12 Things We Learned From The World’s Top Movie Meeting Scenes
Let’s be truthful. Meetings can be boring. They can make you want to fall asleep. They can make you want to browse through pictures of cats under the table for hours on end.Why is it that while real-life meetings are never that exciting, meetings in movies always seem to be incredibly entertaining, full of madmen,drinking, shouting, laughing singing and chest-thumping?!
Here we look at 12 of our favourite movie meeting scenes and what lessons we can learn form these on screen encounters.
12. The Wolf of Wall Street
That brilliant moment in The Wolf of Wall Street when everyone in the cinema cringes and laughs at the same time as poor Leonardo Di Caprio finds himself in a boozey afternoon meeting with a coked-up Matthew McConaughey who has transformed himself from a straight talking business man to a wild, martini-drinking, chest-pumping, eye-popping Wall Street Broker.
Lesson learned? Just because your boss does it, doesn’t mean you can.
11. Austin Powers
Poor Doctor Evil. When the internationally known criminal genius wakes up from his 30 year sleep (he was cryogenically frozen from 1967 until 1997), he tries to hold the world random for the astronomical sum of…ONE MILLION DOLLARS. Little does he know how little this sum is compared to the 1960’s and thus ends up the laughing stock of all the world’s leaders. Inflation Dr Evil, lots of inflation.
Lesson Learned? Do your research, things change.
10. The Hobbit
One of the first scenes in The Hobbit Movie sees a meeting involving Gandalf, the Dwarfs, Thorin and a melange of other characters in Bilbo Baggins house in The Shire. The meeting starts with the group scouring poor Bilbo Baggins Kitchen for food and devouring everything they find while shouting and laughing. The mood suddenly changes once Thorin arrives at the house and this is when the serious discussions begin, with everyone tangoing on every word that comes out of Thorns mouth. The scene ends in a moving sing song of ‘The Misty Mountains’, sang by all the dwarfs.
Lesson Learned? One person can change the entire dynamic of a meeting.
9. The Iron Lady
You know the scene. Everyone knows this scene. Britain’s Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher (played by the formidable Meryl Streep who won an Oscar for her performances), sits down with some of the most powerful men in England and tells them straight out that they “don’t have the courage to fight for a cause because they never had to fight hard for anything in their lives”. It’s a charged scene in which a passionate female leader is fully aware of her power and is not afraid to use it.
Lesson Learned? Don’t be afraid to speak up!
8. The Dark Knight
Proof that a meeting doesn’t always have to take place in a board room. In this tense scene, The Joker sits in what looks like the kitchen part of a large restaurant and tells a gang of evil cronies his plan to “kill the batman”, in exchange for a big cut of the money, of course. When asked why he hasn’t killed him already, he famously says, “If you’re good at something, never do it for free.”
Lesson Learned? If you’re good at something, never do it for free.
7. Get Him To The Greek
With an opening line that involves a record label boss saying, “This meeting’s not for me, this meeting is for you”, we knew this would be a good choice. The meeting is more a brainstorming session than a board room meeting, as the employees try to discover who the next ‘Alicia Keyes’ might be or how to discover the next big hip-hp artist. One thing that is not tolerated in this meeting is small ideas. Small, meaningless, irrelevant ideas that won’t come to anything. If you want to impress, think big.
Lesson Learned? Think big. Big ideas.
6. Apollo 13
Failure is not an option, especially when failing may result in the death of the nation’s bravest men and the destruction of a shuttle that cost billions to build. In this scene, from the movie Apollo 13, a team of scientists and mathematicians are meeting to try and figure out what they can do to ensure that the Apollo 13 will make it safely back to Earth after orbiting the moon. They decide if they cut off most non-essential power options now, the shuttle will retain enough power to return from the moon. If the don’t, in 16 hours the batteries will be dead and so will the men.
Lesson Learned? A small saving now could result in massive result later.
5. Erin Brockovich
This scene from the movie Erin Brockovich is one our favourite movie meeting scenes, mainly thanks to Julia Roberts feisty attitude, something she maintains throughout the movie. When offered the measly sum of 20 million dollars compensation to cover all the medical hardship encountered by up to 400 families, Brockovich is the only representative from her team to stand up for what she believe in and declare it a ‘lame ass offer’. She goes on to ask the lawyers what price they would put on their spine, their uterus or even their kids lives, and to think about that carefully before returning with their next offer.
Lesson Learned? Never accept the first offer, always fight for better.
4. Liar Liar
This is one of our favourite scene from Liar, Liar. Sure it’s old, but it was one of Jim Careys classic comedy movies and this scene is him at his best. He is brought into a formal boardroom meeting and is asked what he thinks of the company director. As he is not allowed to lie, he ends up telling him how he really feels and calls him every name under the sun. After a few seconds of awkward silence, the director starts howling with laughter and asks Carey to roast every other member of the committee.
Lesson Learned? Always tell the truth, even if it’s ugly.
3. Zoolander
Zoolander, the movie that had people quoting and posing for months on end after it was first released. In fact, we probably all know people who still love pulling a ‘Blue Steel’ in photographs or claiming thy can “read people’s minds”. This is one of the movies classic scenes,and involves Derek meets with Mugatu to discuss his career and what Mugatu can offer him. A model of the ‘Centre for children who can’t read good’ is revealed and Derek is appalled by it’s size, and without thinking properly, declares that it needs to be at least…3 times bigger.
Lesson Learned? Think before you speak.
2. Kill Bill
This scene from Kill Bill teaches us all to watch what we say…especially of the meeting is being chaired by a woman with a sword who is not afraid to use it. Once Tanaka brings up their leaders Chinese-American heritage all hell breaks lose and he cuts off his head in one fast, flawless motion. She also warns the same will happen for anyone else that questions her leadership or her heritage.
Lesson Learned? Leave issues of nationality out of all meetings.
1. Ocean’s Twelve
This ‘Lost in Translation’ scene from Ocean’s Twelve is something I’m sure anyone who has ever been to a board meeting will appreciate. It can be near on impossible to follow everything that is been said, especially when things get more technical. You think you have said one thing, and everyone takes it up as something totally different. When posed with asking a question or telling an anecdote in this scene, Matt Damon is unsure whether to contribute to the conversation or to stay quiet. We also never really figure out which would have been the better option.
Lesson Learned? Sometimes keeping your mouth shut is the best option.