Whether he's delivering one-liners, beating up bad guys, or just looking super cool,
Samuel L. Jackson has given us plenty of pause-worthy movie moments.
Keep watching to see some of the most memorable ones of his career.
Pulp Fiction wasn't Jackson's first movie, but it was the first time we saw him at the height
of his powers, especially in that scene where he confronts a group of young punks. This moment
is quintessential Sam Jackson. He plays a hitman named Jules Winnfield who works for the gangster
Marsellus Wallace. He and his associate Vincent Vega are sent to retrieve a briefcase from Brett,
a petty crook who's trying to double-cross Marsellus. Basically, Jules is going to kill
Brett no matter what, but in typical hitman style, he must first scare and humiliate him.
Brett attempts to play off his betrayal as a misunderstanding. While he's trying to
explain his side of the story, Jules casually shoots a man lying on the couch. Naturally,
Brett is absolutely terrified, but Jules doesn't offer him much sympathy.
"Oh, I'm sorry, did I break your concentration?"
Soon after the gunshot, Jules starts interrogating a terrified Brett,
who can only bring himself to say "What?" every time Jules asks a
question. Jules gets so frustrated that he sticks a gun in his face and shouts:
Say 'what' again. Say 'what' again, I dare you! I double dare you!"
You'll want to pause this fantastic moment
to appreciate every frame of this darkly hysterical scene.
Attack of the Clones disappointed a lot of Star Wars fans, but it's redeemed at least a little
by the Battle of Geonosis. In a colosseum, the villainous Count Dooku stands on a high perch
like a Roman emperor, watching the execution of Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme below him. Little
does Dooku know, though, that an army of Jedi and clones are about to storm the planet. And
who should be the one to deliver this epic news to him? Why, none other than Jedi Master Mace Windu.
Mace slowly walks up behind Dooku and his crony, Jango Fett, and then holds a lightsaber to Jango's
throat. In classic Mace Windu fashion, he gets straight to the point by revealing that there
are Jedi all over the colosseum, ready to battle. The following couple of minutes are
possibly the most action-packed of his entire Jedi career. Androids approach with guns,
forcing Mace to use his lightsaber defensively to deflect lasers. Jango then sets Mace on fire,
at which point he jumps off the balcony several stories down. While free-falling and on fire,
he still manages to be awesome enough to continue to deflect the lasers. He lands
safely on the colosseum floor, tosses his burnt robe aside, and then goes absolutely crazy.
He fights hundreds of droids, dances with a giant alien that looks like a rhino,
and chops off Jango Fett's head. You'll want to pause several times to soak in all the details.
Nick Fury has several great moments throughout the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe,
but one particular scene sticks out in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Normally,
Fury takes on management responsibilities and is rarely caught up in firefights. But
fans get a rare treat in Winter Soldier when he has to survive an assassination attempt,
which features Sam Jackson in full badass mode.
The scene begins with Fury driving down a city block, when a group of cop cars suddenly slam
into him and pin his SUV. A dozen or so policemen, who are really HYDRA agents in disguise,
surround him and shoot up his vehicle, which is fortunately bulletproof. Things get pretty
intense, but with the help of his spy smarts and his SUV's artificial intelligence system,
Fury survives in the most awesome way possible. Marvel fans get to see a whole new side of him
as he takes out multiple HYDRA agents with clever tactics and awesome artillery.
In addition to an epic firefight, the scene develops into arguably the best car
chase in the entire MCU franchise. It's epic, rewatchable, and totally pause-worthy.
In M. Night Shyamalan's haunting superhero tale Unbreakable,
Jackson delivers a marvelous performance as Elijah Price, a comic shop owner with a rare disorder
that makes his bones extremely brittle. When he was a boy, other kids would tease him with the
nickname "Mr. Glass." As an adult, he decides to find someone on the opposite end of the strength
spectrum, an actual superhero. He discovers David Dunn, a security guard who's in denial about his
incredible abilities, even though he was the only survivor of a train crash that killed over
a hundred people. But as the movie progresses, Elijah persuades David to accept his powers.
Under Elijah's tutelage, David discovers he has the ability to sense criminals when he touches
them. It seems like he'll become a real-life Superman with Elijah as his mentor. But that
all changes when David touches Elijah. It's at this moment that David learns 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. He announces that he should've known that he was a supervillain all along,
as the kids used to call him Mr. Glass. Give this moment a pause to really soak in the chills.
"They called me Mr. Glass."
