Story Weekend Theme: Movie Scene You'll Never Forget

Time to join in for another Story Weekend!

If you’re new to Story Weekend, here’s how it works: I pick a theme and you share something from your life that relates to that theme. We’ve been having fun with it, but there are a few “rules”:

  • The story must be true.
  • Try to keep it under 100 words. That’s about six or seven lines in the comment form. I want others to read your story, and most people tend to skip if it’s too long. I know how tough it is to “write tight” but I hope you’ll accept this as a challenge.
  • Avoid offensive language.

Have fun, and as usual, I’ll kick it off with my own comment

27 Comments

  1. Diane Chamberlain on July 22, 2011 at 2:04 pm

    First date with Harry. We went to a drive-in to see Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It was a double feature and the first movie, Midnight Cowboy, was winding down. On the screen, two men–a big, handsome guy and a little greasy guy–were riding a bus. The handsome guy realized that the little guy was dead and put a protective arm around him. I knew nothing about the story, but I cried so hard I couldn’t speak. First date with Harry was also the last.

  2. Linda Sullivan on July 22, 2011 at 3:10 pm

    I guess I have to pick Dirty Dancing when Johnny sees “Baby” in the corner and tells the father “No one puts Baby in the corner’ … takes her hand and leads her to the dance floor and they dance THEIR dance! I just love that movie and I have watched it about a million times. I still get a tear in my eye at the end of it. I think I fell in love with Patrick Swayze that day … along with a million other women. I hope he is dancing his butt off in heaven right now … what a talent … gone but never forgotten!! <3

    • Renee Pellegrino on July 23, 2011 at 3:12 pm

      There was something about the way Swayze danced….

  3. Martha on July 22, 2011 at 3:18 pm

    Early sixties, “On the Beach” – My baby, less than a year old, would nap after lunch. On Sunday afternoons we frequented the local theater and enjoyed uninterrupted movies. Radioactive fallout from the atomic bomb wipes out civilization, Australians being the last to die. Everyone is equipped with meds to allow end of life w/o the horrible death from exposure. There was a scene where a young couple had to administer a dose to their infant so she would die before they could end their lives. Fifty years later, when I look at my daughter, I can still relive that scene.

    • Diane Chamberlain on July 22, 2011 at 5:06 pm

      OMG, Martha. I’ve written some tough scenes, but that one takes the cake.

      • Martha on July 24, 2011 at 2:45 pm

        1959 – the year my daughter was born – Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Anthony Perkins – post apocolyptic projecting forward to 1964. Thankfully it was just a movie, but it still left me weak in the knees. Thanks to you and Pamela for your comments.

    • Pamela on July 23, 2011 at 3:39 pm

      Not even going to write mine because Martha wins hands down! Very memorable scene!

  4. Debra Hearne on July 22, 2011 at 3:20 pm

    An Officer and a Gentleman. After Zack (Richard Gere) graduates from The Navel Academy, he goes to the factory where Paula (Debra Winger) works. Zack walks through the factory with one thing on his mind……to find the girl he loves. Everyone in the factory is watching and applauding as he finds Paula and scopes her up into his arms and carries her out! Ohhhhh…….I wanted to be that girl!

  5. Tina Blackwell on July 22, 2011 at 3:27 pm

    I will never forget the final scene from the movie, You’ve Got Mail….Meg Ryan should win an Oscar for the way her face reveals surprise, confusion, sorrow, and ultimately joy that Tom Hanks is the one who has been writing to her. The best line of all is when she says, “I wanted it to be you…I so wanted it to be you.” Then, they kiss and the song Somewhere Over the Rainbow starts playing…..Just doesn’t get any better than this! 🙂

  6. Gina on July 22, 2011 at 3:40 pm

    The Wizard of Oz. When Glinda the good witch tells Dorothy that she always had the power to go home. There is alot of meaning in that statement. A powerful message, if you will. I’ll never forget it.

    • Kathy on July 22, 2011 at 6:02 pm

      I’ll never forget the scene in “Dumbo” when they chain up Dumbo’s mother and Dumbo sneaks to see her and she cuddles him in her trunk as “Baby Mine” plays. Dumbo has huge tears. They show a lot of the animals with their babies as the song plays. I was probably 6 years old and never forgot that.

  7. 4dreamsr on July 22, 2011 at 6:38 pm

    Early 70’s when I first started dating, bunch of us teens went to a drive-in Clint Eastwood marathon. Don’t remember any scences, but we did actually watch the movies. Sometime during the night, everyone in the car fell asleep. Someone woke about 4 am & the look on everyone’s faces told the whole story. That was the only time my mom didn’t believe the story & I was telling the whole truth & nothing but. I wouldn’t have made it up cause it’s so classic it’s unbelievable.

  8. maria r lewis on July 22, 2011 at 9:13 pm

    A father and daughter emerge from a cave where they had sought shelter from a storm that happened during a hike. They are totally alone. Everything was abandoned. At home they find a pile of dust in a bed where the mother had gone to die. She had written a note that a cosmic storm had caused all living beings to disinegrate. Then I turn off the TV. Does anyone know how it ends??

  9. Cindy Mathes on July 22, 2011 at 11:51 pm

    I love so many movies, it is so hard to choose one. Who didn’t love the scene in “Love Story” when the saying “Love means never having to say your sorry.” Or the scene where she dies. Sniff sniff. But the saddest movie I have ever seen was “Sophie’s Choice” when she had to choose between her son and her daughter. Which one she would save and which one would she send to the gas chamber. Tears my heart out every time I think of it” There were very few scenes in “Steel Magnolias” that is forgettable. I love to watch that movie. I’m sorry, I couldn’t pick just one.

