Moderate spoilers ahead.
As I was writing yesterday’s post on Inception and Toy Story 3, I was reminded of how incredible the last act of the latter was. Then I started thinking: what if there were awards for the best portions of a movie? In recent memory, there are several films that are great overall but have sections that border on genius. Here are some of my favorites.
Toy Story 3 – The Final Act
From the moment the toys enter the dump until the end of the movie, Toy Story 3 is one giant, brilliantly crafted sob fest. The entire movie revolves around coming to terms with age, abandonment and death, and the final scenes hit those notes over and over again. If you don’t find yourself welling up in the last half hour of this movie, I challenge your humanity.
Star Trek (2009) – The Pre-Title Sequence
A new Star Trek movie with none of the original cast (save for Spock Prime) and a director who knew nothing about the series was a major gamble. As promising as the trailers were, and as freakishly accurate as the casting was, there was still a decent chance that the movie would be below par. All of those fears were relieved in the first ten minutes. Though you don’t see the characters again for the rest of the movie, it almost doesn’t matter. The first ten minutes are like their own separate movie that could win its own award.
Wall-E – The First Act
Who knew that the best part of a “talkie” could be where there was no talking at all? The first 45 minutes or so of Wall-E are funny, charming, inspiring and emotional, and not a single human word is spoken. It almost makes the rest of the movie unnecessary. Just watch this scene and fall in love all over again.
What are some of your favorite standalone sections of movies?