Top 20 Best One Scene Movie Performances
#20: Andrew Scott
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“1917” (2019)
This World War I film follows two ordinary soldiers making their way across war-torn France in an attempt to get a vital message to the front lines. The film casts two relative unknowns in the leading roles to emphasize how the enlisted soldiers felt like everyday people. Conversely, their superiors are played by famous actors, including the likes of Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch, representing how generals and other high-ranking officials were seen as celebrities. Of all the iconic actors they come across, however, the one who deserves special recognition is Andrew Scott as the disaffected Lieutenant Leslie, who morbidly mumbles about the ghastly things he has seen in the war.
#19: Ted Levine
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“Shutter Island” (2010)
As the warden of the prison for the mentally disturbed, Ted Levine brings a true sense of menace and foreboding in his short time on screen. He arrives at the perfect moment in this paranoia thriller to further amplify the stakes and further put the main character Teddy, as well as the audience, on edge. Musing on human nature, he manages to give a chillingly bleak speech on how thin the divide between civility and brutal violence is. Impressively, the scene only improves upon a second viewing, as the twist ending reveals further depth to the sinister performance by Levine.
#18: Alfred Molina
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“Boogie Nights” (1997)
Once again, this is a scene built on tension, but unlike Levine, Alfred Molina plays a seemingly unhinged drug dealer. Molina manages to be jovial yet threatening, dangerous yet funny, and deranged yet in control of the situation, in a way that few actors could manage. Wearing his bathrobe, he seems unconcerned by anything as he plays his custom mixtapes and wields a gun while firecrackers are set off in the background. Then when things go sideways, he drops his friendly persona and amplifies his threatening deranged attitude. The scene serves as the peak of the film’s spiral to depravity and insanity, and it’s all sold by Molina stealing the scene.
#17: Matthew Macfadyen
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“The Assistant” (2019)
Over the course of a day, the titular assistant Jane, played by Julia Garner, becomes aware that her boss is using his position of power to harass young female employees. Meanwhile, female managers want to look the other way while male employees seem amused by it. With nowhere else to turn, Jane speaks to her HR rep. Enter Matthew Macfadyen as Wilcox. Despite his cool composure and blandness, Wilcox makes it implicitly clear that not only will Jane’s accusations go nowhere, if she does speak up she will destroy her career. What really makes his even-keeled performance so terrifying is how sinister he manages to be while being boring middle management.
#16: Barry Shabaka Henley
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“Collateral” (2004)
After a number of murders and near-death scrapes, the hitman Vincent and cab driver Max head to a local jazz club and talk to the proprietor Daniel, played by Henley. Vincent and Daniel bond over their love of jazz and Daniel tells the story of how he played with Miles Davis as Henley brings a real sense of warmth to the character. That warmth changes to fear and desperation when he realizes Vincent has been sent to kill him, but he gets one chance to answer a question and live. Daniel answers with such confidence that we know he will be alright… that is until Vincent shoots him.
#15: Chris Evans
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“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” (2010)
No stranger to comic book characters, Evans plays the second of Ramona’s evil exes Scott must defeat, Lucas Lee. As Lucas, the pretty good skater turned pretty good actor, Evans brought a rare charisma and likability to the cocky antagonist. His sense of swagger and over-the-top bravado makes the performance one that isn’t easy to forget and one that fits in perfectly with the over-the-top world inspired by video games and comics the film presents. Like Scott himself, it is hard for the audience not to get caught up in the charm and fun that Evans brings to the part, despite him actually being a villain.
#14: Billy Crystal & Carol Kane
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“The Princess Bride” (1987)
“The Princess Bride” is one of the most iconic movies of all time in large part thanks to its incredible cast of characters. Despite only appearing on-screen for about five mutinies, Miracle Max and Valerie are no exception. In heavy old-age makeup, Crystal played a crotchety old miracle worker partially inspired by his Jewish grandmother. Bringing equally hilarious energy was Carol Kane, playing his bickering wife. Improvising some of the film’s most iconic lines, they turned what could have been essentially a scene that served as a deus ex machina into one of the funniest and memorable parts of the film.
