As 2025 draws to a close, film critics from The Guardian have curated a selection of the year's most powerful, hilarious, and technically stunning cinematic sequences. From a vampire thriller's hypnotic musical number to a Formula One western's high-stakes finale, these scenes left indelible marks on audiences and critics alike.
Transcendent Performances and High-Octane Drama
In Ryan Coogler's 1930s-set vampire film Sinners, a seemingly standard musical interlude transforms into a sublime centrepiece. Actor Miles Caton, as Sammie, performs an original song, 'I Lied to You', at a juke joint. Cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw's use of Imax ratio and Caton's deep voice creates a mesmerising effect where the room itself seems to bend. The sequence evolves into a swirling, sumptuous shot featuring a futuristic Bootsy Collins-like figure, a Zaouli dancer, and Memphis jookin dancers, representing Black ancestors and descendants united by music. Critics hailed it as a "risk taken by Coogler that pays off handsomely", offering a taste of cinematic transcendence.
Meanwhile, the motorsport blockbuster F1: The Movie delivered a finale packed with sacrifice. Brad Pitt stars as Sonny Hayes, a rogue driver who, with his wingman (Damson Idris) and producer Lewis Hamilton, fights to save his team. The climax at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina circuit sees the wingman employ "ticky tactics" and ultimately sacrifice himself to secure Hayes's first victory, thwarting a hostile takeover. The scene successfully marries the sport's glamour with classic western heroics.
Masterful Comedy and Heart-Stopping Chases
Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another features a masterfully chaotic chase sequence for the ages. Former revolutionary Pat Calhoun, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is pursued by a militarised team. The extended scene involves crawling through a spider hole, leaping across rooftops, navigating an immigration raid, and multiple comedic stumbles. It's described as "a ballet and an exercise in pathos, high-wire thrills and absurd comedy all rolled into one", showcasing DiCaprio's thick chemistry with Benicio del Toro's martial arts instructor.
For pure, destructive comedy, the "unromantic comedy" Splitsville delivered an extended fight scene that subverts expectations. Writers and stars Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin engage in a spectacularly violent brawl that destroys a beautiful house, moving beyond the trope of polite men who don't know how to fight. The scene lays bare the "pettiness, rage" simmering beneath a progressive facade.
Innovative Storytelling and Poignant Endings
Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest employs a brilliant visual shift to amplify its thriller elements. When Denzel Washington's music mogul is forced onto the New York subway to pay a ransom, Lee switches from crisp digital to gritty 16mm celluloid. The camera captures the vibrant, crowded energy of a 6 train during a Yankees game and the Puerto Rican Day parade, making the city itself a pulsating character.
Chloé Zhao's adaptation of Hamnet is said to be saved by its stellar ending. The film, about Shakespeare's domestic life, culminates in Agnes (Jessie Buckley) attending the first performance of Hamlet. The scene "briefly collapses time", connecting her grief for her lost son with the audience's reaction to the dying prince, creating a powerful meditation on loss and art.
Other standout moments include the animated, pseudo-real sperm race in the opening credits of Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme; a hopeful, communal van-push in Jafar Panahi's clandestine Iranian film It Was Just an Accident; and the haunting, surreal opening road discovery in Rungano Nyoni's Zambian drama On Becoming a Guinea Fowl. Together, they form a mosaic of the creative ambition that defined cinema in 2025.
