Top 10 Movie Meltdowns from the ’00s
Top 10 Movie Meltdowns from the '00s
Here at Sundance Channel, we’re celebrating the aughts with some truly magnificent meltdowns. We’ve all had them: Those moments when things get messy, get crazy, get downright ugly. Watching others have meltdowns can be highly entertaining—as long as they’re not directed at us, that is. These versions set to film are both delicious and disturbing, and you won’t want to miss a single one.
Watch the very best melt-downs from some of your favorite films of the '00s on Sundance Channel's Decades – weeknights at 8pm.
Photo Credit: Cinema Squid10. BAD SANTA (2003)
Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) is a bad Santa indeed, especially when he shows up for work late, stumbling in drunk in front of the assembled kiddies awaiting his arrival. You can just tell that what follows—Willie falls, glances up in semi-panic at a donkey statue above him and proceeds to smash it to smithereens as babies cry and the crowd disperses—will destroy these kids’ notions of Jolly Old Saint Nick forever.
Watch the very best melt-downs from some of your favorite films of the '00s on Sundance Channel's Decades – weeknights at 8pm.
Photo Credit: Cinema Squid9. THE VIRGIN SUICIDES (2000)
When her first attempt at killing herself—by slitting her wrists—fails, her parents host a tame gathering for Cecilia (Hanna Hall), her sisters and a few local boys. Sitting by herself at the "party," her face falling ever more despondent, she eventually asks to be excused, slowly walks upstairs and then... throws herself out the window. It's a haunting beginning to a film rife with meltdowns from the ever-troubled Lisbon sisters.
Watch the very best melt-downs from some of your favorite films of the '00s on Sundance Channel's Decades – weeknights at 8pm.
Photo Credit: Youtube8. TROPIC THUNDER (2008)
One of the great surprises from this Hollywood satire was the foul-mouthed, Diet Coke-guzzling, balding producer Les Grossman (Tom Cruise, in perhaps his funniest role ever). His meltdowns, which are frequent and brutal, tend to the profane, such as when Flaming Dragon calls with a ransom demand for Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller)—don’t say we didn’t warn you... “First, take a big step back and literally fuck your own face... whatever you’re thinking, you’d better think again. Otherwise I’m gonna have to head down there and I will rain down in a godly fucking firestorm upon you! You’re gonna have to call the fucking United Nations and get a fucking binding resolution to keep me from fucking destroying you.” It goes on like that for a bit until he hangs up and asks an assistant, “Could you find out who that was?”
Watch the very best melt-downs from some of your favorite films of the '00s on Sundance Channel's Decades – weeknights at 8pm.
Photo Credit: Cinema Squid7. SECRETARY (2002)
After Lee (Maggie Gyllenhaal) realizes she cannot marry the sincere-but-dull Peter (Jeremy Davies) and runs back to masochist attorney Mr. Grey (James Spader), still in her would-be wedding dress, he commands her to sit with her palms on the desk and her feet on the floor until his (delayed) return. A parade of well-meaning visitors comes to see her with gifts of food, feminist literature and advice (“There are other ways to show your feelings, Lee—more conventional ways.”) Through it all, Lee maintains control, until the very end, when her father sits across from her and declares, “Your soul and your body are your own and yours to do with as you wish.” She tears up and says in a little-girl voice, “Thank you, Daddy.”
Watch the very best melt-downs from some of your favorite films of the '00s on Sundance Channel's Decades – weeknights at 8pm.
Photo Credit: Cinema Squid6. MICHAEL CLAYTON (2007)
Michael (George Clooney), a “fixer” for a big corporate law firm, is called in to clean up the mess after one of the firm’s senior litigators, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), gets naked and has a complete meltdown during a deposition. A manic-depressive who is off his meds and having an episode, Arthur is also a man whose conscience has clearly caught up with him and he just can’t take defending a pesticide company any longer. “I am Shiva, the god of death,” he declares before Michael springs him from jail.
Watch the very best melt-downs from some of your favorite films of the '00s on Sundance Channel's Decades – weeknights at 8pm.
Photo Credit: Focus Features5. PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2002)
It’s a meltdown times two as Barry Egan (Adam Sandler) confronts Dean Trumbell (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the mattress-salesman/phone-sex line manager who’s extorting him from afar. “What’s your name, sir! Answer me!” yells Barry. More yelling, until Dean says, “Shut up! Shut the fuck up! Shut up! Will you shut up! Shut up! Shut shut shut shut shut up! Shut up!” But that’s only the start of his meltdown; he truly loses it after Barry tells him to go fuck himself, at which point he looks genuinely shocked before stuttering out a threat: “You’re dead.”
Watch the very best melt-downs from some of your favorite films of the '00s on Sundance Channel's Decades – weeknights at 8pm.
Photo Credit: Youtube4. LOVE ACTUALLY (2003)
Despite having been warned by his wife, Karen (Emma Thompson), to “be careful there” with his pretty assistant, Harry (Alan Rickman) treads into some dangerous territory. After Karen realizes that the lovely necklace he had bought was not in fact for her, she excuses herself to the bedroom and quietly melts down as she realizes what that means for her marriage and her family. It’s devastating in its silent despair and how quickly she pulls herself together for the sake of her children.
Watch the very best melt-downs from some of your favorite films of the '00s on Sundance Channel's Decades – weeknights at 8pm.
Photo Credit: Youtube3. AMERICAN PSYCHO (2000)
Fixated on the trappings of his wealth and success, Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) is also thoroughly, deeply psychotic, going on a fantastical killing spree before calling his lawyer and leaving an epic meltdown message: “I think you should know: I’ve killed a lot of people. Some escort girls in an apartment uptown; some homeless people, maybe 5 or 10; an NYU girl I met in Central Park, I left her in a parking lot behind some doughnut shop; I killed Bethany, my old girlfriend, with a nail gun... I don’t want to leave anything out here. I guess I’ve killed maybe 20 people, maybe 40... I even, I ate some of their brains, and I tried to cook a little. Tonight I, uh, I just had to kill a lot of people!” His maniacal laughter/silent sobbing is chilling. “I guess I’m a pretty sick guy.”
Watch the very best melt-downs from some of your favorite films of the '00s on Sundance Channel's Decades – weeknights at 8pm.
Photo Credit: Youtube2. THERE WILL BE BLOOD (2007)
When oilman Daniel Plainview (the unrivaled Daniel Day-Lewis, who won an Oscar for this role) loses his cool, he does so big-time. Like when Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) comes looking for money and Daniel berates him, belittles him and, ultimately, beats him to death—in a bowling alley. “Stop crying, you sniveling ass, stop your nonsense,” he sputters, before explaining that the oil reserve Eli thought he could bank on was in fact draaained dry. “If you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake and I have a straw... and my straw reaches across the room and starts to drink your milkshake, I drink your milkshake. I drink it up!” Slurp.
Watch the very best melt-downs from some of your favorite films of the '00s on Sundance Channel's Decades – weeknights at 8pm.
Photo Credit: Cinema Squid1. BLACK SWAN (2010)
A point can legitimately be made that the entirety of this ballet movie is one extended freak-out/meltdown, as Nina (Oscar-winner Natalie Portman) obsesses, struggles and gradually transforms into the Swan Queen. But the ending is epic meltdown material, as she hallucinates crashing her rival (Mila Kunis) into a mirror and stabbing her with a piece of broken glass—but of course she actually stabs herself, collapsing only after performing and saying, in a pool of her own spreading blood, “I was perfect.”
Watch the very best melt-downs from some of your favorite films of the '00s on Sundance Channel's Decades – weeknights at 8pm.
Photo Credit: Cinema Squid
