Since we’ve been talking about endings and finales lately… Any candidates for “final line of a film that people know even if they’ve never seen the film”?
I’m pretty sure “It’s people!” ranks highest on the “People know the final line” > “People who know the movie” ratio.
Probably “Forget it, Jake…” is fairly high as well.
Your thoughts? As you can tell, I’m leaving off the names of the films because we are, after all, discussing their final lines, and you can’t get much more spoilerish than that.
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“Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
I know both of the quotes you mentioned and have seen both films.
I think everybody’s seen that film though.
Although I was late to it. When I was in college, I saw it with my girlfriend and neither of us knew ANYTHING about it. Everybody else in the theatre (this was a college town) was speaking along with the dialog, but the two of us had no clue where the story was going.
“Damn you all to hell!”
“Frankly, Scarlet, I don’t give a damn.” (I have no idea if that’s actually the last line, but almost no one has actually watched the whole thing and would probably believe it is.)
“Nobody’s perfect!”
That’s definitely got to be a geezer alert. If you know the movie, I’m surprised you’re still alive!
How about this:
“Why don’t we just… wait here for a little while… see what happens?”
Not at the level of Bill’s examples, both of which I recognize without having seen the movies, but the next one that came to mind was “That’s the stuff dreams are made of.”
My recollection is that “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” is not the final line.
Well, knowing the movie doesn’t mean having seen it when it first came out.
It was a great line, though: I wonder how many takes they filmed to get it just right.
“Nobody’s perfect” was also my first thought.
Is “Rosebud” also uttered at the end, when we see the scene?
“You’re next!”
“This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
And,
“It was beauty killed the beast.”
The line that should replace “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” is “After all, tomorrow is another day.”
It’s one thing to remember a memorable scene (whether last or not) from a movie that one has seen, but I find it supremely difficult to recall anything from a movie that I have not seen.
“My God, it’s full of stars!”
I’m pretty sure that’s the last line. The movie goes on for like another half an hour, but there’s no more dialog.
I think I see why you’ve edited the ‘…people!’ line.
“Rosebud” is not said at the end.
I guess everybody’s seen it, but the 4 people who haven’t still must know “Oh, Auntie Em, there’s no place like home.”
When I saw Casablanca for the first time, the line at the end surprised me, because I knew the line, but I had no idea where it came from.
How about “It was beauty killed the beast”?
“Roads? Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Roads!”
“Auntie Em, there’s no place like home.”
“Alright, Mr. DeMille, I’m Ready For My Close-Up.”
“Never give a sucker an even break.”
“Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”
How about “It’s heavy, what is it?” “It’s uh, the stuff dreams are made of.”
“Second star to the right, and straight on ’til morning.”
Given that most of the things people are listing are either not the final line, or things that only people who’ve seen the movie would know, I don’t think anybody’s going to top the two you mentioned in the opening.
GWTW is “tomorrow is another day.” Anybody who recognizes “Nobody’s perfect” has probably seen SOME LIKE IT HOT. Same with “Beauty killed the beast” and KING KONG. The final line of 2001 is the pre-recorded thing beamed back from Earth — “Oh my God, it’s full of stars” isn’t even IN 2001 (although it’s in the book); it’s in the sequel, 2010. (Put that in with “Play it again, Sam”, “Elementary, my dear Watson”, and “Beam me up, Scotty.”)
I was going through https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2016/04/28/the-best-closing-lines-in-films/ , and one that we haven’t mentioned is “All right, Mr DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up”.
“All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.“
So far the only lines I don’t recognize are “Damn you all to hell!”, “Why don’t we just… wait here for a little while… see what happens?”, and “You’re next!” The third of these is sufficiently difficult to search for that I still don’t know what movie is intended.
“We blew it”
“Don Corleone.” Sadly, I think that last line might spoil the movie.
Does Donald Southerland pointing and going “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” count as a last line?
“It’s a cookbook” (Okay, that’s a TV episode. Do we count it?)
“Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?”
“The horror, the horror”
Kedamono’s 2nd suggestion was my thought, “It was beauty killed the beast”.
“Watch the skies. Everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies. “
In a movie filled with wonderful quotes, here’s the last line: “God help us in the future.”
Most of these I would not be able to name the movie that goes with them and had to google it. I’ve heard of the movies, but would never have been able to connect the last line nor, do I think, would I recognize many of these as being a movie quote. I’m in my 50s and many of these references are to movies that were before even my time.
The King Kong reference is difficult because many have seen at least 1 version of it. Not sure if that line is used in more than just the original, though.
“Now I’m going home to sleep with my wife!”
“Because he’s the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we’ll hunt him. Because he can take it. Because he’s not our hero. He’s a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A Dark Knight.”
