Top 5 Motivational Speeches

Pacific Rim doesn't hit theaters until July 12th but that hasn't stopped it from already giving us what will, no doubt, be the coolest line of the summer. The filmmakers know this and have thusly included it in every trailer that has come out for the film. The line, "WE ARE CANCELING THE APOCALYPSE!", comes as the exclamation at the end of a speech Idris Elba is giving to his men before going into battle with the Kaiju, a race of creatures who emerge from the ocean depths to extinguish mankind. The full speech, or at least what we get from the trailer is:

"Today at the edge of our hope, at the end of our time, we've chosen to believe in each other today we face the monster’s that are at our door, today WE ARE CANCELING THE APOCALYPSE!!"

 I've never been in a combat situation or played for a state title so I can't really speak on the eloquence of real world, non-scripted, pep talks. I'm sure there have been some greats but I know of none that can match the goosebump inducing hype-men writing for Hollywood. So, though we are saving a place for the Pacific Rim speech, I wanted to break down what I think are the top 5 best motivational speech scenes around.



Before we get to the countdown let me just say that this was MUCH more difficult to whittle down than I expected. I've got plenty of honorable mentions including Miracle, Cool Runnings, and Remember the Titans. I also chose to leave out some of the obvious choices like Braveheart and Patton since they're pretty much givens. From 5 to 1, here we go.

#5- Little Giants- Just One Time
Sure, the Little Giants defeating the Cowboys didn't decide the fate of humanity but the halftime speech in this flick is so incredibly insightful it had to be included. Prior to this you only saw adults telling kids "You can do whatever you want! Nothing is impossible", kids aren't dumb...they know that they have limits. Therein lies the genius of this speech, sure they'll never make the NFL but there's always that outside chance, that 1 out of 100 result...in that respect truly nothing is impossible.

4. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King- Aragorn Addresses the Troops at the Black Gate.Much of this speech is standard faire, "We may die, but not today!", and such. What really lands this clip on the list is everything around the speech. As Aragorn is preparing his men we see, in almost a subtle way, how impossibly outnumbered they are as the camera pans around to the awaiting enemy. Aragorn is so commanding in his delivery that not a single soldier is looking ahead to the certain death that awaits them but rather to their leader who's confidence makes the enemy numbers seem inconsequential. The icing on the cake is the slow entry of the amazing LOTR theme which alone is powerful enough to make the list. 3. Rocky Balboa- It's Not How Hard You HitThis speech holds a place for a number of reasons. First and foremost it's just damn good advice that most of us could benefit from. Second, it's a true Father/Son moment. This could be a personal thing as I can only speak from my own expierence but whenever I got real advice, cold hard truth, from my Dad it was always in moments like this. The passion and frustration a father can feel for his son always merits the best advice. I never had a Danny Tanner Full House moment with my Dad and I'm glad for that, talks like this just feel...and are, more heartfelt than anything. Lastly, wether this was intentional or I'm just looking to far into it, we see a side of Rocky that we hadn't seen up to this point. Usually he was, for lack of a better term, a goofball. Even after Creed v Drago when he was angry/serious he didn't seem nearly as insightful as he does here. It's something that adds a whole new layer to the character. 2. Lean on Me- You Are NOT InferiorTo this day I still don't understand why this flick isn't held in higher regard. It pretty much created the ever popular 90's sub-genre "Caring but tough teacher turns around wayward students". Morgan Freeman as Joe Clark has already done the impossible. He took a school full of kids with no hope for a future and taught them to have pride, that there WAS a future for them, that their lives had value. Still, there is one last hurdle...the state proficiency exam. Obviously Freeman's delivery is a major part of  what makes this speech special, but the true power comes from the words themselves...telling the students in all honesty that no one outside of the school walls thinks they will succeed and challenging them to prove them wrong. The simple act of giving them a goal lights a fire of hope in the entire student body. As far as true emotion and powerful scenes go, this is the true #1. 

1. Independence Day- Today We Celebrate Our Independence Day!Not to take away from my #1 pick but just to reiterate, had this list been soely based on message, power, and emotion ID4 would have been swapped with Lean on Me. This list, however, is based on a scenes ability to make you want to stand up and fist pump in the middle of a movie theater. Bill Pullman  and the Independence Day writers did that like none other. I have to admit that it starts of slightly weak..and being a huge Spaceballs fan it's always hard for me to accept Lone Star as the POTUS but damn does it redeem itself. Around the 1 minute mark there's a perfect melding of crescendos between President Whitmore's escalating tone of voice and the background score that results in a feeling of excitement that is impossible to ignore. 
What are your Top 5 movie speeches? Let us know below in the comments!Pacific Rim hits theaters July 12thIf you haven't seen the original trailer check it out below.