  10. Jo Firey on July 23, 2011 at 12:10 am

    This scene was right before a movie started. We had bought out tickets and were waiting with others to one side while the preceeding audience came out of the theatre. The looks on their faces was total shock, and made it very unnerving to go inside and sit down.

    The movie? Soylent Green.

  11. Barbara Huntington on July 23, 2011 at 12:49 am

    The eating scene in Tom Jones. Just looked it up. It is on Youtube!

  12. Sheree Gillcrist on July 23, 2011 at 6:44 am

    Long ago and oh so far away,a young man asked me to marry him but not before his twenty first birthday as he had a recurring dream that he would die before he reached that age. He joined an elite police force and died at the hands of those he vowed to serve and protect two months before he turned twenty one. Since there was no public viewing I fashioned a story in my mind that he had gone undercover and one day I woud open my door and he would be standing there , cosmetically altered but still with those eyes. The year after we lost him the movie The Other Side of the Mountain came to our screens and there stood Beau Bridges, his picture perfect twin. I wept from start to finish. Felt a connection. A voice for peace speaking from beyond the grave. Saw Beau recently on Brothers and Sisters and cried all over again. Ah that’s what he would look like now.

  13. Carol on July 23, 2011 at 10:04 am

    From Bed of Roses. Lisa’s parents died when she was very young. She had a tough childhood. She has made VP in a major firm in New York, and then she meets a really great guy. It’s a wonderful relationship. She gets scared and “runs away.” She is miserable and misses him. Her best friend, Kim, tells her, “Your life has not been a fairy tale, but if anyone deserves a happy ending, it’s you.” LOVE that line. Also from that movie, Kim’s answering machine message, “Leave a message, but if you don’t, I’ll understand.” Many other great lines and a fun romance movie.

  14. Virginia on July 23, 2011 at 1:22 pm

    The first time I saw “Up” I was really moved twice in the movie, in the beginning during the montage when the wife ends up dying (very sad), but what really got me was the ending when the grumpy old man went through Ellie’s adventure book and saw that they WERE the adventure! I get teary-eyed even now thinking how romantic and sweet that is. (Esp. for a “kids” movie!)

  15. Diane Chamberlain on July 23, 2011 at 1:54 pm

    These are wonderful! (Virginia, you just made me want to see “Up”.) (Sheree, I’m so sorry…)

  16. Lori Cimino on July 23, 2011 at 2:00 pm

    The first time I ever saw Bridges of Madison County I was in a place where I identified with the character, not really being allowed to be the woman she was inside. That scene when she is in the truck at the stop light, Robert is in the truck in front of her, her hand is on the handle…and then she lets go. And sobs. I sobbed right along with her. My best friend and now husband gave me a copy of that movie for our first Christmas. I knew at last I could be the me who I really am.

    • Judi on July 24, 2011 at 11:28 am

      Oh you bet! That scene does it for me, too!

  17. Renee Pellegrino on July 23, 2011 at 2:18 pm

    Sigh I have so many movies I love but Stephen King’s Heart of Atlantis is one of my favorites. It is a simple story about a boy and his last days of childhood. Where he meet the one person who changed his life. Its something we can relate to.

    Here is the best part of the movie….
    Because that summer was the last
    of my childhood.And though I never again saw
    what people were thinking there was an enduring gift
    that he left me.

    What Ted did was open my eyes…
    and let the future in.
    I wouldn ‘t have missed a minute of it.
    Not for all the world.

  18. Sheree Gillcrist on July 23, 2011 at 2:46 pm

    Lori. I couldn’t agree with you more. I actually screamed at the screen at that point of the door handle ‘ Go, Go. Dear God just go ‘. Didn’t have a scrap of makeup left on my face after it finished:)

  19. Margo on July 24, 2011 at 3:06 pm

    Melvin (aka, Jack Nicholson) looks deep into Carol’s eyes (aka, Helen Hunt) and tells her ‘You make me want to be a better man’…the look of ‘awe’ on her face and her words ‘that is probably the best compliment of my life’ are unforgettable. The fact that Melvin also becomes a better man by helping Simon, who has become a homeless artist is another reason AS GOOD AS IT GETS is my all time favorite movie…people becoming better individuals by helping each other. Thats what its all about.

  20. Kirsten on July 26, 2011 at 2:47 am

    Almost Famous: On the bus when they sing Tiny Dancer. I watch that movie over and over but every time it’s like I am waiting for THAT scene. This wonderful song just brings everyone together…it reminds me of all the car rides I have taken where a song comes on the radio and you just have to sing it..no matter who is in the car with you or in the car next to you.

  21. JoAnne McCrone-Ephraim on November 2, 2011 at 9:55 am

    The telltale look on Peter Falk’s face at the conclusion of, “Princess Bride.” When leaving his grandson’s beside, Grandpa (Peter) is requested to return the next day to read the same book again. He lovingly looks at his grandson and replies, “As you wish!” Meaning, I love you.

    My grandson, Seth, loves this film too! During a tearful farewell at the airport yesterday I reminded Seth that Thanksgiving was only a few weeks away and we could Skype in the meantime. When I asked him to Skype the very next evening Seth looked up and replied, “As you wish!” It was my best departure ever!!!

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