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Those movie moments where the heroes seem totally doomed.
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00:00Though it's generally expected that most movies will send audiences home with a happy ending,
00:06the journey getting there can certainly be a bit fraught, in turn making that final triumph feel
00:12that much more euphoric. Some movies, well, they go more all-in on the whole all-hope-his-lost
00:20schtick than others. With some pushing things so far, you're left to wonder how the good guys can
00:26possibly come back from it. I'm Ewan, this is WhatCulture, and here are the 10 best all-hope-his-lost
00:32moments in movie history. 10. This Ship Can't Sink
00:37Titanic James Cameron's Titanic is virtually peerless in terms of spectacle, but many would
00:44also argue it doesn't get nearly enough credit for some of its terrific writing and performances.
00:49And this is arguably demonstrated no better than during the movie's utterly dread-soaked end-of-second
00:55meeting between the ship's top brass. Not the band, I mean the people in charge.
01:00The scene shows Titanic's architect, Thomas Andrews, explaining how dire the situation is
01:06on board. Namely, that no matter what they do, it's just a matter of time before the vessel goes
01:12sinky. Andrews' grim prognosis is initially ignored by J. Bruce Ismay, played by Jonathan
01:19Hyde, the foppish managing director of Titanic's shipping company, who tells Andrews, quote,
01:25but the ship can't sink. Andrews then immediately fires back with,
01:30She's made of iron, sir. I assure you, she can, and she will. It is a mathematical certainty.
01:36At this point, Captain Smith, played by Bernard Hill, asks how long they've got,
01:40to which Andrews drops the devastating deadline of, quote, an hour, two at most.
01:46After taking stock of the 2,200 souls on board, Smith then chillingly tells Ismay,
01:51well, I believe you may get your headlines. This is one of those all-time great movie moments that
01:57just sucks the air out of any room it's played in, so perfectly teeing up the terrifying destruction
02:03that comes to follow in Act 3. Number 9, Agent Smith kills Neo, The Matrix.
02:10At the time of recording, The Matrix has just turned 25, so here's to you, The Matrix, easily in the top
02:17five action films ever made. With that aside, out of the way, given how much Morpheus, Lawrence
02:22Fishburne, drills into the audience his steadfast belief that Keanu Reeves' Neo is the one, not to
02:28be confused with the banging Rob Zombie track from the Escape from LA soundtrack, it's a genuine shock
02:34when, in the third act, Neo gets caught short by Agent Smith, played, of course, by Hugo Weaving.
02:41While attempting to escape The Matrix after helping Morpheus and Carrie-Anne Moss' Trinity,
02:46Neo opens a door only to be met by Smith, promptly shoots him twice. As Neo falls back towards the
02:53wall, gravely wounded, we figure he might now manifest his full potential as the one and fight
02:59back. No, Smith simply unloads the rest of his clip into Neo, killing him in the process.
03:06It's a genuinely shocking oh my god moment, hammered home by even Morpheus expressing disbelief
03:12that the man he threw all his faith behind is now dead diddly-ed. But of course, that's
03:18not the end of the story. Trinity reveals that the Oracle, played by Gloria Foster, told her
03:22that she'd fall in love with the one. And so, when she professes her love for Neo with
03:28a good old smooch, he surges back to life, before harnessing his newfound powers to defeat
03:33Smith. For a moment there, though, it was pure despair.
03:36Number 8, Deep Impact. Deep Impact's second act concludes with the revelation that the
03:42attempt to deflect the two impending comets with missiles has been a total failure. A devastating
03:48fact relayed to the public with sobering solemnity by US President Tom Beck, played by the always
03:54stoic Morgan Freeman. In an unforgettably matter-of-fact monologue, Beck says, and no, I'm not gonna do
04:01a Morgan Freeman impression here because there's no way I can come close to imitating the original.
04:05Quote,
04:05Our missiles have failed. The comets are still headed for Earth, and there's nothing we can
04:10do to stop them. So, this is it. If the world does go on, it will not go on for everyone.
