THE GEEK 100 ’ToyFare’ ranks the 100 moments that drove fans wild.

By ToyFare Staff

In the shadows of the mainstream media lies an underground organization bigger than Fight Club, bigger than Sam’s Club, almost as big as Oprah’s Book Club. It’s called Geekdom, and if you’re reading this, odds are you’re a proud member.

And you should be proud. Geekdom’s touched and elevated all walks of pop culture, dominating fields like toys and comic books while also creating some of the most respected movies, novels and television of all time.

That’s what we’re honoring today: our toy-loving geek-asses are counting down the hundred most definitive moments in geek history. Don’t go looking for the most *yawn* historic moments on this list, that’s not what this is all about. We’re talking the scenes and images that produce instantaneous dorkgasms, like Vader telling Luke he’s his father, Dark Phoenix’s death, Buffy killing Angel, and probably even some that are actually happy. Veteran geeks, enjoy the retrospective. Rookie geeks, here’s a primer on the society’s secret handshakes. And all of you, before we begin, stand tall and say it: “I’m a geek and I’m proud!” Just don’t say it too loud.

100. K.I.T.T. WITH A WHIP Back in the 1980s, there was no cooler superhero on TV than K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider, even if he was a car. But what every good superhero needs is an evil counterpart. So when K.I.T.T. met the evil K.A.R.R., we knew we were watching TV history in the making. (November 19, 1982)

99. HE-MAN, HE OF HIGH SELF-ESTEEM

Yeah, He-Man’s got a little sugar in the pocket, but there’s no denying the rush of hearing Prince Bowl Cut booming “I have the power!” even if it’s always accompanied with stock photography. (September 5, 1983)

98. NERDS ASSEMBLE! Acknowledgement. Dignity. Not getting beaten up. We geeks strive for some type of acceptance, and Futurama wrote an entire sequence just for us when Al Gore, Nichelle Nichols, Deep Blue, Stephen Hawking and D&D creator Gary Gygax starred as the Nerd Collective. We have arrived. Then Futurama was cancelled. Go figure. (May 21, 2000)

97. THEY ONLY COME OUT AT NIGHT In a rare communal experience betraying their limited social skills, sunlight-adverse geeks came together for the midnight debut of Star Wars: Episode I toys. It’s the first time-outside of cons-we ever remember being somewhere, looking around and thinking, “We are among our own kind.” (April 2, 1999)

96. SECRETS OF SECRET WARS The same month that Marvel’s first maxi-series was starting, we were shocked by comics that revealed the mysterious consequences of the very end of Secret Wars: the Thing was MIA, She-Hulk had joined the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man had the costume from Hell. The shock of seeing the status quo so upturned was enough to make us forget all about the Beyonder’s jeri-curl in Secret Wars II. (May 1984)

95. I RAN CONTRA It was the mantra of gamers everywhere: the control sequence that would give you thirty lives in Konami’s pacifist NES drama Contra: “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A!” If you think it’s not a big moment in geek history, try finding one geek who can’t recite it. (Summer 1988)

94. A VERY UNGRACIOUS SPACE HOST When Space Ghost could barely hide his contempt for comic Kevin Meaney on Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, he simply brushed him off with a dismissive “Whatever.” If only Letterman had the same chutzpah, he might have inspired the whole genre known as “Adult Swim,” too. (April 15, 2004)

93. WELCOME TO THE OC, FANBOY! Cementing the Fox soap’s geek cred, Rachel Bilson’s devotion to comic geek boyfriend Seth manifests itself when she dresses up as Wonder Woman for a strip tease on The OC. (December 3, 2003)

92. ANGELA’S ASSETS McFarlane Toys skips a paint job step and leaves off Angela’s panties, signaling a new trend: toys ain’t just for little kids anymore. A toy industry intent on envelope-pushing (mostly the sculpting envelope, not the going commando envelope) results. (Spring 1995)

91. TRANSFORMERS ARE DOING WHAT, NOW? Nothing will ever beat being thirteen (or six...or two) and hearing that first wah-wah-wah sound cue that signaled the transformation of a robot into an eighteen-wheeler, a gun, or even a tape deck. (Tape deck?) (September 17, 1984)

90. CRISIS ON INFINITE TURF DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths played for keeps when Earth 3’s Crime Syndicate bit the big one in the first 10 pages of issue #1. The ‘Event’ series was here, and it wasn’t taking any prisoners. (April 1985)

