greatest movie turnaround

Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 42 points –

what movie has the greatest turnaround. Like all hope is lost, people are fleeing or whatever, and something happens, then everyone rallies and of course wins the day.
Its in tons of movies, usually pretty cheesy. But there must be some that do it right. What are they?

41

The Lord of the Rings. I get goosebumps every time.

Reply with your favorite moment. There’s lots of them in the trilogy.

Aragorn’s speech at the Black Gate.. hmm or maybe when Elrond gives Anduril to Aragorn.. or most scenes Gandalf is in

"You are soldiers of Gondor! No matter what comes through that gate you will stand your ground!"

Grond boops his way through the gate.

Armoured Olog-hai push through wrecking the place.

Gandalf: surprised-pikachu.jpeg

So many great ones in this trilogy.

Ride out with me.

and

a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!

get me every time.

I can't carry it for you Mr.Frodo... BUT I CAN CARRY YOU!

Hell yes. I remember watching that during the premiere in theaters many years ago, and it was so emotional and powerful. Fucking love these movies so much.

Gandalf at the end of the battle of Helm's Deep

This isn’t an “all hope is lost” moment in the movies, but I have to bring it up anyway.

Aragorn bursts into the throne room, “The beacons have been lit! Gondor calls for aid.”

Commence 30 seconds of silent anticipation.

Théoden, King of Rohan: “And Rohan will answer.”

Hell yeah!

I think he's referring to the last battle where everyone basically agrees that they are all doomed unless Frodo is still alive and has the ring so they decide since all hope is lost, they'll put all their men on the front line in the hope of buying Frodo an opportunity to get to Mt Doom. But I think most of them only go along with it because they know they are pretty much gonna die either way.

LotR movies never fail to give me the chills even from static jpeg memes lol

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

all hope is lost, the rabbit is massacring our heroes "and something happens"

Tbf that's just because the pythons never could figure out how to end a bit

The original/alternate ending of "I am Legend" that was scrapped for the dumb reason that test audiences didn't immediatly understand it.

::: spoiler Spoiler: In that ending, the main character realized that the "mindless zombies" he hunted are actually pretty sentient and from their perspective, HE was the monster terrorizing their entire species day in, day out. The main character had captured one of them to conduct experiments for a possible cure, and once he realizes that the zombies attacking his base only want to get her back, he sets her free and the zombies leave in peace. That was such a cool, meaningful "oh shit!" moment and they scrapped it in favor of "main character heroically blows himself up and kills all the zombies in the base" instead :::

Wasn't that the ending in the original one from the 70s?

Huh... I never knew about that version, but it seems to be a lot closer to what the novel had as an ending, so yes.

It is also the ending used as basis for the coming sequel

Most certainly The Mist. All hope is lost completely until the very uplifting ending.

I've not seen the movie or read the book but I do know the plot. While the two had different endings I don't think either of them were happy were they?

The joke is that it finally ended and he didnt have to watch it anymore.

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The recent Dungeons and Dragons does something similar well. Independence Day is a classic in that vein. Many/most superhero movies follow that formula as well.

A different scale, but a lot of sports movies have a similarly satisfying underdog/comeback story.

I have to go with Bad Lieutenant: Port Call of New Orleans. Everything has gone to shit, the main character is addicted to drugs and spiraling. You 100% expect this movie to be a tragedy with him dying. Then completely unexpectedly everything just works out. I still can’t believe a studio let that happen, but I think I appreciate the movie because it’s so atypical.

The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland.

Edit to add: Bert literally stops the movie at one point to fourth-wall how hopeless everything looks. Ernie reassures him by asking what kind of movie would have a sad ending. Bert immediately replies Titanic.

"I'd like to help ya, but I don't speak English" that line always made me laugh

Gurren Lagan had a movie compression of the series that is pretty much only those TURNABOUT moments of darkest just before the power creep dawn.

Independence Day

It’s a 90s summer blockbuster, so you always knew the humans would win. But, it still works extremely well.

That last scene in The Patriot. Jason Isaacs will always be one of the better movie villains.

One example that I like isn't at the end of the movie but at the very beginning.

Dances With Wolves

Dude's shot in battle, about to lose his leg when the field doctor gets called away... then something happens...

Alita Battle Angel

Fight when she’s like 100% gonna die, but she pulls it off.

I really enjoyed this movie very much. I walked into it without knowing anything about it, and it was much better than I thought it'd be.

Same here! It was during the MoviePass heyday, so basically once a week we’d eat dinner near the theater and go see whatever was playing. We were definitely pleasantly surprised.