AFI's "100 Years ... 100 Quotes"

Movies
61

I’m fairly certain that each person’s age is going to affect how much they agree/disagree with the quotes on this list. I’d also guess that the people making this list were mostly older. I am happy to see that they got one Airplane! quote on the list. I’ll still say that some Dumb and Dumber quotes should be in there, though. :)

[i]Harry: I figured the Rocky Mountains would be rockier than this.

Lloyd: Yeah. That John Denver’s full of shit.

Officer: Pull over!

Harry: No, it’s a cardigan, thanks for asking!

Lloyd: It’s OK! I’m a limo driver![/i]

62

I don’t have a clue what you’re talkin’ about, Phil. Not a fucking clue.

63

“Hold me like you did by the lake on Naboo.”

64

You can almost hear Wierd Al writing his next song as you read it…

65

That’s not the whole quote. He’s referring to Jimmy Stewart’s “Merry Christmas, movie house!..” (etc.) line. And yeah, that one, at least, totally should have been included.

Speaking of Christmas films, why the hell isn’t “You’ll put your eye out!” on that list?

66

That’s not the whole quote. He’s referring to Jimmy Stewart’s “Merry Christmas, movie house!..” (etc.) line. And yeah, that one, at least, totally should have been included.

Speaking of Christmas films, why the hell isn’t “You’ll put your eye out!” on that list?[/quote]

I saw, You’ll shoot your eye out! But it might have come from the list of 400.

As for Stewart’s quote, I am still not clear what it is, but am too lazy (and possibly ostensios) to look it up on imdb. Nonetheless, I don’t think the Merry Christmas quote (whatever it is) has the impact you think it does.

67

Philistine.

;)

68

My favourite Mamet quotes that aren’t from Glengarry Glen Ross, because that whole script is like one big quotable:

“Where am I from? I’m from the United States of Kiss My Ass.”

  • House Of Games

“Everybody needs money. That’s why they call it ‘money’.”

  • Heist

“Who designed these costumes? It looks like Edith Head puked, and that puke designed these costumes.”

  • State & Main

“We must never forget that we are human, and as humans we dream, and when we dream we dream of money.”

  • The Spanish Prisoner
69

God I loved House of Games.

God I hated Heist. In particular I hated that money quote. I remember when it went by–didn’t DeVito say it?–and I just thought, “No. That’s stupid. That makes no sense.” If they called “money” “need”, and the quote was, “Everybody needs need, that’s why they call it need,” then it would make sense.

As it is it’s kind of lazy, like Mamet was sitting at his keyboard going…Hmmmm. I need a good Mamet line, but all I’ve got is this dopey ‘money’ line…Oh well…fuck it.

The best quote from State and Main is, clearly, “So that happened.”

Oh, and I loved The Spanish Prisoner too. And Homicide.

-Amanpour

*edit: spelling

70

The money quote make not make much sense, but it’s much funnier than the need quote above. Also, I’m not sure the need quote makes any sense. And even if it does make sense, the verb doesn’t parse correctly.

71

A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
1991

Whatever. Put the fucking lotion in the basket, AFI.

72

Xtien- "My motherfucker is so cool, when he goes to bed, sheep count him. "

“He isn’t gonna shoot me, then he hadn’t ought to point a gun at me. It’s insincere.”

“I tried to imagine a fellow smarter than myself. Then I tried to think, “What would he do?””

Heist is a great movie.

73

I’ve never heard the last two before reading this post.[/quote]

Ditto. And I somehow doubt Merry Christmas came from “It’s a Wonderful Life.” What did we say before the movie, Happy Hanukkah?[/quote]

Wow. No offense, guys, but all three lines/moments are some of the biggest in American cinema. I don’t know how anybody could grow up in North America in the past 50 years and not know them.

And I didn’t think I had to spell out the entire “Merry Christmas” scene, Bull. Sheesh. I’ll give you a pass on “lasso the moon,” but how the hell could you never have seen George Bailey running down main street in the snow, yelling “Merry Christmas” to all of Bedford Falls? It’s one of the most famous scenes in movie history, and you practically can’t avoid seeing a clip of it or a parody of it in some fashion (ad, SNL, Simpsons, etc.) on the tube every few weeks, let alone every December.

74

Dude…it’s a joke. It’s funny. The character has the desire for money so ingrained in his psyche that “money” is a synonym for “the thing I need at all times.” It doesn’t occur to him that what he’s saying doesn’t make sense because it does in his own head.

As for the list, it’s a bit bogged down in the classics, I suppose. I also don’t know how two Jerry Maguire quotes made it on there, especially “Show me the money” so high up. A few that should have made it, IMO:

“We can’t stop here! This is bat country!”
FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS
1998

“You are still dangerous…but you can be my wingman any time.”
“Bullshit. You can be mine.”
TOP GUN
1986

“Awesome! Totally Awesome! Alright, Hamilton!” (Jeez, you wanna talk cultural impact? Right there, folks.)
FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH
1982

“Silencio.”
MULHOLLAND DRIVE
2001

“Chiilll-drennn…”
NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
1955

“You shouldn’t keep souvenirs of a killing. You shouldn’t have been that sentimental.”
VERTIGO
1958

And I can’t believe their choice for Psycho. The best line in Psycho is:

“We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven’t you?”
PSYCHO
1960

75

100 Years…100 Hoo-ahs!
What’s missing from AFI’s list of great movie lines

MSNBC talks about potential missing lines.

