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Movies...Most Memorable Movie quotes

Movie list created by omnivorousrex Avatar

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'I see dead people.'

Haley Joel Osment used this choice of language when he revealed his character's supernatural power to a psychiatrist played by Bruce Willis in the 1999 blockbuster "The Sixth Sense." Ever since then, people have used the line—often substituting "dead" for whatever adjective suits the situation—to clandestinely make an observation about a group of people.

'I drink your milkshake.'

Daniel Plainview, a ruthless oil baron played by Daniel Day-Lewis in 2007's "There Will Be Blood," makes this statement just before dispatching a dishonest preacher and failed oilman. You might hear someone sarcastically utter the phrase, which Plainview used as a metaphor for stealing the charlatan preacher's oil while bragging about getting the better of someone else.

'Get your stinking paws off me, you damned, dirty ape.'

These were the first words ever spoken to an ape by a human in 1968's "Planet of the Apes,” when Charlton Heston's character George Taylor is captured in a net. Today, you might hear it from anyone who feels they're being unjustly persecuted by another person. 

'As if.'

In 1995's "Clueless," Alicia Silverstone's character Cher Horowitz uttered these two words, which perfectly summed up the concept of indignant disbelief.

'All right, all right, all right.'

Ever since 1993, many people have tried to play it cool while assessing a situation by letting these words roll of their tongues. Few, however, have done it as smoothly as Wooderson, the iconic high school hangaround guy played by Matthew McConaughey in "Dazed and Confused."

'They're here...'

Heather O'Rourke spoke these two timeless words when her character Carol Anne announced the arrival of supernatural monsters in the 1982 movie "Poltergeist." You might hear someone imitate the line upon the arrival of unwanted guests.

'What do you mean, I'm funny?'

In the 1990 movie "Goodfellas," Joe Pesci's character gave viewers a window into just how quickly a perceived insult can escalate in the criminal world when he pretends to take offense to a comment made by Ray Liotta's character, Henry Hill. You've probably heard someone parrot this line while jokingly pretending to be slighted by a friend.

'The Dude abides.'

The 1998 cult classic "The Big Lebowski" is one of the most quotable movies in history. You might hear this line—originally spoken by Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges)—dished out by someone who is indicating a willingness to go along with the program.

'Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night.'

Often misquoted as "...it's going to be a bumpy ride," this line was delivered by Margo (Bette Davis) in the 1950 multiple-Oscar winner "All About Eve," one of the most celebrated movies in history. You might hear someone repeat these famous words when a dull situation is about to get exciting.

'Say hello to my little friend.'

Few gangster movies are quoted more frequently than Scarface, the 1983 classic starring Al Pacino as Tony Montana. In the closing gun battle, a cocaine-fueled Montana blurts out this blockbuster line as he busts out the heavy hardware against a veritable army of marauding gangsters. It's commonly pirated by anyone who's about to reveal something they consider to be impressi

'E.T. phone home.'

You might hear someone rattle off this timeless line—drawn-out alien vowels and all—when it's time to call a cab or otherwise call it a night. The loveable alien in the 1982 Steven Spielberg classic "E.T.: The Extraterrestrial" turns this phrase as he longs for his home on a faraway planet.

"They may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!"

In the 1995 epic "Braveheart," this battle cry is the final word spoken by Mel Gibson's William Wallace—his executioner expected him to beg for mercy. This final act of disobedience is often parodied by people who finally make it through a difficult endeavor.

‘Here's lookin' at you, kid.'

Arguably the most famous movie in history, "Casablanca" stars Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart, the latter of which speaks this line no fewer than four times in the classic film. It's the perfect go-to toast when the person raising a glass is at a loss for original words.  

'The stuff that dreams are made of.'

In a different movie, Humphrey Bogart turned a phrase that's equally as memorable as the one from "Casablanca." This time, the movie was "The Maltese Falcon" in 1941, and the quote can be used to describe anything too good for this side of heaven, from a stack of pancakes to a romantic encounter.

'Well, nobody's perfect.'

The character played by Joe E. Brown states this simple truth in the 1959 movie "Some Like it Hot," starring Marilyn Monroe. You can use the line anytime you need to absolve yourself of responsibility for a mistake.

'Run, Forrest, run!'

This line was delivered by the character Jenny when Tom Hanks' namesake character in "Forrest Gump" was being chased by bullies. It's become the stuff of legend, and it's appropriate to cite anytime you see someone putting one foot in front of the other at a pace that's faster than a brisk walk.  

'How you do you like them apples?'

Matt Damon's character in "Good Will Hunting" asks this rhetorical question after winning the affection of Minnie Driver's character over the advances of one of her snooty Harvard suitors. It's appropriate to recycle the line any time you come out of a competition on top.

'Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.'

Clark Gable delivered this line in the 1939 classic "Gone With the Wind" in response to Scarlett's question, "Where shall I go? What shall I do?" You can and probably should use it whenever you're not concerned with the fate of someone who believes that you should be.