#13: Dean Stockwell
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“Blue Velvet” (1986)
To say that veteran actor Dean Stockwell’s performance as the criminal Ben was an unsettling one would be an understatement. The off-kilter disturbing character fits perfectly in the neo-noir thriller alongside the rest of the bizarre characters sprouting from David Lynch’s imagination. His over-the-top smile makes his threatening demeanor all the more fighting as he happily punches people in the gut and reveals himself to be a kidnapper. All of this weirdness builds to a lip-synched performance of Roy Orbison’s “Only in Dreams” that manages to send shivers down our spines.
#12: Vanessa Redgrave
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“Atonement” (2007)
Redgrave doesn’t appear until the very last scene of this romantic war film, but her appearance recontextualizes everything we have seen up till that point. Much of the preceding film is told through the lenses of an unreliable narrator, and we finally meet that narrator in the finale. An elderly version of a character played by Saoirse Ronan, Redgrave reveals that the happy ending was a fiction invented for her novel. Redgrave plays the character with a real sense of sadness, explaining why she changed the facts. Unlike the rest of the film, which was filled with grand sets and period costumes, this one simply had an actor set against a black background giving a heartbreaking speech.
#11: Gene Hackman
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“Young Frankenstein” (1974)
While he is perhaps best known for dramatic roles like “The French Connection,” Hackman has some impressive comedic acting chops as well, which he gets to show off in his small but memorable role in this Mel Brooks masterpiece. As a blind man, Hackman prays for a companion, a prayer that is quickly granted when Frankenstein’s monster arrives. The film takes full advantage of Hackman’s mastery of physical comedy and his deadpan line delivery by having him unknowingly unleash a string of terrors upon the hapless monster before he flees, once again leaving the sad priest alone.
#10: William Hurt
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“A History of Violence” (2005)
After spending much of the film chased by goons, former hitman Joey, played by Viggo Mortensen, finally departs from his family to face his old life. That old life is embodied by his brother Richie, with Hurt bringing a restrained fury to the role as a mobster whose sense of vengeance will only be satisfied with blood. Hurt manages to do so much with so little in this climactic scene, both in terms of restrained emoting and having such little screen time. Despite only appearing in the film for about eight minutes, Hurt received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars.
#9: Ned Beatty
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“Network” (1976)
Like Hurt, this very short performance by Ned Beatty was good enough to get him an Oscar nomination in a film that has proved to be one of the most prescient of all time. This of course included its predictions of reality TV, sensationalized news, and the near worship of capitalist values. The values of corporate America are delivered in the form of Arthur Jensen, played by Beatty, who manages to make his truly terrifying ideals sound downright appealing in a speech he gives to the unraveling Howard Beale. Beatty manages to become the embodiment of corporate greed that would convince the common people to act against their own interests.
#8: Gloria Foster
“The Matrix” (1999)
One of the key themes in “The Matrix” is free will vs. determinism, and that theme is personified in the Oracle. Despite appearing in only a single scene near the film’s midpoint, the Oracle’s presence was felt throughout with anticipation building to Neo meeting her in the first half and their conversation driving the events of the second half. Foster had to portray a mysterious and unknowable yet completely familiar grandmotherly figure all while doling out a lot of exposition and moving the plot forward. Yet, she made this balancing act seem easy, absolutely charming the audience and making us wonder if Neo would have broken that vase if she hadn’t said anything.
#7: Viola Davis
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“Doubt” (2008)
While she was already an award-winning stage actor, Viola Davis was a relative unknown in the film world when she appeared in a single scene in “Doubt.” In barely eight minutes of screen time, that all changed. Her role as the mother of a boy likely being abused got her a number of accolades, including an Oscar nomination. Her character is an astoundingly complex one, seeking to turn a blind eye to the possible abuse being done to her son in order to protect him from further harm in the long run, at least in her eyes. Today, Viola Davis is a household name thanks to her devastating and multifaceted performance in “Doubt.”