89. FATAL ERROR There are more famous scenes (the bone being thrown, the space fetus), but nothing gripped us in 2001 more than the moment when we realize that HAL can read the lips of the crew that’s plotting to disconnect him. Brrr. (April 2, 1968)

88. GEEKS BELIEVE IN MAGIC Despite video games ruling the roost, gamers went low-tech when “Magic: The Gathering” debuted, and card players experienced nirvana when they finally pulled that seventh mana to summon the Lord of the Pit. Somewhere, Gary Gygax is sharpening a cardboard axe. (Winter 1993)

87. I VANT TO SUCK Van Helsing. No, no, no...not the movie. The premise and the early posters for the movie. Remember how the movie played in your head when you first saw the ads? Victorian James Bond fights cinema’s greatest monsters? How could it go wrong? Oh...like that. (Winter 2003)

86. TOKYO POP Once you’ve busted out a nuclear explosion, there’s no going back. Akira begins with a bang and announced to geek bootleggers the arrival of anime as a serious art form. (July 16, 1988)

85. LUKE MUPPETTALKER The Muppet Show reached for the stars during Luke Skywalker’s, C-3P0’s and R2-D2’s guest-starring stint, marrying two pop culture phenomenons and setting the stage for the dozens of Star Wars parody projects that followed. (January 16, 1980)

84. THIRTY-SIX? INCLUDING ME? Genre fans had never been represented (positively) in flicks prior to Dante and Randall discoursing on all things Star Wars in Clerks. These two minimum wage-earners were the avatars for a generation. (October 19, 1994)

83. IS HE STRONG? LISTEN, BUD Face facts: It will never leave your head. The Popsicle-stick animation of the ‘60s Spider-Man cartoon is forever burned into our brain thanks to the hyper-catchy theme song. (September 9, 1967)

82. JASON GOES TO TOWN Hinted at in Jason Goes to Hell, horror icons Jason and Freddy finally got their freak on in Freddy vs. Jason, with a battle royal at Crystal Lake worthy of the WWE. (August 15, 2003)

81. AVENGERS...COAGULATE! NO, NO... Every super-team worth its salt needs a good battle cry, and the Avengers got theirs when Thor bellowed “Avengers Assemble!“ in Avengers #10. Every time Cap says it (not so much when it’s Wasp), you know an ass kickin’s a-comin’. (September 1963)

80. THE DOT SPOT Cro-Magnons may have come up with better graphics, but it didn’t matter: that little dot in Atari‘s Adventure was our avatar in a crudely rendered world of wonder, and it was enough. (Fall 1978)

79. NINJAS NEED LOVE, TOO The first G.I. Joe TV miniseries showed it wasn’t all laser battles when, facing certain death, silent-but-deadly Snake Eyes bid farewell to Scarlett, a transparent radioactive shield separating the two. Ninjas and adult storytelling...cartoons had never been like this before! (September 12, 1983)

78. PART MAN. PART DONUT. ALL COP Taking a cue from Terminator, Peter Weller’s RoboCop was a blank-faced purveyor of justice: his ultra-violent duel with chicken-legged ED-209 is the highlight in a film trilogy that should’ve stayed a one-ogy. (July 17, 1987)

77. CAR TROUBLE Prior to the 3-D carjackings of Grand Theft Auto III, gamers had been in control of squeaky-clean bores. But once you dragged someone out of their ride and cruised off in their wheels for the first time in visceral, in-your-face next-gen graphics, you never went back. (October 22, 2001)

76. MEGO MEN Spider-Man. Batman. Superman. All in the same toy line. Awesome. Yeah, they tended to break inside the first hour, but having the ‘World’s Greatest Super Heroes’ all at your sweaty little fingertips was tough to top. (Winter 1972)

75. WHERE YOU AT, SPIDA-MAN? Universal Studios Islands of Adventure Spider-Man ride: It will change your life. This comic-book-romp-made-real will make you grip the rails in fear when you take a roller coaster-esque fall off a building, cringe from the heat of a pumpkin bomb and shrink in your chair with tension as Spidey battles through the Sinister Six to save you in a tension-filled finale that Hollywood could take a cue from. Worth the price of a Florida trip alone. (May 1999)