"Love means never having to say you're sorry."

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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."

"If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you."

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True to his word, Liam Neeson kills 35 men in 93 minutes in the first film, scores more in the second and third, and who knows how many in the planned TV prequel.

"You make me want to be a better man."

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Though Jack Nicholson worried that his character was so unlikeable people would flee theaters, he ended up winning an Oscar for it, along with co-star Helen Hunt.

"I'm walking here! I'm walking here!"

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Dustin Hoffman’s line was ad-libbed, and the scene was shot guerilla style because they didn’t have enough money to shut down a New York street. The cab "almost hit us," Hoffman once recalled. "I guess the brain works so quickly, I said, in a split of a second, 'Don’t go out of character …' So I said, 'I'm walking here.' Director John Schlesinger started laughing. He clapped his hands and said, 'We must have that, we must have that,' and redid it two or three times, because he loved it."

'Win just one for the Gipper.'

You might hear this line from someone who is held back from joining friends on a mission or a journey they wish they could take part in. The words were uttered by future President Ronald Reagan in 1940's "Knute Rockne, All American." Reagan's character George Gipp makes this plea to the legendary football coach Knute Rockne as Gipp lay dying in his hospital bed.  

'There's no place like home.'

In 1939's iconic "The Wizard of Oz," Dorothy, played by Judy Garland, utters this sentimental favorite when she finally returns from her adventure in Oz. Despite the fact that she's experienced the most magical place imaginable, none of it compares to rediscovering the simple pleasures of her room, her family, and her humble Kansas homestead. The line is now a favorite proclamation for any world-weary traveler who longs for the familiar






'Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.'

The Great and Powerful Oz meekly spits out this famous line when it becomes clear that the jig is up for the charlatan wizard in the 1939 classic "The Wizard of Oz." Today, it's a metaphor readily used by anyone hoping to draw attention away from an embarrassing mistake or blunder.





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'I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.'

Another quote from Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz" stands the test of time. She utters the phrase to her loyal dog, Toto, when she realizes the tornado has blown her not just far away from her Midwestern farm, but into a magical land of unfamiliar beauty and danger. It's the perfect quote if you ever end up in a situation that has taken a turn for the surreal.

'Go ahead. Make my day.'

This macho quote is now tough-guy boilerplate. The line, famously spoken by Clint Eastwood's "Dirty" Harry Callahan character in 1983's "Sudden Impact," is now part of the American vernacular. Its use lets someone know they'd be doing you a favor by giving you a reason to pummel them.





'You've gotta ask yourself one question: do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?'

Often truncated to "are you feeling lucky, punk?" this quote was first delivered by one of the greatest tough-guy one-liner masters in Hollywood history: Clint Eastwood. In the 1971 classic "Dirty Harry," Eastwood's character Harry Callahan challenges a bad guy to remember how many bullets he spent during a gun battle before deciding whether or not to pull the trigger one last time. The bad guy relents—but society has never relented from incorporating the line into any confrontation that runs the risk of getting ugly.

'May the Force be with you.'

The original "Star Wars" debuted in 1977; the movie, and its many sequels and prequels, deal with the nature of good and evil. The invisible, but powerful Force governs the entire Universe, and it can be harnessed by both good and bad people—for both good and bad reasons. Many characters utter the phrase "may the Force be with you" throughout the series as they bid farewell to a friend embarking on a difficult mission or journey. It's now become synonymous with saying "good luck."

'You talking to me?'

In the 1976 classic "Taxi Driver," Robert De Niro's lead character, Travis Bickle, entered this phrase into American culture while rehearsing a hypothetical confrontation in front of a mirror. De Niro ad-libbed the line, which is now standard fare for anyone who's eager to escalate an argument into a fight.

'You can't handle the truth.'

The famous courtroom scene in 1992's "A Few Good Men" culminates with an intense cross-examination by Tom Cruise's character, a young lawyer named Lt. Kaffey who is tasked with cracking the iron-willed Col. Jessup (Jack Nicholson). When Kaffey demands the truth, Jessup yells out this now-famous line—which implies that the world needs hard men like the colonel to conduct difficult but necessary work, from which lesser men benefit, but are too weak to acknowledge.



'Show me the money!'

Another "Jerry Maguire" line, Cuba Gooding Jr.'s cash-obsessed football player character Rod Tidwell yells this famous phrase at the titular character, who is his agent. It's now used when someone tells a person they're engaging with to cut to the chase or get to what's important.

'You had me at hello.'


In 1996, the world met "Jerry Maguire," the movie whose title character was played by Tom Cruise. When Maguire is groveling to love interest Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger), his long, rambling take-me-back speech is cut off by this line. Now it can be used by anyone listening to a plea that doesn't need to be made because the recipient is already convinced.


"You complete me."

