What Single Scene Killed an Otherwise Great Movie?

[WhiteTigerShiro]

So here's something to discuss. What movie have you seen that you completely enjoyed, but a single scene in the movie was so off-putting that it actually ruined the entire experience? Maybe it was an overly-silly, too graphic, or poorly acted scene, or the CG was completely terrible, or maybe an entire character ruined every scene he was in. Keep in mind that this isn't about movies that would still be bad with this thing removed (certainly we'd all love to remove Jar Jar from the prequels, but they'd still have a list of problems to deal with). These are movies that are otherwise pretty good, but this one thing just dragged the entire experience down.

To get the ball rolling, I'll talk about the butt sex in Kingsman. So here's a movie that isn't afraid to have a bit of a sense of humor. Heck, they even referenced this scene in the trailers. Eggsy is talking to a cute blonde who is locked in a cell, and he asks if he can have a kiss if he rescues her. In response she says that she'll give him more than a kiss, and with a smirk he says "I'll be right back." It was an amusing exchange, further enhanced by the way that the actor does a great job of pulling-off the "I'm doing back flips in my head, but trying like hell not to show it" expression.

So I go to see the movie, and I am loving it. Then it gets to the scene from the trailer, and rather than the amusing exchange where she simply implies that she'll sleep with him for saving the day, it turns out that the exchange is a lot racier. Instead of just implying sex, they have her flat-out say (with an awkward-sounding delivery on top of it) "We'll do it in the asshole." And I was just sitting there thinking, "Wow... so the movie is going there suddenly, huh?" Keep in mind that the movie up until this point has been, for the most part, pretty clean. A bit of violence, yes, but nothing too over-the-top for a standard action flick. Then comes that scene from out of left field where she's directly telling him that they'll do anal if he stops the bad guy. Wow.

Now, that one scene alone wasn't quite enough to kill it for me; it was off-putting, but I was able to forget about it quickly enough. Except then the movie kept going with it. As tends to happen in movies, the good guy wins. He defeats the bad guy and saves the day. His first act after doing so? He grabs a champagne bottle and a couple of glasses. This isn't what bothered me. In fact, I was rather amused. Of course he's going to grab some champagne to bring as he returns to her cell, and the self-satisfied look on his face sold it all the more as he proudly strode through the carnage of the recent events. So he returns to the cell, and the scene cuts to Merlin, who's been observing the events from the plane via a camera in Eggsy's glasses and acting as an adviser during the mission. Of course, they decide to do a gag where the camera is still on, and Merlin looks at the screen just in time for the girl to moon the camera before he quickly turns it off. That was the point where I wanted to jump out of my chair, in the middle of the theater, and shout "WE GET IT! HE'S GONNA DO HER IN THE ASS!"

Now I'm aware; some people probably thought the entire thing was funny. Possibly even the best part of the movie. That said though, for me it was enough of a digression from the rest of the movie that suddenly they're bluntly talking about anal sex to the point of making sure to remind us by having the actress flash her ass at the camera. Maybe when I watch the movie again it won't be as jarring now that I know to expect it, but for the first viewing it just came outta left field and kinda put me off a bit.

So how about you guys? What good movies had that one thing that drags on the rest of the experience?

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Any of the annoying scientists scenes from Pacific Rim. Apparently they cut an entire Jaeger and crew from the movie, presumably to make room for Dork and Dork Jr. to do nothing important, funny or required if they were excluded. Cut them, add Matador Fury and have more Jaegers punch more Kaiju in the face!!

The Martian had a scene, right near the end with astronaut Beck, the winter soldier, giving this really obviously false and half assed smile at Watney being embraced by the rest of the crew, including his girlfriend. I dunno, it just ruined the moment for me.

The Kingdom of Heaven was amazing until Legolas knights all the dudes and they play the 13th Warrior theme. And as someone who loves both movies, MAKE YOUR OWN DAMN THEME! For fucks sake, just get Games Workshop to do it for you. I mean you're Black Templars anyway.

Also any movie that had public humiliation as a joke. Skip right over it. I don't consider embarrassment, humiliation and public scorn funny by any means so if Will Ferrell or Tyler Perry are going to shit themselves at the UN or fallen victim to drugs during a church sermon, to quote the legendary George Carlin "you can probably find me playing pinball next door"

 

[Thaluikhain]

Also any movie that had public humiliation as a joke. Skip right over it. I don't consider embarrassment, humiliation and public scorn funny by any means so if Will Ferrell or Tyler Perry are going to shit themselves at the UN or fallen victim to drugs during a church sermon, to quote the legendary George Carlin "you can probably find me playing pinball next door"

Very much this. Of course, the sorts of movie that are going to be doing this sort of thing aren't likely to be otherwise great anyway.

