Everyone has their favourite movie quote. They’re the lines that stay with us long after the end credits have rolled, the things we say to friends, family and colleagues when we want to make a point or raise a smile – indeed, film quotes are all around us.
Below, we’ve collated 45 of our favourites (in date order.) So…Lights, camera… action!
1: “Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937)
Snow White was the only major character then-18-year-old Adriana Caselotti ever voiced. “Walt Disney thought it would spoil the illusion if you knew who the people were who provided the voices in the film,” she revealed in a 1987 interview, about the strict contract that kept her from other parts. (She died in 1997 at age 80.)
2: “Elementary, my dear Watson.” The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939)
Sherlock Holmes never utters this line in any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories. It was invented entirely for the movies. There were 14 released between 1939 and 1946, the first being The Hound of the Baskervilles, and all featuring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. John Watson.
3: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Gone With the Wind (1939)
Two months before the movie’s release, censors demanded that “damn” be dropped. The producers came up with 22 variations of the line, including “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a whoop,” before the censors relented and allowed the “damn” to stay.
4: “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!” The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Judy Garland became so attached to the little black Cairn Terrier who played Toto that she tried to adopt the pooch after filming ended. (His owner said no.) The dog, whose real name was Terry, was compensated well for his work: He got more than twice what the Munchkins received.
5: “Here’s looking at you, kid.” Casablanca (1942)
Casablanca stands as some kind of apex of studio film-making in the classic Hollywood era. Made in 1942, post-Pearl Harbour, it is an uncompromising war film with surprisingly reflexive moral ambiguity, and an even more uncompromising love story that eschews what was, and is, typical of this material, favouring pragmatism to doe-eyed sentiment. It stands as a peak in the careers of director Michael Curtiz, and stars Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.
6: “What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word, and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.” It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Despite performing poorly at the box office at the time of its release; the film has become a classic and is a staple of Christmas television around the world.
7: “I am big! It’s the pictures that got small.” Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Numerous retired silent film stars were considered for the role of Norma Desmond – Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Pola Negri – but, of course, the part ultimately went to Gloria Swanson, who stayed in character throughout the entire shoot.
8: “You don’t understand! I could’ve had class. I could’ve been a contender. I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.” On the Waterfront (1954)
Rod Steiger’s reaction to this line was filmed without Marlon Brando present. Brando’s deal with the studio allowed him to leave at 4:00pm every day to attend therapy to deal with the recent death of his mother.
9: “Nobody’s perfect.” Some Like It Hot (1959)
The film’s closing line was never supposed to make it into the final cut. The writers – I.A.L Diamond and director Billy Wilder – put it into the script until they came up with something better. They never did.
10: “Bond. James Bond.” Dr. No (1962)
Ian Fleming named his superspy by looking for the most boring moniker he could find on his bookshelves – it turned out to be the author of a bird-watching guide. “By God, [that] is the dullest name I’ve ever heard,” Fleming recalled of his eureka moment.
11: “Shaken, not stirred.” Goldfinger (1964)
Dr. No, the villain in the first Bond movie, utters the line onscreen for the first time. Bond himself doesn’t say it until Goldfinger, the third movie.
12: “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the war room!” Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
When Stanley Kubrick sat down with Peter George to adapt George’s novel Red Alert, the director struggled with treating the material as a straight drama, as he initially intended. “My idea of doing it as a nightmare comedy came in the early weeks of working on the screenplay.”
13: “What’s it all about? You know what I mean.” Alfie (1966)
Alfie tells the story of a young womanising man who leads a self-centred life, purely for his own enjoyment, until events force him to question his uncaring behaviour, his loneliness and his priorities
14: “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me, aren’t you?” The Graduate (1967)
In Mike Nichols’ movie, Mrs. Robinson is supposed to be 25 years older than recent college grad Ben Braddock. But in reality, 35-year-old Anne Bancroft was only six years older than 29-year-old Dustin Hoffman.
15: “Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!” Planet of the Apes (1968)
The secret behind Charlton Heston’s hoarse, gravelly delivery? Great acting, sure, but also Heston had the flu through much of the production.
Even people who haven’t seen Planet of the Apes know Planet of the Apes. It’s been referenced and parodied so many times in popular culture that I can’t imagine the surprise ending would still be a surprise for anyone.