74. BATGIRL POWER Further feeding our unrealistic expectations of women, Yvonne Craig’s spandex-clad curves zoomed into Batman’s third season and rendered us babbling incoherents. As soon as you saw her drive by in the animated opening credits, you knew it was going to be a pants-tightening episode. (September 14, 1967)

73. WHO YA GONNA CALL? Scoffed at for most of their own movie, the Ghostbusters finally get the respect they deserve when they arrive on the scene to shut down Gozer and the city rallies around them. “Ghostbusters! Ghostbusters!” It ain’t the funniest scene by far, but by then you’re so sucked into the movie it doesn’t matter if you’re laughing or cheering. (June 7, 1984)

72. EXIT THE BALD ONE? Hear that? That’s the sound of ten million geeks spilling their Bugles after seeing contract-negotiating Captain Picard Borg-ified and getting fired on by the Enterprise at the end of the third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Talk about cliffhangers. (June 16, 1990)

71. RIBBONS. AS IN, HE WILL CUT YOU INTO... Before he was plastered on everything, the small X-Men fanbase wanted one thing: to see that Wolverine guy cut loose. The cliffhanger ending to Uncanny X-Men #132-where a battered Wolverine pulls himself from a flooded sewer and pops his claws with murder in his eyes-let us all know his time had come. (May 1980)

70. NAZIS. WE HATE THESE GUYS The door opens revealing an angry Nazi with a grease gun. You open up and off the Aryan prick and with his dying breath he screams, “Mein laben!” Wolfenstein 3D launched the first-person shooter (FPS) format that became a staple of the gaming industry. (May 5, 1992)

69. JASON GOES TO GREECE Jason and the Argonauts is just an okay movie...until “they” show up. No, not “Them.” “Them” are ants, “they” are those ass-kickin’, sword-swingin’ skeletons. The Ray Harryhausen effects are one of the first times we can recall movies looking as cool as our imaginations. (June 19, 1963)

68. COLOSSAL COMEBACK Death and resurrections in comics. Yep, crappy comic writers use that crutch to hide their “skills.” But not here. Undoing one of the lamer deaths in comics, Joss Whedon gives fans one of the best images in comics in the past 10 years. When Kitty finds her long-lost love Colossus in the pages of Astonishing X-Men #5, it was a shock, a thrill and a heartache, all in one instantly classic moment. (September 2004)

67. SPOON! The animated Tick earned its crazy stripes early when Our Hero halts Chairface Chippendale’s attempt to carve his name into the moon. Chip manages “CHA” before getting foiled, a memento that remained throughout the series. The bigger geek moment will be when this ‘toon is finally released on DVD. (September 24, 1994)

66. MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL, WHO’S THE KIRKEST OF THEM ALL? Evil doppelgangers may be passé now, but they were like nothing anyone had seen when Kirk encountered a goateed Spock and swashbuckling Sulu in the “Mirror, Mirror” episode of Star Trek. (October 6, 1967)

65. GREAT, SCOTT! I’M FRICKIN’ DEAD! Bucky, Schmucky. Jean Grey’s is the first real death in comics that had what Kiefer Sutherland calls “gravitas.” Her final shout-out to lover Scott in Uncanny X-Men #137 remains a heartbreaker. (September 1980)

64. MUD PACK: EXFOLIATING AND ALIEN-PROOF Running scared from an unstoppable alien hunter in Predator, Ah-nold discovers that river mud masks his heat signature. Never before or again have we so gleefully wanted the Governator to kick alien ass. (June 12, 1987)

63. KHAN GAME In Star Trek II, when Kirk reveals that the Enterprise isn’t as badly damaged as Mr. Spock led Ricardo Montalban to believe, we realize just how much he doesn’t like to lose. Nobody beats the Shat! (June 4, 1982)

62. ROLL A 7 TO GO HOME The unholy grip of Dungeons and Dragons was never more apparent than the first time you found yourself in a Cheetos haze and casting a Lightning Bolt spell at 5 o’clock in the morning. (January 1974)

61. ANGEL OF DEATH Joss Whedon’s scrappy Buffy the Vampire Slayer revealed real bite in the second season finale when Buffy had to slay her evilized vampire lover Angel...just when he’d gotten back his soul. We don’t recall Gidget ever having this problem. (May 19, 1998)

