20 Best Movie Characters Who Only Appear In ONE Scene

It takes a special kind of actor to be able to take a small, minute role, sometimes one that only takes up a couple of minutes of screen time, and turn it into something special

Not to say it's easy being the headlining act of a film either, but for those actors with only a handful of minutes in front of the camera, it's all about maximising what's on the table and making the most of the scene itself

And these are the best movie characters who only appear in one scene

Vincent Grey, The Sixth Sense Donnie Wahlberg's Vincent may have only been on screen for a matter of minutes and just in the one scene

but he's the guy who sets the tone for what lies ahead in The Sixth Sense

Having dropped a ludicrous £40 for the role, Wahlberg's character is an angry, scared and desperate ball of emotion

who shoots Bruce Willis' Malcolm Crow and then kills himself during the opening moments of the film

While audiences spent 95% of The Sixth Sense watching an alive and well Malcolm

it would of course be revealed that Willis' character was actually dead courtesy of that opening gunshot

As such, it could be argued that Vincent is actually the most important and impactful character of the whole story

Sapper Morton, Blade Runner 2049 As much as we all love Dave Bautista's performance as Drax in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

his short but sweet turn in the opening moments of Blade Runner 2049

was the first major indication of his transfixing dramatic chops. Batista appears in a single five-minute scene as Sapper Morton

a Nexus 8 replicant who is now living a low-key life as a protein farmer

and has been targeted for retirement by replicant Blade Runner Kay. The brilliantly suspenseful sequence sees Kay arrive on Morton's farm

with the intent of bringing him in, one way or another. Knowing his number is up, a visibly unsettled Morton eventually initiates a fight with Kay

using his sheer brute strength to overpower him, until Kay is able to mount a comeback and shoot him dead

Though a short film, Nowhere to Run, was released to flesh out Morton's character

even in his few minutes of screen time in the movie proper, he perfectly conveys the fear felt by all the replicant models being hunted down

Moreover, he's far more than the blunt object you might expect, a thoughtful, melancholic character clearly wearing a massive weight on his giant back from a brutal past

Page Tico, Star Wars The Last Jedi. Regardless of your thoughts on the 8th entry in the grander Skywalker saga

one thing that all audiences seemed to agree on was that Paige Tico was one of the very best parts

of the film. Faced with horrendous odds in the intro, Nothan Vans Paige sacrifices herself for

the greater good. As the sole person left alive during a bombing run to destroy one of the First

Order's hefty ships, she embraces the explosion and knows that while she will die, at least she's

dealt a huge blow to this next wannabe empire. Vincenzo Concotti, True Romance. With a script

penned by Quentin Tarantino, it's little surprise that True Romance is jam-packed

with savagely hilarious one-liners. Yet there's a single scene in the film that just might rank as one of the

finest ever written by the legendary filmmaker. The scene is, of course

the mid-film arrival of Vincenzo the Sicilian Cocotte, a mob consigliere who pays a visit to

Clarence Worley's father, Clifford, in order to learn his whereabouts. From the first moments of the scene, Walkden's

Cocotte bleeds menace, introducing himself to Clifford and succinctly explaining that he won't abide any lies, boasting that

Sicilians are the best liars in the world. Refusing to give his son up and therefore

knowing his goose is cooked, Clifford decides to deliver a brutally provocative riposte to

Cocotte, explaining to the evidently racist Cocotte that Sicilians are spawned from black

people. Cocotte grows increasingly frustrated over the course of the monologue, even while

feigning laughter at Clifford's claim, before being pushed over the edge when Clifford calls

him, part eggplant. Kakoti then shoots Clifford dead and stays with exasperation, I haven't killed anybody

since 1984. The entire scene is an acting masterclass by both Walkden and Hopper, Walkden delivering

a full bodied character inside of an incredibly tight 10 minute sequence, after which he's

never seen again. Thunder Lips Rocky III In Rocky III, Hulk Hogan's Thunder Lips turns up to take on Sly Stallone's titular

Balboa for a charity contest of wrestler vs boxer. The match ends in a draw but the fun was seeing the overmatched Rocky being slapped around

by a pre Hulk Hogan Rocky eventually turns the tables and throws Thunderlips over the top rope for the bout conclusion but that only meant that Thunderlips himself was remembered by Rocky fans forevermore Uncle Ellis No Country for Old Men Deep into the third act of the Coen Brothers best picture winning masterpiece

