Key scene

A key scene is a scene whose content plays a central role in the further course of the plot of a literary work or a film or in which central character traits of one or more characters are shown.

example

An example of a key scene is a dream sequence in the film Blade Runner (1982). The protagonist, who hunts and kills replicants (= artificial people), dreams of a unicorn. In the film, origamis are left behind in different places by one of his opponents - including a unicorn. This allows the interpretation that the protagonist is also a replicant. This scene was not shown in the first theatrical version because the producers wanted a real person as a hero. This key scene is only included in the Director's Cut from 1993.