Cinephiles Are Sharing The Movie "Gasp" Moments That Were So Powerful They Temporarily United Everyone In The Theater Like A Cult

Here are some of the responses that had me wishing I had a time machine to experience that movie moment for myself:

Note: There are spoilers ahead! Also, there are screencaps containing blood, death, Kevin Spacey, and depictions of racial violence.

1. "The chest bursting scene in Alien..."

20th Century Fox

—u/byobeer

"It may be hard for modern audiences to understand, but when Alien came out, we had NO information about the movie at all. I literally saw the movie poster as I was walking by the theatre and decided to go in. I'm sure every one of us in the audience gasped at that scene." 

—u/PeteTheGeek196

2. "Jurassic Park when the dinosaurs first came on the screen. Even so much time later, it’s really an impressive scene. The music they were playing still lives in my mind."

3. "In Signs, when at the kids' birthday party, the alien walked out like it was nothing. That one shook me at the time."

4. "The 'The call is coming from inside the house!' moment from When A Stranger Calls. This one ages me. I remember hearing the entire audience gasp."

5. "The magic trick in The Dark Knight. It took a beat for most of the audience to realize what had happened, and then they all seemed to figure it out at the same time."

6. "Seeing 'Jaws' in the theater when the dead guy pops out of the sunken boat."

7. "Mellish being slowly stabbed in Saving Private Ryan. It was striking because half the theater went dead wide-eyed silent, so you could hear the other half that gasped. And then everyone was quiet."

8. "In JoJo Rabbit. When he sees the shoes."

9. "The reveal at the end of The Sixth Sense was a pretty cool experience to witness in the theater."

10. "In Se7en, when the dude tied to the bed looking like a corpse coughed. That was pretty cool to watch."

11. "The 'No, I am your father' moment from Star Wars. I was five. The theatre gasped. My dad yelled, 'Holy sh*t!'"

12. "Inglorious Basterds. I was living in Germany at the time and saw the movie in an Original Version theater — these show films in the original audio, which helps for expats but are mainly attended by bilingual Germans who don't like dubs. The scene at the bar when Michael Fassbender holds up three fingers...a huge gasp echoed throughout the theater. I look around like, 'What did I miss?!'"

13. "When Michael Keaton opens the door in Spider-Man: Homecoming."

14. "Also from Se7en — 'What's in the box?' Women behind me were sobbing hysterically. So much of the theater was shaken up."

15. "It wasn't from a twist or shocking reveal — it was watching Peter Jackson's They Shall Not Grow Old, which uses hours of footage from World War I, which Jackson slowed down and colorized. The moment it went from the juddering, black-and-white footage to the smooth, colored footage drew an audible gasp from the whole cinema. You realized we've never seen actual footage from 100 years ago in color. Really powerful."

16. "The end of the first Saw movie."

17. "The Silence of The Lambs scene with Hannibal Lecter in the ambulance."

18. "I went to South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut on opening night. Walked in to start looking for seats and was shocked about how many kids were in seats with their parents. When the movie got to the 'Uncle F***er' song and all the parents realized it wasn't a kids movie — audible gasp!"

19. "Opening weekend of Get Out, when Chris is strangling Rose and the police car shows up — we'd all watched him fight his way through the worst racists, barely managing to escape, and then for a moment we're reminded, 'Oh yeah, the world exists...'"

20. "American History X, the scene with the curb..."

21. "Gandalf falling in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. There were quite a few younger kids watching, and there was silence. Then tears."

22. "Hereditary — you know the scene."

23. "Breaking Dawn Part 2 when Carlisle's neck gets snapped (or does it?). There were gasps and so much screaming, 'This wasn't in the book!'"

24. And finally: "The Matrix — when Neo wakes up."

Which of these moments did you witness yourself? And what are your own movie theater moments that elicited a gasp or other huge reaction from the audience? Drop them in the comments!