04:15He goes on to detail how the comets will cause an extinction-level event on Earth, with tidal
04:20waves thousands of feet high destroying major cities, while the resulting dust will block out
04:26the sun for two years, killing all plants and animal life in short order. And so, all Beck can
04:32do is urge those with the means to try and avoid the wave's path, signing off with, so that's it,
04:38good luck to us all. To hear the President of the United States basically telling the world there's
04:43little to no hope for survival is as bad as it gets, perfectly setting the stage for the utter
04:49carnage that is to come. Though the larger of the two comets is ultimately destroyed before it
04:54can impact Earth, the smaller one still hits and kills millions. So, yeah, the grim prognosis
05:00was sort of correct still.
05:02Number 7. Game Over, Man! Game Over!
05:05Aliens.
05:05Between Titanic and Aliens, it's clear that James Cameron is a dab hand at delivering soul-crushingly
05:12hopeless moments. But, at least in the case of Aliens, it also happens to be pretty amusing.
05:18Courtesy of the late, great Bill Paxton, who, goddammit, we all miss to pieces.
05:24Once Sigourney Weaver's Ripley and the Marines get a first-hand glimpse of how dire the xenomorph
05:29infestation is on the colony of Hadley's Hope, Hicks, played by Michael Bean, calls a dropship
05:34to pick them up. But it turns out that a xenomorph managed to stow away on board, killing the ship's
05:40crew in midair and causing the ship to crash to the ground, exploding in a great, big, depressing
05:46fireball of doom. It's a completely defeating moment for the embattled heroes, prompting Hudson
05:52to indelibly quip,
05:54That's it, man! Game Over, Man! Game Over!
05:57Seeing the typically gung-ho, hyper-masculine Hudson become near instantly panic-stricken
06:02is a perfect summation of how bleak the situation on LV-426 truly is.
06:08And, in turn, Cameron and Paxton also gave us one of the most memorable one-liners in movie history.
06:14Number 6. Fly, You Fools!
06:16Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring
06:18You can probably fill this list solid with moments from the Lord of the Rings franchise,
06:23but the best of the lot comes at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, when the Fellowship
06:28treks through the minds of Moria, and Ian McKellen's Gandalf ends up facing off against
06:32the terrifying Balrog.
06:34Though Gandalf's you-shall-not-pass moment is undeniably badass, if not a little digitally
06:41funky, oh god please don't screw me Tolkien heads, the Balrog does go down quite literally
06:46swinging, as it grabs hold of Gandalf and pulls him down to the mind's depths with it.
06:51All Gandalf has time to tell his party is,
06:54Fly, You Fools!
06:55before he disappears into the void.
06:57It's a completely hope-abliterating moment for The Fellowship, crystallized perfectly by
07:02Elijah Wood's pained cries of,
07:05GANDALF!
07:06Though Gandalf, of course, makes his return in the Two Towers,
07:09in one of the Trilogy's warmest moments, it's still totally nerve-wracking to see him
07:14temporarily taken out of the frame so early on in the overall adventure.
07:19Number 5.
07:20The Green Place is Gone, Mad Max Fury Road
07:23The entire motivation of Charlize Theron's Furiosa throughout Mad Max Fury Road is to return
07:29to the Green Place, a rare, fertile area amid the wasteland which she remembers from her
07:35childhood.
07:35Plants and veggies could freely grow, and human life could actually be supported.
07:41But when Furiosa and company meet up with her clan mid-film, they inform her that the blue-tinted
07:47bog she encountered the bullet farmer in the night before was actually the Green Place.
07:53It's now a blue place, because Michael Mann got there.
07:57Over time, the idyllic locale has been turned into a swampland, making it impossible for
08:03anything to grow there, and in turn causing the clan's few surviving members to abandon
08:08it.
08:09It's a completely heart-rending revelation for Furiosa, who promptly strolls over to a nearby
08:15patch of desert, and falls to her knees in visceral anguish, letting out a primal scream,
08:21which I think we could all benefit from doing every now and then.
