Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, 2014

Matt Reeves is better known these days for helming the most recent Batman flick, but once upon a time he gave us the best sci-fi blockbuster of the 2010s. That movie is Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which really should’ve been the title of the first movie in the 2010s trilogy, but that is neither here nor there. I could try and give you a pitch, but instead I want to just describe my favorite sequence in this absolutely stunning film.

In the film’s big set piece, the apes, led by the movie’s villain Koba, go to war with the remaining humans in San Francisco. If you’ve ever seen a scene of an ape on horseback wielding two assault rifles akimbo-style, this is the genesis of that image. However, the most arresting part of this sequence is when Koba leads the charge on a tank. He jumps on top, kills the human gunner, and then dives into the tank to take out the rest of its crew. All the while, the camera is fixed to the spinning turret, panning over the warzone in a 360 degree shot that captures the chaos that Koba’s bloodlust has caused. Mortars come down, killing countless apes, but still they persist. Eventually, Koba reemerges the clear victor, seizes the turret and becomes the very thing he believes he’s fighting against: a tyrant, a man. — Moises Taveras