Some movie scenes have so much packed into them that they require multiple viewings to really take everything in — or, in a lot of cases, they just need to be slowed down. Filmmakers have been utilizing slow-motion for as long as they've been making films, and the technique has come a long way since the birth of the art form. But not every movie that utilizes slow-motion does it well. And some filmmakers tend to use it more often than they should. But when it's right, it's incredible. From bullet time to baby carriages, these are the greatest slow-motion moments in cinematic history.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00Dreamworld-time dilation, zombies by way of music video, and so many baby carriages.
00:06Slow motion has been around since the beginning of filmmaking, but these scenes are proof that
00:11some moments just shouldn't be watched in real time. The Matrix has only grown in popularity
00:16since its release in 1999, not easy since it was already a phenomenon upon its release,
00:22as the red pill-blue pill metaphor has become a cultural touchstone in ways both profound
00:27and troubling. But the film's pioneering use of slow motion, perhaps, is what has most contributed
00:33to its influence. The Wachowskis leaned in with their otherworldly tale of false realities and
00:38very real threats, making better use of slow motion than just about anyone before or since.
00:44From the famous bullet-time sway, surely one of the defining moments of 90s sci-fi cinema,
00:49to Neo's minigun attack to all those balletic fight scenes with Agent Smith,
00:54all are memorable yet pale in comparison to the original film's trademark scene,
00:59slow-mo'd so audiences could appreciate every nuance of its choreography.
01:04The Lobby Shootout
01:05Wall-running, exploding pillars, nonchalant gun-tossing — by now, any fan of pop culture
01:10knows it well. You may even be able to play it frame by frame in your head. After all,
01:15it's a scene that was binged on VHS and DVD players long before the term was coined in a
01:20streaming service context. While being interviewed about
01:24Kill Bill in 2003, Quentin Tarantino left fans with a soundbite they'll never forget.
01:29"'Why the need for so much gruesome graphic violence? Why not let us imagine a little bit?'
01:33"'Because it's so much fun, Chan! Get it!'
01:38Nearly a decade later, Tarantino reminded viewers of the gruesome, graphic violence
01:42he's known for via Django Unchained, a three-hour extravaganza of bloodshed and heroic vengeance.
01:48In the final act of the film, fed up with all he has lived and endured,
01:51Django returns to Candyland Plantation Mansion, masterfully wielding a pair of Colt revolvers
01:56while spraying blood and innards all over the splendid colonial architecture.
02:01Django's enemies desperately fire at him, shattering glass and splintering wood,
02:05as the exchange turns into a slow-mo bloodbath of epic proportions. It's a thunderous piece
02:10of filmmaking, one that indulges cathartic violence with striking self-confidence.
02:16A beautiful film about ugly people, this early Edward Norton flick put him on the map with an
02:20Oscar nomination, and its slick style reflects the aesthetic of talented,
02:24troubled director Tony Kaye, who got his start in advertising.
02:28The infamous curb-stomp scene is perhaps so effective and vividly remembered today
02:33because of Kaye's dramatic use of slow motion. As Danny, played by Edward Furlong,
02:38falls to his knees in horror at what his brother Derek has just done, we see a slow-motion close-up
02:43of Derek's smug expression, clearly indifferent to the repulsive injury he just inflicted.
02:48Slow motion has the power to emphasize the beautiful and the abhorrent,
02:52the funny and the frightening, and the best directors know when and when not to use it.
02:56Many admired the film, still considered to be among the best of the 1990s. However,
03:01some critics did not appreciate Kaye's aesthetic sensibility. Manola Dargis of LA Weekly wrote,
03:06The problem is that Kaye, who's used to selling cars on TV,
03:10shoots Derek the hater as lovingly as he would a new Volkswagen.
03:14The Terminator was a tough act to follow, but after some seven years,
03:18James Cameron went above and beyond with Terminator 2 Judgment Day, using cutting-edge
03:22CGI, a nuanced script, and some iconic slow-motion inflected action sequences.
03:28Arnold Schwarzenegger reinforced the T-800 as his most iconic character early in the film.
03:33Clad in bike leathers, he strides through a mall carrying a box of roses under his arm
03:38as he scans the area. The T-800 is not looking for his valentine, he's looking for John Connor,
03:44the savior of humanity he is assigned to protect. And the rose box is not a romantic gesture,
03:49but rather a tool for concealing his lever-action Winchester shotgun.
03:53All of this is revealed to us in an icy, cool slow-mo sequence as the T-800 locks, loads,
03:59and blows several holes into his malleable nemesis, the T-1000, played by a sinister Robert Patrick.
04:06As we walked along the flat-block marina, I was calm on the outside but thinking all the time."
