Coolest "wow futuristic!" scene you've ever seen

[Coyote]

The Colonial Marines from Aliens themseleves were not so impressive, but their ship, the Sulaco, and the stuff surrounding it, were, to me, very realistic and believable applications of technology. When Ripley used the personal lifter to load munitions; when they opened the belly of the Sulaco and the dropship just cascaded out superfast into the atmosphere for a rough insertion, I thought, I could see this really happening someday.

The city scenes in both 5th Element and the SW prequels were cool, too. If you're aware of what you're looking at, seeing the multi-ton Senatorial cruiser land on that anti-grav platform, and having the anti-grav platform not even nudge, was pretty awesome to think about the tech involved.

[Shroom Man 777]

Oh, fuck, Sunshine. That was one very awesome audiovisual experience.

[Big Orange]

The grand reveal of the Executor from The Empire Strikes Back. The volcano lair from You Only Live Twice and Atlantis from The Spy Who Loved Me. ED-209 stomping into the conference room. The USS Excelsior.

[paladin]

When they're wandering around inside the giant supermachine complex in Forbidden Planet. I still don't know how they captured those shots with 1956 movie technology.

I think they used matte paintings for the scene.

[Broomstick]

The iPhone.

No, seriously, I'm not joking. Remember, when I was born NASA engineers were still using slide rules. Hell, even my relatively low-tech flip-phone (beam me up, Scotty!) with more computer power than the Apollo spaceships would qualify. The thing isn't just a phone, it's got a calculator, calendar, phone book, and a bunch of shit I've never bothered to use. Every time I see a modern, state of the art phone/communication device I think "Holy fuck! I'm living in a science fiction novel!"

[andrewgpaul]

True; That scene at the beginning of Minority Report, with Tom Cruise using that fancy touch screen thingy isn't that far off, it seems.

[Zixinus]

To go along Broomstick's bit:
Perceptive Pixel's multi-touch. When I saw that, I thought: "Now, that is the next step in user interfaces: intuitive, realistic and elegant. Holograms and neural links are pretty much just ideas, but this: this is amazing." I first saw it on TED and later heard that the creator made his own company.

[Highlord Laan]

To go along Broomstick's bit:
Perceptive Pixel's multi-touch. When I saw that, I thought: "Now, that is the next step in user interfaces: intuitive, realistic and elegant. Holograms and neural links are pretty much just ideas, but this: this is amazing." I first saw it on TED and later heard that the creator made his own company.

Holy hell, thats awesome. I had to watch that three times just to get my jaw off my desk.

As for my favorite "futuristic" moments, I have to say it's whenever I see an Omega class Cruiser from Babylon 5 in action. I just love the entire idea and aesthetic behind the whole design.

[Sam Or I]

Blade Runner for me still tops the list.

The post-apocalyptic vision in the Road Warrior. Many times, and still copied. Just the practical use of forgotten present day technology.

[Gandalf]

Back to the Future II. When Marty first steps out of the alleyway into the Hill Valley town centre. Cars are flying, there's holograms, and people just looked different.

Since I first saw that scene I was enamoured with ideas of the future and what awesome shit science could do.

[Littlefoot]

....but because they looked rough and rigid and hard and like something a modern-day Marine might use to waste some motherfucker through the proper application of killfuck.

Best line ever Shroom.

Some "wow Futeristic" moment for me:

The Mos Eisly (spelling?) Spaceport, pre-Special Edition. I think of that as what a colony on some backwater world should and probably will look like.

The T1 and T2 war scenes. As was said earlier they did convay a real sence of not impending doom, but that Doom had just breached the door and was kicking your ass seven ways from sunday.

The fleet action in Starship Troopers where the Roger Young goes up in flames. The detail in those shots was incredible.

[Zor]

Minority Report is pretty sweet as far as future stuff goes, as is the Fifth Element and the Axiom. However, i am going to have to give an honorable mention to a good deal of stuff in Planetes for giving the impression of what the future in space could very well be.

Zor

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Most of Event Horizon. Apart from few movies really capturing the more horrifying side of sci-fi (and I'm not necessarily talking about the demon-from-hell aspect; rather the relatively mundane horrors of hard vacuum, deep space, and wondering if you've managed to salvage enough CO2 scrubbers), it had some great visuals to go along with it. Searching the Event Horizon, patching the outer hull of the rescue ship, and the drive core of the Event Horizon herself.

[The Yosemite Bear]

The first reveal of a star destroyer, ever, something that scale just freaking blows the mind for a moment. Another bit would be 2001 where the pan-am shuttle docks, and of course Blade Runner....

[SirNitram]

The Cityscape of Fifth Element, and the massive battle over Coruscant in the beginning of AOTC(I do not lie when me and my wife went through repeatedly pausing, checking out the ships).

Honorable Mention: Final Check and Launch of the Kushan Mothership.

"The Mothership has cleared the Scaffold. I repeat, we have cleared the Scaffold. We are away."

[Kingmaker]

I agree with the Battle of Coruscant in ROTS. In retrospect, it didn't make a whole lot of sense (why are kilometer space ships trading broadsides?), but seeing it for the first time was awesome.

And I know it might be kind of lame, but the Starcraft II trailer, with Tychus Findlay getting armored up.

[Slacker]

I have to echo Fifth Element, but for a slightly different scene-what does it for me is the scene where the shuttle's leaving Future JFK and is taking off over Manhattan/Brooklyn. The distinctly different visual, with the Statue of Liberty still there as a bit of a reminder of what was, really does it for me. Especially with the city obviously extending out into the river and going even into the Atlantic. It's such a stunning contrast from the cityscape I see on a regular basis visiting my in-laws, and even before that growing up and going into the City on a regular basis.

Pretty sure the Verrazano got melted down to make the "Welcome to New York" sign that's flashing on the southern edge of the city.

[andrewgpaul]

Nitram's mention of the Mothership from Homeworld reminds me - one thing that always makes me go "cool!" is big, heavy things floating - Venator-class Star Destroyers leaving Coruscant, or the alien ships appearing in Independence Day or the "prawn" ship in District 9. It just shows a civilisation that's sufficiently advanced to give the laws of physics a big "fuck you".