We discuss our favorite door scenes at the 42-minute mark of the Qt3 Movie Podcast of The Innkeepers.
Kelly Wand
3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind: the light shining around the cracks of the door
2. LotR: The Fellowship of the Ring: the door to Moria
1941: Ned Beatty hammers a wreath to the door and knocks his house into the sea
Dingus
3. Pineapple Express: Dale and Saul knock down the bathroom door to stop Red from making a phone call
2. No Country for Old Men: Llewelyn waiting in his hotel room with his shotgun trained on the door
A Separation: Nader fighting with his wife Simin, closes the kitchen door so his daughter Termeh can’t hear the argument
Tom Chick
3. No Country for Old Men: Llewelyn waiting in his hotel room with his shotgun trained on the door
2. Phantasm: MacGyver trick for how to get through the door
Punch Drunk Love: all those identical doors after “and bye bye”
Never ending story. The giant, flash-throwing gatekeepers totally scared the hell out if me when I saw this as a kid.
Scarface. Say hello to my little friends!
Event Horizon. Awesome Airlock death.
The Abyss. There are a few of them here, the one I best remember is the scene where the huge guy with the hammerfist drowns. This or the scene in the beginning, where they almost manage to close the bulkhead, which would have saved the sub.
There’s that obvious scene (slightly longer, non-English version) in The Big Lebowski where the Dude is trying to secure his apartment. I love it because it’s entertaining on its own, but also is one of many small pieces that helps craft this very character.
A Man Escaped, an amazing Robert Bresson film about a resistance fighter in a Nazi POW prison. The whole film is almost entirely one man’s interaction with his cell door. In particular I enjoyed the sequence of him slowly and methodically removing the door’s panels with a spoon while looking out for guards.
We Need to Talk About Kevin, the sliding glass doors that lead out to the garden…nuff said.
I can’t really think of a third so I’ll take an easy escape - John Wayne at the end of The Searchers
The scene where Mathilda returns from grocery shopping, and her family has been slaughtered. She desperately rings the doorbell on Leon’s door - and he hestitates to open for what seems like ages. Finally, the door opens and she’s covered in divine light with appropriate music. The following door scene is just as good ;)
Only I can think of with my pre-coffee brain that hasn’t been mentioned already.
Road to Perdition: Sullivan Jr. arrives at his home, just as Connor is leaving. He sees Connor’s face through the glass in the door, and you think that Connor sees him as well…
One scene immediately sprang to my mind, and that was Popeye Doyle’s game of cat and mouse with Frog One on the subway in The French Connection, as seen in this clip from the trailer.
I was also reminded of Peter shooting the door in the airfield office in Dawn of the Dead, not knowing what was behind it…
That one is great, too. It might have been a reference to a similar scene in the 1950’s version of The Thing From Another World, where these scientists are spending much time barricading a door, but the Thing just pulls the door open.
“Red hot, then white hot.” Scared me when I was a kid and didn’t yet know that temperatures had colors, or vice versa.
I liked the inventiveness of the choreography in the Brandon Lee action movie Rapid Fire. Remember him? Here, Brandon’s character uses the layout of this apartment to overcome bad guys with guns. Special shout-outs to the apartment’s doorways, a freezer door, and a closet door.
The doors in Monsters Inc. Not since Muppet Babies or the opening credits of The Twilight Zone have doorways been such gateways to adventure, or at least to little kids’ bedrooms.
The Gates of Mordor in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Lord of the Rings: The Return Of The King. Unlike the gates of Moria’s easily-defeatable password protection, the gates of Mordor are much more formidable. There is a good side to be on and a side you aren’t breaking open.
Runners up: Mimi Rogers finds an original way to get out of a jail cell in The Rapture and I’ve heard good things about Val Kilmer in a movie about doors.
Despite have issues with other parts of the movie, I actually like the scene in Signs where Mel goes into M.Night’s house and finds the alien trapped in the closet.
Alien at the very end.
I also liked quite a few of the scenes in Panic Room, darting in and out of the panic room door.
This has got to be one of my favorites as well. Gene Wilder has a fantastic line here (at the “candy land” door): “Children! Calm down! We don’t want anyone losing their heads…yet!” Just brilliant. My daughter and I always start the movie at this chapter of the DVD - the first part of the movie is pretty awful, esp. “Cheer up, Charlie” - and we come in just as Wonka says “…yet!” and then the magic starts.
