Nightmare Fuel / The Towering Inferno

• The ghastly results of a bunch of people from the party panicking and trying to take the main elevator past the fire floors. It doesn't end well, as the car moves too fast for the firefighters to spray it.
  • It actually gets even more horrible when this same elevator returns to the party room, where a burning man staggers out and dies in mere seconds. Look carefully, and you'll notice the elevator is now holding a massive pile of burning human bodies.
• Bigelow running straight into the inferno with nothing more then a wet towel for protection. It doesn't end well for him.
  • Not to mention, before Dan and Lori begin their assignation, a brief musical version of "We May Never Love Like This Again" underscores their It's easy to miss on the first viewing, but during a re-watch, hearing that little musical sting, and knowing what happens to both their characters shortly after drives home the notes. They never do love like that again.
    • His secretary/lover's death is even worse. Choking on the smoke, she breaks a window with a chair, the fresh air causing a backdraft. Her only option is to jump to her death. While on fire. A number of YouTube commenters compared this scene to footage of people jumping off the World Trade Center on 9/11.
• At one point, while Chief O'Halloran and his men are attempting to escape a broken elevator, a burning body falls past them. The Chief was briefly able to identify the body as one of their fellow firemen, prompting one of them to almost BSOD on the spot. Perhaps even worse is when the chief comes upon another severely burned firefighter casualty.
  "The ceiling fell in on him, and by the time I got to him, he was covered in hot stuff..."
• It's a really small scene, but the shots from below of Susan praying while the express elevator goes down for the final time, coupled with this score (at 10:48) is really ominous, especially given what happens after...
• The explosion that throws off the express elevator and causes Lisolette to plummet to death down 100+ floors, not to mention she's seen hitting part of the building on her way down.
• The triage ward toward the end — a seemingly endless stream of broken and dead firefighters. Still Harsher in Hindsight (as with much of the rest of the movie) after 9/11.
• The loss of the breeches' buoy, during which a panicking Simmons commandeers it to save his own hide when his turn on hasn't yet come. The buoy begins its descent just as several men pile on trying to force Simmons off. As he sends each of them falling to their deaths purely for his own sake, the buoy is detached by an explosion that sends him and another man plummeting. Robert Vaughn, who's character is accidentally pulled out the window trying to stop Simmons, really sells the terror of being out in the open, 130+ floors up, and having a complete Jerkass shove you to your death to save his own skin.
• The violent torrent of water that floods the promenade room after the water tanks above are detonated in a last-ditch effort to snuff out the inferno. Those not crushed by falling debris like Carlos or pummeled by the sheer force of the wave are instead washed clean through the windows to plummet to their deaths, just before the burst tanks finally put down the inferno. Mayor Ramsay in particular gets it bad, being yanked from the rope tying him down to pummeled into the big fountain in the room, where he likely dies from the trauma of falling in headfirst, and then being buried under all of the flowing water until he drowns.
• The firefighter (Powers) hanging precariously from the express elevator as the helicopter airlifts it to street level from nearly a hundred stories above, with only O'Hallorhan to hold his hands the entire way down. There's even a Jump Scare as one of O'Halloran's gloves comes off, leaving Powers hanging by one hand, screaming and flailing, until O'Halloran can grab his other hand again. Needless to say, it's an immense relief when O'Halloran holds onto him long enough to drop Powers safely into an air bag, and the remaining passengers are finally lowered to safety.