16: “I think crime pays. The hours are good, you meet a lot of interesting people, you travel a lot.” Take the Money and Run (1969)
Woody Allen’s inept criminal is sentenced to 800 years, but remains upbeat knowing that “with good behavior, I can get that cut in half”.
17: “You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!” The Italian Job (1969)
Ask most English people for their favourite line from a movie, and they’ll do Michael Caine’s Cockney bark from The Italian Job when his sidekick has just accidentally blown a security van to smithereens by remote control.
18: “I’m walking here! I’m walking here!” Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman are crossing a New York City street when a cab nearly hits the actors. Hoffman delivers his famous line and serves up a few choice knocks on the cab’s hood.
19: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Love Story (1970)
One of the most parodied movie lines in cinema – even Ryan O’Neal himself poked fun at it in Peter Bogdanovich’s screwball comedy What’s Up, Doc? When Barbra Streisand quotes it, he retorts, “That’s the dumbest thing I have ever heard.”
20: “You’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya punk?” Dirty Harry (1971)
Another misquote. Contrary to popular belief, Clint Eastwood never says, “Do you feel lucky, punk?” The film was a critical and commercial success and set the style for a whole genre of police films.
21: “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.” The Godfather (1972)
Some variation of this line appears in all three Godfather movies, spoken by several of the Corleone family. Screenwriter Mario Puzo and director Francis Ford Coppola were on opposite coasts when they were co-writing the script for the first film – Puzo in New York City, Coppola in San Francisco.
22: “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” The Godfather, Part II (1974)
Although this line is variously attributed to Sun Tzu, Machiavelli and an Arabian proverb, this specific phrasing came straight from the pens of screenwriters Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola.
23: “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” Jaws (1975)
“Richard Zanuck and David Brown were very stingy producers and everyone kept telling them ‘You’re gonna need a bigger boat,'” recalls Jaws screenwriter Carl Gottlieb (who moved in with director Steven Spielberg for four months to work on the shooting script). “It became a catchphrase for anytime anything went wrong – whether lunch was late or if the swells were rocking the camera.”
24: “You talkin’ to me?” Taxi Driver (1976)
Robert De Niro improvised the line. The script simply said, “Travis speaks to himself in the mirror.” Writer Paul Schrader told the actor his character was just “a little kid playing with guns and acting tough.”
25: “May the Force be with you.” Star Wars (1977)
Several characters say this line in the original movie, but surprisingly not Obi-Wan Kenobi, who doesn’t utter it until 2002’s Episode II: Attack of the Clones.
26: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” Apocalypse Now (1979)
That iconic line, delivered by Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore (Robert Duvall) in Francis Ford Coppola’s epic movie, defines the horrors of the war experience as we watch soldiers surfing the waves behind a destroyed village. He ends the little soliloquy by saying it smells like “victory.”
27: “Heeeeeeeere’s Johnny!” The Shining (1980)
All the script called for was for Jack Nicholson’s deranged writer, Jack Torrance, to break down the door to get to his cowering wife. But Nicholson added a little something to cut the tension – the production went through dozens of doors before director Stanley Kubrick was satisfied – and his improvised “Heeeeeeeere’s Johnny!” made the cut.
28: “No… I am your father. Search your feelings you know it to be true.” Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
One of the most misquoted lines in movie history, right up there with “Play it again, Sam.” The real line has no “Luke” in it.
29: “I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.” Airplane (1980)
“I think people remember the line because of Leslie Nielsen’s delivery,” Jeff Zucker (who co-wrote the script with his brother David and Jim Abrahamson). “The way he said it was exactly what we were going for. We told the actors to pretend they didn’t know they were in a comedy.”
30: “E.T. phone home.” E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Director Steven Spielberg voiced E.T. during shooting – standing just to the side of the camera and interacting with the child actors. Then sound designer Ben Burtt recorded actress Pat Welsh, whose raspy smoker’s voice he overheard one day at a camera store, and mixed it with animal sounds to get the friendly alien’s voice just right.
31: “I’ll be back.” The Terminator (1984)
Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to change the line to “I will be back” because it sounded more machine-like and he had trouble pronouncing, “I’ll.” He said director James Cameron “looked at me like I’d lost my mind.”
