The Seven Best Movie Revenge Scenes
Lady Vengeance: Vengeance Party
We all pretty much know the Korean revenge trilogy is the best trilogy ever made (cue Star Wars trolls in the comments), and the Revenge Trilogy itself is something I will explore much further and more deeply in a forthcoming piece. But for now, I feel obligated to talk about the (epic) revenge scene from Lady Vengeance.
For those who do not know, the Korean Revenge Trilogy are three AMAZING movies all based around the idea of revenge. Obviously. Though each film goes to a distinctly different place, I chose Lady Vengeance for the list because her revenge is just so epic, and it is not just for her. It is for others as well.
It may take a while to get there, but once you do, hold on to your seats.
The idea here is there was this one school teacher, and without me saying too much for those who have not seen it, he did some REALLY bad things to some children over the years and no one knew. Well, one girl knew. And she got into some trouble for him, and did some time for him, and then did some research, and worked out one of the most elaborate revenge plans that had ever been thought of, let alone put to, film.
If you find yourself with the desire to see this film, which everyone should, I have the entire movie posted for you here.
Anyhow, “Lady Vengeance” finds the families of his victims, and brings them to a classroom. She informs them that the man who did that to their children is tied up in the next room. She then lets them know they can go in there, for five minutes each, and do whatever they want, if they so choose. There are also weapons they are given to choose from if they wish.
See, I told you it was both insane and awesome.
And if you think it just turns into a torture porn movie, you could not be less correct. The violence is minimal, but justifiable. It is the impact of the story that resonates.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Hte3-vbEnc
And truly unlike anything you have ever seen before.
Like I said in the intro, the road you have to walk before you actually need to take revenge is a dark one, and a journey I would wish upon no one.
Taken: Like Shooting Fish in a Barrel
I was taught seven very simple rules as a child, one of those rules is you do not mess with a Liam Nesson. It is just something you don’t do. He is a man of great magic and mystery, and he can be super friendly if you just ask him things politely, but some people can’t help it and they mess with him anyway.
Well, those people learn lessons.
Violent lessons.
Taught by Professor Liam Neeson, who has a separate P.H.D in kicking ass!
This is all of TAKEN, with any of the non-awesome stuff taken out.
Though this film, with is watered down pg-13 rating, did not make fr a nearly as visceral revenge scene as some of the others on this list, there is no doubt that this list would have been somewhat incomplete without it.
The Princess Bride: Hello, My Name is Inigo Montoya. You Killed My Father. Prepare To Die.
Do I even need to bother typing anything here at all? This particular revenge is just so perfect and so ingrained in the subconscious of most of us cinephiles, that it all I realy need to do is show this pic, and then we can all sit back and smile contently, thinking: mission accomplished. He did what he set out to do, and he did it with panache.
I still think he is one of the coolest characters ever put on film. His swag is off the charts.
Princess Bride is just a wonderful movie, from beginning to end, but the revenge subplot injects some much needed testosterone into the mix, and meshes like magic.
Honorable Mentions:
Star Trek 2: Wrath of Kahn. That is what Captain Kirk gets for being a dick and killing that guy from Fantasy Island’s family when he was a kid. Bad guy revenge still counts as revenge.
Kill Bill Saga: I didn’t want to put this because the ending of the movie is in the f*cking title. Not much surprise there.
Gangs Of New York: I know it is a spin on the “You Killed My Father” trope, but man, when Leo and Daniel Day go head to head at the end of this movie, it leaves you breathless.
Office Space: F*ck with a man’s stapler enough and just see what happens? I dare you…
Some men just want to watch the world burn. Literally.
Godfather II: This one is like a magnum opus to revenge in general, there is so much. Such an amazing film.
Amelie: Do you know what “gaslighting” is? It is the act of making someone slowly believe they are going insane by changing small, insignificant things around them every day without their knowledge. I would love to pretend I have never done it, but I have, and the effects are wonderful. Amelie knew this, and used these techniques to gaslight the fruit stand merchant who she saw bullying his disabled employee. She does so in delightfully subtle ways (she changes some of the programmed numbers on his phone to dial 911, she changes the sizes of his shoes to smaller and smaller each day) and it culminates with people around him, and himself, thinking he is nuts. Well played you adorable French woman. Well played.
I asked her to grab me a fork. Manic pixie dream girls are so spontaneous!
Wow, I have to totally disagree on the Gangs of New York mention. I thought the ending was the weakest part of the film. Daniel Day-Lewis running through a bit of smoke before getting killed by shrapnel. It’s pretty much the definition of anti-climactic.
Gladiator deserves a mention, as does Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. There are not many villains I hate more than Dolores Umbridge, and her getting carried off by centaurs was pretty satisfying.
Ricardo Montalban (Khan) starred on Fantasy Island, not Pleasure Island.
I thought the scene in Kick-Ass where Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) goes in to save her father, Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) was pretty good. Gave me goosebumps.