“Kitty!”
My recognition score is a little better than “0 for infinity”, but not by much. Can we have a second thread (call it “Last Spoilers“), in which the comments include both the last line and the title of the movie?
“As you wish”
Not quite a last line, but horror / sci-fi movies that end with the words “THE END?” and an ominous chord. It’s now a cliche wrap for parodies, but where did it start?
“You see…we’ve got all the time in the world.”
“My God, it’s full of stars!”
That line is from the novel, but it was not in the movie. I think the last spoken words, after HAL sings “Daisy”, a video pops up explaining the purpose of the mission.
“Again we have lost. The winners are those farmers — not us.”
(Does it count if I can’t quote it in the original Japanese?)
To go along with “God help us … in the future,” how about “And may God have mercy on us all!” It’s been a long time since I saw that one but I’m pretty sure that’s the last line as the three characters watch an atomic bomb go off … maybe about 100 feet or so away from them.
“Glen has found his mother, his little sister, his wife, and his Glenda all in one lovely package. Thus Glen’s case has a happy conclusion.” Well, for once a happy ending in this director’s career.
“Where the devil are my slippers?”
“May the Schwartz be with you!”
“Eee – ga – ba, eee – ga – ba, That’s all, folks!” (Hint: 1988)
“All right, everyone, let’s fan out and look for the penis!”
“They’ll see … they’ll see … and they’ll know … and they’ll say … ‘why, she wouldn’t even harm a fly….'”
“Well, thanks, Harvey. I prefer you too.”
I immediately thought about these two :
“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” and “You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!”
I’ll go ahead and spoil mine
“Nobody’s perfect!” Some Like It Hot
“Why don’t we just wait…” The Thing (1982)
“Watch the skies….” The Thing From Another World
“God help us in the future” Plan 9 From Outer Space
Like Kilby, I recognized almost none of these, unless I had seen the movie. (Plus, I’ve seen remarkably few of the ones listed.)
I didn’t identify the source for my “You’re next! You’re next, You’re next…!” so here it is: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) . https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049366/quotes?ref_=tt_ql_trv_4
Oh, here’s a good one: “To God, there is no zero. I still exist!”
“You’re still here? It’s over. Go home. Go.”
“Reverend Mother, I have sinned.”
“I, too, Reverend Mother. ”
“What is this sin, my children?”
“It’s so beautiful. Let’s live here! We’ll rent to start.”
“For someone who was never meant for this world, I must confess I’m suddenly having a hard time leaving it. Of course, they say every atom in our bodies was once part of a star. Maybe I’m not leaving; maybe I’m going home.”
“I wanted it to be you. I wanted it to be you so badly.”
Speaking of movie quotes, in a comics-related blog,
I have to admit I found a source of movie scripts, I picked the ones where I thought I knew the last lines, and if I was right I copied and pasted the last line.
I thought everyone would get “Why, she wouldn’t even hurt a fly.” Said by Norman as he sits very calmly in jail letting a fly walk around on his hand.
“Why thank you, Harvey. I prefer you too.” Come on, the title’s right in the quote.
For the one that ends with Porky Pig, what 1980’s movie has BOTH Daffy Duck and Donald Duck?
You may not have heard of “Bride of the Monster” aka “Bride of the Atom”, an Ed Wood movie that ends with an atomic bomb going off, “and may God have mercy on us all.” But if you haven’t seen “Glen or Glenda”, well, it’s one of those movies that is so bad it’s worth seeing but at the same time so hard to sit through that it’s not worth seeing. I bet you won’t get past the scene where the background music is the ballet music from Aida played by a saxophone quartet. So you’ll probably miss Bela Lugosi telling you about the green dragon that eats little boys.
I really did not remember the last line of “There’s Something About Mary” but I quoted it anyway because it has a funny word in it.
If you don’t know “May the Schwartz be with you” you just are not a movie fan at all, not even in theory.
I recignized some of them but I did not think to ID them.
“May the Schwartz be with you,” is from one of my favorites: “Spaceballs: The Movie”.
“Why, she wouldn’t even hurt a fly.” Is from “Psycho”.
The Porky Pig one is from another of my favorites: “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (Note no question mark at the end of the title.)
Pinny, Bill said he was deliberately NOT identifying them.
True, but Mark in Boston was looking for someone to solve his, so I thought I’d accommodate him.
After all, tomorrow is another day. – can;t get much bigger a movie than that.
This looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
“Where the devil are my slippers?”
You finally really did it. You maniacs! You blew it up!
“Shut up and deal.”
—
“Well, nobody’s perfect.”
Thanks, swazoo, I was beginning to think that nobody would ever post a line from an movie that I’ve actually seen.