Top 10 Movie Phone Conversation Scenes
This is not an automated service! This is not a cold call! This is something that you’ll really want to listen to! Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’re counting down our picks for the top 10 movie phone conversation scenes.
For this list, any movie scenes that involve a phone booth or a private telephone qualify. However, there has to be actual use of the phone; it can’t just be a background prop. Now, leave your message at the tone and let’s get down to business.
#10: Silence is Golden
“The Departed” (2006)
Oddly enough, we begin our countdown with a phone scene that’s considerably lacking in dialogue. We’re in the midst of the Boston Underworld, it’s a wiry mesh of double-crossings, and for Costigan and Sullivan, all of the answers lay at the other end of this phone line. The silence is deadly, as each man plots his next move – it’s intense, and strangely intimate. The number looks to be up for both of these men, but whose number is up first??
#9: Seven Days
“The Ring” (2002)
Again, the number of spoken words in this scene is very low – but they tell the listener all they need to know! It’s a moment not unlike the telephone reminder you get when you’re due for a check-up at the dentist – only this is way worse! It’s a freaky video, it’s a sickly sweet voice, and it’s impending doom – in that order! It’s also a staple component to any prank-calling repertoire! Try it!
#8: Grossman Will F*** You Up
“Tropic Thunder” (2008)
It’s a film producer’s nightmare when one of his main actors gets kidnapped by a heroin-producing jungle gang… Okay, it doesn’t happen too often, but when it does, it gets people real angry! That’s exactly how you’d describe Tom Cruise during our next, quite one-sided phone conversation. The Flaming Dragon gang calls to outline their demands, but they’re met with a tirade of abuse so unexpected, so unanswerable, they’re left as speechless as we are! And the phone-over-the-shoulder trick at the end is just too good!
#7: Give Me Back My Son
“Ransom” (1996)
Next, we have another hostage situation, but this time an altogether different atmosphere. For Mel Gibson and Rene Russo, their worst nightmares are being realized when their son is held for ransom. The boy is both within touching distance and distressingly far away while he’s on the end of this phone line – and it’s knife-edge psychology! Just when it seems like Gibson has the upper hand, however, a shot’s fired, the camera spins, and shock saturates the scene!
#6: Simon Says
“Die Hard with a Vengeance” (1995)
Do we have your attention? Because we’re gonna need it! John McClane just attracts terrorists, and here he is again, seven years after his first date with danger. This time he’s brought Samuel L. Jackson along for a ride that’s riddled with… well… riddles! The European voice has ominous control over New York’s public phones. And he’s using them to send this pair of heroes all around the city, baffling them with brainteasers along the way!
#5: Confessions of Stu Shepard
“Phone Booth” (2003)
It’d be difficult to select a specific scene from our next movie, seeing as the vast majority of its action takes place in, or around, one New York City phone box. Colin Farrell plays the selfish city slicker, who’s more interested in making money than he is in making friends. His actions haven’t gone unnoticed though, and he’s been trapped in the telephone booth by the laser-pointer of a sniper rifle. In this scene, he breaks down, and becomes a better man as a result!
#4: Empty Telephone
“Heat” (1995)
If movies have taught us anything, it’s this: messing up a murder attempt on Robert De Niro is not a good idea! Here we see our favorite gangster get set up during a handover – in typical fashion, he escapes, and he shall be double-crossed no more! For William Fichtner, things don’t look good – De Niro is dead-eyed and dead-set on revenge. What’s he doing? He’s using the telephone to intimidate – and, boy, is he good at it!
#3: Show Me the Money
“Jerry Maguire” (1996)
As we move onto the podium, we do so with a little more laughter. The situations for both of these men could not be further apart. Tom Cruise is office-bound and stressed out, Cuba Gooding Jr.’s dressed down and chilled out! The “show me the money” mantra is their unifying code, and it’s since become an iconic film quotation. Merging two contradictory settings into one melee of hilarity, this is the ‘phone-conversation-scene’ at its funniest!
#2: Good Luck
“Taken” (2008)
Our third and final hostage situation, Liam Neeson’s reaction to his daughter’s kidnapping is considerably more concise than Gibson’s or Cruise’s. Then again, Neeson is the possessor of a “very particular set of skills,” and an especially threatening phone voice! He delivers a counter-offer with such terrifying composure, that he’s almost as scary as the bad guys! The closing taunt falls comparatively flat – clearly, ‘luck’ will have nothing to do with it!
Before we phone up our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:
- “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” (1964)
- “The Bourne Ultimatum” (2007)
- “Ocean’s Eleven” (2001)
- “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” (2004)
- “In the Line of Fire” (1993)
#1: Do You Like Scary Movies?
“Scream” (1996)
We close out our list with an opening scene that’s often parodied, but never bettered. Drew Barrymore is the home-alone movie-watcher who plays host to a random caller just before she presses play. The conversation is flirty, though a bit fruitless, until the mystery man reveals that he can see her. Barrymore was in control, but now she’s in a corner. Trapped inside a house with too many windows and too many doors, she has on the line a criminal caller with murder on his mind!
Do you agree with our list? Which phone conversation is your favorite? For more gossip-worthy Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.