Saving Private Ryan – when Corporal Upham shoots the Nazi the squad had released earlier in the film who, despite his declaration of “Fuck Hitler”, shot Captain Miller during the German assault on the bridge.
War revenge at its finest.
Man, I was really hoping “Sleepers” would have made it onto this list. Yes, I realize that the article is SCENES from movies, and most of the entire aforementioned movie deals with revenge, but still, the courtroom sequence (at least DeNiro’s performance therein) is worthy of mentioning.
1. Screw Eli Roth and his shitty acting and even shittier directing.
2. Your synopsis of Road to Perdition’s plot is way off. Paul Newman’s character has nothing to do with the death of Hanks’s family. The murders are ordered by Newman’s slimy son, a pre-Bond Daniel Craig. This completely pisses off Newman, but he refuses to give up his son to Hanks because he’s still family. In the end, Hanks’s massacre of Newman and his group isn’t so much about revenge on Paul Newman, it’s just the only way he can get access to Daniel Craig.
Either Remy should go back and rewatch some of these films (Perdition) and do some minor fact checks (Korean Vengeance Trillogy… you even linked to it under the correct name…), or he just truly loves these movies so much that he made a bunch of factual errors along with his grammatical ones… this was a bit of a mess, but a fun read.
Revenge scene in Dragon Tatoo is worth a mention. Rapist pig!
The Count of Monte Cristo…that’s all I have to say.
Old boy needs to be on this list for sure.
@Grant
Great call. The classics are sometimes still the best.
@uncoolaid man, I loved Gangs ending, but respect your opinion. Gladiator ALMOST made it, but great call on Umbridge. She made my skin crawl.
@Lightspeed, corrected, thank you.
@Optimus, I loved that whole entire movie, so I agree there as well.
@DocDoom, your silence is unsettling.
@Pfunk, Fair enough, Nazi lover. No, I am kidding. And regarding Perdition, you and quite a few others seem to agree that I was off on that one, so I will concur I was off on that one. BUT, that end scene is still f*cking awesome, either way.
@ Steve, I’ll take “sloppy read”. Been called worse.
@ Jeff, good call, but I avoided rape-revenge movies or I would have had a list filled with exploitation films from the 70’s (which, come to think of it, would have been better received.)
@Grant and Grand, I agree but that seemed an easy out.
Looking back, I should have taken the easy outs.
Guys and gals, been working my ass off on my site and this stuff, and about four other jobs, so sorry if this list was not as “tight” as some others. But I am so exhausted I am puking out of my eyeballs, so cut a brother a little bit of slack, I beg of you.
DEFINITELY an amazing list! Love this article! I must say one more honorable mention you missed, but it’s totally cool. The Crow 😉 Need I say more? lol 🙂
I must admit that I could not enjoy “Inglorious Basterds” for a couple of reasons. Mike Myers sticks out like a sore thumb. I do not understand why he was there and his impression of Montgomery was retarded. It wasn’t even over the top bad…it was just bad. Pretty much the entire cast of Inglorious Bastards made zero sense to me. Brad Pitt sort of worked…BJ Novak didn’t. Every single scene he was in, he played it like he was on the set of The Office. Pretty much the only casting decision that stuck out to me as really working was Christoph Waltz.
But I am rambling. The “revenge” scene you are speaking of really bothered me as a former member of the military. That isn’t a revenge scene…its a fucking war crime. Its not even established if he is a Nazis or part of the Waffen SS. At best, he is a low level officer who is given the option of being savagely beaten to death or handing over Intel that will get more of his fellow soldiers killed. Reverse the uniforms and that dude is the films hero.
Sorry but I do not understand why Inglorious Basterds is popular.
@Vince – Are you fucking kidding me?! Upham was the biggest piece of shit pussy in that movie. The revenge shouldn’t have had to even take place. AND he let Adam Goldberg get stabbed to death in what has got to be one of the hardest to watch scenes of the movie! God I hate Upham…
Dead Man’s Shoes, the scene in Sonny’s house. If the reason this scene isn’t on the list is because you haven’t seen the movie, go see it – it’s awesome.
Also, why did you have to censor the word ‘rape’?
@Diablo
Then you simply hate Tarantino. His movies aren’t about making sense, having coherent plots, or portraying people the way they would actually act. He grew up on Spaghetti Westerns and Grindhouse flicks, so his style is most like those genres, which are known for all these inaccuracies which you are complaining about.
Man, really?
I’m not going to lie, I haven’t seen Lady Vengeance, but the omission of the end of I Saw the Devil here is borderline criminal. That film was the most gruesome, thrilling, shocking, satisfying revenge ride I can imagine.
*Clutches chest in pain* Why is it that Kill Bill vol. 1 and 2 aren’t mentioned? I mean…the basis for these movies, is revenge. When you hear the title…KILL BILL you instantly think of revenge.