 

[madwarper]

Heck, they even referenced this scene in the trailers.

I can't think of a movie that I'd consider "great" that's ruined by a particular scene.

However, I can think of a movie that had a scene that was... Well, to call it "tasteful" would generous, but the actual scene was extended in the movie and painful to watch. The movie being Liar Liar, when Jim Carry got into the elevator with his new neighbor.

Spoiler: Trailer/Movie

I find it incredibly hard to believe anyone thought this movie needed to be made, let alone that seen needed to be extended beyond what was in the trailer.

 

[Evonisia]

This is probably not the most original answer - but War of the Worlds 2005. The scene where Ray has to choose between which child he wants to take care of. Rachel's treatment is clumsy and easily could have been dealt with by Ray shouting "she's my daughter, fuck off", and Robbie's motivations make no sense just like all of his motivations make no sense.

While I still enjoy the film after this scene, that scene does piss me off immensely and it builds towards a horrifically bewildering ending. It's a shame because the first half of this film is beautifully tense, and the second half has its moments even if the story starts to meander around going nowhere.

 

[Casual Shinji]

snip

And then remember that this girl has been locked up for what must be atleast 8 months, constantly in fear of what would happen to her and her country. And also that Eggsy doesn't even bother to check whether or not his mother killed his baby sister, when we previously saw him phone her up in a panick right before the Evil scheme went into action. No, just straight to the butt sex cuz *yuck yuck* butt sex. That movie kinda pissed me off overall though.

OT: Ally Sheedy getting all girl-a-fied at the end of The Breakfast Club. That whole movie is about how it's okay to be different, because beneath the surface we're not so different after all. But because Judd Nelson already hooks up with Molly Ringwald, and we can't have teen hunk Emilio Estevez end up alone, they just suddenly turn Ally Sheedy's character into someone who's worthy of being seen with him. Not to mention that there wasn't even any romantic chemistry between the two throughout the movie. Way to ruin it with that one, Hughes.

 

[Raven's Nest]

Far from ruining an otherwise great film but there was a moment in The Revenant where we see a small avalanche in the background of the shot. The problem is that it is noticeably CGI and this really sticks out in a film which is largely free of CGI. It's a seemingly incidental moment too, as far as I could tell the avalanche doesn't have any bearing on the story or even for dramatic purpose in the scene. So any film that breaks immersion for poor reason always sticks out in my mind.

 

[K12]

Yeah the Kingsman joke was pretty awful, this is the only time I can remember that I've deliberately sought out the censored version of a film.

I get that the joke wasn't just "buttsex lol" but rather a send up of Bond (particularly Roger Moore era) ending with Bond banging the female lead and his superiors discovering them at it and being very Britishly flustered. His "prize" at the end of a tough day's secret agenting. It could have fitted well with the James Bond parody/homage thing that the rest of the film was about but it was just very poorly executed.

Well as for my own examples. I was amazed that the final Harry Potter film decided to adapt the books' terrible epilogue chapter into a terrible epilogue scene.

Signs was generally pretty good and was for me by it's "everything happens for a reason" bullshit at the end, but since the entire film was buildling up to it I think it might have been doomed from the start.

I also really wish that Quentin Tarantino's random-implausible-Aussie part in Django Unchained wasn't there, I still love the film though so it might not count.

 

[Neverhoodian]

"Master of the House" from the most recent movie iteration of Les Miserables. It ruined one of my favorite songs from the musical for a good two years or so by association. I can overlook Russel Crowe's lifeless singing and other faux pas committed by the film, but you do NOT fuck up such a memorable little number. Regrettably, they found a way.

Who the hell thought casting Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as the innkeeper and his wife was a good idea? They turned two of the biggest crowd pleasers on stage into cringe-worthy bores on the silver screen. It's like they weren't even trying. Sacha in particular really phones it in, with a dull vocal delivery and a wildly inconsistent accent to boot.

These complaints pale however, compared to the infamous "Santa sex" scenes interspersed throughout the song. Not only is it distracting and completely unnecessary on its own, but it actively sabotages the dramatic impact of a major plot element. The audience has just witnessed scenes depicting an impoverished single mother unjustly fired from her job, forced into prostitution and ultimately dying because of it, all in the name of supporting her daughter. It's absolutely gut-wrenching and illustrates just how harsh and inhumane the practice of selling one's body can be. So what do they follow it up with?

