“If I was to sink my teeth into your eye right now, would you be able to stop me before I blinded you?” – Shutter Island
“How are you doing this Vincent? How have you done any of this?”
“You wanna know how I did it? This is how I did it Anton. I never saved anything for the swim back.”
-Gattaca
When people think you’re dying, they really, really listen to you, instead of just waiting for their turn to speak.
Doesn’t really give me goosebumps, but I think about it a lot because how much of a lie it is, especially because the Narrator/Cornelius is too full of himself to recognize the only people stopping to listen to him are people who are actually dying themselves. He isn’t dying, and isn’t actually listening to any of their stories, certainly not with sincerity or care. He is just merely… waiting for his turn to speak.
What film is this?
Sorry, added the film title. Fight Club.
Do you think God stays in heaven because he too lives in fear of what he’s created?
- Spy Kids 2
I am the walrus
Donny, The Big Lebowski
Is this the Steve Buscemi quotes part of the thread? Because if it’s not it should be.
I mean, that time when God did come down from Heaven we nailed Him to a cross and crucified Him in a horrendous manner…
The president’s Independence Day (1996) speech gets me almost every time.
Especially when he crescendos, “…the day when the world declared in one voice, we will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight.”
The idea of every nation on Earth actually rallying behind a cause is such a romantic one.
Fun fact: that speech was a first draft. The writer made himself a note to revise it, but got busy enough with other stuff that he forgot. He remembered last minute when they were prepping to shoot the scene, but it was too late as Bill Pullman had already memorized it and had also spent time listening to unedited recordings of presidents giving big speeches throughout history to make sure it had the correct tone (this is also why he has the kind of awkward start).
I like the awkward start. It makes it feel more improvised, building confidence as he gets going. It’s portrayed in the movie as him speaking from the heart, and him struggling to find the words in the beginning helps sell it imo.
I get a little weepy on that one.
The idea of every nation on Earth actually rallying behind a cause is such a romantic one.
I recently watched Arrival (2016) and teared up thinking about this. Probably because these days it seems to be the most fictious and implausible part of any plotline that has to deal with anything truly global.
District 9 is the most plausible exploration of how humans would deal with aliens visiting Earth.
Dont worry, I’m sure after the movie they all started fighting about who has to foot the repair bills and who contributed the most.
Pullman was on Saturday Night Live after the movie came out and one of the skits was Bob Dole (Norm MacDonald) dreaming that he was debating Pullman’s character from the movie in a presidential debate.
Pullman is proud to have united America and defeated the alien invasion while Dole keeps trying to blame him for the state of the nation after the invasion.
Here are the only quotes I could find
President Thomas J. Whitmore: My fellow Americans, when I look back on my first term as President, there are many things that stand out. The passage of the new clean water act, the historic tax cut… but, I would have to say that my proudest moment was when I led the charge to repel the invasion of the space monsters. …
Bob Dole: Under his administration, over seventy million Americans were incinerated by aliens from outer space!
President Thomas J. Whitmore: Well, at seems as though the Senator has finally decided to go negative. I guess he hopes to distract voters from the real issues, the ones that matter to the average American.
Bob Dole: The average American’s dead!
Bob Dole: The average American’s dead!
Savage, and true, in the case of that film.
But Jeff Goldblum is still alive, so you’ve got that going for you, in that universe.
Yeah, that’s what I mean by romantic. It’s an exciting thing to imagine, even if it did take an immediate, existential calamity to make it happen. Shared trauma can quickly form very powerful bonds in humans (veterans often attest to this).
However, in reality, humans still find the most petty shit to disagree on, even at their own expense. A real post-Independence Day would immediately start an arms race to savage and assimilate all that alien tech before other nations do; tyrants would use the weakness of the fallout to grab power and wealth; people would begin endlessly arguing about how to rebuild and/or prepare for another invasion, etc.
After a few generations of humans, people would form conspiracy theories straight up denying it even happened despite entire cities being reduced to rubble. With 8.2 billion people, complete consensus on literally anything, even reality, might just be impossible.
But it’s nice to imagine what we could accomplish if we did…
“O Captain! My Captain!” from The Dead Poets Society.
“Every story ever told can be broken down into three parts. The beginning. The middle. And the twist.”
Jack Black as RL Stein, Goosebumps intro (2015). Sets up the titular sensation.
I hate the word, but I’ll make an exception when Ripley says “get away from her, you bitch” to the alien queen.
Not a movie, but Andor had so many good ones. And I mean a lot, too many for a single post. My favorite though is Namek’s Manifesto:
"There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy.
Remember this. Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they’ve already enlisted in the cause.
Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.
And then remember this: the Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear.
Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance, will have flooded the banks of the Empire’s authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege.
Remember this. Try."
I was absolutely flabbergasted when I saw this in Andor.
“Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.” — Dead Poets Society
Words to live by.
Charlie Chaplin’s speech at the end of The Great Dictator
For the lucky few who haven’t seen it, and for the ones who have but want to set it again:
Half a denarii for my bleedin life story?
There’s no pleasing some people.
That’s just what Jesus said sir!
Life of Brian
My favorite:
Brian: You don’t NEED to follow ME, You don’t NEED to follow ANYBODY! You’ve got to think for your selves! You’re ALL individuals! The Crowd: Yes! We’re all individuals! Brian: You’re all different! The Crowd: Yes, we ARE all different! Man in crowd: I’m not
making it worse. How could it possibly be worse! jehova. jehova. jehova.
I’ll be back.
The Passion of the ChristThe Terminator
I heard recently, that as originally scripted, the line was “I’ll come back”.
Thankfully someone changed that at some point!
Arnie made it I’ll be back, director didn’t want it.
Oh, was it Arnie himself? That’s cool, didn’t know that.
Yeah pretty cool
War never changes
“What are you doing Cooper? DOCKING” - Interstellar (2014)
I believe from the same scene:
“That’s not possible.”
“No. It’s necessary.”
"Sons of Gondor, of Rohan. My brothers.
I see it in your eyes, the same fear that would take the heart of me.
A day may come, when the courage of men fails. Where we forsake our friends, and abandon all bonds of fellowship.
But it is not this day.
An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day. This day we fight!
By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand! Men of the West!"
Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden! spear shall be shaken, shield shall be splintered, a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now, ride now, ride! Ride for ruin and the world’s ending!
Death! Death! Death!
Another banger, though admittedly a bit more bleak than Aragon’s hype speech.