Not to mention that the ending for the second volume is…the best ending for any revenge movie.
Nice call with Lady Vengeance. Chan-wook Park is the goddamn vengeance MASTER. Even when he does a rom-com, it ends up being about vengeance (“I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK”). I would advise I Drink your Blood where a dude injects rabid dog’s blood into pastries, I Spit on Your Grave (the original, natch) with it’s castration scene that almost made me vomit, and the chariot death in Ben Hur, which may be more along the lines of comeuppance than revenge, but goddam is it SWEEEEET.
I saw the devil (Any scene). Lone wolf & cub (the part when Itto accuses the crooked officer and then just kills the whole platoon. And the other dozen or so guys who where outside). Ninja Scroll (the first time Jubei kills Gemma). Enter the dragon (the O’Hara fight).
Great list, man. I’d never seen it before, but now Lady Vengeance has stuck with me all day long. Absolutely haunting. Keep up the good work.
Kirk didn’t kill Khan’s family on purpose. And to be fair, Khan did try to kill him and his crew first. I guess the only thing Kirk was guilty of was nonfeasance by not checking up on the colony he set up on Seti Alpha 5.
@GrandWazoo
Let me make sure I have this right: Tarentino’s bad movies are actually good because they’re inspired by equally flawed source material? By that logic, Uwe Boll’s films are all masterpieces.
@Jezzer
Did I ever say that? No. I said judging his movies based off of your preconceived notions of historical accuracy, etc, is not the proper criteria. Yes, the scene described is a war crime, but that’s hardly the most inaccurate thing Tarantino has put into his movies. You are allowed to hate Tarantino; I know many people who do. However, it sounded like Diablo liked Tarantino, but hated Inglourious Basterds, and I was pointing out that you should go into a Tarantino movie knowing what to expect.
The Bear Jew scene made that German guy look like the coolest motherfucker on planet earth. That guy had gigantic balls of steel. I think Tarantino is a secrete nazi, he made that guy and Hans Landa look great, everyone in the film looked looked silly compared to the nazi’s. That SS Officer from the bar scene was also amazing, but not being as socially intelligent as Landa cost him his life.
On the subject of Oldboy (which came up several times in the comments), am I the only guy on earth who HATED Oldboy? I thought it was the most ridiculous movie I ever saw, and I don’t mean that in the good way. The “revenge plot” featured in it was the most asinine thing I ever heard of, so convoluted and unlikely that it was light years beyond believability. (I won’t bother with writing out a long list of the flaws in the plot, anybody could find them by themselves just by watching the film!)
Honestly, I truly think a lot of people give this movie a pass because it’s (admittedly) a beautifully filmed movie, but that’s about all it has going for it.
@Meh, great call about I Saw the Devil.
@GrandWazoo I greatly enjoy a lot of Tarantino’s films, though I must admit, I think I differ than most fans as I find “Jackie Brown” to be grossly under-appreciated. Then again, I grew up loving Pam Grier.
I would highly disagree with you that his films do not follow coherent plots. I would say that “Inglorious Basterds” has a very logical plot and much easier to follow than say “Pulp Fiction”. There are parts of the film I liked. Like all of Tarantino’s films, the cinematography and sound track is exceptional. So to the dialogue and the pacing.
But back to the point of this topic, which is revenge scenes. I argue that this scene in this film is not a revenge scene at all. You basically have a man who is killed for information. Its not established that he is anything other than an enemy soldier. He is brutally murdered for not turning over information. I find it to be an extremely disturbing scene. Now I understand that not having a background in the military, many people would not see the big deal. That’s fine with me…but even if you look at it from that point of view, its still not revenge. This guy was just some random soldier they caught and tortured.
@Iggy I totally have your back brother/sister. Seriously I do not understand why that film gets so much accolades. Its good but sometimes I am taken aback where its practically compared to Citizen Kane in some circles.
Where is the love for the final scene of Mad Max?
Max adds to the sadism exponentially by giving Johnny the option of being immolated (as Johnny has subjected the Goose to previously) or hacking his own leg off (Saw style) and probably bleeding to death slowly.
Forget mention, I’ll take that over butt explosives any day. Denzel is a badass, but that can’t make up for an idea that could have been dreamed up by a fifteen year old.
Extra points because the director spent the rest of his career after the Max Trilogy making movies like Babe and Happy Feet.
Good list, but c’mon. Where is the end of The Unforgiven. “he should’ve armed himself if he was gonna decorate his bar with my friend” (paraphrase) Number 1 by far.
LAST OF THE MOHICANS!!!
oldboy needs to be one this 100%
No mention of the Departed and Marky Mark?
How on earth did “Sin City” not make the cut here?
How did Law Abiding Citizen not get on this list? It’s about a guy who lost everything as was failed by those he trusted, so he decides to get his revenge on the WHOLE F$%^ING WORLD!
It’s brilliant.
why shouldn’t ‘CARRIE’ be included