60. ULTIMA IN TERROR Ultima Online-a massive multiplayer fantasy game-created a world where you had to spend weeks building your guy. Then, after you’ve got him just where you want him, your spinal column drains into your shoes when a PK-“Player Killer”-walks onto your screen. This wasn’t some AI monster you could off with ease. Here’s another player who’d spent weeks training his guy...to kill yours. Jerk. (September 30, 1997)

59. MAYBE SOMEONE SHOULD’VE BEEN WATCHING HIM “I did it thirty-five minutes ago.” Man, no fair when the comic book villain stops acting like a comic book villain. But whose jaw didn’t drop in Watchmen #11 when main baddie Ozymandias spills his plan to the heroes...then lets them know it’s already happened? (October 1987)

58. SHAPE OF...ASS-KICKER! Picture the climactic dogfight of Star Wars: A New Hope. Luke gets Obi-Wan’s drift, fires the photon torpedos aaannd...the Death Star transforms into a giant robot and kicks the Millenium Falcon into the sun. That’s what it was like at the end of The Transformers: The Movie when new planet-shaped baddie Unicron surprises the Autobots-and us-and unfolds into the biggest Transformer ever. How’d we not see that coming? (August 8, 1986)

57. IN YOUR FACE, SERIES OF 1s AND 0s! Hey...the Princess is in this castle! We were ecstatic when we finally validated hours of play in the post-Atari world and beat Super Mario Bros., the first game we remember with an actual ending. (Fun fact: there is no end in Duck Hunt...the ducks just become blurs.) (July 1985)

56. TRACK MEET OF THE DEAD We can handle those shuffling zombies in the old Romero flicks. But when those ugly mothers start running around like Terrell Owens in 2004’s Dawn of the Dead remake? Everything we knew about zombies went out the window. Bonus! Sarah Polley’s hot. (March 19, 2004)

55. CHEST PAINS No one in the audience of the inaugural Alien flick knew what was about to befall a panicked John Hurt until that ugly alien baby burst through his chest. (May 25, 1979)

54. JASON GOES TO HECK Comic fans all fall into one of two categories: frustrated comic writers or frustrated comic artists (nobody wants to grow up to be an inker). In letting fans vote via a 24-hour phone hotline to see if the Joker killed Robin in Batman #428, we all got our taste of the promised land. Oh, and we killed Robin. (September 15-16, 1988)

53. HARRY PLOTTER Remember reading Sorceror’s Stone and thinking, “Oh, very clever, Children’s Book...we totally can’t tell Snape’s the bad guy.” Then Harry pulls Quirrel’s turban off and in one disturbing-as-hell image we finally realize-this is no mere kids’ book we’re dealing with. This J.K. Rowling broad, she might go places. (September 1, 1998)

52. MISTY-EYED It should go without saying that there’s nothing more beloved to geeks than ridiculing bad movies...or watching Joel and the ‘Bots do it on Mystery Science Theatre 3000. We knew we’d found kindred spirits as soon as they watched Gamera and speculated that he was full of “smeat” in a classic early episode. (June 8, 1991)

51. HULK STRONGLY CAUTION! Bill Bixby cemented his typecasting in the pilot of the Incredible Hulk TV series by warning, “Don’t make me angry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.” Wrong. We loved you, Bill. (November 4, 1977)

50. CAPTAIN COOL We knew the Marvel Legends line would be cool, but we didn‘t know to what extent until we discovered we could strap Captain America’s shield to his back in a triumph of geek detail. It was like a toy from the future, built by super-intelligent robots. (May 2002)

49. MAGIC MUSHROOM RIDE Nintendo addiction paid off in spades when gamers first led Mario into a Warp Zone in Super Mario Brothers and tripped out on their ability to leapfrog to new levels. (October 1, 1985)

48. JUSTICE MARGIN UNLIMITED Justice League Unlimited’s first shot of the expanded league blew our minds. Finally, B- and C-listers like Aztek and Rocket Red had made it into cartoon form! We wore out our VCR counting all the characters. (July 31, 2004)

47. MAGNETO’S GREAT ESCAPE Supervillains in film were usually of the mustache-twirling, master-plan-having variety. So when we saw Magneto in X2 leeching out the iron in a guard’s blood and using the metal to kick seven kinds of ass to break out of prison, we realized the world now knew what we always did...supervillains are some scary mothertruckers. (May 2, 2003)