If there's one thing Sam Jackson is good at, it's yelling for the most insignificant reasons,
and that's exactly what he does in The Other Guys. The film is about misfit cops Allen Gamble
and Terry Hoitz, who don't get any respect from their fellow officers. Conversely, every cop in
town admires detectives P. K. Highsmith and Chris Danson, as played by Jackson and Dwayne Johnson,
even though they cause massive amounts of damage while catching criminals.
The relationship between the two least popular and the two most popular partners is a bit
like the stereotypical high school relationship between the popular jerks and the pushover nerds.
Basically, Highsmith verbally assaults them, everyone thinks it's normal, and our loser
heroes just take it. On one occasion, Allen starts talking, and Highsmith explodes at him.
"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 pause-worthy moment especially hilarious is just how insanely
unnecessary Highsmith's response is. Allen was just offering him a quick compliment,
but that's obviously not how it was interpreted.
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 he 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 obey, 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 official insists that innocents
must be sacrificed, but the main characters instead defy the orders and save the day.
Sometimes the right thing to do is ignore your superiors. Pause this scene and soak
in the hilarious disobedience to authority. No one does it better than Sam Jackson.
People don't always talk that much about Deep Blue Sea, but when they do,
they always bring up one particular unforgettable scene, because no one, and we mean no one,
saw it coming. This sci-fi horror movie 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 just about every cinematic
scientific experiment, the specimens escape and start hunting humans. It's later revealed that
the scientists genetically altered the sharks to make them smarter and more deadly. Worse still,
the facility sustains some serious damage and flooding, making it difficult to escape.
After several hardships and deaths, the characters are at their wits' end. To motivate them,
Russell Franklin, as played by Jackson, gives a passionate speech
about the need for 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.
"We're gonna seal off this pool-"
It's a bit of a shock on the first watch. But on subsequent viewings, it's a highly
anticipated moment for viewers and a favorite pause moment for fans of creature features.
In Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, the Jedi discover that Senator Palpatine is the
Sith Lord they've been looking for. So Mace Windu leads a troop of Jedi masters to deal with him,
and as a result, there's a handful of pause-worthy moments in this one scene. There's the moment when
Mace first draws his lightsaber, announcing that Palpatine is under arrest. Then there's
the moment when he holds his lightsaber over Palpatine with the massive cityscape behind him.
But if we had to pick the best moment overall, it would have to be the lightning kill.
First, let's give a hand to Mace for defeating Palpatine in a lightsaber duel.
That's a difficult feat, considering that Palpatine is arguably the strongest Sith
ever. And Mace would've finished him off if it weren't for a whiny and misled Anakin Skywalker,
who chops off Mace's arm before the Jedi Knight can deliver the killing blow to Palpatine.
This gives the Sith Lord the perfect opportunity to electrocute Mace,
sending him a million feet into the air. We hated seeing such an awesome character go,
but we have to admit that it was one of the most creative deaths in Star Wars history.
Sometimes you get so angry with a situation that you just have to shout that you've had enough
and do something absolutely bananas. That's what Sam Jackson does in this pause-worthy
scene from Snakes on a Plane. He plays Neville Flynn, an FBI agent tasked with
safely transporting a witness who's testifying against a gang boss. But naturally enough,
the gangster has arranged for a crate of deadly snakes to be released on the flight.
As you can imagine, the snakes start claiming victims, and the passengers become hysterical.
They 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 in which he unforgettably declares,
"I have had it with these m--------- snakes on this m--------------- plane!"
Then Flynn starts opening up the windows via gunfire like a madman.
This scene demands to be paused to soak in the catharsis.
Jackson has a way of delivering angry lines that all people can relate to. Granted,
not everyone is literally 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 as confidently as Sam Jackson.
Sam Jackson can deliver a classic angry and comical rant even when he's playing an animated
character. The Incredibles centers around a family of superheroes and their superhero friends,
including the Jackson-voiced Frozone, who has the ability to shoot ice out of his hands.
The superheroes are forced to hang up their capes after some collateral damage and lawsuits,
and they must now live normal lives while disguised as everyday citizens.
But they of course hang onto their capes and store them away, 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:
his outfit is missing. He seems to know what happened to it because he instantly asks his wife:
"Honey!"
"What?"
"Where's my super suit?"
The conversation develops into an argument while the robot continues blowing things up
right outside the window. Frozone continues to demand to know where his suit is,
but his wife has something else on her mind, as they've been planning a nice
dinner date for two months. When he insists that the public is in danger, she responds:
"My evening's in danger!"
This golden moment of comedy was surely already awesome on the page,
but then Sam Jackson got a hold of it and made it even more perfect.
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