08:244.
08:25Shelly Can't Help Himself
08:28Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross
08:30If you wanted an example of why David Mamet was the guy for so long in the 80s and 90s,
08:37you need look no further than Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross.
08:40Initially penned during the economic recession of the early 1980s, Mamet's story focuses
08:46on several struggling real estate salesmen who face an impossible task to keep their
08:51jobs, a group rounded out in the film by Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, and Ed Harris.
08:56It's a real gut-puncher of a film, with Lemmon delivering a truly heartbreaking turn opposite
09:02a never-swearier Al Pacino, ultimately concluding with a moment of pure, soul-crushing devastation,
09:09genuinely still keeps me up at night thinking about it.
09:12With the cards stacked against them to close some sales before they get fired, a scheme
09:17quickly develops where the embittered salesman attempt to steal the coveted Glenn Gary leads
09:21and sell them to a competitor.
09:24However, we never find out for certain who among the group has pulled off the ruse until
09:28the very end, at which point the police have borne down on the office and the tensions have
09:33completely boiled over.
09:35It transpires that Lemmon's Shelly, who is fighting not just to keep his job but to look
09:41after his sick daughter in hospital, stole and sold the leads.
09:46However, we only learn this after Shelly has bragged about pulling off a big sale, rolling
09:51back the years to his glory days as Levine the Machine, who could close deals, no questions
09:57asked.
09:58After the reveal, it's a relief to see Shelly back on the big time.
10:01His confidence is brimming, he's working with Pacino's Rick Roma, everything is, as
10:06they say, coming up Milhouse.
10:09Until it doesn't.
10:12After Williamson, played by Kevin Spacey, blows a deal Shelly was helping Pacino's Roma with,
10:18the old-timer just can't help but rub it in the nose.
10:21A bit of gloating at this point is well deserved, given the treatment he suffered over the course
10:26of the film, but he just doesn't know when to stop, eventually letting it slip by accident
10:32that he'd been the one to break into Williamson's office and steal the leads.
10:37Shelly desperately attempts to bribe his boss to make it out safe, but spite ends up winning
10:42the day.
10:43As Shelly asks why Williamson is about to ruin him, the latter replies with, because I don't
10:48like you, with director Foley leaving us with a crushing shot of Shelly in the estate offices,
10:53looking like the loneliest man in the world.
10:56Goddamn.
10:573.
10:58Bo Accepts His Fate, Bo Is Afraid
11:01Ari Aster's delirious horror comedy Bo Is Afraid concludes with a closing scene which
11:06sees Joaquin Phoenix's paranoia adult protagonist finally giving up all hope and accepting his
11:12fate.
11:13This surreal quote-unquote adventure concludes with him being put on trial for alleged misdeeds
11:19against his mother, Mona, played by Patti LuPone.
11:22In short order, his lawyer is killed and Bo, who is trapped on a boat inside a massive waterfield
11:28arena, begs his mother to spare him.
11:31But after realizing that his mother won't help him and the assembled crowd won't intervene,
11:37Bo's demeanor changes.
11:39He realizes there's nothing that can be done to affect his situation and so simply stands
11:44in place, waiting for the inevitable to happen.
11:47A few seconds later, the boat's motor explodes, capsizing the vessel and leaving Bo to drown,
11:54moments before the end credits roll.
11:56After all, would it really be an Ari Aster movie without an ending that makes you feel like
12:01total crap?
12:02Hmm, I'm gonna go with no.
12:03Number 2.
12:05Frank obliterates his life.
12:07Thief.
12:08Who doesn't love a bit of patented Michael Man Blue?
12:10Oh, just let me bask in that for a second.
12:13Oh, that's the good stuff.
12:15Arguably the bluest of the Man Blue is his directorial debut.
12:20Thief.
12:21A gloriously confident first offering starring the immortal James Kahn in one of his most
12:27iconic roles.
12:28A gritty, atmospheric film that serves as both a character study of a criminal desperate
12:33for a normal life and as a giant middle finger to capitalist exploitation, Thief is full of
12:39brilliant tangerine dream composed moments.