46. SHAZAM! Alex Ross’ art is so stunning in Kingdom Come that even Captain Marvel is intimidating: when he arrived on the scene at the end of issue #3 to knock Superman out of the sky and square off against the down-and-out Man of Steel, we held our breath for a month. (July 1996)

45. DO THEY SPEAK BOCCE ON WHAT? When Mace Windu takes out an entire army of Droids without so much as a word in the Clone Wars ‘toon, we knew something good had finally come out of Episode I. Dear George Lucas, please let Genndy Tartakovsky do everything you used to do from now on. (March 30, 2004)

44. BOBA FETISH Didn’t know who he was, what he did or what all those things in his pockets were, but it didn’t matter: he was the coolest looking character in Star Wars. Kenner offering this figure as a mail-away before Empire hit theaters gave 10-year-olds everywhere a need for Ritalin. (March 31, 1980)

43. YOU HAD ME AT HALO Physically assaulting your friends is bad, mmkay? But when you manage to land one of Halo’s sticky plasma grenades on their virtual face in multiplayer mode, it’s a feeling of glee that just won’t go away. (November 15, 2001)

42. EVIL DEAD 2, ASH 0 It’s splatter by way of the Stooges: Sam Raimi sawed off Bruce Campbell’s hand in Evil Dead 2 and gave him a chainsaw in exchange. Suddenly, your standard horror movie victim became a big-screen superhero with a single word-“Groovy.” (March 13, 1987)

41. LOOK, HE’S THE TERMINATOR, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT? With titular Terminator Arnold seemingly decimated, audiences got a jolt when his friggin’ endoskeleton rises up to complete the job of acing Sarah Connor. If only our PCs were as diligent. (October 26, 1984)

40. SPIDEY VS. SUPERMAN VS. YOUR DAD’S WALLET The canvas-sized Superman vs. Spider-Man marked the first time two company tent-poles had converged, fulfilling geek fantasies and later paving the way for Archie to piss his pants against the Punisher. (September 1976)

39. BLOOD ON THE DANCE FLOOR Blade’s opening symphony of whup-ass on the vampires in the dance club was a sign that Marvel had finally broken their streak of crap adaptations. Eat it, Corman! (August 21, 1998)

38. WANTED: DEAD OR, WELL, DEAD Holy-did Mulder just stake a real vampire? Wait, his fangs are coming off. “Oh, sh-” Cue the X-Files theme music, and cue the start of “Bad Blood,” one of the funniest episodes of X-Files ever. We can’t figure out when we first started to love the show, but this was just about as good as it ever got. (February 22, 1998)

37. SO-VERY-FINAL FANTASY Squaresoft showed that gamers don’t always have total control when it bumped off the gorgeous Aeris, heroine of Final Fantasy VII, midway through the game. Who knew polygons could make us weepy? (September 4, 1997)

36. SUPERMAN’S DEAD ZONE When DC offed big blue in Superman #75, fans everywhere felt momentarily important when friends asked them comic questions based off of mainstream news stories. Normal people? Asking us for info? Awesome! (The actual story, not so much.) (November 1992)

35. DON’T CALL HER “SAM” Gamers got the Crying Game shock of their young lives when, after hours of gameplay, Metroid revealed that its main character, Samus, was really a-gasp!-dame! Cue gender confusion. (August 6, 1986)

34. THE BIG RED PILL Neo thinks he’s ready to see the real world when he pops the red pill in The Matrix. What follows is an existential cold shower. Robots harvesting humans and taking over the world? Whooooa. (March 31, 1999)

33. FREEZE, BEFORE ARNOLD RUINS YOU FOR EVERYONE! Batman: The Animated Series marked a new era in comic-inspired, adult-themed ‘toons. Exhibit A? “Heart of Ice,” and its melancholy depiction of Mr. Freeze losing his beloved wife. Better than most ER episodes. (September 7, 1992)

32. LORD OF THE RACK The only thing better than finally getting into the theater to see a long-ass new Lord of the Rings flick? Getting the longer-ass special edition DVDs. Hey, Hollywood: film all your movies with an extra hour. Unless they have Ben Affleck in ‘em. (November 12, 2002)

31. SPIN, BOOBIES, SPIN! Ever wonder why dreidels turn you on? Look no further than Lynda Carter’s inaugural spin into spandexed goddess Wonder Woman in the original TV pilot. Motion sickness never felt so good. (November 7, 1975)

