Before diving into fireworks, let’s remember the modest firecracker. Though technically not fireworks, in states where individuals can purchase different fireworks, firecrackers are a simple staple. They have gained a reputation as the rougher variety of fireworks, famously illustrated in the tense scene from Boogie Nights. In this scene, Dirk Diggler (played by Mark Wahlberg) and Reed Rothchild (played by John C. Reilly) attempt to swindle a drug dealer (Alfred Molina), planning to leave before he realizes they’ve sold him baking soda instead of cocaine. The random bursts of firecrackers keep the characters—and viewers—tense, whether or not you’re caught up in the excitement. Coupled with iconic tracks like “Sister Christian” by Night Ranger and “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield, it creates a thrilling, comedic, and nerve-wracking mix.

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Fireworks as a victory celebration are pretty typical stuff, but one of the neater changes in the Special Edition of the Star Wars trilogy comes toward the end of Return of the Jedi, where fireworks over the moon of Endor give way to similar celebrations all across the galaxy on a variety of planets. Might one wonder how intergalactic fireworks differ from the Earth versions, and where, by the way, Ewoks got access to theirs? Might one even lament the lack of said Ewoks’ “Yub Nub” song, deleted in order to make room for a broader look around the universe? Yes, yes, of course. But who doesn’t want to see a fireworks display on the planet-wide city of Coruscant?!

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This summer-season charmer about a bunch of neighborhood kids playing a single unscored, unending ballgame together has an episodic structure that makes room for a lengthy sequence of Looney Tunes attempts to retrieve a signed baseball from a fearsome dog, a group vomiting sequence, and a gently poetic Fourth of July scene where the kids play under lights — only it’s the brightness of the seasonal fireworks display illuminating their makeshift ballfield, not an actual lighting rig. The fireworks look bigger than life (and, in a few cutaway shots, like a square image has been stretched to the widescreen frame); not realistic, but how they might look to a kid having the unexpected best summer of his life.

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There have been various fireworks-related Jackass stunts over the years, but it’s hard to top the sheer wish-fulfillment crossed with abject, glorious stupidity of “Rocket Skates,” where Johnny Knoxville straps an increasing number of bottle rockets to roller blades and zooms along until, well, bottle rockets do what they do. What could be more American and celebratory than this?

Fireworks at a locally owned amusement park aren’t going to be the most glamorous show. But paired with Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over” and the youthful, yearning faces of Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg, and suddenly it looks like the most romantic thing in the world. All of Adventureland is attuned to the bittersweet rhythms of a dead-end-yet-life-shifting summer; this scene just encapsulates those feelings particularly well.

Leave it to Martin Scorsese to make fireworks seem more menacing than celebratory. They actually serve as a transition point for the Fourth of July weekend-set Cape Fear: First glimpsed as lighting shifts while lawyer Samuel Bowden (Nick Nolte) and his wife Leigh (Jessica Lange) make love, it takes a moment to realize they’re fireworks and not lightning outside their window. Shortly thereafter, Leigh catches her first real glimpse of Max Cady (Robert De Niro), a convict who has vowed revenge on Bowden for what he sees as a shoddy defense, sitting on the family’s property wall, fireworks exploding behind him. He’s gone before the display is over. It’s a short moment, but an indelible one, and the point where another major crack appears in the Bowden marriage, as Leigh finds out about Cady’s stalking (which has been going on for 10 minutes of screen time already) and how Samuel has been keeping it from her (and continues to downplay the threat, shrugging off how dangerous this man might be).

“Chapter one. He adored New York City. He idolized it all out of proportion. No, make that… he romanticized it all out of proportion.” Accompanied by characteristically hesitant and self-editing narration from Woody Allen and the strains of “Rhapsody in Blue” (not the first time that tune will appear on this list) are some of the most gorgeous establishing shots of Manhattan ever captured on film, courtesy of the great Gordon Willis, in shimmering black and white. The fireworks come in at the end, exploding across a static shot of the Manhattan skyline, and yeah, there’s a whole movie afterwards, about narcissism, consumerism, and Allen’s own weird hang-ups, and it’s funny and compelling and a little bit unnerving. But boy, those first few minutes are just plain perfect.

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Fireworks keep quiet in this famous scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief, one of his best light entertainments. John Robie (Cary Grant) is secretly a retired cat burglar, attempting to catch an imposter who many suspect of being Robie himself; Frances (Grace Kelly) is a woman who knows his true identity. As she lets that particular cat out of the bag, it also becomes clear that there’s an intense attraction between the two, accented by the fireworks display going off silently but brilliantly in the background. It’s a perfect visual representation of how the characters attempt to keep things close to the vest, but can’t hide their mutual ardor — a more opulently romantic version of the train going into the tunnel in North by Northwest.

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All of these movies are worth watching in full, but Blow Out especially shouldn’t be a skip-to-the-fireworks-factory picture. One of Brian De Palma’s very best thrillers stars John Travolta (himself giving one of his very best performances) as a sound man who may have accidentally recorded a political assassination, and the movie winds up at a “Liberty Day” celebration in Philadelphia, a weird facsimile of July 4th festivities, complete with fireworks display lighting up, well, it’s not a very happy scene, I’ll say that. De Palma movies are almost always a pleasure, but Blow Out really brings his peerless way with a set piece to a particularly feverish and emotionally affecting pitch. It’s not the most cheerful July 4th watch, but the American craft (and appropriate cynicism) behind it make for a rewarding one.

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Leave it to the Australian director Baz Luhrmann to somehow helm the top movie on an American-themed fireworks list. But it makes sense, because the man knows his way around a colorful display, put to great use in his version of The Great Gatsby. The whole movie is pretty great if you can vibe with a little too much direct quotation from the text, and it never feels more alive than in the sequence where Luhrmann first introduces Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), the rich neighbor who Nick (Tobey Maguire) has heard so much about. “Rhapsody in Blue” pops up again, exploding on the soundtrack when the crowds metaphorically part and Gatsby appears with a suave smile, a raised glass, and, yes, fireworks going off all around him. If I were DiCaprio, I’d make sure my gravestone would have one of those screens from The Shrouds, only it would just play a clip of this on a loop for all eternity.