12:42But arguably its most memorable comes when Kahn's character Frank is at his lowest.
12:47Trained by his one-time employer, portrayed by the friendly yet menacing face of Bob Prosky
12:53as Leo, and realizing that the new life he's built means he'll never be free from his
12:57control, Frank makes the conscious decision to burn it all down, abandon all pretensions
13:03of hoping for a better future, and fade like a shadow into the darkness.
13:07He forces his partner to leave with their adopted child, blows up the house he'd bought,
13:12destroys the bar he owned, and sets ablaze his own car dealership.
13:15Frank and us, the viewer, are too fired up at this point to really bask in how crushing
13:21these losses are, as you know he's on his way to take down Leo and his goons.
13:26But make no mistake, each moment of destruction here is essentially Frank destroying his own
13:30hope.
13:31Oh man, go watch Thief if you haven't already.
13:34Beautiful movie.
13:35While you're here, actually, which Michael Mann moment, not movie, moment, is your favorite?
13:40And are you a fiend for Mojitos?
13:41A fan of talking to empty telephones?
13:44Let me know down in the comments below.
13:46And number one, Walsh loses the Duke, Midnight Run.
13:50Oh, I love Midnight Run.
13:52Like, I adore this movie.
13:53Deserves to be spoken about in the same breath as Planes, Trains and Automobiles as a true road
13:59movie classic.
14:00It's that near perfect, and without oversharing, just personally, kind of means a lot to me
14:05as a movie guy.
14:06Oh no, whatever.
14:07Watch it if you haven't, because it's one of those beautifully, fun, life-affirming movies
14:10that you won't grow tired of.
14:11A bit of context first though.
14:14Directed by Martin Bress, the same fella who helmed Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run revolves
14:18around a bounty hunter called Jack Walsh, played by Robert De Niro, who has to deliver a fugitive
14:24who skipped bail to his employer.
14:26The fugitive in question is an accountant called Jonathan the Duke Mardukas, played by
14:30Charles Grodin, who stole money from the mob and gave it to charity when he realized who
14:35his true employers actually were.
14:38While things initially go according to plan for Walsh, it doesn't take long for his fortunes
14:42to change.
14:43Their plans to travel by plane are scuppered very quickly when the Duke has a panic attack,
14:48so he has to take the trade instead.
14:50Those plans are also scuppered when a rival bounty hunter, Dorfler, played by John Ashton,
14:56crashes the party.
14:57Dorfler, the mob, and the FBI on Walsh's trail, he's forced to fight tooth and limb
15:02to hold onto his bounty and make it to the finishing line.
15:05Things very nearly end in catastrophe though.
15:09Dorfler catches up with Walsh and the Duke after a huge police chase, taking Walsh's payday
15:14and dooming the Duke to certain doom at the hands of the mob.
15:18This is, by far, the lowest point of Midnight Run.
15:21Our heroes are separated, Walsh hasn't had his big life changing moment of epiphany, it's
15:26a bummer.
15:27But, and I did think it was important to end this list on a happy note, because I love you,
15:32the loss is punctuated by one of the most touching moments of the movie.
15:36Where Walsh, battered, bruised, dirty, and just pretty knackered, wanders into a nearby
15:42diner, and is greeted by the nicest guy behind the counter ever.
15:47See, the Walsh we meet in Midnight Run has been morphed into an ugly shape.
15:51He's mean, cynical, totally stuck in limbo.
15:55Something the Duke tries to change.
15:57To that, Walsh replies something to the effect of, there's a lot of bad in the world.
16:01Good, I don't know about.
16:02Here at his lowest moment, he's proven wrong.
16:05All with just a fresh pot of coffee and a kind ear.
16:08Things don't immediately improve after this sequence, but I've always seen it as the straw
16:14breaking the camel's back moment for Walsh, who can no longer keep living in denial of
16:18his own humanity.
16:20Beautiful exchange in a beautiful movie.
Recommended
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