Top Ten "Son of a Bitch Must Pay" Moments in Film

In what is quite possibly the greatest film of all time (I'm kidding. Kind of.), Kurt Russel intones the mystical line "Son of a Bitch Must Pay."

Which leads me to think of all the great moments in film... wherein the bad guy does something REALLY bad and you just KNOW he's about to get horribly pounded into goo.

What follows are my top ten (although not in any specific order) "Son of a Bitch Must Pay" moments in the movies I've seen.

"Son of a Bitch Must Pay"- Big Trouble in Little China
The one that started it all. What's funny in this particular case is that the "son of a bitch" does not, in fact, "pay" until far later in the film. I include it here mostly to be thorough, and I'm not going to describe it in much detail. Go watch the damn movie. You owe it to yourself.

Treebeard gets pissed- The Two Towers
You know the scene. Merry and Pippin make their only real contribution of any value by leading the craggy old Ent toward the swathe of destruction Saruman's forces have made in Fangorn Forest. The second the old pile of lumber realizes what has happened and how he and his kind have been betrayed, he unleashes a howl that presages some truly heinous whuppings for the denizens of Isengard. Poor stupid Uruk-Hai.

The Death of Junior- Godzilla versus DestroyerIn the Godzilla films of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the wretched concept of a "baby" Godzilla is reintroduced. We all remember Minya/Minilla. And if you don't, well, thank your lucky stars. The whole notion is crap. But it paid off remarkably well in 1995, when the decision was made to end the so-called "Heisei" series of Godzilla films. A big ugly... crab-bug thing called Destroyer, evolved from the Oxygen Destroyer that killed Godzilla back in the first movie shows up and starts wrecking shit, right as Godzilla's own radioactivity finally starts to kill him.

But the big guy isn't the only thing in Destroyer's path. No, the big ugly crab also decides to wax Godzilla's adopted "son," but only after sadistically toying with him.

The actual fight follows the typical Godzilla pattern, wherein Godzilla gets the fuck knocked out of him only to come back tougher and badder to win. What makes this stand out is why it happens.

After a series of drubbings, Godzilla stumbles over to his son and tries to nudge him awake. Realizing that the only creature he gives a rat's ass about has been killed, Godzilla unleashes a truly hellacious beating, causing his foe to vomit green blood before simply blasting it until it can barely try to limp away.

Tony Jaa Loses His Goddamned Mind- The ProtectorAt the climax of a movie that has already featured Jaa breaking the limbs of what looked like eight hundred men in one long haul, he discovers that the elder of the two elephants (don't ask) he has been trying to rescue has been killed. Although he takes a little more of a beating before he really gets going, there is no doubt in anyone's mind that someone is going to fucking DIE for what they've done.

Ellen Ripley Fights the Queen- AliensThroughout the film, Ripley has adopted Newt, even going so far as to venture in the Xenomorphs' hive to rescue her. The big throwdown, however, happens aboard the Sulacco. When the Queen, having stowed away on the dropship tears Bishop in half and then proceeds to try to ferret Newt out as her next victim, Ripley shows up in a loader exosuit and puts the hurt on the big space bug.

"Get away from her, you bitch."

Amen.

Inigo Montya Finds Count Rugen- The Princess Bride
"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
Inigo Montoya finally finds the man who slew his father years before. At first it looks like the Spaniard is on the ropes, particularly after Rugen rather easily inflicts what LOOKS like a fatal gut wound.

But Montoya rallies, fighting past his injury and disarming Rugen, leading to a line that is only as intense as it is because of the lack of cursing in the film as a whole.

"Offer me money."
"Yes!"
"Power too, promise me that."
"All that I have and more, please..."
"Offer me anything I ask for."
"Anything you want."
"I want my father back, you son of a bitch."

The Death of Kyuzo- Seven SamuraiNear the end of Kurosawa's epic, Kyuzo, the quiet, withdrawn swordsman is shot dead by one of the muskets carried by the bandits. Kikuchiyo, seeing where the shot came from, rushes the gun, Although he himself is fatally shot, he runs the last of the bandits to ground and kills him before expiring.

The Exosuit- District 9
The entire movie has shown our "hero" running, hiding, and being a prick. Near the end of the film, Wikkus finds himself piloting a Prawn Exosuit. While his intial impulse is to flee, he overhears the mercenaries of his former employers are about to kill his alien comrade. Doing an abrupt about-face, he proceeds to unleash true unholy hell upon the mercs, in the process giving us a fight scene that took the entirety of Transformers 2 out back and capped it like a lame horse.

Dance With the Devil- Batman (1989)While it had its warts, the first attempt at a serious Batman film provided one of the best (if wasteful) climaxes in the franchise's history. After the Joker has pretty much wrecked the whole damned city, he is finally hunted to his last refuge in a belfry, where he holds the fair damsel hostage. Batman mows through his goons and, upon reaching to Joker, says the man's own catchphrase to him.

"Have you ever danced with the Devil in the pale moonlight?"

He then goes on to kick the everlasting shit out of the man who (in this version) killed Batman's parents in a highly satisfying manner.

Mani Bites It- Le Pacte Des Loups
While much of the movie is cheesy and deeply flawed, the scene wherein Grégoire de Fronsac's companion Mani is killed presages a savage beatdown of Biblical proportions.

Fronsac, who has spent most of the movie as the "brains" and using firearms when he engages in combat at all, finds the lair of his enemies and slaughters his way through them in pure, brutal hand to hand. Never thought I'd see a Frenchman unleash so much whupass, let alone that I'd find it so satisfying.