There are always bound to be certain scenes in a lot of movies that will make everyone in the theater gasp aloud in shock or in amazement or both. In the 80s this happened for various reasons since there were new methods being attempted, techniques that weren’t entirely proven but were popular, and new content coming out in different ways that made for an interesting movie but still made people gasp simply because they weren’t expecting it. In a big way, this is a great thing when it happens since it means that the audience was caught off guard, that they weren’t anticipating what they saw or heard, and that the filmmaker pulled a giant ‘gotcha’ on the viewers. Of course, there have been plenty of times when said moments aren’t quite as positive as one would like since they come in a manner that makes a person wonder just what the filmmaker was thinking and why they decided to take things so far. Moments that the audience wasn’t ready for are great since it’s nice to see some honest emotion when a person or a group of people are caught unaware, but there has to be a certain balance to it as well.
Here are some of the movie moments that made people gasp in the 80s.
5. Full Metal Jacket – Pyle’s suicide
It was pretty obvious that Pyle had problems, and that he was likely walking a razor’s edge when it came to his sanity. But to think that he crossed over that line in such a big way as to plan for suicide in this manner was kind of a harsh reality that Stanley Kubrick managed to force onto the viewer in a big way. For a lot of people this movie kind of ends right here when it comes to the overall story since what happened in training was more poignant than anything else that came after. Some might want to disagree, but the fact that Pyle killed his DI and then himself was enough to elicit a pretty big gasp.
4. The Thing – The dog pen
The horrors that had already been introduced by this point were still vague enough that the audience hadn’t had a chance to really absorb what they were seeing. It’s kind of like viewing a work of art versus watching the actual artist at work, kind of. Once it was established that the Thing was in fact the dog people might have started to wonder just what was going to happen. It’s canine features peeling away like some rotted, sickening flower likely wasn’t what folks were expecting to see, and the sudden elimination of the dogs was also something that was bound to get peoples’ attention in a very big way.
3. The Goonies – Chunk sees Sloth
So we’d already kind of seen Sloth thanks to Mikey’s little foray into the basement, but when Chunk had the chance to see him fully it was enough to make a lot of people pull back and gasp in what was probably horror, to begin with since the character looked absolutely horrifying. But eventually, we were able to discover that Sloth was actually a really gentle individual with a limited vocabulary and the type of immense strength that would have made him a seriously valuable ally to the Goonies during their trek into the tunnels beneath the restaurant.
2. Transformers: The Movie: When a character swears
As a kid, I can still recall parents having a serious issue with this since never before had anyone in the Transformers swore or even come close to this type of language. One can easily imagine that it rubbed some people the wrong way and had a few parents ready to take their kids and leave. But given the situation, one could almost forgive the slip since it made perfect sense to utter something along those lines when the characters were still in a great deal of danger from a planet-devouring robot that could consume entire space stations with ease. It wouldn’t be that shocking now, but it was back then.
1. The Untouchables – Malone ‘questions’ a dead man
Malone definitely did things his own way since he knew that the law didn’t always handle matters with the efficiency that was needed to put criminals like Capone and his gang away, but he did so in a manner that was a little disturbing at times. Like it or not though he did get results, though if this had been done in real life one can imagine that Malone would be behind bars eventually or at the very least would be kicked off the force for misconduct or something even worse. What is the penalty for assaulting a dead man do you think? It’s not like you can kill someone again once they’re already dead, at least not in this movie.
There are still plenty of scenes that make people gasp aloud from several decades.
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