Call That A Snowman? - Edward Scissorhands (1990)
With the rest of the family setting up the standard Christmas baubles, Eddie (Johnny Depp) shows off by carving a statue of an ice angel - the shavings cascading like falling snow. Then he accidentally nicks Kim's (Winona Ryder) hand and kicks off a scrap. Stoopid festive family tension.
"Rosebud..." - Citizen Kane (1941)
Charles Kane (Orson Welles) lies on his deathbed. He gazes into a kitschy snowglobe and rasps the most famous single word in movie history. It's as if he's somehow pining for his childhood innocence, with 'Rosebud' perhaps the name of a treasured old toy or something.[page-break]
"You will go to the Dagobah system..." - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Stranded in the Hoth white-out, Luke (Mark Hamill) hallucinates/sees an image of mentor Ben (Alec Guinness) who explains how Luke must go get his Jedi chops from some fella called Yoda. He then vanishes mysteriously, leaving Luke to die from hemorrhagic shock induced by hypothermia.
Aftermath - The Thing (1982)
So Kurt Russell has killed the alien shapeshifting hellbeast, but he's, umm, broken the research base's energy supply in the process. So, he and one other lone survivor/possible human-alien, slump down in the snow and watch their world burn. ("What do we do?"... "Why don't we just, wait here for a little while?")[page-break]
The Biggest Freeze - The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
Due to a catastrophic blend of global warming, global cooling and Dennis Quaid's son being stranded there, Manhattan gets swamped by the mother of all blizzards. Thousands die - but it's okay, because Dennis gets to his son and the audience gets a finger-wagging lecture about sustainability.
Marge Gets Her Men - Fargo (1996)
Out in the wilds of Minnesota, pregnant police chief Marge (Frances McDormand) hunts down two murderous blackmailers while constantly eating. Having tagged and bagged the one who doesn't end up in a woodchipper (Peter Stormare), she delivers the Coens' stinging morale: "There's more to life than a little money, don'tcha know that?"[page-break]
Ice Fight - Batman Begins (2005)
Okay, more frozen lake type-thing than actual snow moment, but this is a sword-scraping, chin-elbowing scrap sequence where Liam Neeson teaches Batman to be hard. Good job about the fall-down-a-well thing, really, else this bit might have inspired Bruce to adopt the criminal-terrorising characteristics of a husky dog.
Jump! - The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
After a hectic downhill ski-chase where Roger Moore's Mr Bond dodges a load of bad guys while making ski motions in front of a comedy-obvious back-projection, he jumps off a cliff and unfurls a Union Jack parachute - which no-one (other than the camera in a helicopter) gets to see. Smooth.
Kill the Queen! - Alien vs. Predator (2004)
In which Alexa (Sanaa Lathan) and - sigh - friendly Predator Skar have a big stupid monster fight with the Alien queen in the snow. James Cameron weeps. Ridley Scott shakes his head, smiling ruefully. Director Paul WS Anderson punches the air, trousers the merchandise rights, sells a sequel to the Strause brothers... Hang on, this one's rubbish!
