I send my scourge, I send my sword, thus saith the lord
- The opening of the film is not only visually-stunning but absolutely haunting. The slaves' sing "Deliver Us" about how they feel God has left them high and dry in their time of need. Meanwhile, Egyptian soldiers storm the Jewish village to steal babies from their terrified mothers and turn them into crocodile meat. Yocheved hides in her home, cradling baby Moses tight, knowing that these will be their final moments together, before she sends him down the river to an unknown fate-whether she succeeds in saving him or not-which is still better than watching him be snatched from her arms by Egyptian soldiers.
- During the "Deliver Us" segment, baby Moses floats down the river Nile, and we first see a shoal of fish swimming alongside him, before a giant crocodile rises from the water and snaps at the basket; thankfully, the crocodile misses, but Moses is then buffeted along by a group of other dangerous African river-dwellers; hippos, you know, the animals that can bite crocodiles in two and who the Egyptians feared more than crocs or lions?
- Moses' nightmare when he finds out he was born a Jewish slave, accompanied by the bloodcurdling sounds of screaming babies.
- Moses then discovers the mural depicting Pharaoh Set's massacre in all its grisly glory. Seti's response to the whole thing? "they were only slaves". If the fact that this man was responsible for massacring scores of babies didn't ruin any last bit of liking or respect for this man, this line did it. The fact that he says these words with complete calmness and without the tiniest shred of remorse, coupled with the fact this was an attempt to comfort Moses, makes it worse.
- The very fact that after ordering the butchery of thousands of Hebrew babies, Seti commissioned a mural of the event. As though this was something to celebrate.
- Imagine being Moses. You've just learned that the man you look up to as a father-figure is also responsible for killing a large portion of the community he's been keeping as slaves, which you've also learned you're a part of. Later as he flees into the desert after killing the overseer and Rameses asks why he's leaving, Moses responds "Go the tell the man I once called Father". Even speaking to Rameses years later, it's obvious that any love Moses had for his adoptive father is a distant memory.
- The overseer's death. Granted, he deserved it for beating an elderly Jewish slave, but it is still chilling.
- During the Burning Bush scene, God has been talking to Moses in a calm, serene tone, but when Moses questions Him, He grows tired of his judgement and snaps at him in a booming voice, while Moses cowers against the wall.
- The Nile turning to blood, especially watching the soldiers run away in terror. One of them even falls headfirst into the water.
- The most famous source of nightmare fuel in the movie is the Plagues of Egypt, with terrors like flies, boils erupting on people's skin and fire raining from the sky.
- The song starts off with a near-unintelligible hissing whisper, which really sets the tone.
- As well as being an awesome song performed by talented artists-Moses' singing is done by Amick Byram and Ralph Fiennes did his own singing for Rameses-the Plagues is still terrifying to listen to. One of the most terrifying lines is "into your dreams, into your sleep"; the gloves are off, God is NOT messing around, and that lines indicates he won't leave the Egyptians in peace until they free the Jews.
- "I send my scourge, I send my sword!" This isn't the gentle, kind New Testament God kids, or the kindness of His Son. This is the Old Testament YHWH, and when His people where threatened, he'd wipe kingdoms off the map to protect them.
- During the plague of boils, we see a shot of infected women desperately clawing at their skin and letting out horrifying screams. A terrified little girl and her younger brother see them run past through the window of their home. The children are untouched.
- The plague of locusts, which is described as a plague "such as the world has never seen". Anyone with a passing familiarity with the Bible knows that if you see those words, things are gonna go from bad to worse; The locusts plague hit a particularly sore point for the Egyptians, a desert culture, as God is essentially threatening to destroy them, the equivalent of nuking the land until its reduced to radioactive ash. We then cut a shot of Egyptian citizens who are so desperately hungry, they're reduced to eating dirt.
"I send a hail of burning ice, on every field, on every town." The hail looks like combination of artillery and napalm and rains burning hail for days.
- Take a good look at Rameses during the song; as the plagues go on, he slowly becomes more and more unhinged, and when his son dies from the final plague, he goes insane with grief and rage.
- If you know your Egyptian mythology, the plagues were designed to undermine a specific Egyptian god; imagine being an Egyptian citizen. The slaves have somehow made contact with a being so powerful their own gods either died or fled before it, and is laying waste to their civilization in incredibly brutal ways.
- A not-so-subtle visual foreshadowing of the final plague is given when Moses visits Rameses during the Plague of Darkness, to beg him to free the Jews. As they speak, Rameses's terrified son shows up with the torch, scared of the unending darkness. At his moment, Rameses goes from almost willing to hear Moses out to angry and reviling Moses. Moses then asks to stand down and "think of his son!". Rameses's son is seen standing under the mural of Seti's massacre of the Jewish newborns.
- While Rameses is the villain, he's depicted as a sympathetic character torn between his love of his brother and son and trying to live up the legacy of his father. Even when he reaches-arguably-his lowest point in the story during the penultimate plague, he still longs to reconcile with his brother and comfort his son. That goes out the window when he makes this chilling proclamation: "You Hebrews have been nothing but trouble. My father had the right idea about how to deal with your people. And I think it's time I finished the job. And there shall be a great cry in all of Egypt. Such as never has been or ever will be again!
- The way he stares at Moses when he returns the ring he was given years ago, going from sadness and regret to pure fury. The way his eyes snap open is enough to make viewers jump in their seats.
- Ditto his utterly furious glare at Moses after his son's death.
- For all his sympathetic moments, at the end of the film, Rameses leads his soldiers to kill Moses and the Jews. The death of his son has completely broken him and any love he has for Moses is gone, leaving a murderous psychopath who wants revenge no matter the cost. The war cry he gives after the pillar of fire dissipates is amazing and frightening, like only Ralph Fiennes could give it.
- Perhaps the cruelest thing God does to humble Rameses for his arrogance and stubbornness is to wipe out his army who followed him through the parted sea, but leave him a screaming wreck on the opposite shore, emotionally battered but alive. This once proud king has witnessed devastation brought to his kingdom, and is left to walk home to a city in ruins to witness the aftermath. And even if Rameses isn't killed by his terrified citizens, God only targeted Egypt, her trade partners and rivals are all intact, and a military-crippled and devastated Egypt is now ripe for conquering.
- The Death of the Firstborn.