Top 10 Serious Movie Interrogation Scenes

We begin by looking at a particularly creative method of interrogation. If you have a hammer but no nails, and a bullet but no gun, then there’s a need for a little bit of improvisation, and a whole lot of threatening behavior! Ryan Gosling manages both as he pins his adversary to the strip club floor, shaping up to manually drill the bullet through his forehead. There’s a lack of clothing in this scene, and a distinct lack of friendliness!

To be fair to the ‘good cop’ in this scene, he does appear to have everything under control – it’s the speed of proceedings that gets ‘bad cop’ Russell Crowe so angry. Not only does he march into the room uncalled for, he pulls out a gun; not only does he pull out a gun, he puts it in the suspect’s mouth! His temper snaps a nanosecond before the chair does, and then it’s all-out aggression! Boy, does it get results though!

As if the dentist wasn’t torturous enough already, Laurence Olivier’s Nazi doctor adds all new dimensions to your bad dreams! With all interrogation scenes we tend to put ourselves in the interrogatee’s shoes – here, it’s too easy to imagine, and too horrifying as a result. The reminder that a healthy tooth is more sensitive than our regular cavities has us squirming. The point-of-view dentist-drill and high-pitched whirring has us almost passing out!

Christopher Walken calls it a ‘Q&A’, and it’s an A-grade interrogation! The Mob wants to know where Clarence Worley is, but his father doesn’t feel like telling them. To buy himself a few more minutes, Clifford begins to dissect Vincenzo Coccotti’s Sicilian heritage – and he doesn’t do so kindly! The laughter that ensues, and the operatic music, are a classic backdrop to a classic killing. The gang find what they need immediately afterwards – meaning he died in vain, but also in glory!

“True Romance” was written by Quentin Tarantino and this scene was directed by him. It sees Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega invade the apartment of Brett and his fast-food eating friends. They want a briefcase, and retribution for their gangster-boss, Marsellus Wallace. Jules does the talking whilst Vincent ominously potters in the kitchen, but they both come together for the scene’s epic climax. It’s routine, it’s ruthless, it’s world-famous cinema!

This entry is more than a scene, as the movie is entirely built around police interrogation! “The Usual Suspects” uses an unusual framing device to explore the back-story of Verbal Kint. The cops want clues as to Keyser Söze’s identity and whereabouts, and they pinpoint Kevin Spacey’s crippled bit-part criminal as a means to extract the information. Flipping between the police office and the action, the film is a jigsaw and we’re the ones piecing it together!

It’s Daniel Craig’s first outing as Bond, and it’s bound to leave you shaken andstirred! A model of masculinity, he dons his birthday suit for this scene, but we swoon for an altogether different reason! The bottom of his chair’s cut out, with more than mild discomfort in mind. Questions are asked, but answers aren’t given – prompting a mangling of his manhood that has both genders wincing! It’s nearly full-frontal, and it is full-on!

In third place, Tarantino once again proves he’s the master of filming face-to-face encounters. Brad Pitt is Aldo Raine and he has a German soldier in his sights. When he won’t cooperate, an out-of-shot chiming starts up. The ‘Bear Jew’ is in the shadows, and he’s dying to make an entrance! Undeterred, the solider stares his captor in the face, and virtually signs his own death certificate. He won’t betray his people, but he will receive a brutal beating!

He’s the ultimate ‘bad cop’! When Commissioner Gordon fails to coerce information from the Joker, he passes the responsibility onto Batman. The Caped Crusader doesn’t disappoint, and promptly begins to dismantle the Joker’s resolve. It’s as much a battle of minds as it is of muscle, and we can see that the Dark Knight is affected by the villain’s philosophizing… It’s a cross-examination of both characters, and one in which it’s difficult to tell who has the upper hand.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
- The Black Widow Bites “The Avengers” (2012) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OJqPJRjHkE

- Misplaced Your Mouth? “The Matrix” (1999) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D7cPH7DHgA

- The Rabbit’s Foot Riddle “Mission: Impossible III” (2006) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLNUIU7AzTg

It’s intense, it’s iconic, it’s interrogation at its very best! “Basic Instinct” takes its psycho-erotic crime concoction, and feeds us an undiluted dose in this famous scene. Sharon Stone is under inquiry, but she’s by no means under control! There are 5 men sitting before her, and she plays the room with ease. She smokes because she wants to, she seduces because she can. She crosses her legs and the whole room submits – she’s so bad, she has to be good! Right?!