The Most Paused Samuel L. Jackson Movie Moments
Samuel L. Jackson has one impressive career. He's part of the Marvel universe, the Star Wars franchise, and he's had roles in big films like Pulp Fiction, Unbreakable, and The Incredibles. And not only is he an incredible actor, but he also has a memorable voice and commands a strong presence on the screen.
Jackson is well-known for his delivery of angry, comedic rants, but he's played a wide variety of roles, which has given us quite a few serious and even scary scenes. But despite the multitude of roles, one thing is for sure — Samuel L. Jackson has given us a lot of great pause-worthy moments. We're talking about those scenes where he delivers a one-liner that you repeat for years to come or those times when Jackson does something so crazy that you have to press pause so you can truly appreciate the moment.
So what makes these paused scenes so easily recognizable and quotable? Well, sometimes it's the situation the character is in. Sometimes it's the clever dialogue. And sometimes, it's just because it's Samuel L. Jackson standing there. Either way, sit back and appreciate the most paused moments with Samuel L. Jackson.
(Be warned — there are spoilers below!)
Pulp Fiction - Samuel L. Jackson double dares Brett
While it wasn't his first movie, Pulp Fiction was the first time we truly saw Samuel L. Jackson at his full powers, especially when he confronts a group of young punks. This moment is quintessential Jackson, but let's get some background on this iconic scene so we can appreciate it's pause-worthiness.
Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) is a hitman who works for gangster Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). Along with his royale with cheese-loving associate, Vincent Vega (John Travolta), Winnfield is set to retrieve a briefcase from Brett (Frank Whaley), a petty crook who's trying to double-cross Wallace. Basically, Winnfield is going to kill Brett no matter what, but in typical hitman style, Winnfield must first scare and humiliate him.
Brett attempts to play off his betrayal as a misunderstanding they had with Mr. Wallace. While he's trying to explain his side of the story, Winnfield casually shoots a man lying on the couch. Naturally, Brett is absolutely terrified, but Winnfield just apologizes for breaking Brett's concentration. Soon after the gunshot, Winnfield starts interrogating a terrified Brett, who can only bring himself to say "What?" every time Winnfield asks a question. Winnfield gets so frustrated that he sticks a gun in Brett's face and shouts, "Say 'what' again. Say 'what' again, I dare you, I double dare you!"
Pause and appreciate this fantastic scene. Sure, the humor is dark, but it's hysterical, and it's 100% Samuel L. Jackson in his element.
A Time to Kill - Yes, they deserve to die!
This paused moment is a bit different from Samuel L. Jackson's typical hilarious, angry one-liners. A Time to Kill is an emotional roller coaster of a courtroom drama, and it finds Jackson playing a man named Carl Lee Hailey. Tragically, Hailey's ten-year-old daughter, Tonya, is raped and beaten by two white men. Hailey seeks to bring the two perpetrators to justice through lawful means, but when he learns the rapists may walk free, he shoots them down.
In response, the state seeks the death penalty, which draws national attention. Tensions are high and continue to build up to Jackson's famous line from the movie. When Hailey takes the stand during his trial, the state's attorney drills him with questions, culminating in our pause-worthy moment. When the prosecutor repeatedly asks Hailey if child murderers deserve to die, a furious Hailey fires back with, "Yes, they deserve to die, and I hope they burn in hell!"
And pause. Audiences were constantly talking about this powerful and emotional moment when the movie hit the theaters. Viewers didn't just understand the character — they felt what the character was feeling. Of course, it probably helped that Jackson's delivery was flawless.
The Incredibles - Frozone can't find his super suit
In classic fashion, Jackson is delivering an angry, comical rant during this paused moment, but this time, he's doing it as an animated character. The Incredibles centers around a family of superheroes and their superhero friends, one of whom is named Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson), a guy with the ability to shoot ice. After some collateral damage and lawsuits, the superheroes are forced to hang up their capes, and now, they must live normal lives disguised as everyday citizens. But, of course, maybe some of those superheroes hung onto their capes and stored them away, you know, just in case.
Naturally, a villain starts terrorizing the city, and the public needs help. Frozone is hanging out in his high-rise apartment when he sees a giant robot outside, prompting him to grab his super suit. But there's a little hiccup ... because his outfit is missing. Frozone seems to know what happened to it because he instantly asks his wife, "Honey? Where's my super suit?" The conversation develops into an argument while the robot continues blowing up stuff right outside the window, with Frozone demanding, "Where is my super suit?" But his wife has other plans, as they've been planning a nice evening dinner for two months. When Frozone insists that the public is in danger, his wife retorts, "My evening's in danger!"
Here's our paused moment. This golden moment of comedy would've been good no matter what, but Samuel L. Jackson made it perfect.
Attack of the Clones - Samuel L. Jackson is here to end the party
Attack of the Clones disappointed a lot of Star Wars fans, but one of its redeeming scenes was the Battle of Geonosis. In a colosseum, the villainous Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) stands on a high perch like a Roman emperor, watching the execution of Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme below him. Little does Dooku and his party know that an army of Jedi and clones are about to storm the planet. And who should be the one to deliver this epic news? None other than Jedi Master Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson).
Windu slowly walks up behind Dooku and his crony, Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison), and holds a lightsaber to the bounty hunter's throat. In classic Mace Windu fashion, he gets straight to the point by saying, "This party is over," revealing there are Jedi all over the colosseum, ready to battle. The following couple of minutes are possibly the most action-packed moments of Mace Windu's Jedi career. Androids approach with guns, forcing Mace Windu to use his lightsaber defensively to deflect lasers. Jango Fett then sets Windu on fire, at which point Windu jumps off the balcony several stories down, and while free-falling on fire, he continues to deflect lasers.
Using the Force, Windu lands safely on the colosseum floor, tosses his burnt robe aside, and goes absolutely crazy. He fights hundreds of droids, dances with a giant alien rhinoceros thing, and chops off Jango Fett's head. Jackson wasn't kidding — that party was over.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Nick Fury goes to war
Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) has several great moments throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but one particular scene sticks out in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Normally, Fury takes on management responsibilities, from recruiting individuals to overseeing projects, but he's rarely caught up in firefights. Well, Marvel fans get a treat in Winter Soldier when Fury has to survive an assassination attempt, and it's Samuel L. Jackson in full badass mode.
The scene begins with Nick Fury driving down a city block, when suddenly a group of cop cars slam into him and pin his SUV. A dozen or so policemen (disguised HYDRA agents) surround Fury and shoot up his vehicle, which is fortunately equipped with bullet-proof measures. Things get pretty intense as Fury is still healing from his wounds from impact, especially when the bad guys try to break into his car with a battering ram. But with the help of his spy smarts and his SUV's artificial intelligence system, Fury survives the dire situation in the most awesome ways possible.
In the following minutes, Marvel fans get to see a whole new side of Fury as he takes out multiple HYDRA agents with clever tactics and awesome artillery. In addition to an epic firefight, the assassination attempt develops into arguably the best car chase scene in the entire MCU movie franchise. It's epic, rewatchable, and totally pause-worthy.
Snakes on a Plane - Samuel L. Jackson has had it with these snakes
Sometimes you get so angry with a situation that you just shout you've had enough and decide to do something absolutely bananas. That's what Samuel L. Jackson does in this pause-worthy scene in Snakes on a Plane. The title of the film says it all — the movie is about a group of passengers on a plane trying to survive an onslaught of snakes. One of the passengers, Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson), is an FBI agent tasked with safely transporting a witness so that he can testify against a gang boss, and naturally, the gangster arranges for a crate of deadly snakes to be released on the flight.
As you can imagine, the snakes start claiming victims, and people become hysterical. The passengers block themselves in a separate cabin using luggage, but it doesn't do much good. It becomes so frustrating to eliminate the snakes that Flynn gives a heated speech where he says, "I have had it with these m***********g snakes on this m***********g plane!" And he starts opening up windows like a wild man.
Pause here and enjoy the catharsis. Samuel L. Jackson has a way of delivering angry lines that people can relate to. Granted, we're not fighting snakes on a plane, but we can all think of frustrating situations where we want nothing more than to give a good one-liner in the tone and confidence of Samuel L. Jackson.
Unbreakable - They called me Mr. Glass
In M. Night Shyamalan's haunting superhero tale, Unbreakable, Samuel L. Jackson does a marvelous job of playing Elijah Price, a comic shop owner with a rare disorder that makes his bones extremely brittle. He's had the condition from childhood, and as a boy, the kids would tease him with the nickname "Mr. Glass." As an adult, Elijah decides to find someone on the opposite end of the strength spectrum — an actual superhero — and Elijah discovers David Dunn (Bruce Willis), a security guard who's in denial about his superhero abilities. But as the movie progresses, Elijah persuades David of his powers, pointing out that David was the only survivor of a train crash that killed over a hundred people.
Under Elijah's tutelage, David discovers he has the ability to sense criminals, particularly when he touches them. David even kills a criminal to save two children, and it seems like he'll become a real-life Superman with Elijah as his mentor. But that all changes when David touches Elijah, and it's revealed that Elijah is a mass murderer who orchestrated several massive "accidents," like David's train wreck, in order to find someone with amazing abilities. After all, if there's a superhero out there, it gives Elijah a purpose in life ... as a supervillain. David is horrified, but Elijah is pleased that he's finally found his place and gives a pretty incredible speech, revealing he should've known he was a supervillain all along, as the kids used to call him Mr. Glass.
Give the movie a pause, and feel the chills.
The Other Guys - You shut your face
If there's one thing Samuel L. Jackson is good at it, it's scenes where his character angrily yells for the most insignificant reasons, and that's exactly what he does in The Other Guys. In the comedic film, misfit cops Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) become partners. Unfortunately, neither of them get any respect from their fellow officers. They're often belittled, and they're the butt of most jokes at their precinct.
Conversely, every cop in town admires detectives Chris Danson (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) and P. K. Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson), even though they cause massive amounts of damage when catching criminals. The relationship between the two least popular and the most popular partners is a bit like the stereotypical high school relationship between the popular jerks and pushover nerds. Basically, Jackson's character just verbally assaults them, everyone thinks it's normal, and our loser heroes just take it.
On one occasion, Allen starts talking, and Jackson just explodes with, "Ay, ay, ay! Ay, you shut your face! If we wanna hear you talk, I will shove my arm up your ass and work your mouth like a puppet!" What makes this paused moment especially hilarious is just how insanely unnecessary Jackson's response was. Allen was just making a brief compliment.
The Avengers - I've elected to ignore it
In 2012's The Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes find themselves fighting off an alien invasion in New York City. Unfortunately, as our heroes are battling the invading Chitauri, the mysterious World Security Council is considering nuking the entire city to contain the threat and limit worldwide damage. They hound director Nick Fury to do the deed, but good guy Fury isn't going to do that to his pals, let alone an entire city of American citizens — people he swore to protect.
While higher-ups are pressing Fury to nuke the city, he drops this epic line: "I recognize the council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it." Every military action movie has a scene like this — some big shot says to sacrifice some innocents, but the main characters defy the orders and save the day. Sometimes the right thing to do is ignore your superiors. Pause and soak in the hilarious disobedience to authority. No one does it better than Samuel L. Jackson.
Deep Blue Sea - Samuel L. Jackson gets eaten by a shark
People don't talk a great deal about Deep Blue Sea, but whenever people do, they always bring up this unforgettable scene, because no one — and we mean no one — saw this moment coming.
Deep Blue Sea is a sci-fi horror movie that takes place in an underwater facility that's in the middle of nowhere. Scientists are conducting research on sharks, which apparently has the potential to help the fight against Alzheimer's disease. But like any scientific experiment in sci-fi movies, the specimens escape and start hunting humans. It's later revealed the scientists genetically altered the sharks to make them smarter and more deadly, and worse still, the facility sustains some serious damage and flooding, making it difficult to escape the building.
After several hardships and deaths, the characters are at their wits' end. To motivate them, Russell Franklin (Jackson) gives a passionate speech about the need for group unity. But right in the middle of this inspiring monologue, a massive shark leaps out of the pool behind him, drags him into the water, and devours him. It's a bit of a shock the first watch through. After that, it's always a highly anticipated moment for viewers and a favorite pause moment for fans of incredibly cool shark films.
Revenge of the Sith - The death of Mace Windu
In Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, the Jedi discover that Senator Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) is the Sith Lord they've been looking for. So Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) leads a troop of Jedi masters to deal with him, and as a result, there's a handful of pause moments in this one scene. There's the moment when Windu first draws his lightsaber, announcing that Palpatine is under arrest. Then there's that awesome scene when Windu holds his lightsaber over Palpatine with the massive cityscape behind him. But if we had to pick the best moment, we're going with the lightning kill.
First, let's give a hand to Windu for defeating Palpatine in a lightsaber duel. That's a difficult feat, considering that Palpatine is arguably the strongest Sith ever. And Windu would've finished him off if it weren't for a whiny and misled Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), who chops off Mace's arm before the Jedi Knight can deliver the coup de grâce to Palpatine. This gives the Sith Lord the perfect opportunity to electrocute the Jedi Knight, sending him a million feet into the air. We hated seeing such an awesome character go, but it was one of the more creative deaths in the Star Wars universe.
The Long Kiss Goodnight - Samuel L. Jackson asks for a weather report
Written by Shane Black, The Long Kiss Goodnight is about an amnesiac (Geena Davis) who's unable to remember her past. As a result, she decides to live as "Samantha," gets a boyfriend, has a child, and becomes a school teacher. However, Samantha continues to hire private investigators to uncover her past, the latest one being Mitch Henessey (Samuel L. Jackson).
But in a crazy twist, Samantha soon realizes that she was a spy in her past life (kind of like Jason Bourne), and now, her old cohorts are coming to collect her scalp. After a series of bloody mishaps, Samantha and Mitch are forced on the run together, searching for answers to Samantha's past, and they eventually meet up with one Dr. Nathan Waldman (Brian Cox). As agents are chasing them and shooting at them, Waldman calmly weaves in and out of traffic, while telling Samantha the truth about her forgotten life of espionage.
Henessy just can't believe it, especially when Waldman starts pulling guns out of everywhere. "How many of those you got?" an exasperated Henessy asks. Waldman replies, "Three. One shoulder, one hip, and one right here next to Mr. Wally, where most pat-downs never reveal it, as an agent's often reluctant to feel up another man's groin. Any other questions?" And that's when Jackson hilariously responds, "Yeah! What's the weather like on your planet?" The delivery is perfect, and you'll need to press pause to catch your breath from laughing.