04:12The flat-block marina scene in A Clockwork Orange ranks among the most famous uses of
04:17slow-motion in both Stanley Kubrick's career and wider cinematic history.
04:22Shot on a grimy estate in Thamesmead, southeast London, the sight of Alex the Large thrashing,
04:27kicking, and cutting his droogs is scored by Rossellini's thieving magpie, which gives the
04:32scene a dark elegance as he reasserts his alpha male status. The psychopathic charm of Alex,
04:38played by Malcolm McDowell, stirred a great deal of controversy in the United Kingdom,
04:42with the press alleging a series of copycat crimes. Kubrick consequently withdrew the film
04:47from U.K. cinemas and eventually all home media. The band was revoked 27 years later,
04:53following Kubrick's death in the spring of 2000. Kubrick employed slow-motion in several other
04:57films, most notably the Dawn of Man sequence in 2001 A Space Odyssey and the bloody elevator
05:03nightmare of The Shining. One of the most arresting openings in cinematic history,
05:08Francis Ford Coppola's use of slow-motion in the introduction to Apocalypse Now has left
05:13a lasting mark on popular culture. Walter Murch, the editor of Apocalypse Now, explained,
05:18At that time, it was the biggest explosion ever staged for a film. In fact, it probably
05:23is still the biggest because now you would do that explosion digitally.
05:26The scene's grand staging is symbolic of the film's infamous production,
05:30which was a 238-day ordeal of drugs, set-destroying typhoons, actual real combat
05:36from Filipino insurgents, and medical emergencies as depicted in the documentary Hearts of Darkness.
05:41Coppola even staked his California estate to fund the film, which wound up costing
05:46over $30 million — reportedly some $18 million more than the director had expected.
05:52It's hard to locate the best use of slow motion in John Woo's 1992 masterpiece Hard Boiled,
05:58because the entire film is essentially one massive action sequence,
06:02complete with some of the finest stylized violence in world cinema history.
06:06There are three highlights — the opening teahouse shootout, the warehouse shootout,
06:10and the climactic hospital shootout — which lasts for about a half an hour.
06:14There's a notable skirmish on a dock, too. Each sequence is full of truly promiscuous
06:19use of slow-mo, with Chow Yun-fat taking out the trash in bloody,
06:22balletic fashion, his enemies almost pirouetting as he blasts them with a small arsenal of firearms.
06:28This level of stylized violence may sound distasteful, but Woo's films are far removed
06:33from reality, and his inspirations are fanciful. He told The Guardian in 2001,
06:38"...I was very influenced by musicals like Singing in the Rain and West Side Story,
06:43and dances like Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. They have the rhythm of life. I shoot action
06:48scenes just as though they were dance sequences. I love ballet. I love dancing."
06:53Inspired by the 2000 AD comics, Dread is a film in which slow motion is actually a plot point.
06:59Set in Maker City 1, a grimy place stretching from Boston to Washington, D.C., the world of Dread is
07:04a police state wracked by crime and addiction, and the drug of choice is a sedative called
07:09slow-mo. Administered by an inhaler, the drug slows users' sense of time with immediate,
07:14drastic effect, sending them into a surreal, hypnotic state in which everything occurs at
07:19a fraction of its normal pace. We experience their altered consciousness with many ultra-slow-motion
07:25sequences, which were all shot on phantom cameras at 4,000 frames per second, according to special
07:31effects supervisor Max Pullman. The photography is at its most ghoulishly dazzling when Dread
07:36throws Mama, the lead villain, hundreds of feet to her death. Before he administers his summary
07:41justice, he has Mama take a hit of slow-mo, the very drug she has been guilty of dealing.
07:46Defense noted.
07:52I am an exceptional thief, Mrs. MacLean, and since I'm moving up to kidnapping,
07:56you should be more polite."
07:58After receiving a bullet from John MacLean's gun, Hans Gruber falls through a window of Nakatomi
08:03Plaza. Then, after a tense struggle to release his grip from Harley MacLean's wristwatch,
08:08he falls to his death hundreds of feet below. Hans' death in Die Hard has aged very well,
08:13especially when compared to Robocop, which was released just a year prior.
08:17In Robocop, the villain falls from a skyscraper in real time using Harryhausen-style stop-motion
08:23effects, undermining the scene's impact for a modern viewer. Through green screen and slow
08:27motion, Die Hard had no such problems. Suspended from a wooden frame in a California studio,
08:33Alan Rickman drops some 40 feet onto an airbag. But perhaps the most inspired idea
08:39came from stunt coordinator Charlie Picerny, who told Rickman he would be released on a three-count,
08:44then dropped him early, minting that unique look of horror and surprise on the actor's face.
08:50The slow-motion IED detonation in Catherine Bigelow's The Hurt Locker featured heavily
08:55in promotional materials for the film, and with good reason. The scene combines documentary
09:00realism with an attention to detail that's stylized, yet not at all aestheticized.
09:05Instead of achieving some kind of kick-ass sensibility, the scene highlights the sickening
09:10danger faced by bomb disposal units. We see how the sudden release of energy tears through the
09:15immediate surroundings, rocking everything in its path. As always, there have been detractors,
09:20and not unreasonable ones, either. Speaking with NPR, Iraq veteran Paul Rykoff said,
09:26"...very seldom is a guy going to put on a bomb suit and walk down there and try and dismantle
09:31something by hand." He continued,
09:33"...it just doesn't make sense. For the most part, they're going to use robotics.
09:37They're going to use other types of explosives to set off a charge — a controlled charge — next
09:41to it. It's really a Hollywood sensationalized version of how EOD operated."
09:46So maybe The Hurt Locker isn't quite as realistic as many believed it to be,
09:50but its use of slow motion? Undoubtedly impressive, thanks to the use of multiple
09:55Eaton S16mm cameras and a director with a knack for nerve-shredding action.
10:01Raging Bull features Martin Scorsese's most powerful use of slow motion,
10:06and he uses it to convey metaphor, personality, and sheer brutality. The first instance is the
10:12film's opening, which shows Jake LaMotta shadowboxing alone in the ring, as Mazgani's
10:17intermezzo plays. This is a gorgeous shot, but it is also a metaphor for LaMotta's vicious demons
10:23which isolate and destroy him. Slow motion is used again to convey LaMotta's jealousy in a
10:28social situation, slowing the frame just slightly as the boxer leers at the men schmoozing with his
10:34partner Vicky. Lastly, and perhaps most notably, Scorsese employs slow-mo to emphasize the head-
10:40bashing brutality of LaMotta's profession, the sport of boxing in the 1940s, an era of bi-weekly
10:46matches and 15-round bouts. Perhaps the defining moment of Scorsese's slow-motion, expressionistic
10:52style comes in the final fight between LaMotta and Sugar Ray Robinson, which sees LaMotta take
10:58a merciless beating. After the ref stops the fight, a defiant LaMotta approaches Robinson,
11:03the frame rate slowed, and says, with his face beaten to a bloody pulp,
11:08"...he never got me down, right? You hear me? He never got me down."
11:15No slow-motion list is complete, of course, without a nod to the early 80s cultural phenomenon
11:21that was Chariots of Fire, the 1981 Olympic drama best remembered for a shot that almost
11:27single-handedly won it the Oscar for Best Picture. The opening's subtle use of slow-motion
11:32compliments the rousing Vangelis score, making such an impression that the film became a widely
11:38imitated icon of popular culture. Some 40 years later, it's still impossible to imagine anyone
11:44running in slow-motion without the film's theme playing behind them. In 2012, director Hugh Hudson
11:50explained the film's appeal to The Guardian, saying,
11:52"...everybody remembers the opening jogging scene along the beach. It was key to establishing
11:57character — Harold Abraham's gaunt and determined, Eric Little, Scottish, blonde,
12:02open and free, Aubrey Montague, the amiable, faithful old dog, Lord Andrew Lindsay,
12:09the aristocrat, running for the fun of it."
12:11Brian De Palma's classic 1976 adaptation of the Stephen King novel remains unequal despite the
12:18occasional unnecessary attempt to remake a movie that was perfectly good the first time around.
12:24He utilized slow motion in the opening locker room sequence to lull the audience into a false
12:29sense of security via sexualized voyeurism, which takes a sudden turn when Carrie discovers she's
12:35having her first period and thinks she's sick or dying, having never been educated about menstruation
12:40by her overbearing mother. Her cries for help are mocked cruelly by her peers, and as she lies
12:45humiliated on the shower floor, we see the first glimpse of her telekinetic power in an exploding
12:51bulb. In many ways, this scene is a lot like the climax, when Carrie is crowned the prom queen.
12:57Slow motion gives the scene its emotional resonance, appropriate for the heightened
13:01feelings and sense of significance in the high school world. It only would have been a few
13:06seconds of real time, but we dwell on Carrie's long moment of pride and happiness, the leering
13:11anticipation of those who scheme against her, the mounting suspicion of her friend Sue, the fall of
13:16the bucket of pig's blood, and finally, Carrie's confusion and humiliation as she looks over the
13:22sea of mocking, laughing faces. For Carrie, this is the moment of true horror, a moment DePalma
13:28executes perfectly. Then, of course, time catches up with us as Carrie unleashes her telekinetic
13:34revenge upon those who tormented her, portrayed by DePalma with the now little-used split-screen
13:39technique in sharp and reaction shots of actress Sissy Spacek. This wonderful contrast gives us
13:45the feeling the game has changed. What would have been a completely chaotic scene overall,
13:49if shot in real time, is instead allowed to linger for the audience to truly understand Carrie.
13:55"...people would think I was known for slow motion. I like slow motion. I don't really
13:58like slow motion that much."
14:01Zack Snyder himself may not think so, but he is notorious for his slow-motion shots,
14:06and it does get a bit gratuitous at times. He's long been enamored with the technique
14:10known as speed ramping, in which the camera speed goes slow, then fast, then slow again.
14:15Undoubtedly cool when he first started using it, but now you're left with the impression the man
14:20just likes slow motion because it makes things look cool. Still, there's one use of slow motion
14:25by Snyder we think was incredibly appropriate, and it may not be what you think. While slow
14:30motion showed up plenty in Watchmen, it was to be expected from Snyder in the action sequences,
14:35and tastefully used for world-building in the intro. But it's the slow motion used in the scene
14:40of the comedian's death that's most significant. While the film's scene was much more elaborate
14:45and superhero-y than in the original comic, the lingering death shot as the comedian is tossed
14:51out of the window is an appropriate reflection of its significance in the graphic novel.
14:55This killing was the catalyst for everything that was to come in the graphic novel's universe,
15:00the central moment around which the narrative was spun. This wasn't merely a stylistic choice.
15:05It had narrative weight, and it was well done.
15:08One of the most influential slow-motion scenes in film history comes during Arthur Penn's 1967
15:14film Bonnie and Clyde, in which the eponymous antiheroes are cut down in an ambush by law
15:20enforcement. Penn opted to film the bloody end to the protagonists in slow motion to install
15:25a balletic quality to their deaths, something little seen to that point but frequently imitated
15:30afterward. Penn and his crew captured the scene on four different cameras running at different
15:34speeds and used rapid cutting in the editing room to create a dreamlike but realistic sequence in
15:40which time becomes elastic. This was perhaps the first use of a combination of slow-motion,
15:46multi-camera filming, and montage editing by an American director. The results speak for
15:50themselves, creating a shocking montage of emotions — suspicion, confusion, obliviousness,
15:57realization, and horror — followed by violent death and a slow lingering over the aftermath.
16:02In an interview with NPR, Penn would go on to say the scene was influenced by media reports
16:08and images of the Vietnam War. He also said,
16:10"...the intention was to get this kind of spastic motion of genuine violence,
16:14and at the same time, the attenuation of time that one experiences when you see something
16:19like a terrible automobile accident."
16:21Sure, there's a lot more going on in the scene than just slow motion. The direction, acting,
16:26editing, and special effects flow together to create a scene that would influence American
16:30cinema for decades to come.
16:33Despite being a miserable failure at the box office and almost universally hated by critics,
16:39The Boondock Saints made millions in video and DVD sales as a cult classic.
16:44How can we explain this? Perhaps the single biggest point in favor of the film is the frenzied,
16:49bewildering performance of Willem Dafoe as the flamboyant FBI agent pursuing two twin vigilantes.
16:56Sure, he relentlessly chews every scene he's in. Sure, he plays a character so bizarrely
17:01stereotypical he manages to come out the other side as completely unique, but it works.
17:06And this can best be seen in the scene oft-referred to by the line,
17:10"...there was a firefight!"
17:13The slow motion in the scene is completely gratuitous and dumb,
17:16but paired with Dafoe's narrative speech, his deranged dancing, and the orchestral score,
17:22the scene takes on an almost beautiful, folklorish quality.
17:26Is it dumb and is the slow motion unnecessary? Yes, and probably, but it'll live through the ages.
17:33While slow motion is often used to build tension or create beauty in action films,
17:38Inception is one of the few examples where it actually has an in-universe justification to
17:44go along with the explanation of it just looks cool. One of the key plot points in the film is
17:49the aspect of time dilation between levels of the dream world, with each layer down operating
17:5420 times faster than the one above. This is most obvious in the scene which flashes between the
17:59unconscious dream operatives in a van crashing into the water while Joseph Gordon-Levitt fights
18:04assassins in a hallway, and the rest of the team escapes a snow fortress. The use of slow motion
18:09and extreme slow motion is justified not only by the style but also by the substance of the story,
18:15a rare treat. It was no easy feat, either. The van's slow descent took months of filming,
18:20which involved the actors breathing underwater through scuba gear and maintaining composure
18:25while sinking into the water, as well as shooting the van off the bridge with a cannon.