30. FONDLING ONE’S LIGHTSABER Inflatable replicas: blasphemy! We waited until Kenner made “real” lightsabers with light-up action and cool sound effects. Picking one up for the first time and swinging at your cat was Jedi nirvana. “Now I am the master, Mr. Buttons!” (Winter 1978)

29. WHEN TREES ATTACK Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the woods, Treebeard uncovers Saruman’s lumberjacking in The Two Towers and sics an army of Ents on his stronghold. Yeah, trees, kick goblin ass! (December 18, 2002)

28. I’M BRU-ER, BATMAN! BATMAN! Fans were outraged when Tim Burton selected vertically challenged comedian Michael Keaton to portray the Dark Knight, but all fears were allayed when we first heard him growl “I’m Batman” to a simpering criminal. (June 19, 1989)

27. FINISH HIM! Video games went places they’d never gone before and ignited a torrent of controversy when Mortal Kombat was released and button-mashers first witnessed Scorpion pulling the spine from an opponent’s neck. Paging Doctor Mario! (August 1992)

26. THE CLAWS COME OUT Fans weren’t sure what to make of Aussie Hugh Jackman, but his animal instincts were spot-on when Wolverine settled a bar dispute by popping his claws for the first time in the first X-Men movie. They even got the damn “snikt” sound right! (July 14, 2000)

25. PURRFECT CATWOMAN We love ya, Halle, but Michelle Pfeiffer rose to new feline heights in Batman Returns, striking that first pose in latex that did more for hormone production than our pituitary glands ever could. (June 19, 1992)

24. TWO TIMES THE LIGHTSABING! We still get the geek shivers when badass Darth Maul busts out his double-bladed lightsaber, ready to slice through Star Wars: Episode I’s kiddie tripe like poop through a goose. (May 19, 1999)

23. I AM A LEARNING COMPUTAH The first slo-mo meeting between the two Terminators in T2 is undiluted coolness...especially when you realize Arnie’s a good guy now and they start putting each other through walls. Robot fight! (July 1, 1991)

22. SPIDER-SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY In Amazing Fantasy #15, Peter Parker realizes his uncle is dead because he was too selfish to stop a burglar. A hero with character flaws? Marvel’s “warts ‘n’ all” philosophy changed comics forever. (August 1962)

21. BATMAN VS. ARTHRITIS Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns #4 delivered the final conflict between battle-armored Bats and government lackey Superman that had been teased for decades. Who’s stronger: a man of steel or a steel-willed man? You go, Batman! (June 1986)

20. BOOB RAIDER Gamers took the director’s chair when Tomb Raider allowed players to control the camera angle. The inevitable Cinemax focus on Lara’s fun bags followed. Jon Voight would have kittens. (October 21, 1996)

19. BAMF! X2 dismissed any fears of bad sequel-itis in the opening sequence, where Alan Cumming’s Nightcrawler teleports his way through White House security to deliver the President a message: this movie is gonna rock our socks. (May 2, 2003)

18. MEET JOE BLACK? ONLY ‘CAUSE WE HAVE TO Tens of thousands of geeks stood in line to buy tickets for some 10-hour movie about Anthony Hopkins dying. Why? Because the Star Wars: Episode I trailer was screening. Seeing the Lucasfilm logo-heralding our first glimpse of a new Star Wars flick-for the first time in nearly twenty years is enough to make us sit through any chick flick. (November 13, 1998)

17. LADY KILLER The Witchking Ringwraith kept saying he could be beaten by no man in Return of the King. But when Eowyn pulled off her helmet, said, “I am no man” and stuck her sword in his face, he was screaming a different tune. Grrrl power! (December 17, 2003)

16. INDIANA JONES AND THE CASE OF THE TROTS Allegedly inspired by Harrison Ford crapping in Technicolor that day, Raiders of the Lost Ark blew action cliches to smithereens when a bored Indy observes a swordmaster’s fancy moves and unceremoniously shoots him dead. (June 12, 1981)

15. PAC-FAN Nothing was more of an adrenaline rush than when, after avoiding those jag-off ghosts in Pac-Man, we finally gobbled a power-up capsule, Hulked Out and turned the tables on our pursuers. (June 1980)

