother Coco (Ana Ofelia Murguía) remember her late father—and she joins in. Like the movie itself, the scene is a prayer for fragile minds and memories…and tear ducts. —Marc Snetiker

Is it weird to adore a 9/11 joke? Maybe. But the scene where Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani) is asked about the historic day and answers, “It was a tragedy… We lost 19 of our best guys,” is just too sharp. With wit, a culture clash, and awkward parental relations, the sequence captures everything that makes this movie a winner in one sentence. —Sara Vilkomerson

Even amid a visual smorgasbord, this fight between Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) and K (Ryan Gosling)—a battle of blade runners—stands out. As the two brawl in a long-deserted casino, holograms of Elvis, golden-feathered dancing girls, and the dimmed lights of Las Vegas flash around them. Like the movie itself, it’s tense, haunting, and utterly beautiful. —Sara Vilkomerson

It’s a near-perfect re-creation of the opening of Stephen King’s 1986 novel: A little boy in a yellow slicker loses his paper boat down a storm drain, only to find something utterly peculiar—a clown in the sewer, grinning and holding out his lost ship. The movie captures the surreal horror in a way that will have kids (and adults) making detours around storm grates for years to come. —Anthony Breznican

Movie fight scenes tend to feel like bloodless ballets, all choreography and no heart. But when Charlize Theron’s sleek 1980s secret agent encounters a group of thugs in a Berlin stairwell, the showdown gets ugly fast: Characters stagger, they head-butt, they bruise like…humans. Their struggle is viscerally, tooth-rattlingly real. And it’s spectacular. —Leah Greenblatt

The power of Episode VIII lies in how well director Rian Johnson combines character moments with instantly iconic images. The movie’s most rousing sequence—Kylo Ren’s momentary allegiance with Rey—begins with a wide shot of the rivals, back-to-back, facing down Snoke’s crimson guard in a room cloaked in red. The ensuing fight was not only a loving tribute to classic cinema, but a surprising twist in a series we know so well. —Kevin P. Sullivan

More than two decades after the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s “Bellbottoms” initially inspired writer-director Edgar Wright to start planning a music-suffused action movie, the Shaun of the Dead filmmaker finally released Baby Driver. Its hero? A tinnitus-stricken, iPod-loving wheelman played by Ansel Elgort. Its opening sequence? A thrilling, audacious, and “Bellbottoms”-soundtracked bank heist and getaway. The first time you see it, you’re pinned back in your seat by the jaw-dropping practical car stunts, masterminded by John Wick second-unit director Darrin Prescott, as Baby ensures that he and his criminal passengers (Jon Bernthal, Jon Hamm, and Eiza González) evade the cops. (Look out in particular for Baby’s slaloming of the car through an obstacle-strewn alleyway, a feat actually achieved for real by stuntman Jeremy Fry.) What you notice on repeat viewing, though, is the character work under the hood: Bernthal and Hamm react to Baby in very different ways, while our hero accelerates with charm, heart, and goofiness. The result is a note-perfect mini-movie from a filmmaker comfortably operating in a gear most of his peers couldn’t even find. —Clark Collis