32: “Goooood moooorning, Vietnam!” Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
The real-life Adrian Cronauer (played by Robin Williams) says he came up with the drawn out “goooood moooorning” sign-on because he was often shuffling papers to start the show and needed to stall for time.
33: “Dreams. They are never in the place you expect them to be. “ Shirley Valentine (1989)
Shirley Valentine (Pauline Collins) is alone in Greece until she meets Costas (Tom Conti), the owner of a nearby tavern, who helps her fulfill a dream of drinking wine by the seashore in the country where the “grapes were grown.”
34: “I’ll have what she’s having.” When Harry Met Sally (1989)
According to Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan was so self-conscious about faking an orgasm, director Rob Reiner faked “an orgasm that King Kong would be jealous of” to make her relax.
35: “I mean, funny like I’m a clown? I amuse you?” Goodfellas, 1990
The “funny how” bit was heavily based on an incident Joe Pesci experienced as a young waiter when he complimented a mobster on his sense of humour. Needless to say, the man didn’t take it too well. Martin Scorsese heard the story during rehearsal and liked it so much that he let Pesci and Ray Liotta incorporate it by improvising their dialogue. The other actors in the scene weren’t given advanced notice because Scorsese wanted their genuine, unrehearsed reactions, and he shot it with only medium takes and no close-ups in order to capture their surprise.
36 “Hasta la vista, baby.” Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
“Sayonara, baby” was used in the Spanish-language version of the film since hasta la vista wouldn’t have been funny to Spanish-speaking audiences.
37: “I’m having an old friend for dinner.” The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
With lines as good as this one, Anthony Hopkins only needed about 16 minutes of screen time to win a best actor Oscar, among the shortest performances ever to earn someone an Academy Award in the category.
38: “My mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” Forrest Gump (1994)
The film is based on the 1986 novel by Winston Groom. Additionally, Groom was not mentioned once in any of the film’s six Oscar-winner speeches
39: “They call it a Royale with cheese.” Pulp Fiction, 1994
If John Travolta’s character had been hiding out in Italy rather than France, the line would have been “They call it a McRoyal DeLuxe.” If he’d been in Japan, he might have skipped the beef and tried the “Filet-O-Shrimp Burger.”
40: “They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!” Braveheart (1995)
Historically speaking, Wallace probably didn’t say the “never take our freedom” quote, but the screenwriter gave him those words to rouse the troops. It must have worked, too, because the Scots won the Battle of Stirling Bridge that followed that speech.
41: “Why so serious?” The Dark Knight (2008)
Heath Ledger’s Joker, delighting in making up stories about his horrific facial scars. The most memorable, whispered to a group of gangsters in a pool hall, involves his drunkard father carving up his face with a kitchen knife, laughing while repeating to him, “Why so serious?”
42: “You had my curiosity. But now you have my attention.” Django Unchained (2012)
The first western to win the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay since Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). And the first to win an Award for Acting (and in the same category) since Unforgiven (1992). This movie, along with True Grit (2010), repeated a rare pattern, where twenty years earlier, two westerns (the other being Dances with Wolves (1990)) were nominated for Best Picture two years apart.
43: “Look at me. Look at me. I am the captain now.” Captain Phillips (2013)
It’s the soft menace and iron-hard gaze of Barkhad Abdi (then in his first-ever film role) that gives one of his opening lines its simple terror. After hijacking the merchant mariner Maersk Alabama, he holds its captain, Tom Hanks, at gunpoint, explaining the situation in the simplest possible terms. He’s the captain now. That’s it.
44: “I am Groot.” Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Vin Diesel had no easy task voicing the creature, but his subtle inflections turned a monosyllabic hunk of bark into a celebrated pop cultural figure. The unlikeliness of “I am Groot” ending up here is akin to the unlikeliness of Guardians become Marvel’s breakout hit.
45: “In moonlight, black boys look blue.” Moonlight (2016)
Moonlight became the first film with an all-black cast, the first LGBTQ-related film, and the second-lowest-grossing film (behind The Hurt Locker) to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Joi McMillon became the first black woman to be nominated for an editing Oscar, and Mahershala Ali became the first Muslim to win an acting Oscar.
Source: www.afi.com, www.hollywoodreporter.com, www.radiotimes.com, en.wikipedia.org www.vulturehound.co.uk and www.thrillist.