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"It was one of those lines that came so easily, it felt almost too easy," remembers writer-director Cameron Crowe. "When I first gave the script to Tom Cruise, and we were reading through it, I said, 'I'm going to change that line.' He said, 'Uh, I love that line. Why don't you give me a crack at it.' I left it in, and on the night of filming — it was 4 a.m., on a Friday, and everybody was dropping from exhaustion — Tom says the line. By the end of his speech, everybody was in tears. Across the room, Renee was a wreck. Tom had delivered the line so powerfully, and so directly to her, she was still getting over it. Later he told me, 'I had always wanted to say 'I love you' like that in a movie.'"

'Hasta la vista, baby.'

Few people have ever said goodbye with more authority than Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day"—and fans of the film have been copycatting the line ever since. After young John Connor (Edward Furlong) gives the now-benevolent Terminator a brief tutorial in Spanish, the cyborg hero remembers the lesson when it's time to bid farewell to the evil T-1000, whom Schwarzenegger’s character then dispatches with a shotgun blast.

'I'm the king of the world.'

The lucky-yet-unlucky drifter Jack, played by Leonardo DiCaprio in 1997's "Titanic," uttered this famous line on history's most famous ship after the character won a ticket for the boat's doomed maiden voyage. The line works for dramatic effect when something goes extraordinarily well—more commonly, it’s a campy way for someone to express oneself should they end up on a deck of a boat’s bow.

'Houston, we have a problem.'

You're likely to hear this line from someone who is at the mercy of a situation that has gone hopelessly awry. Tom Hanks' character in 1995’s “Apollo 13,” real-life astronaut Jim Lovell, reports back to Earth with this news when he realizes his space mission has taken a turn for the worse.

'I'll have what she's having.'

This line is appropriate any time you're hoping for a little bit of someone else's joy to rub off on you. This was the case in 1989’s “When Harry Met Sally,” when an older woman (played by director Rob Reiner's mother) said this to a waitress—after witnessing a expertly faked climax from Meg Ryan's character as she sat at a restaurant.

'I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.'

In the 1972 mafia classic "The Godfather," Marlon Brando's title character assures his Hollywood star godson Johnny Fontane that he will be able to convince a reluctant studio boss to give Fontane a part in a movie that he desperately wants. The quote implies extortion—that the studio boss will relent or he'll pay a hefty price—and he does, in the form of waking up in bed with a horse's head. Today, the line is a favorite among corporate CEOs and other power brokers who refuse to be denied during a negotiation.

'Snap out of it!'

Cher's character issues this plea following two hard slaps across the face of Nicolas Cage's character in 1987's "Moonstruck" after he confesses to being in love with her. You might hear this exclamation—hopefully without the violence—from anyone who needs the person they're engaging with to come to their senses.

'Nobody puts baby in the corner.'

Anyone who knows the 1987 classic "Dirty Dancing," starring the late Patrick Swayze (Johnny) and Jennifer Grey (Baby), will instantly recognize this line, which Swayze's character lays on the overbearing father, played by Jerry Orbach. You might hear it from anyone who refuses to let someone they love be disrespected.


'What a dump.'

No one knows for sure the first time someone referred to an unremarkable house a "dump," but Bette Davis immortalized the term. Her character spoke these words in 1949’s “Beyond the Forest,” as she looked around Joseph Cotten's character's place.

'There's no crying in baseball.'

The ornery and inebriated baseball coach Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks), yelled this famous line at an emotional player on his all-woman team in 1992's "A League of Their Own." Now, people use it any time they need to tell someone to stop whining and toughen up.

'It's alive!'

In 1931's "Frankenstein," a mad scientist played by Colin Clive exclaims this over and over when he finally realizes his dream of reanimating a dead body. You might hear this said for dramatic effect by anyone who has completed a challenging task, from fixing a car engine to resurrecting a dead stereo.

'I'll be back.'

When Arnold Schwarzenegger's hunter-killer cyborg raids a police station in 1984's "The Terminator," he makes this promise after assessing the building's structural integrity and leaving the room. You might hear this—likely in Arnold's Austrian accent—from anyone seeking to reassure someone else that a confrontation is not over, but just on a brief pause.

'You're gonna need a bigger boat.'

In 1975, "Jaws" made America afraid to go back into the water. Roy Scheider's sea-weary and terrified character Chief Brody makes this statement after seeing Jaws for the first time. Now someone might say it when a bad situation is beyond their ability to handle.

'What we've got here is a failure to communicate.'

In 1967, "Cool Hand Luke" pitted a rebellious chain gang convict (Paul Newman) against the merciless Captain, played by Strother Martin. Captain utters this line while attempting to break the spirit of Newman's character; in the modern world, you might hear one parrot this line when dealing with someone who is being disagreeable.

'We don't need no stinkin' badges.'

1948's "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" featured a bandit named Gold Hat—who, during a highway robbery, attempted to impersonate law enforcement. When the potential victim calls his bluff and asks to see a badge, Gold Hat responds, "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges." Nearly 30 years later, that line was bastardized into, "We don't need no stinkin' badges" when "Blazing Saddles" parodied the scene—and that's the way it remains in the annals of popular culture.

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