#6: Dave Bautista
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“Blade Runner 2049” (2017)
A wrestler and mixed martial artist, Bautista became well known to wider audiences when he became famous for playing tough guys and comic relief characters in films like “Spectre” and “Guardians of the Galaxy,” respectively. However, Bautista showed the true depths of his acting talent when he showed up in Denis Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner” sequel. Soft-spoken and kindly yet also imposing and intense, in just a few minutes Bautista manages to portray a physically imposing man with tragic eyes hidden behind those tiny glasses. Playing off the equally stoic character played by Ryan Gosling, Bautista embodies a man who has known death is just around the corner for years and is finally facing it.
#5: Steve Park
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“Fargo” (1996)
The Coen brothers’ films are more often than not filled with weird and interesting people that might feel like someone you could actually know. The inhabitants of Fargo, Minnesota are no exception, and Steve Park’s brief appearance as Mike Yanagita proves that point. Mike reconnects with his high school crush Marge and comes off as the classic “nice guy” trying just a little too hard and gets a bit too familiar. It doesn’t take long for him to break down crying about his loneliness, giving a performance that is both pathetic and tragic.
#4: Drew Barrymore
“Scream” (1996)
By the mid-nineties, horror films had become stale as an oversaturation of similarly structured slashers in the previous two decades had taught audiences all the tropes and clichés. No one knows that better than Wes Craven, creator of the “Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise. With his film “Scream,” he used moviegoer’s meta knowledge of slasher tropes against them. When 90s darling Drew Barrymore appeared at the beginning of the film, it seemed to set up that she would be the “final girl” in the mold of Laurie Strode. Audiences at the time were fooled when, during the stirring opening scene, Barrymore was immediately killed off.
#3: Matthew McConaughey
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“The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013)
Jordan Belfort, as played by Leonardo DiCaprio, embodied the greed, vanity, and lust of Wall Street. While Leo had three hours to portray the dangers of excessive drugs, prostitutes, and lavish spending, Matthew McConaughey had only a few minutes to do the same. McConaughey plays Belfort’s mentor and boss, Mark Hanna, who in a simple dinner conversation molds the bright-eyed optimist Belfort into the despicable person he becomes. Hanna above all is a salesman and he successfully sells the self-indulgent gospel of depravity in an enthusiastic chest thumping rant.
#2: Alec Baldwin
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“Glengarry Glen Ross” (1992)
Occasionally, a single line or phrase from a movie becomes so iconic or popular that it eclipses the movie itself in popular culture. Alec Baldwin shouting, “ABC, Always, Be, Closing,” is exactly that for this film. He delivers the tirade which also includes the famous line, “Coffee's for closers,” and his rant is what this excellent film is still best known for as it captures the do-or-die attitude of sales in the eighties and nineties. Perhaps the most impressive thing is that the scene didn’t even appear in the David Mamet play the film is based on.
Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:
Martin Scorsese, “Taxi Driver” (1976)
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Taika Waititi, “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” (2016) Hilarious & Off-the-Wall Eulogy
Charles Fleischer, “Zodiac” (2007) A Goosebump-Inducing Paranoia Scene
James Badge Dale, “Flight” (2012) Gives a Philosophical Speech as a Cancer Patient
Donnie Wahlberg, “The Sixth Sense” (1999) Lost a Reported 43 Pounds to Play Someone Physically & Mentally Broken
#1: Christopher Walken
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“Pulp Fiction” (1994)
There are a number of one scene wonders from Tarantino films, including Julia Butters in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” but Christopher Walken’s soliloquy as Captain Koons stands apart. In a flashback, he tells the young Butch about a family heirloom that has made its way from his great-grandfather who wore it in the first World War to his grandfather who wore it in the second, and finally to his father who died keeping it safe in the Vietnam War so he could give it to Butch. Walken tells of how he and Butch’s father kept it hidden for years as POWs and gives a performance that alternates between moving, tragic, and downright hilarious.