No Country for Old Men, beleaguered sheriff Ed Tom Bell pays a visit to his Uncle Ellis

Having just found Llewellyn Moss murdered, Bell feels totally and utterly defeated

that the brutality of the region and the era is simply too much for him to deal with

In a mesmerizing scene, Bell explains this to Ellis. who offers up his own poetic perspective on the futility of revenge

before telling him the tale of their Uncle Max's death in 1909

suggesting to him that ultraviolence isn't a new phenomenon for the area. In his chilling final words to Bell, he tells him

What you got ain't nothing new. This country's hard on people. You can't stop what's coming

It ain't all waiting on you. That's vanity. The whole scene is a perfect fusion of first-rate writing, direction, and acting

But few single-scene characters have ever held the screen as magnetically as Uncle Ellis

Bob Barker, Happy Gilmore Playing an amped-up, ass-kicking version of himself in 1996's Happy Gilmore

Bob Barker completely devoured the scenery in the time he was given. Out of nowhere, The Price is Right host joins Adam Sandler's Happy in a tournament match

only for Gilmore to get too annoyed with rival Shooter McGavin's comments, leaving the pair to place last

After a few snide back-and-forths between Barker and Sandler, Gilmore snaps and lays out Bob

only for Barker to fire back and the pair to go at it. Even when the younger, stronger, happy Gilmore

gets the better of Bob he rises back up like the Undertaker to land one last beatdown

and emerge victorious. Miracle Max, the Princess Bride After Wesley is damn near tortured to death

in the Princess Bride Inigo Montoya and Fezzik bring him to Miracle Max, a folk healer

What follows is an hysterical five minute sequence where Max, played by Crystal

under massive amounts of old man makeup, cracks jokes as the heroines try to convince him

to restore Wesley to good health. Once they inform Max doing so will ruin Prince Humperdinck's wedding

he's game for the job. As some icing on the cake, Max is also joined by his wife, Valerie

who helps persuade Max that true love must prevail through Wesley's resurrection from being mostly dead

Even with much of Crystal's dialogue allegedly being improvised, this snappy, gut-bustingly funny scene shows

and says everything we need to know about Max. He's a weird ass healer of questionable morals who can be brought back down to earth by his equally arned wife

Most movies would kill for a main character this entertaining, and yet here Max takes his leave after just one single brilliant scene

Casey Becker, Scream. When it comes to characters setting the tone for an entire movie, and to be honest, the entire franchise

they don't get much better than Drew Barrymore's Casey Becker. Killed in the opening moments of Wes Craven's first Scream film, she was only on screen for 15 minutes

yet Casey set out the terms and conditions of Scream as an IP forevermore

With the initial marketing materials having Barrymore front and centre, and with her name as the headline act

seeing Becca killed off after a prolonged opening scene was straight up unthinkable

However, that was such a key part of what made Scream stand out from the pack

changing the horror game in 1996. Lucifer Constantine If you need someone to play a repellent sleazebag in your movie

there are few character actors better than Peter Stormare, who has basically mastered the art over the last three decades

It's tough to single out just one great role. But Stormare's finest moment to shine perhaps came in 2005's comic book movie Constantine

where he fleetingly shows up as Lucifer in one solitary scene. Near the end of the film, Lucifer arrives to collect John Constantine's soul

though Constantine manages to bait Lucifer into a confrontation with the arc angel Gabriel instead

Stormare plays Lucifer as grossly animalistic, a repugnant and terrifying figure who cannot abide the fact that Constantine has played a trick on him

For as many mistakes as the movie makes, its portrayal of Lucifer is one of cinema's all-time most fascinating and unforgettable

They took a risk by keeping him off screen for almost the entire movie, but thanks to Stormare's masterful performance, the gamble totally pays off

Rahad Jackson, Boogie Nights While Alfred Molina may be most famous for his nefarious role as Dr. Octopus in Spider-Man 2

one of his grey turns is actually one of his smallest. See, Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights may have chronicled the rise and fall of Mark Wahlberg's

Dirk Diggler, but the film had a stunning ensemble cast. One such inclusion is Alfred

