Marlin taking on the barracuda. Marlin and Coral are happily moved into their new home, when they realize that their neighbors have vanished. They look up and see the barracuda just.... sitting there. Marlin tries to convince Coral to hide in the anemone, but Coral doesn't listen. She goes for the kids, the barracuda goes for her, and Marlin goes for the barracuda. And for a brief moment, he holds the damn thing off.
Marlin and Dory successfully escaping from and briefly incapacitating Bruce, an enraged and ferocious Great White Shark, with a World War II torpedo that soon after detonates an entire minefield. Considering the massive differences in size between the two, this feat being told across the animal kingdom as it reaches Nemo akin to a legend being recorded is well deserved.
We've seen everything Marlin goes through in the movie. Yet when Nigel relays the story to Nemo, it sounds like something akin to The Odyssey.
Marlin deciding to trust Dory after he nearly got her killed by the jellyfish. The end result? A whale takes them to Sydney and ejects them through his blowhole. Marlin is so impressed that he shouts, "THANK YOU, SIR!" in whale.
All of the fish in the aquarium pulling the dentist's net down so he can't take Nemo. Later on, when Dory's caught in a fishermen net with scared fish, Nemo uses the same idea to save her.
The scene before the "swim down in the net" part is awesome, too. Dory sees the net from a distance and is able to push Marlin and Nemo out of the net's path before it catches them.
The part where Gill saves Nemo from Darla, putting his own life on the line.
Gill: (breathing heavily from the oxygen outside the water) "Sharkbait... tell ya dad... I said... HI!" (plops onto the dentist tools, launching Nemo into the sink and right down the drain) Go get em!...
Equally awesome is how Gill got on the table in the first place: he got into the aquarium's bubble volcano and with Jacque's help, used the force of the bubbles to launch himself halfway across the room into Darla's hair (causing her to drop Nemo's bag on the table). Considering that Gill probably got his scars from a botched bubble-cano launch, putting himself in that position again for Nemo is incredible!
When Dory and Marlin finally get to Sydney, only to be swallowed almost immediately by a pelican. Marlin has had all he can take at this point and simply decides hold himself and Dory in the middle of sliding down the bird's esophagus to fight back. The bird nearly chokes to death.
Marlin:NO! I didn't come this far to be breakfast!
Nemo going to clog the water filter up the second time, even though his first time almost got him shredded to bits. He then gets out, unscathed, much to the happiness of the tank gang who thought they were too late to save him.
Worth noting that hearing about his father's journey to find him gave Nemo the courage to re-attempt the filter clog.
He also made sure to bring a much bigger pebble with him, since the first attempt failed from the smaller pebble slowly becoming dislodged from the fan.
Also it shows Taught by Experience; the reason why he nearly got shredded was because he went through the filter tube with the fan the first time. The next time he simply exits the way that he came, thus evading the danger.
Squirt gets one by being the first to relate Marlin's story, since from there, it spreads through the ocean, eventually reaching Nemo, giving him the courage to reattempt the filter clogging, as mentioned above.
Dory GETS HER MEMORY BACK!
Dory:(Notices writing on the drain pipe) Huh. Sy- Syl- Shy... Sydney. (Gasps as her eyes widen, followed by a sped-up compilation of her and Marlin's adventures with her voice echoing "P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney" the whole time)AAAAAAAHHH! NEMO!!!(Rushes him and grabs him by the face while spinning around) It's you! You're back! YOU'RE NEMO!!! Nemo:(Cheeks pressed together) Yesh, yesh! I'm Nemo!
Gill's first appearance when Nemo is stuck in the filter tube:
Gill: Alternate wiggling your fins and your tail.
Nemo: I can't... I have a bad fin.
Gill: Never stopped me. [he shows Nemo his tattered fin]
Marlin pushing through the jellyfish in order to save Dory.
Nigel dogfighting a whole flock of seagulls.
In a post-credits scene, Blenny, the small fish that Anchor brought as his "fish friend", goes down into the Anglerfish's realm and encounters her...and eats her whole in one bite, getting over his fear of predators.
This film set a new standard for realistic water in CGI. In some parts, when they were cging around shots of real water they used, towards the end, they sometimes couldn't tell the difference between the two.
