The Most Unforgettable Movie Moments Of 2019

One common criticism of Marvel Studios is that their superhero origin stories can be a little homogeneous. Since Iron Man, they've had a certain tried-and-true formula for a hero finding their destiny. Recent solo debuts like Black Panther and Captain Marvel have done their best to break this mold, and in Captain Marvel's case, that took the form of one of the best exclamation points in superhero movie history. 

The moment comes at the end of the film's climactic battle, when Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) has broken free of the artificial restraints placed on her by her former Kree mentors, and learned to embrace who she is as a human gifted with great power. Her last obstacle is her once-trusted teacher and commander, Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), who tries to exploit her previous weaknesses by arguing that Carol can't truly prove herself until she's defeated him... without the aid of her powers. Carol's having none of it, and after she blasts her former friend back several feet, she simply declares, "I have nothing to prove to you." It's an applause-worthy moment that's a cherry on top of a final sequence packed with applause-worthy moments.

Shazam! Is a superhero origin story about a selfish young man who learns to be heroic through a lot of very comedic trial and error, but it's also a film about the search for family. Billy Batson (Asher Angel in teen boy form and Zachary Levi in superhero form) has to learn to let go of his ideas about the family who left him behind, and spends much of the film figuring out how he fits into the strange foster family that's taken him in. 

Billy's superhero life and his life as a boy just looking for love come together in the climactic sequence, when Billy's Shazam form has to fight off Doctor Sivana (Mark Strong) while his foster siblings run for their lives. Then, he realizes that he can share his gift with the people who are willing to be there for him no matter what. It's a little surprising to see the Shazam family to pop up in the hero's very first movie, but when they all emerge in their adult forms and start gleefully showing off their powers, Shazam! hits another gear of joy.

The John Wick franchise is known for massive fight scene setpieces, "gun-fu" displays of bravado, and incredible final showdowns. It comes as no surprise that Chapter 3 — Parabellum certainly delivers on all of these fronts. This is the biggest, most ambitious John Wick film yet, expanding on the franchise mythology and setting the stage for an even bigger clash yet to come in the fourth chapter. In terms of what makes it unforgettable, though, you don't have to look further than the opening sequence. 

Parabellum picks up almost immediately after the second film, with Wick on the run and just minutes to go before his "excommunicado" declaration takes effect and assassins start trying to kill him to earn a massive bounty. That means a gauntlet of fights, from Wick killing a guy with nothing but a library book to a fight in a room full of knives that ends... well, it ends pretty much exactly the way you'd expect it to, but that doesn't make it any less awesome.

The Dead Don't Die is indie film icon Jim Jarmusch's take on the zombie apocalypse subgenre, with all the typically Jarmuschian quirks that entails. It's more than just a comedy that pokes fun at our obsession with end-of-the-world horror stories, because plenty of films have done that before. It's a highly specific satire packed with little moments that make you chuckle before also making you pause to contemplate what exactly you just saw. 

That level of compelling quirkiness begins right away with the Sturgill Simpson theme song, which itself becomes a fascinating little piece of meta comedy running throughout the film. It continues with the zombies growling out words like "coffee!" and "chardonnay!" as an echo of their former lives. Then there's the Smart Car, the katana, the Hobbit jokes, and even characters referencing the movie's script. If there's one moment that reigns above all others, though, it's the moment when Tilda Swinton's character Zelda Winston, a perfectly eccentric Tilda Swinton type, ascends in an alien flying saucer after seemingly fulfilling her purpose in the town. It's a great moment because of how gloriously bonkers it is, but also because those of us obsessed with the unique strangeness of Tilda Swinton's acting career might start to suspect that it explains a lot.

Ari Aster's Midsommar was billed from the very beginning as a horror film that unfolds in broad daylight, thanks to the midnight sun of its Swedish setting. This gives the film a very particular aesthetic, preventing Aster from relying on shadows and obfuscations to do the horror work for him. He lays it all out in the open, and that means the images have to be particularly memorable if they're going to incite terror in the audience. 

Midsommar pulls this off on just about every level, from the macabre reverence on display in the first sacrifice to the way hallucinogenics slowly creep in to that final, breathless May Queen dance. If there's one moment that stands out above all others, though, it might be when we find out just what the bear — who was just chillin' in a cage for much of the film — is actually there for. It's a key part of the final sacrifice, and when we see just how that plays out, it's a true jaw-dropper in a film already packed with jaw-droppers.

Hobbs & Shaw is the first-ever Fast & Furious spin-off, which means it had a dual mission going in. The film had to both firmly cement itself as part of the Furious universe — that world that's given us everything from cars parachuting out of a plane to a race against a nuclear submarine — while also justifying its own existence with enough new details and story beats to set itself apart from the pack. 

The film achieves this freshness with the introduction of Idris Elba's "Black Superman" and a few massive sci-fi concepts, but much like Dwayne Johnson's character, it never forgets where it came from. That means the final action sequence needed to have a truly massive automotive setpiece to bring it all home. 

And that's how we get the moment when the titular heroes are trying to stop a helicopter by chaining it to a truck, which then has to be pulled by another truck, which then has to be pulled by another truck, which then has to be pulled by a hot rod just to even the odds. By the time all the vehicles turn on their nitro boosts, we have a bona fide Fast & Furious classic moment on our hands.