There are so many movie moments and images and expressions that stay with you long after you leave the theater. That’s certainly true of 2025, where we’re unlikely to forget the characters and scenes that left a lasting impression. We rounded up our favorites from some of the year’s best pic- ture contenders — obviously, spoilers follow!
Frankenstein
“A leaf? For me?”
In one of the most touching moments in Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” Mia Goth’s Elizabeth is given a leaf by the Creature (Jacob Elordi). Until now, Victor (Oscar Issac) has treated his creation like nothing but a monster, keeping him chained in the tunnels of his laboratory. When Elizabeth wanders down below and sees the Creature, the two are mesmerized by one another. On her second visit, he gives her an autumnal leaf. She responds, “A leaf? For me?” She meets him with love, warmth, tenderness and acceptance for the first time in his new life. It’s a moment of compassion between the two. Elizabeth takes it and tries to teach him her name. The gentle exchange is a subtle moment about kindness and connection, but it underlines the film’s theme of who is really the monster?
— Jazz Tangcay
It Was Just an Accident
A final confirmation
Jafar Panahi builds his film with layers of characters — we learn the horrific stories of former jailed “dissidents” Vahid, Shiva, Goli and Hamid in an escalating chain of horror. The movie kicks off with Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) kidnapping their presumed jailer, Eqbal (Ebrahim Azizi), who has a prosthetic leg that makes a distinctive sound when he walks. Vahid collects the group of jailed survivors along the way, hoping to confirm Eqbal’s identity beyond a shadow of doubt. Is he their jailer? Eqbal certainly seems to confirm it in the film’s powerhouse finale — despite being blindfolded and tied to a tree, he remains imperious, condescending and confident as Shiva and Vahid visit their primal, verbal rage upon him. The camera doesn’t move from our eye-level POV, and his attitude is a giveaway that he is part of the regime that is seemingly useless to fight against.
— Carole Horst
Hamnet
“Hamlet” takes the stage
Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet” almost had a different ending. In the film, Agnes (Jessie Buckley) and Will (Paul Mescal) are grieving the death of their young son Hamnet. While the tragedy inspires Shakespeare to finish “Hamlet,” Zhao and Buckley felt that even after they shot the scripted ending, there was no real closure. Buckley sent Zhao composer Max Richter’s “This Bitter Earth,” and while listening to it, Zhao put her hand out and touched rain. It unlocked a feeling in her that ultimately inspired her to change the film’s ending: Agnes watching “Hamlet” at the Globe Theater and, as he dies, she reaches out her hand to touch him. It’s a huge moment in the film for Agnes, who has been grappling with grief and loss. It’s a moment of collective grief as the Globe’s audience follows her lead and reaches out their hands. Not only is there closure, but there’s a catharsis for both Agnes and the film’s audience.
— JT
KPop Demon Hunters
The Saja Boys appear
The appeal of Korean pop music keeps the demon realm at bay in Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans’ record-breaking Netflix hit. But not even the Huntr/x trio can resist the Saja Boys’ charms. The rival band’s onscreen introduction proves one of the film’s most satisfying moments, as K-drama stylistic tricks (soft lighting and frame-rate speed ramps) meld with anime logic: Time slows as Zoey and Mira see the guys, their eyes turning into Tex Avery-esque hearts. Then Zoey notices Abby’s abs, and the hearts morph into flesh-colored six-packs, which become bright yellow corncobs, before erupting into streams of popcorn tears.
— Peter Debruge
Marty Supreme
One last game
Josh Safdie’s wild ride through the life of a table tennis prodigy (Timothée Chalamet) is made up of so many memorable moments — from a runaway bathtub to a literal and figurative spanking — it’s hard to single one out. But it’s the epic showdown between Marty and his Japanese rival Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi), which serves as the film’s climax and catharsis. After agreeing to lose to Endo, the brash and arrogant Marty demands a real rematch, even though it will cost him dearly — money, relationships and even his ride home all disappear. But Marty, always one to follow his own path, can’t help but give it his all. His victory is a bittersweet moment, as the crowd is disappointed and his future is uncertain, but it’s absolutely true to the character. And in a rare moment of humility and sincerity, Marty embraces and praises his opponent and wishes him well at the world championships. “I hope you win,” he tells Endo as he shakes his hand.
—Jenelle Riley
Max-o-matic for Variety
One Battle After Another
Sensei’s time to shine
Paul Thomas Anderson’s beloved epic is packed full of colorful characters, great lines and unforgettable scenes. But it’s Benecio Del Toro’s mystical karate teacher “Sensei” Sergio St. Carlos who might deliver the biggest surprise. At first glance, you might mistake the calm and wise Sensei to be lackadaisical, but as soon as his student Willa (Chase Infiniti) goes missing, he’s the first person her father Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio) contacts. We soon learn Sergio is not only a fearless fighter, but also running “a little Latino Harriet Tubman situation” — helping undocumented immigrants escape law enforcement. In a bravura sequence, he even takes time to spring Bob from arrest, providing beer and insisting they take a selfie, before hitting the road. When the cops pursue, Sergio pushes Bob from the car. The next time he seems to be cooperating politely with the cops — but when they tell him to lift his shirt, turn around, and put his hands on top of his head, he does so with a stylized little dance that is his own form of resistance.
