From a game of Mahjong to landing on the moon, we count down the most memorable movie scenes of 2018.

It has been a remarkable banner year for movies, from triumphant female-empowerment to record-shattering milestones in diversity. is all so important in our otherwise bleak realities of 2018, culturally and politically.

And what’s most impressive perhaps is the number of single moments within the movies that really stand out, from images to emotions encapsulating what made this year of film so great. It was hard to whittle this list down to only ten, but below are the most memorable movie scenes of 2018, ranked:

10) The Shining, ‘Ready Player One’

While reviews were mixed on Steven Spielberg’s latest, a big, showy CGI extravaganza akin to Avatar, critics could agree the movie contained at least one commendable and remarkable scene.

As the main heroes are journeying deeper into the Oasis to track down an mysterious Easter Egg, they enter the world of the OASIS creator’s favorite movie: The Shining. What follows is a stunning journey of these CGI characters navigating through actual live-action footage of the hotel from The Shining, elevator full of blood and all.

9) Moon Landing, ‘First Man’

Damien Chazelle channels 2001: A Space Odyssey to brilliant effect largely thanks to an operatic score from La La Land composer Justin Hurwitz that underscores the first steps onto the moon by Neil Armstrong, played by Ryan Gosling. The dialogue-free sequence is not only visually stunning but sonically moving, creating a space symphony of emotional potency.

8) Mother Monologue, ‘Madeline’s Madeline’

Newcomer Helena Howard delivers one of the best performances of the year in the little-seen Madeline’s Madeline, which I encourage all our readers to seek out. She leads a trio of remarkable female performances, rounded out by Miranda July and Molly Parker.

July plays the titular Madeline’s mother while Parker plays a rigorous and demanding theater teacher who pushes Madeline to her limits. At the top of the movie’s third act, Madeline performs a dramatic monologue in character as her own mother, and it’s a thing of beauty.

7) Dinner Scene, ‘Hereditary’

Toni Collette delivers a fearsome performance as a grieving mother in Ari TK’s visceral horror movie that uses familial drama and tension to set the table for something much graver and sinister lurking underneath. The terrifying supernatural elements are grounded in the real horror of a deeply sad family dynamic.

After one tragedy piles on top of another, a family dinner that starts as a simmering pot of tension boils over into an explosive monologue from Collette when she digs her heels into her own guilt, transferring it unfairly onto her son. In a movie full of body parts, blood, fire and death, this is the scariest scene, and it’s a testament to Collette’s unflinching portrait.

6) HALO Jump, ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’

It’s hard to choose just one action sequence from Christopher McQuarrie’s impeccable action flick but if forced to, it could be none other than the death-defying, jaw-dropping HALO jump out of the airplane that kicks off the movie’s action altogether.

Tom Cruise vaults himself from an airplane opposite Henry Cavill and acts his face off the whole way down. Best of all, Cruise as Ethan Hunt is forced to deal with a blunt force amateur in Cavill’s August Walker, and a clear dynamic is forged between the two all while free-falling in mid-air.

5) Mahjong Face-off, ‘Crazy Rich Asians’

The emotional lynchpin of this landmark romantic comedy is a game of Mahjong between Constance Wu’s Rachel Chu and Michelle Yeoh’s Eleanor Young whose approval throughout the entire movie she has been unable to attain — until now.

A standard viewer might not at first catch the nuance of Rachel allowing Eleanor to win their match, thus proving her point, but a player of Mahjong will recognize that’s exactly what happens. In a strategic power move, by losing her hand, Rachel gives herself the upper hand and at last earns Eleanor’s respect.

4) Magical Mystery Tour, ‘First Reformed’

Paul Schrader’s meditation on reckoning with faith up against a dying planet hinges on an introspective performance from Ethan Hawke and yet one of its most affecting scenes is one where he doesn’t speak a word.

Amanda Seyfried, as a grieving wife, explains to Hawke’s Reverend Toller about a tradition she had as a child, lying directly on top of another person and just feeling them, breathing in unison. He agrees to try it out with her, and together they transcend space and time as their melded bodies are set against landscapes that range from majestic nature to ravaged land and beyond.

3) The Beach, ‘Roma’

Nearly every shot, let alone scene, in Alfonso Cuaron’s masterpiece Roma is breathtaking in its exquisite wide shots and black-and-white photography. Following the day-to-day of a young servant and maid to an upper-class Mexican family, there is a scene in the movie’s third act that encapsulates the emotional journey of our lead, Cleo (played by Yalitza Aparicio).

Two of the kids she looks after have gone too far out in the ocean, and when she chases after them from the sand to the water, the image follows in an impossible camera move, capturing the crashing waves that, as a result, crash right into our hearts.

2) Haemi’s Dance, ‘Burning’

I would recommend everyone seek out this South Korean entry for the Foreign Language Academy Award. Not only for the charmingly sinister and thrillingly alive performance from The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun, but also the shape-shifting tone and genre throughout the 2-and-a-half-hour slow burn of a thriller.

One scene, in which a young woman, Haimi (Jong Seo-jun), who is on the verge of disappearing, does an ethereal dance set to Miles Davis against a gorgeous setting sun. It’s an ephemeral moment in a movie full of mystery and looming dread, and it’s unforgettable.

1) The Shallow, ‘A Star Is Born’

This scene from Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s A Star Is Born remake is certifiably the scene of the year. Some may argue the quality of the entire movie itself, but everyone can agree the moment where Jackson Maine invites Ally onstage to sing “The Shallow” is a transcendent movie moment that’s hard to top this year.

It’s been meme’d to death ever since the first trailer drop, but the jokes can never diminish the authentic spirit and emotion found in Gaga belting those soon-to-be ubiquitous notes.