"LOL, Santa's boning a whore!"

 

[Cowabungaa]

I wasn't overly fond with Jurassic World to begin with (I wanted a return to the more low-key, thriller-esque vibe of the original) but the gratuitous killing of the assistant really killed it for me. That girl was just getting tortured, like, why did they include that? Made me a little uncomfortable even. So I won't say that it killed a great movie, but it did seal the deal for me.

Up until mah boy Blue came skidding around the corner FUCK YEAH TEAM-UP FIGHT WOOOO!!!

 

[maninahat]

Terrible scenes?
The classic example is Mickey Rooney's character from Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Not to name any specific movies, but any movie is made worse whenever it has that scene where a sexually aggressive woman forces herself upon the hero, just the exact second the main romantic interest comes through the door and sees them lock lips. Apart from being atrociously contrived and clich?d as hell, there is the underlying double wammy of sexism:
1) That a guy getting sexually assaulted deserves no comment after the fact.
2) That sexually/romantically proactive women are evil, predatory adulterers.

They even fitted ones into movies that aren't rom coms, like Captain America (for God's sake).

 

[Casual Shinji]

I wasn't overly fond with Jurassic World to begin with (I wanted a return to the more low-key, thriller-esque vibe of the original) but the gratuitous killing of the assistant really killed it for me. That girl was just getting tortured, like, why did they include that? Made me a little uncomfortable even. So I won't say that it killed a great movie, but it did seal the deal for me.

Yeah, that scene was really fucking weird. I don't even know what they were actually going for by having her get mauled for an entire minute and then eaten. It wasn't funny, it wasn't cathartic, it wasn't even her getting her just comeuppance, since we didn't know her enough to dislike her. Maybe had this happened to Vince D'Onofrio by the end, or just have the pteradactyle jerk her around in the water and have the mosasaur inadvertantly save her by eating just the pteradactyle and letting her swim to safety, showing how close of a call it was. But this this... It made me feel more uncomfortable than Sam Jackson's story in Hateful Eight.

 

[Synigma]

As soon as I saw this thread I knew i had to post this...

Edge of Tomorrow. Happy-funtime scooby doo ending! Seriously it was a great ride watching Cruise, who only ever plays arrogant characters, get beat down and turned from an self-centered ***** into an actual soldier.

*Spoilers*
He SHOULD have died at the end; immagine if you will, everything resets without him and without the big bad and instead of the cheesy ending we get a heart-felt look at the other characters who all get to live because of his sacrifice. End on a scene of the main chick tearing up because although she doesn't actually remember him she can still feel like something is missing... and then a shadow comes into frame in the last couple seconds to give the audience hope that he survived it...
Instead we got TRIPE. Now he's all-powerful and even more smug than before. It just blows away all the character development and frankly it just felt like someone altered the script to give Tom Cruise a celluloid blowjob.

Just like the OP's problem with that scene in Kingsmen; they gave away too much instead of leaving the details to the audience's mind.

 

[Dalisclock]

Peter Jackson's King Kong.

I rather enjoyed the movie for what it was,an updated remake of the original 1930's version with More Dinosaurs and Jack Black playing an Asshole(suprisingly, he pulls it off well).

However, near the end, Kong grabs the lady and runs off through the streets of New York, with the police and the Army right behind them.

Except for about 5 minutes where they stop in central Park to do some Ice Skating, for god knows what reason. Suddenly the Army is nowhere to be seen(how do you lose a 25 foot tall Gorilla in New York?), until suddenly they army shows up again and starts shelling them.

Seriously, way to break the flow of the climax for no good reason, Jackson.

 

[happyninja42]

Any movie that does the "They tampered in God's domain" bullshit.

Any movie that does the "They are a corporation, so they MUST be the source of all evil, that the plucky individual heroes must fight against."

Any movie that does the "It's all really God's plan, and this convoluted series of terrible and horrible things happening to the protagonist, are really God's plan, and he's having these things happen to you because he loves you." Perfect example of this is Signs, by Shamalyan. Thank you oh all loving and caring god, for horribly murdering my wife, and having me witness her gasping breaths as she dies cut in half, so you can send me a cryptic warning about events that happen over a year from now. Instead of just, you know, fucking telling me directly. No, instead you kill my wife, thanks a lot, oh loving god, I now truly believe in your loving grace, and will rededicate myself to your service, so that you can murder other people's wives to send them cryptic messages.