— Jenelle Riley
Sentimental Value
An actress departs
For all the family dynamics at play in Joachim Trier’s story of a film director and his two daughters, there’s a moment with an outsider that speaks volumes to their dynamic. Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård) has hired movie star Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) to play a role in his auto-biographical film that was intended for his estranged daughter Nora (Renate Reinsve). The only American on the film (played by the only American in the film), Rachel soon senses something is off. In a quiet moment, seated across from Gustav in the family home, she says out loud what everyone knows: She’s not right for the role. Even though she wants it — she’s already dyed her hair brown and prepared meticulously — she painfully offers to withdraw from the film. Her selfless choice opens the door not only for the right movie to be made, but for a family to heal.
— JR
Sinners
Piercing the veil
What do the vampires want when they descend upon the opening-night festivities of Smoke and Stack’s juke joint? More than blood. If successful, they’ll suck the culture and charisma from their victims as well. As Preacher Boy performs, we observe the generations-spanning power of Black music — but especially the blues — via a roof-raising, unbroken tour through the crowd. The greatest musicians conjure spirits from the past, director Ryan Coogler explains, connecting DJs and breakdancers with rhythmic tribal rituals in a dynamic traveling shot that intuitively demonstrates what’s at stake for the film’s supernatural second half: the coopting of this tradition.
— PD
Sirât
An unexpected minefield
After caravaning across the desert and up a treach- erous mountain where death swoops in quite unexpectedly, a motley group of ravers — plus grieving father Luis (Sergi López) — find themselves in the middle of what looks like a dry lakebed in Olivier Laxe’s immersive, unpredictable art film. Is this the real world or an apocalyptic allegory of some kind? Nothing that’s happened so far quite prepares viewers for what’s to come (spoiler alert), as the wide open expanse turns out to be a literal minefield. In the shocking white-knuckle sequence that follows, characters we’ve grown attached to can be instantly vaporized.
— PD
Song Sung Blue
Claire faces her demons
Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson singing the glorious songs of Neil Diamond? Count me in! And while their glitter-powered moments onstage count as highlights in this true-life story, it’s a rather quiet scene that packs a punch. Mike (Jackman) and Claire (Hudson) have both been through a lot already: poverty, divorce, addiction. But they are a joyful pair, who find hope in music. Their rise as successful Diamond-interpretation duo Lightning & Thunder gets cut short with an accident in which Claire loses her leg. She understandably sinks into a long depression and pills until a moment where Mike and her kids force her to get help. In an intimate scene at the rehab center, Claire confronts her depression. Hudson’s raw vulnerability becomes strength. Claire begins to heal.
— CH
Train Dreams
Appreciation for Arn
William H. Macy is onscreen for just a few minutes, but he carries the weight of “Train Dreams” in his brief time. Arn Peeples at first comes off like a dang fool: talking up how he did things in the old days, avoiding work in the logging camp, singing when others are trying to sleep, unable to perform his actual job with explosives. But Robert (Joel Edgerton) understands his value. Arn’s nuggets of wisdom become the soul of the film: “We just cut down trees that have been here for 500 years. It upsets a man’s soul whether he recognizes it or not,” Arn says one night around the campfire, adding that while we dash about building and destroying in the name of progress, “we’re but children on this Earth, pulling bolts out of the Ferris wheel, thinking ourselves to be gods.”
— CH
Wicked: For Good
The good-bye
The musical number “For Good” was always going to be an emotional moment between Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba and Ariana Grande’s Glinda.It’s that final moment where Elphaba has to meet her fate as the Wicked Witch of the West, but not before the duo sing about how their friendship has changed them for the better. Director Jon M. Chu let the cameras roll as Erivo and Grande sang the song and ad-libbed their lines. Elphaba tells her, “Everything’s going to be fine” and they exchange “I love yous.” That unscripted declaration was a heartfelt and gut-wrenching final goodbye that Chu kept in as one last emotional punch to bring “Wicked” to anend.
—JT
Zootopia 2
The reptile deception
After some new character- and world-building and some red herrings (not literal fish, mind you), it’s revealed that the grandmother of Gary De’Snake (Ke Huy Quan) is the engineering genius behind what makes Zootopia work — the different climate zones for all the animals that live there. This is huge because reptiles have been cast out of Zootopia and their reputation subsequently destroyed by mammal-led propaganda, which also led to the destruction of the snakes’ homes. To find out that it was a snake, and a female one at that, who is behind this animal paradise is a revelation. Gary’s cause in restoring his species’ environment and reputation while exposing the evil intentions of the rich and powerful Lynxley family (they, of course, prefer the cold) becomes urgent, and protagonists, the fox Nick (Jason Bateman) and the rabbit Judy (Ginnifer Goodwin) overcome their differences and work together in the fight for what’s right.
— CH