Molina though his Rahat Jackson was a fleeting brief part of Boogie Nights larger picture When Wahlberg Diggler and the gang visit local drug dealer Jackson with the intent of passing off baking soda as cocaine

the tension is slowly amped up as Melina's calm and cool Rahad gets to dominate the entire scene

Blasting Night Ranger's sister Christian, he really is the only one. Richie Cusack, A History of Violence

David Cronenberg's A History of Violence is a superbly crafted thriller from top to bottom

but perhaps never better than when William Hurt shows up for one mesmeric 10-minute scene right at the end of the film

Hurt, who received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his performance

plays crime boss Richie Cusack, who also happens to be the brother of protagonist Joey

In this lengthy scene, Richie switches from warm and jovial to utterly menacing in a blink

explaining to Joey the problems his volatile past have caused his own criminal operations

before ordering his lackeys to kill Joey. But Joey puts his special skills to good use and fights back, offing all of Richie's cronies before shooting Richie dead point blank, allowing him to return to his family life

It's not a majorly flashy role, but Hurt does an excellent job introducing a mobster character who skirts cliches, and has very understandable motivations for wanting his own brother dead

X. JFK One of the biggest flaws of this divisive flick is the inclusion of character X, someone who was created purely for Oliver Stone's 1991 movie, despite it otherwise supposedly being factually correct

Whether X was a real person or not, that doesn't stop him from being one of the most important characters in the whole film

Appearing for just one scene opposite Kevin Costner's Jim Garrison, X delivers the revelation that the assassination of John F. Kennedy was a group effort involving the CIA, the FBI, the Secret Service, the Mafia and Lyndon Johnson

Encouraging Garrison to keep on digging deep on his mission to discover the truth, X explains how Kennedy was killed because he wanted to pull the US out of the Vietnam War and that he was also going to disband the CIA

In that one 14-minute scene, Donald Sutherland went down in history, delivering one of the

best speeches of his career. The T-Bone Waitress, Hello High Water David McKenzie's brilliant neo-western Hello High Water features too many excellent scenes

to count, with every part being perfectly cast from the A-list leads to the most minor

fleeting cameos. And few characters have ever left as much of an impression in just 70 seconds as Margaret

Bowman's T-Bone Waitress does, when Texas Rangers Marcus and Alberto visit her eatery

Upon serving the two men, she asked them the massively confusing question

what don't you want? Before elaborating with a hilariously cantankerous explanation for her odd line of questioning

I've been working here for 44 years. Ain't nobody ever ordered nothing but a T-bone steak and a baked potato

Except this one a-hole from New York ordered a trout back in 1987

We don't sell no goddamn trout. T-bone steaks. So either you don't want the corn on the cob, or you don't want the green beans

So what don't you want? When Alberto follows up that he'd like his steak cooked differently

She insists that she don't want no questions, and then basically forces the pair to both order iced tea

To cap it all off, Marcus then tells Alberto, well, I'll tell you one thing, ain't nobody gonna rob this son

Bowman, who sadly passed away shortly after the film's release, takes a potentially forgettable role and, with the help of Taylor Sheridan's tack-sharp script

makes this surly waitress one of the movie's most memorable characters. In barely a minute, no less. Bravo

Mrs. Miller. Doubt. So impressive was Viola Davis' performance as Mrs. Miller in 2008's Doubt, it instantly propelled the actress from a minor player in big movies to a superstar who proudly had an Academy Award nomination under her belt

The Mrs. Miller character herself is a very troubled one, playing the mother of a son who is allegedly being molested by a priest

After hearing this news, Miller's one scene saw her react not quite in the way that people would expect

Instead of shock, anger or even vengeance, she believes that all of this is God's plan

As such, Mrs. Miller openly admits that she would rather turn a blind eye to these accusations of molestation

rather than have them investigated and be proven true. She even adds more weight to this by revealing that her father would kill the boy if he found out that Donald was gay

and or he was being abused. The fact that Viola Davis received an Oscar nomination for just 8 minutes of screen time

should tell you how memorable and troubled a character that Mrs. Miller is

Daniel Collateral Despite being centered around an assassin called Vincent, being driven around Los Angeles and killing people Many of Collateral best moments are instead focused on tense chit Case in point the fantastic scene where cabbie hostage Max drives Vincent to a jazz club so they can meet with its owner Daniel The three

men sit down for a seemingly relaxing post-gig drink where Daniel, a

man of natural gravitas, regales the pair with a story of the 1964

night where Miles Davis entered his bar and played with the band. Daniel

is such a natural storyteller that it's easy for both the audience and Max to forget

that Vincent is here for a reason. To kill Daniel for testifying in an upcoming grand jury case against drug law Felix Reyes-Tarana

