Some of my favourite cinematic moments

Empire magazine has run a great feature this month in collaboration with Edgar Wright, in which he’s interviewed dozens of filmmakers about some of their most memorable cinematic moments.

It really brought home to me how the cinematic experience is so much more than simply seeing a movie “on a big screen”. I truly hope that when this godawful pandemic is finally over, and everyone feels safe to visit the cinema once again, they’ll return for those communal moments that simply can’t be replicated by watching a movie on your sofa at home.

So in no particular order, here are some of my most memorable cinematic moments, from my youth right up to last year…

Starting off with the most recent, I already mentioned in my rundown of 2020's Film Highlights how the restaurant scene in The Invisible Man caught everyone by surprise, and how the sense of shock washing across the audience was palpable…

…back in 1999, no one in the audience really knew what to expect from the new film called The Matrix, but by the time Neo was standing his ground against Agent Smith in the subway station, the crowd were practically on their feet with him…

…before that, in 1989 we witnessed the birth of the modern summer blockbuster when Tim Burton’s Batman opened, and I remember the audience’s reaction to Michael Keaton’s delivery of the line “I’m Batman” in the opening scene – a far cry from the campness of Adam West’s Batman or the primary colours of Christopher Reeve’s Superman…

…in 1996 I was one of the first to see Scream on it’s opening weekend, and no one was quite prepared for Drew Barrymore’s gruesome pre-titles death – by the time her parents found her hanging from the tree, you could hear a pin drop in the cinema…

…back in 1998, no one was really sure what tone Wesley Snipe’s new film Blade was going to strike (remember, by 1997 even the Batman franchise had gone off the boil with the camp nightmare that was Batman & Robin), but the audience erupted with gleeful laughter during the ‘blood bath’ opening scene in the vampire nightclub – even before the perfect introduction of Blade himself…

…speaking of perfect opening scenes, at the 2018 screening of A Quiet Place the whole audience was stunned into silence by the shocking ending of the tense opening sequence, which was not only a masterclass in generating tension, but which also made it clear nothing and no one was safe…

…even as fans of the TV-series, no one really knew what to expect from 1999’s South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, but when the film opened with its big musical number “Uncle f**ker”, the whole cinema erupted with laughter…

…with 2008’s The Dark Knight, it was less a specific moment that united the audience, and more the sense as we collectively left the cinema on a special preview night and exchanged glances with strangers, that we had all just experienced something incredibly special, watching one of the greatest blockbuster films of a generation…

…watching the word-of-mouth hit Seven back in 1995, a feeling of dread and anxiety had been slowly building throughout the third act, so that by the time the courier arrived, the whole audience were in Brad Pitt’s shoes as he pleaded with Morgan Freeman to let him know “What’s in the box?”, even though, like Pitt, we all already knew the answer...

…having seen the first X-Men film in 2000, it felt like it was nearly there but not quite firing on all cylinders – but then came 2003’s X2 with its opening White House attack showing off Nightcrawler’s abilities, and the whole audience were immediately gripped, ready to see the mutants finally live up to their full potential…

…if we’re talking about purely visual experiences, the most memorable has got to be the first night on Pandora in 2009’s Avatar – when Sully’s (and the audience’s) eyes adjusted to the dark and we saw the splendour of Pandora’s flora and fauna in stunning 3D, we were all transported a million miles from the four walls of the cinema. A similar experience came later on, when Sully (and the audience) first took flight through the skies of Pandora…

…and then, to bring things full circle, I’ll end with 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, a film which would never have been the same without the collective, shared experience of seeing it on opening night with hundreds of other fans who had been waiting a year to see how the cliff-hanger from Infinity War would be resolved. The relief at Captain Marvel’s first appearance, the shock as the Soul Stone was recovered from Vormir, the triumph as a character proves he’s worthy, the goose-bumps from the “on our left” radio call and opening portals, the release as Cap finally says the line “Avengers … assemble”, and the quiet sobbing that accompanied the final sacrifice and subsequent funeral … none of these moments would have been quite the same, hit quite as hard, or been quite as memorable as they were without the communal experience that is cinema.

Looking back, it’s clear that a trip to the cinema is so much more than just watching content on a big screen – and when it’s safe to do so again, I know I won’t be the only one eager to return to share some of those cinematic experiences again.