14. BIG EFFIN’ MACHINE Do not mess with a gal sporting a Mommy complex. Backed into a corner, Aliens heroine Ripley takes command of a power loader and proceeds to tear the Alien Queen a new one. Finally, someone gives an alien what for! (July 18, 1986)

13. PRINCESS, I THINK YOU JUST BENT MY WOOKIEE Princess Leia’s winter coats couldn’t prepare us for the adolescent fantasy she was to become in Return of the Jedi, as a golden bikini-clad slave to that fat slob Jabba. (May 25, 1983)

12. STRANGERS ATOP A TRAIN Spider-Man 2‘s kinetic battle with Doc Ock atop a speeding train shattered the limits of live action: the sequence has all the visceral wallop of a well-rendered comics page. This, friends, is a comic book movie. (June 30, 2004)

11. A LONG TIME AGO, WHEN THESE MOVIES DIDN’T SUCK... The sparkling Lucasfilm logo, the silent fade into “Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away...”, then-waitforit, waitforit-that blaring orchestra! Those giant stylized letters! The trumpeting arrival of the text crawl! George, we might be tough on you now, but thank you. (May 25, 1977)

10. ME GODZILLA, YOU SUSHI Godzilla’s inaugural stomp through Tokyo was heralded by his trademark elephant-with-asthma wail, a battle cry that rallied the hundreds of monster mash flicks that followed. The single coolest noise ever. (April 27, 1956)

9. IT’S JUST A FLESH WOUND! Monty Python and the Holy Grail introduced the surreal imaginations of the Python troop to Yanks, thereby creating a crusading legion of new fans. Highknight: a guard ignores the severing of his limbs to stubbornly remain at his post. When he loses his arms, he starts kicking. (May 10, 1975)

8. D’OH! We knew The Simpsons was no Flintstones clone early on when Bart and Homer attempt to snare a rabbit... only to accidentally launch him into orbit. While thousands of great Simpsons moments followed, this set the bar. (February 18, 1990)

7. WITH GREAT POWER COMES...STRESS When a carjacker aces his beloved Uncle Ben in the Spider-Man movie, Peter Parker chases the perp across the city. Seeing Spider-Man swinging like Tarzan for the very first time on the big screen-and knowing the shock that awaited him-was a dream come true. (May 3, 2002)

6. SUPERFREAK Finding Lois dead in Superman: The Movie, Superman lets out the most agonized scream ever recorded on film and promptly flies into space to get his head straight. In that moment, we believed that a Superman could cry. (December 10, 1978)

5. WOLVERINE 8, EXTRAS 0 Movie fans finally got a real taste of Logan’s fury when Stryker’s men invaded the X-Mansion in X2 and walked into multiple eviscerations, courtesy of the babysitting Logan. Finally, the berserker rage we’d seen in comics so many times! Respect the ’chops! (May 2, 2003)

4. THERE IS NO SPOON! Perpetually confused Keanu is pretty sure he can’t beat Agent Smith in The Matrix, until he faces off with him in a subway station. He almost runs, but then he starts to believe...that he can beat holy ass. As Keanu turns to face his destiny, it’s like we’re standing alongside him. (March 31, 1999)

3. NO...I’M YOUR FATHER! You thought this was going to be number one, right? When Darth Vader smacks Luke across the face with that little notice in The Empire Strikes Back, we about died of Skittles inhalation. We’ll never be that emotionally broad-sided again. Thanks a lot, Internet. (May 21, 1980)

2. MONSTER’S BALROG Medusa from Clash of the Titans was dope, but pound for leathery pound, nothing beats the flame-spewing, whip-cracking Balrog from Lord of the Rings as the baddest movie beast of all time. CGI or not, when it rounded that corner, we almost heeded Gandalf’s advice to run. (December 19, 2001)

1. VADER’S REDEMPTION Homeboy blew up an entire planet, true. But Vader performs his penance at the climax of Return of the Jedi. As the Emperor fries his son like a sausage, Darth looks from his pleading son to his master, back to his son...we all leaned forward in our seats-“Is what we think is going to happen really going to happen?!?”-and it does. In the most geek-out moment in fanboy history-and one of the most emotionally fueled moments in movie history-Vader attacks his master, saves his son and dies a hero’s death, putting an un-toppable exclamation point on one of the greatest stories ever told. (May 25, 1983)