As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- "I'm funny how?" - A scene that goes from Funny Moment to deadly serious as Tommy, known for his anger issues, starts pressing Henry about a compliment seemingly gone wrong. After a minute of horrified silence, Henry figures out Tommy is only joking about being angry, and everyone starts laughing again... The most-remembered - and parodied - part of the entire movie.
- Henry's Curb-Stomp Battle on the guy who groped Karen. It's arguably disproportionate (couldn't Henry have just threatened him?) but the guy is such a smug asshole that you find yourself wanting him to do it anyway.
- The sheer sound of the gun hitting the guy's face, the sound of metal hitting bone repeatedly, along with the horrified reactions of the guy's friends retreating at the sight of it.
- Spider telling Tommy to go fuck himself after making one too many jokes about shooting his foot. Yes, he did end up getting shot by Tommy, but the kid gets credit for telling this to someone as Ax-Crazy as Tommy. Only two characters in the film treat Tommy with as much respect as he truly deserves — Billy Batts, who reminds Tommy that he wasn't always a cool gangster, and Spider, who tells Tommy to go fuck himself after Tommy has behaved like a colossal asshole — and Tommy kills both of them, almost immediately.
- Although it's an Offscreen Moment of Awesome, the crew pulls off the Lufthansa heist, the high point of their careers.
- And then Jimmy starts getting paranoid about all the money getting thrown about...
- Scorsese's level of commitment, right down to actually playing Layla while shooting scenes for the montage so the music would perfectly match the shots in the exact manner he wanted.
- The Steadicam shot of the Copacabana which is still one of the greatest scenes in movie history. All scored to "And Then He Kissed Me".
- Made more awesome in that it was a work around, as the owners of the Copa didn't want the film crew going in and out of the main doors, so Scorsese made going in through the employees entrance a seemingly special thing, all in one long walking shot through a working restaurant.
- The montage on the day of Henry's arrest, the crazy disorientation, the sudden music shifts, is a perfect simulation of how out of control and drugged up Henry is.
- The Steadicam shot of the Copacabana which is still one of the greatest scenes in movie history. All scored to "And Then He Kissed Me".
- Karen maintaining her cool after figuring out that Jimmy was planning to kill her. Gets extra points for figuring it out only by instinct and not being a gangster.
- Edward A. McDonald, the prosecutor who brings the Hills into witness protection
- Despite not being an actor and being in only one scene, he manages to be both convincing and VERY memorable.
- He was re-enacting what he ACTUALLY did with the real Henry and Karen Hill.
- Most of all, he doesn't take any of Henry or Karen's crap for a second. When Henry tries to demand where he'll be sent, McDonald shuts him down. When Karen says she doesn't know anything, he immediately shuts her down. He talks to them in a way that they thought they couldn't be talked to and gets away with it completely. After all of Henry and Karen's deeds, it's awesome seeing them get taken down a peg.
- McDonald improvised the line, "don't give me the babe-in-the-woods routine, Karen." Apparently, he actually said this to the real Karen Hill.