Any movie that does the classic "Hollywood Atheist", where they don't believe in god becuase someone they loved died, and thus there can't be a loving god. Um, no, sorry, that's not why we don't believe in the myriad invisible sky father's that religion say exist. In fact, I don't know a single person who doesn't believe in god, due to a tragedy. And I've seen discussions of it online of other people equally saying they've never met any atheist that thinks that way. From people who are waaaay more active in the atheist community than me. But it's the only kind you ever see in movies.

Hmmm, yeah, that's basically just a list of tropes I hate. Can't think of any specific scene/event that makes me hate a movie. But if you have any of those things in your show, I'm probably going to dislike it a bit.

 

[Worgen]

The one that comes to mind for me wasn't from a movie, it was from an anime and it just killed the rest of the anime for me. In Gurran Lagan, one of the early episodes is a comedy one set in a bath house with bunny girls. It's kinda the usual fan service type episode, but at the end of it they killed the bag guy who ran the bath house thing. They killed her in a kinda bloody way too, this is like the only time this happens, in every other episode the bad guy lives, but in this one they crushed her to death in her giant robot. I just couldn't get that out of my mind. It certainly hurt my enjoyment for the rest of the show.

 

[Something Amyss]

I'm not sure it ruined the movie, but my estimation of Vanilla Sky would have gone up quite a bit without the very last few seconds.

I'[m actually still not even sure whether I like the movie or not.

EDIT: another one that doesn't quite count, but the pod racing scene from Star Wars Ep 1. There are a lot of scenes that I dislike in that movie, but this one is basically wasted screen time. Even if you had to write a scene to get to Tattooine, even if you had to write a scene where the ship needed repairs, and even if you had to write a scene to demonstrate Anakin's importance, and even if you REALLY had to have this all come down to a race...the race went nowhere. There are boring dialogue scenes that at least move things along, but pod racing stops what is already a slow and plodding action flick.

Another poster previously commented to me that it would have been a good place for Darth Maul to show up, a la Iron Man 2, and TBH, I think that's what I originally expected. That would have moved things forward.

The movie would have still had a bajillion other issues, though.

 

[Synigma]

Any movie that does the "It's all really God's plan, and this convoluted series of terrible and horrible things happening to the protagonist, are really God's plan, and he's having these things happen to you because he loves you." Perfect example of this is Signs, by Shamalyan. Thank you oh all loving and caring god, for horribly murdering my wife, and having me witness her gasping breaths as she dies cut in half, so you can send me a cryptic warning about events that happen over a year from now. Instead of just, you know, fucking telling me directly. No, instead you kill my wife, thanks a lot, oh loving god, I now truly believe in your loving grace, and will rededicate myself to your service, so that you can murder other people's wives to send them cryptic messages.

Any movie that does the classic "Hollywood Atheist", where they don't believe in god becuase someone they loved died, and thus there can't be a loving god. Um, no, sorry, that's not why we don't believe in the myriad invisible sky father's that religion say exist. In fact, I don't know a single person who doesn't believe in god, due to a tragedy. And I've seen discussions of it online of other people equally saying they've never met any atheist that thinks that way. From people who are waaaay more active in the atheist community than me. But it's the only kind you ever see in movies.

Definitely both of these. Losing someone you loved will make you want to believe in god MORE (so you can believe they are in heaven) not 'give up' on god! I think it's related to the belief that atheists secretly believe in god and just pretend because they... hate him... or something?

Related thing I hate is when atheists are depicted as being hateful or nihilistic just because they don't believe in god. If a character is meant to not be liked they will usually include it somehow usually with some stilted dialog like: 'God Bless' - 'Pfft, God doesn't exist!' Then they either find god and repent their sinful ways or they are the among the first ones killed off to get their comeuppance.

 

[Something Amyss]

Any movie that does the "They tampered in God's domain" bullshit.

Any movie that does the "They are a corporation, so they MUST be the source of all evil, that the plucky individual heroes must fight against."

Any movie that does the "It's all really God's plan, and this convoluted series of terrible and horrible things happening to the protagonist, are really God's plan, and he's having these things happen to you because he loves you." Perfect example of this is Signs, by Shamalyan. Thank you oh all loving and caring god, for horribly murdering my wife, and having me witness her gasping breaths as she dies cut in half, so you can send me a cryptic warning about events that happen over a year from now. Instead of just, you know, fucking telling me directly. No, instead you kill my wife, thanks a lot, oh loving god, I now truly believe in your loving grace, and will rededicate myself to your service, so that you can murder other people's wives to send them cryptic messages.

