Let’s grab Gary’s car, drive to Sandford, fight some blanks, kill some zombies, uncover
a cult, stop at the Winchester, drink some tea and wait for all this to blow over.
Welcome to WatchMojo UK and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the top 10
Cornetto Trilogy scenes!
For
this list, we’ve picked out the best bits from the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy.
Directed by Edgar Wright and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (as well as others), these
films are three of Britain’s best-loved exports.
Garden fences at the ready, let’s jump straight to it.
Sent out the door with Ed’s iconic shopping list, our opening clip sees Shaun visit the
newsagent for a hangover cure.
However, in a scene which perfectly parallels a previous trip to Nelson’s, he’s oblivious
to every apocalyptic thing around him.
Windscreens are smashed; the jogger is on steroids; there are dead people down garden
paths.
But all Shaun cares about is his can of diet coke and the list of life goals he’s pinned
to the fridge.
Not even timely channel-hopping alerts him to the obvious.
Nicholas Angel is London’s best Bobby, but that doesn’t mean his job’s secure.
He’s relocated in the opening moments of “Hot Fuzz”, forced out of the city and
into the sticks.
Needless to say, he’s not happy about it.
And no matter how insincerely they ask after Angel’s welfare, there’s no disguising
the smugness of Martin Freeman, Steve Coogan and Bill Nighy.
Representing all levels of the Met.
Police, their farcical opinions are only backed up by the cake and streamers party waiting
patiently outside.
Driven by Gary’s ludicrously deluded love for Newton Haven’s Golden Mile, the gang’s
well on their way to the World’s End in this scene.
But Blanks are everywhere by now, and just like with the twins from two pubs ago, they’re
forced to fight their way to the exits.
Nick Frost’s Andy finally sheds his yuppie threads to destroy Pierce Brosnan, while Pegg’s
Gary is more concerned with keeping the contents of his glass.
A pub scrap packed with slick cuts and stylish kills, it’s classic Cornetto chaos.
A recurring gag throughout the series, Nick
Frost’s character always has a knack for knowing exactly what’s about to unravel
before it’s even happened.
Just watch him watching action movies in “Hot Fuzz”; it’s all there.
But this speech in “Shaun of the Dead” is the trilogy’s best example of plot prediction.
Shaun’s broken up with Liz, so Ed lays down a booze-filled plan to help his mate unwind.
Only every aspect of it second-guesses the zombie fight soon to start.
And he gets a laugh from Shaun.
Genius.
With the Neighbourhood Watch Alliance exposed as crazed killers, this scene sees Simon Pegg
and Timothy Dalton take their fight to the miniature streets of Sandford’s model town.
With the hamlet’s hopes for ‘Village of the Year’ in ruins, the pair lay waste to
its tiny replica.
And Dalton’s Skinner falls victim to some rather painful irony, slipping on a Somerfield’s
lorry.
Special shout out for the cameos here too; that kid so deserves to be first name in the
phone book, and well done that swan!
Though Shaun would rather we didn’t use the ‘zed word’, our next clip gives invaluable
insight as to which weapons work best against the undead.
Cricket bats and shovels, yes.
Your cherished vinyl collection, not so much.
As Shaun and Ed flick through albums deciding which records can be flung, the walking corpses
ominously advance.
And don’t forget, one’s already sporting a sizeable stomach wound from an earlier encounter.
That Shaun mistook her cadaverous lunges for romantic advances is just plain hilarious.
When facing a Zombie apocalypse, someone needs to take control.
Shaun steps up for our next scene, in which he debates the best bet for survival.
Saving his mum and Liz is non-negotiable, and bashing his step-dad’s head in is a
definite, but where to hide out?
Naturally, he settles on the pub, and Ed enthusiastically approves.
The entire sequence is trademark Edgar Wright, with quick breaks, close-ups and comic timing.
It makes escaping the living dead look like a fun Friday night, almost.
What began as a simple pub crawl descends into madness when the guys hit their fourth
bar and their robotic rivals reveal themselves.
A grimy, greasy opening stand-off, it’s five Vs five in the toilets – hit the hand
dryers, please.
As with all fights in this film, the kills are relentless and there’s blue stuff everywhere.
Whether Gary and co.
are pounding the walls, crashing cubicles or wrestling appendages, or even elbow-dropping
like a pro, it’s tough to find the relevant words, or acronyms, here.
Thanks, Peter.
Sergeant Angel’s back in town.
Swapping squad car for saddle, Pegg goes all-out action hero for this final battle, which sees
Danny Butterfield live out his buddy cop dreams.
From grannies with machine guns to reverends with a death wish, Sandford’s packing plenty
of heat but there’s still time for a few one-liners.
Just before Nicholas squares up to Skinner, the film gives us one final gory, glimpse
of Sandford’s many murderous residents.
They’re no match for these two, though.
They’ve seen the movies; they know what to do.
Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
Despite Shaun’s improbable predictions, the zombie invasion did not ‘blow over’.
Instead, it broke into The Winchester, disembowelled David, infected Barbara and left Shaun with
a literal hole in the head.
But the highlight of this hellish hilarity comes when the fortress first falls, and the
landlord appears with evil in his eyes.
With Freddie Mercury setting the tone, the gang rhythmically dispose of John with just
a couple of pool cues and a rifle.
Which, by the way, is real.
But let’s not exacerbate things, hey.