76

Many thanks to Matt and Bullhajj for explaining that the line was supposed to be a joke. What a relief. Jokes that require a tortured explanation for why they’re funny are always my very favorite.

“If it bends, it’s funny. If it breaks…it’s not funny.”

-Amanpour

77

I didn’t mean to explain anything. I was just pointing out that I didn’t think your rewrite was as funny as the orginal, that it didn’t really make it more sensible, and that the verb didn’t parse.

Also, that’s Bullhahajj to you.

78

Pacino needs his own list.

“I’m just gettin’ warmed up.”

“My wife has a GREAT ASS and your head is ALL THE WAY UP IT! Ferocious, aren’t I?”

“This is how we keep score, bebe!”

79

“You’re out of order! You’re out of order! The whole trial is out of order!”

80

I’m not sure how it happened, but once I got started, I couldn’t stop. I didn’t think the AFI list was horrid, but there were some really odd choices that could easily have been dropped. (apologies for any repeats).

Michael Corleone: Today I settle all family business.
Michael Corleone: Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.
Morpheus: No one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.
Boy: There is no spoon.
Hudson: Game over, man, game over!
John McClane: Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker.
Tyler Durden: The first rule of Fight Club is - you do not talk about Fight Club.
Joel Goodson: Sometimes you gotta say “what the fuck.”
Michael Bolton: If we get caught, we’re not going to white-collar resort prison. No, no, no. We’re going to federal POUND ME IN THE ASS prison.
Milton: I could set the building on fire.
Indiana: Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes?
Grail Knight: He chose… poorly.
Multiple: You’ll shoot your eye out.
Dignan: Here are just a few of the key ingredients: dynamite, pole vaulting, laughing gas, choppers – can you see how incredible this is going to be? Hang gliding, COME ON!
Otto: It’s K-K-K-Ken! C-C-C-Coming to k-k-k-kill me.
Vincent: You want to know how I did it? This is how I did it, Anton. I never saved anything for the swim back.
Frozone: Where is my supersuit???!
David Levinson: Forget the fat lady. You’re Obsessed with fat lady. Just get us out of here!
John Hammond: Welcome … to Jurassic Park.
John Milton: Vanity, definitely my favorite sin.
Burke: It was a bad call, Ripley. It was a bad call.
Theo: Oh my God, the quarterback is toast!
Tom Mullen: GIVE ME BACK MY SON!
Howard Payne: Pop quiz, hotshot.
Graham Hess: Swing away.
Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven.
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: It’s pronounced “Fronkensteen.”
Inga: Roll, roll, roll in ze hay.
Ringo: I’ve got a hole in my pocket.
Gandalf: Fly, you fools.
Chris Nielsen: When I was young, I met this beautiful girl at a lake.
John Doe: Only in a world this shitty could you even try to say these were innocent people and keep a straight face. But that’s the point. We see a deadly sin on every street corner, in every home, and we tolerate it. We tolerate it because it’s common, it’s trivial.
Floyd Gondolli: I like simple pleasures, like butter in my ass, lollipops in my mouth. That’s just me. That’s just something that I enjoy.
Dirk: I am a star. I’m a star, I’m a star, I’m a star. I am a big, bright, shining star.
Jimmy Serrano: Is this moron number one? Put moron number two on the phone.
Jack Walsh: Here come two words for you: SHUT THE FUCK UP.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: We’ve made too many compromises already, too many retreats. They invade our space…and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds… and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far, no further!
Lt. Commander Worf: Assimilate this!
Kirk: KHAAANNNN!!
Jimmy Gator: The book says, we might be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us.
Donnie Smith: I really do have love to give; I just don’t know where to put it.
Budd: That woman deserves her revenge. And we deserve to die.
Bill: You’re not a bad person. You’re a terrific person. You’re my favorite person, but every once in a while, you can be a real cunt.
Howard: Well, technically speaking, the operation IS brain damage.
Clementine: Meet me in Montauk…

And we’ll wrap up with the Star Wars section. Isn’t it bizarre how quotable the original trilogy is compared to the prequels?

Title card: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
Multiple: I have a very bad feeling about this.
Han Solo: One thing’s for sure, we’re all gonna be a lot thinner.
Han Solo: Great, kid. Don’t get cocky.
Han Solo: You’re all clear, kid. Now let’s blow this thing and go home.
Han Solo: Never tell me the odds.
Han Solo: Laugh it up, fuzzball.
Obi-Wan: These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.
Obi-Wan: Who’s the more foolish: The fool, or the fool who follows him?
Obi-Wan: That’s no moon. It’s a space station.
Obi-Wan: Use the Force, Luke.
Darth Vader: I find your lack of faith … disturbing.
Darth Vader: You have failed me for the last time, Admiral.
Darth Vader: I am your father.
Darth Vader: All too easy.
Princess Leia: Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you’re my only hope.
Princess Leia: Will someone get this big walking carpet out of my way?
C-3PO: I suggest a new strategy: let the Wookiee win.
Wedge Antilles: Look at the size of that thing.
Yoda: Always in motion is future.
Yoda: You must unlearn what you have learned.
Yoda: Do… or do not. There is no try.
Yoda: Much anger in him. Like his father.
Yoda: That … is why you fail.
Captain Lennox: Good, our first catch of the day.
Lando: This deal is getting worse all the time.
Ackbar: IT’S A TRAP!!

And of course, the only quote anyone will remember from the prequels:

Darth Vader: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO