Scene #1: Through the War Zone

This is the twentieth and final entry in a series in which I'll countdown my 20 favorite scenes from the last 10 years in movies. To catch up more with the idea of this project and to see the other entries on the countdown, click here.

When I started this countdown, I had one goal: I wanted to highlight films I didn't write much about. So I came up with a list of films I wouldn't consider—films like Inglourious Basterds and The Departed that I've reviewed and talked about plenty on this blog. I bring this up because my #1 scene of the last decade is from a film that absolutely should have been on this list. But this scene is just too fucking good. I couldn't ignore it.

Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men is a film that still gets better every time I watch it. I must've seen it ten times since it came out in late 2006, but it never fails to just astound me. I find the film incredibly moving and technically stunning. The same superlatives apply tenfold to this scene, late in Cuaron's film.



Yes, my jaw still hits the floor when I watch this long unbroken take. There have been many tracking shots over the last ten years. I for one love the Dunkirk scene in Atonement. Hell, Children of Men has another amazing tracking shot early in the film (the car chase with Julianne Moore). But nothing beats these six minutes for eye-popping, gut-wrenching amazingness. It's one of the reasons Children of Men was in my top 5 films of the 2000s.

I'd say more, but I think the scene is powerful enough to keep this write-up short. I hope you enjoyed this countdown. I certainly enjoyed putting it together. For anyone late in the game, here's the full top 20:

20.) The Bourne Ultimatum
19.) Road to Perdition
18.) In the Loop
17.) X2: X-Men United
16.) V for Vendetta
15.) Gangs of New York
14.) American Gangster
13.) Sideways
12.) No Country for Old Men
11.) Munich
10.) The Social Network
9.) The 40-Year-Old Virgin
8.) Brokeback Mountain
7.) The Dark Knight
6.) Rachel Getting Married
5.) The Royal Tenenbaums
4.) Eastern Promises
3.) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
2.) Up
1.) Children of Men