Vincent offers Daniel an out. If he can answer a question about how Miles Davis learned his craft, he can live

Daniel answers confidently, but Vincent isn't satisfied with the detail of the answer

and promptly plugs him through the head with a silenced pistol. Everyone here is on their A-game

But between the higher-profile crews and Fox, it's Henley who lends real soul and grit to the scene

In barely five minutes, we learn a lot about the man's life and passions, only for it all to be snuffed out in a single second

Captain Coons, Pulp Fiction Taking place in flashback, this scene showed how Bruce Willis' Butch received the gold watch that he holds so dearly in the present day across Pulp Fiction

As the young Butch sits a foot away from his TV set, Christopher Walken's Captain Coons arrives on the scene

Captain Coons regales Butch with a tale about a gold watch. Not just any gold watch, but the one that Butch's great-grandfather got during World War I

and that has since been passed down through every generation of the Coolidge Boys

Now, following the death of his father, the watch belongs to Butch. Walken spends four solid minutes delivering a story of how the watch had spent five years

hidden inside Butch's father's behind, before Coons himself stored the watch in his own behind for a further two years

Only after the old man passed away from dysentery did he come across to talk to Butch

And also thanks to Tarantino for making this stuff up, so people like me can talk about it on YouTube

Perrier Lepedit, Inglourious s. This might seem like a bit of a cheat given that the opening sequence to Inglourious s

runs over 20 minutes in length, but it is one long unbroken scene so it still counts, dammit

As much as Christoph Waltz stole every scene he was in in this Oscar-winning portrayal of SS Colonel Hans Lander

don't let his outstanding work overshadow his primary screen partner in that opening set piece

The scene revolves around Lander interrogating French farmer Perrier Lepedit, who he believes is hiding a Jewish family, the Dreyfuses, under the floorboards of his farmhouse

The whole exchange, as Lander slowly but surely breaks Lapidit down by promising to spare his

family if he gives the Dreyfuses up, is terrifically tense, due to both Lander's chillingly

calm demeanour and the rising fear with which Lapidit regards him. It's a superbly understated

performance, taking a character who could so easily be a passenger to Lander and making him

incredibly interesting and memorable in his own right. Blake, Glenn Gary Glenn Ross. A few actors

and characters have ever made quite as much of an impression on an audience as Alec Baldwin's

Blake in Glengarry Glen Ross. As it happens, Baldwin's character doesn't actually exist in

the Pulitzer Prize winning play that the movie was based on, but this just goes to show that

sometimes adding new elements to existing source material can prove to be a masterstroke if done

right. Blake holds court for one of the greatest monologues in 90s cinema. Spitting sheer acid for

10 minutes, Blake encompasses everything that was the high-pressure, high-end sales environment of

the 80s and 90s. Blake is the encapsulation of so much of what drives Glen Gary Glen Ross

and with Baldwin's fiery delivery, the character remains ridiculously popular, even though it's almost three decades since the movie was released

Bill Murray, Zombieland. Cameos where famous actors play themselves don't get much funnier

surprising, or more howlingly self-aware than Bill Murray's single-scene appearance in Zombieland

Murray plays a slightly exaggerated version of himself who terrifies Tallahassee, and the other survivors after they break into his mansion

Murray surprises the heroes by wearing zombie makeup, allowing him to move around town undetected by the real undead

After Tallahassee gushes over Murray, the pair get stoned with Wichita and reenact scenes from Ghostbusters

Tragedy abounds, however, when Columbus mistakes Murray for a real zombie and fatally shoots him in a panic

As Murray bleeds out, Little Rock asks him if he has any regrets, to which he hilariously replies, Garfield, maybe

You can argue that Murray isn't so much playing a character as he is playing a slight caricature of himself

but he still manages to steal the movie in a scene that's far more creative and inspired than a typical fan serving