18:29Inception came out in a period when slow motion was almost overused in the post-Matrix,
18:34early Snyder world. It's a testament to Christopher Nolan's craft that he was
18:38able to use such a dated technique and elevate it by having the effect serve the narrative
18:43rather than the other way around. In an interview with KCRW, Nolan admitted to having never really
18:49used slow motion before, as it seemed a purely aesthetic choice and he couldn't figure out what
18:54it really meant. With Inception, he found a way of taking editing techniques he enjoyed
19:00and incorporating them as a literal part of the story universe.
19:05David Fincher isn't a director who likes to overindulge in slow motion,
19:09but he used it with Panache in Panic Room. In this scene, Meg Altman leaves the safety of her
19:14panic room to make a dash to grab her cell phone while her would-be abductors are bickering
19:19downstairs. The scene is shot in slow motion with a minimalistic musical score, both of which flow
19:25together to enhance the feeling of urgency and danger. In a situation like that, it would seem
19:30so hard to move fast enough, and seeing Meg's desperation in slow motion like she's fighting
19:35through danger as it lurks nearby ratchets up the tension and suspense. Shot in real time,
19:41you would expect this scene to feature a lot of quick cuts and a frenetic score.
19:45Fincher's choice to go slow helps the audience absorb the nuance and detail of the scene
19:50and truly feel her panicked fear, which is exactly what you want in a thriller, really.
19:56Setting the rules for a zombie universe or a horror comedy is important,
20:00so you may as well do it with some style. Ruben Fleischer, a first-time feature filmmaker when
20:06he directed Zombieland, was thrilled by the opening sequence as a montage in the script
20:11and hoped to visually develop it further. Luckily, the production had access to a phantom
20:16digital camera able to capture 1,000 frames per second. The slow motion allowed the production
20:21to give the death and gore a kind of beauty along with the world-building, making it one of the more
20:26entertaining opening credit sequences. The use of Metallica's For Whom the Bell Tolls works so
20:32well it's uncanny. It's easy to be skeptical of a director like Fleischer with his history in music
20:37videos, and the sequence could be seen as overly stylized, but it packs a punch and helps to set
20:43the tone for the rest of the movie, which can never be accused of taking itself too seriously.
20:48"'Oh my God, look! It's the Sprint of Postal Workers!"
20:53There's nothing quite like a baby carriage falling down a flight of stairs to create the feeling of,
20:58oh God, no, that slow motion is best applied to. So when our old friend Brian De Palma employed it
21:04in his 1986 film The Untouchables, it made perfect sense. Mobsters shooting each other up in the
21:09middle of Union Station while a baby pram teeters toward doom is a no-brainer for the slow-mo
21:15treatment, and when combined with De Palma's eye for tension and precise camera work and editing,
21:20it becomes an instant classic. There's more to the story, though. The inspiration for the scene
21:24was undoubtedly the 1925 Soviet propaganda film The Battleship Potemkin. There, director Sergey
21:31Eisenstein didn't actually use slow motion, but rather a series of rapid cuts away from the wheel
21:37of the baby carriage teetering over the edge of the step, fooling the viewer into thinking the
21:41scene is happening at half speed. The scene would be played for laughs in Naked Gun 33 and a Third
21:47when Leslie Nielsen fails to save four baby carriages toppling down the stairs. It just
21:52goes to show you whether you're making Soviet propaganda, a gritty crime drama, or an absurd
21:57satire. If you push a baby down the stairs, you have to show it slowly.
22:02Wes Anderson has a highly distinctive style notable for quirky themes, recurring cast members,
22:08symmetrical and POV shots, retro soundtracks, and fearless exploration of the color palette.
22:13Slow motion is a technique Anderson's returned to repeatedly, particularly in scenes where his
22:18characters are walking. This gives Anderson as director great control and precision over the
22:23scene and imparts emotional depth and pathos. In the hands of a lesser director, it would be corny,
22:29but Anderson makes it his thing. Anderson often uses slow motion to indicate a change in a
22:34character's mindset or perspective, as in the funeral scene in The Darjeeling Limited,
22:39or the meeting of siblings Richie and Margot in The Royal Tenenbaums. The use of slow motion to
22:45deepen theme and meaning is deliberate and controlled, and in Anderson's hands, it's
22:49memorably successful. His understanding of the rhythm of scenes helps him make use of slow motion
22:55with great care, so as not to eject the viewer out of the film. In fact, he often uses it at the
23:01beginning or end of his films to allow the audience to release emotional tension
23:06and signify a closure or character development.