Any movie that does the classic "Hollywood Atheist", where they don't believe in god becuase someone they loved died, and thus there can't be a loving god. Um, no, sorry, that's not why we don't believe in the myriad invisible sky father's that religion say exist. In fact, I don't know a single person who doesn't believe in god, due to a tragedy. And I've seen discussions of it online of other people equally saying they've never met any atheist that thinks that way. From people who are waaaay more active in the atheist community than me. But it's the only kind you ever see in movies.

Hmmm, yeah, that's basically just a list of tropes I hate. Can't think of any specific scene/event that makes me hate a movie. But if you have any of those things in your show, I'm probably going to dislike it a bit.

So, 98% of movies are out?

Because those are, like, everywhere.

 

[Lightspeaker]

"Master of the House" from the most recent movie iteration of Les Miserables. It ruined one of my favorite songs from the musical for a good two years or so by association. I can overlook Russel Crowe's lifeless singing and other faux pas committed by the film, but you do NOT fuck up such a memorable little number. Regrettably, they found a way.

Who the hell thought casting Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as the innkeeper and his wife was a good idea? They turned two of the biggest crowd pleasers on stage into cringe-worthy bores on the silver screen. It's like they weren't even trying. Sacha in particular really phones it in, with a dull vocal delivery and a wildly inconsistent accent to boot.

These complaints pale however, compared to the infamous "Santa sex" scenes interspersed throughout the song. Not only is it distracting and completely unnecessary on its own, but it actively sabotages the dramatic impact of a major plot element. The audience has just witnessed scenes depicting an impoverished single mother unjustly fired from her job, forced into prostitution and ultimately dying because of it, all in the name of supporting her daughter. It's absolutely gut-wrenching and illustrates just how harsh and inhumane the practice of selling one's body can be. So what do they follow it up with?

"LOL, Santa's boning a whore!"

I liked Russell Crowe's singing more than I thought I would honestly. Because I went in with such low expectations of it.

But I can definitely agree on your complaint here. I kinda feel they went way, way too far trying to make it 'comic relief'. I feel like they should have made it less 'funny' and instead made it a little more depraved, a little more base and overall more of a 'dark comedy' design for the scene.

As soon as I saw this thread I knew i had to post this...

Edge of Tomorrow. Happy-funtime scooby doo ending! Seriously it was a great ride watching Cruise, who only ever plays arrogant characters, get beat down and turned from an self-centered ***** into an actual soldier.

*Spoilers*
He SHOULD have died at the end; immagine if you will, everything resets without him and without the big bad and instead of the cheesy ending we get a heart-felt look at the other characters who all get to live because of his sacrifice. End on a scene of the main chick tearing up because although she doesn't actually remember him she can still feel like something is missing... and then a shadow comes into frame in the last couple seconds to give the audience hope that he survived it...
Instead we got TRIPE. Now he's all-powerful and even more smug than before. It just blows away all the character development and frankly it just felt like someone altered the script to give Tom Cruise a celluloid blowjob.

I'd go further than that and argue the fact that the film departed so heavily from the book was a massive problem. I enjoyed the movie for what it was but the ending seemed like a massive just...well they pulled it from nowhere to make everything happiness and light.

Then I read the book and...well...spoilers...

Spoiler

In All You Need is Kill it culminates with the aliens attacking the base. The character Tom Cruise is based on is looping at this point but Rita hasn't lost her ability to do so. However this particular loop is centred around him, which has turned Rita into the equivalent of one of the resetting aliens too (its more complicated than this but I'm paraphrasing) and in the book version you need to specifically kill the aliens that reset the day in a specific order to stop them from resetting it. So in short they can't both escape from the loop, either he needs to die to end his looping or she needs to die so as to remove the ability for the aliens to keep resetting.

She attacks him, forcing him to fight in a one-on-one climactic battle. He reluctantly fights back and kills her. Going on to take up her mantle as the 'one hope for humanity' due to his ability, unknown to most, of resetting the day when he dies. But overall you get the impression that he'd give up all those plaudits and honours and medals to have her back.

I can understand WHY the film didn't go with this kind of tragic ending. But its still a bit disappointing because I feel its a much stronger finale.