Since it’s so difficult to pull together a movie that works at all, making one that’s completely perfect is near-impossible. Even some of the greatest films ever made, universally praised by critics and audiences alike, are let down by one disappointing scene that threatens to ruin the whole movie.
Great movies are able to recover from one bad scene, but those scenes stand out on rewatches. From the plastic baby in American Sniper to the CG-heavy climactic fight in Black Panther, these scenes almost ruined the awesome movies they were in.
10 Black Panther - The CG Vibranium Mine Fight
Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther is one of the most beloved entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and, so far, the only one to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger, the long-lost cousin of T’Challa who wants to claim the throne of Wakanda and use the country’s resources to exact revenge, is a classic sympathetic villain.
But the movie is let down by T’Challa and Killmonger’s climactic fight in the vibranium mine. The CG-heavy action means that the hand-to-hand combat in the hero and villain’s final showdown is dull and weightless.
9 10 Cloverfield Lane - The Monsters Are Real
The majority of 10 Cloverfield Lane is a tense psychological thriller. Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays a young woman who wakes up confined to an underground bunker with John Goodman, who claims he saved her from the end of the world. The movie’s tension comes from the fact that Goodman may or may not be telling the truth about the apocalypse.
The movie’s finale completely deflates this tension as she escapes from the bunker, sees a giant alien ship in the sky, and has to fight a kaiju. This monster seemingly only appears to connect the movie to the larger Clover-verse, yet another example of franchise synergy at the expense of storytelling.
8 The Breakfast Club - Allison’s Makeover
John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club is a teen comedy classic about embracing each other’s differences and the importance of being oneself, regardless of societal norms. But in one particularly grating sequence, the movie undermines this message and indulges in the pesky ‘80s movie cliché of giving an individualistic female character a makeover in order to give her value.
According to The Independent, Ally Sheedy was unhappy with her character’s makeover scene and tried to get Hughes to change it. She explained, “I didn’t want anyone to be putting makeup on my face, so I tried to negotiate with John that it would be about taking stuff off, or Allison taking down this wall that she had put up to keep people at arm’s length.”
7 Kingsman: The Secret Service - The Final Scene
For the most part, Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Secret Service is a fun throwback to the early James Bond classics. Colin Firth and Taron Egerton make a compelling pair as a gentleman spy and his street-smart young protégé, while Samuel L. Jackson made for an unforgettable villain as a diabolical tech mogul.
But the movie’s final scene went beyond the pale for a lot of viewers. While Kingsman deconstructs a lot of the problematic Bond tropes, it sticks to the convention of ending with the hero being rewarded with a sexual favor – and goes to Family Guy levels of crassness with it.
6 American Sniper - The Fake Baby
Clint Eastwood’s biopic of Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, American Sniper, is one of the most powerful war films in recent memory, thanks to Bradley Cooper’s heartfelt performance as Kyle and Eastwood’s visceral direction of the battle scenes.
But there’s one terrible scene in which Kyle holds his baby and it’s obviously a fake prop made of plastic. According to The Guardian, there were two real babies lined up for the scene, but one showed up to the set with a fever and the other didn’t show up at all, so Eastwood resorted to using a plastic doll. Projected on a giant screen, this plastic baby sticks out like a sore thumb.
5 Grease - The Flying Car
Anchored by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John’s impeccable performances and a handful of catchy numbers, the ‘50s-set gem Grease revitalized the movie musical. But it has a baffling final scene.
At the end of the movie, Danny and Sandy drive away in the Grease Lightnin’ car and the car inexplicably takes flight. If the rest of the movie was filled with otherworldly imagery, that would be one thing, but the flying car appears at the end of a relatively grounded movie.
4 Django Unchained - Quentin Tarantino’s Cameo
Quentin Tarantino’s slavery-era riff on the spaghetti western genre, Django Unchained, is one of his most thrilling, powerful, and critically acclaimed movies. Jamie Foxx gives a powerhouse performance as the titular bounty hunter, supported by similarly incredible turns by Christoph Waltz, Kerry Washington, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Samuel L. Jackson.
But one supporting performance that doesn’t hold up is Tarantino’s cameo appearance as an Australian slaver. Tarantino doesn’t always let his movies down with cameo appearances – his performances in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction are passable – but his shaky Australian accent in Django is particularly noticeable opposite Australian actor John Jarratt, star of some of the greatest Australian movies ever made.
3 Let The Right One In - The Cat Attack
Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In is one of the most touching love stories ever put on film, and it tackles that romance through the lens of horror as an oft-bullied 12-year-old schoolkid finds a kindred spirit in fellow outsider Eli, who turns out to be a vampire.
While this movie is a near-perfect horror gem, it’s held back by one unusual scene in which a newly vamp-ified young woman is attacked by a bunch of CG cats.
2 Avengers: Endgame - Black Widow’s Death
Despite sky-high expectations and an unwieldy three-hour runtime, Avengers: Endgame managed to satisfy Marvel fans across the world as the action-packed finale of the decade-long Infinity Saga.
However, Black Widow’s death scene loses some of its impact due to clunky editing. It was obviously cobbled together during reshoots from a scene that was drastically different on the page. Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff deserved a much better swansong after nine years as a fan-favorite MCU icon.
1 Star Wars: Special Edition - Greedo Shoots First
George Lucas’ original 1977 Star Wars movie is a true masterpiece. It’s one of the most influential films ever made and an escapist adventure that audiences still enjoy today. But for the ‘90s home media release, Lucas meddled in his classic space opera with the new-fangled CGI technology that his company was developing to produce the prequel trilogy.
The so-called “Special Edition” of Star Wars is overstuffed with CG effects that tarnish a once-perfect movie. The most egregious example is the infamous “Greedo shoots first” scene adding a shot from Greedo’s blaster to the iconic Mos Eisley Cantina sequence. In the original version, Han is a slick gunslinger who beats Greedo to the punch. In the Special Edition, he’s a guy who gets lucky after his opponent misses from point-blank range.
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