The 10 best Ridley Scott scenes

Ridley Scott is one of England's most beloved film directors, and he's still delivering the goods at age 75, four decades after making his screen debut with the infamous 'boy and bicycle' Hovis advert. With his latest movie 'The Counsellor' making its way to UK cinemas on the 15 November, we sifted through his 40 year career to determine the 10 greatest Ridley Scott scenes – and believe us when we say there was no shortage of classics to choose from...

10. 'The Counsellor' (2013)  – Cameron Diaz's autophilia

The first movie to be written by 'No Country For Old Men' author Cormac McCarthy features an unforgettable scene which is sure to have chins wagging. Javier Bardem's criminal Reiner recounts to Michael Fassbender's nameless counsellor the time that Cameron Diaz's femme fatale Malkina had sex with... his car. Then, in flashback, we see Ms Diaz seductively mount the bonnet of Bardem's Ferrari and proceed to give herself a ruddy good M.O.T. The fact that the scene is apropos of nothing just adds to its brilliance.

9. 'Hannibal' (2001) – Food for thought

Ridley Scott's follow-up to ‘The Silence Of The Lambs’ was always going to struggle to live up to the Jonathan Demme original, but it does contain a fair few indelible scenes, none more shocking than the dinner sequence whereby Ray Liotta's FBI Agent Paul Krendler is fed morsels of his own brain. “That smells great!” says a heavily drugged Liotta, sitting there with his lid off, unaware the tasty aroma is his own frontal lobe being fried with some garlic. At least he had the consolation of really enjoying his last meal.

[Fassbender explains Prometheus 2 delay]

8. 'The Duellists' (1977) – Opening duel

Ridley's movie debut is also one of his best: this tale of a 15-year feud between Harvey Keitel's French soldier Féraud and Keith Carradine's British Lieutenant d'Hubert plays out on the backdrop of the Napoleonic War but remains an intensely personal and intimate picture. Each occasion the men clash is memorable, but the atmospheric opening swordfight sets the plot in motion, as Keitel's arrogant Frenchman blithely skewers his opponent in a green field, swamped in mud and mist. It was quite the way for Scott to kick-start his career in film.

7. 'Black Hawk Down' (2001) – Super Six-One is down

We've become entirely immune to the drama of helicopter crashes thanks to the likes of Michael Bay, so to see a chopper fall out of the sky and for it to still mean something is quite the event. It's the catalyst for Ridley Scott's tale of the Battle of Mogadishu, as his fallen black hawk sparks an international incident in central Somalia. The chopper crash is just the beginning of the drama, as rescue efforts featuring US Army Rangers lead to more gun-fire and bloodshed. Scott directs with a calculated frenzy that perfectly captures the whiplash of war.

6. 'Kingdom Of Heaven' (2004) – Siege of Jerusalem

'Kingdom Of Heaven' was maligned by most, but it's a film that comes alive in its extended Director's Cut, in which Scott was able to add even more mayhem to the film's central siege – a bravura sequence that sees Orlando Bloom's Balian defend the walls of Jerusalem. The epic stand-off plays out over three days, with Balian's fortress bombarded with catapults, moving towers and floods of Saladin's soldiers, but he holds them off just long enough to spare the villagers' lives. For a so-called 'flop', 'Kingdom Of Heaven' gives even 'The Lord Of The Rings' a run for its money in the battle scene stakes.

5. 'American Gangster' (2009) – Russell vs Denzel

In a scene reminiscent of 'Heat''s iconic face-off between Pacino and De Niro, 'American Gangster''s twin forces of good and evil – incorruptible narc Russell Crowe and drug kingpin Denzel Washington – enjoy a climactic tête-à-tête over a warm cup of coffee. The results are equally explosive, as Crowe's cop attempts to turn Washington's crook; the exchange is reserved at first, even polite, until Denzel swipes the coffee off the interrogation room desk and rants at the police brutality he's suffered throughout his entire life. It's a scene of such tension it justifies the decision to keep the actors apart for the whole movie.

4. 'Gladiator' (2000) – That's entertainment

“Are you not entertained?” yells Maximus Decimus Meridius, after single-handedly scything his way through his latest opponents in the gladiatorial arena. Indeed we are, Maximus: it's not such much the body count he racks up as it is the flair he does it with, swinging his swords around like they're an extension of his body, ending the round with a two-handed decapitation that's like a special move straight out of Mortal Kombat. Finally, for good measure, he lobs a scimitar up towards the royal box, a finishing move that would make the Royal Variety Performance way more interesting.

3. Thelma & Louise (1991) - “Let's not get caught”

There was only really one way that 'Thelma & Louise' could end. Beaten, humiliated and ground-down by the men in their life, Thelma (Geena Davis) and Louise (Susan Sarandon) take matters into their own hands and go on the lam, culminating in a police chase through the dusty Arizona desert that stops just short of the Grand Canyon. The decision to “just keep going” is not one taken lightly, and though it's since been the subject of countless parodies, the girls' noble end still raises the hairs on the back of your neck.

2. Blade Runner (1982) – Batty's last goodbye

“I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've seen C-Beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate.” Replicant Roy Batty sure knew how to deliver a poetic send-off. Yet once he's rescued Harrison Ford's pursuer Deckard from certain death, Batty's batteries finally give up the ghost and he makes a devastatingly simple exit: “Time to die”. It's a monologue made all the more special by the fact that Rutger Hauer improvised the line “All these moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain” - Scott knew he had a good thing and left it in the film's most emotional scene.

[Harrison Ford in early talks for Blade Runner 2]

1. Alien (1979) – The chest-burster

Ridley Scott attempted to recapture the sheer visceral shock of 'Alien''s infamous chest-burster scene in 'Prometheus', but the Med-Pod sequence lacked one crucial thing: the element of surprise. It's written all over the faces of the cast of Scott's seminal 1979 sci-fi: although they knew that John Hurt's dinner was about to repeat on him, they had no idea exactly what was about to come out of his stomach – nor that they were about to be showered in blood, guts and innards. Veronica Cartwright's strangled, genuine cry of “Oh God!” echoes our sentiments exactly: the chest-burster scene is one of the most iconic, unforgettable, most horrifying deaths in cinema history.