Reply With Quote"Look, if he was dying, he wouldn't bother to carve 'Aaargh'; he'd just say it!"
For whatever reason, sometimes a line in a movie isn't finished. A character is interrupted, he just trails off, or something happens that cuts off the dialogue. Our favorite examples, which we discuss starting at the 59-minute mark of the Bourne Legacy podcast, are as follows:
Kellywand
3. Dark Star: "There's one last thing that want to tell you."
2. Star Wars: "No, I'm all r--"
1. Deep Blue Sea: "We're going to pull together and we're going to find a way to get out of here. First, we're going to seal off this pool."
Dingus
3. Goodfellas: "Oh n--"
2. Terminator: "There was this guy one. You see this scar."
1. Midnight Run: "I'm sorry, honey. It's just we're having a..."
Tom
3. Deep Blue Sea: "We're going to pull together and we're going to find a way to get out of here. First, we're going to seal off this pool."
2. Dark Knight: "Harvey, it's okay. It's all right. Listen. Somew--"
1. Ice Storm: "Ben."
Any picks for you guys? And rather than just listing them, how about explaining what you like about your picks, or what makes them special to you?
"Look, if he was dying, he wouldn't bother to carve 'Aaargh'; he'd just say it!"
Believe it or not, a Facebook ad just reminded me of this one:
"Smile, you son of a..."
It's Chief Brody's crowning, badass moment, after almost an entire film looking the proverbial fish out of water. Where the lubber meets the load, and blows that pesky shark to kingdom come, or at least sequel territory.
"And no matter what happens, don't under any circumstances---"
"Rusty!"
"Yeah?"
I might be the only one on here who likes the new Ocean's 11 more than the old one though. (What can I say? George Clooney is the modern day Cary Grant.)
I thought EVERYBODY liked the new one more. The original (Sammy Davis Jr. notwithstanding) is terrible.
Super Fly: "White-lookin' mother f-"
*WHAP*
Pulp Fiction "Do you think that God came down from Heaven and stopped..."
While not a movie, this topic reminds me of when I picked up an old paperback copy of Catch-22 from a garage sale in the 7th grade. I read it and loved it, but when I reached the end I discovered the final three or so pages were missing, and ended with the interrupted sentence "Of course I won't stop". No period, just that. There really couldn't have been a better place for that to have happened.
Last edited by Anonymgeist; 08-13-2012 at 08:13 PM. Reason: I speak english very goodly.
I can only think of one right now. The line that follows this one:
"Are you not the babysitter?"
I can't recall any other scene that shocked me so suddenly like that one did, in House of the Devil.
In Bourne Identity when Bourne and his girl friend are at her previous boyfriend's house with his kid, and they realize there is an assasian outside that wants to kill them all. After stowing the innocents, Bourne gets the family shotgun, and just before he leaves, his girlfriend goes, "The child --" and then Bourne cuts her off and says, "That's not going to happen."
You win.Originally Posted by Clanan
-xtien
"Aces."
Ooh, Tim's is really good, too. I like both of those.
So, for Omniscia's pick, why does the explosion play over the word "bitch" in "smile, you son of a bitch"? There's plenty of cussing in Jaws. Why muffle that word? Or is it just a pacing thing?
Also, I'm not sure how I feel about "smile, you son of a bitch", because isn't that the beginning of decades of awful catch phrases delivered as someone dispatches a villain? If there's one action movie trope I'm happy to let die, it's the dispatching catch phrase.
-Tom
Agreed. What's makes Tim's pick annoying, though, is that I just watched that effing movie this week and didn't even think of that. Doh.
I love the progression in that scene, how he finds a shell in the desk drawer, and then the box of shells, and that leads him to scan the room for the family shotgun. Just the way he's working that whole scene, protecting the family and managing her anxiety. "The phone is dead." "Yep."
BTW, Tim has created two titles in his post above. The Family Shotgun and Stowing the Innocents. I believe both will star Lance Henriksen, fwiw.
-xtien
"He went out the window. Why would someone do that?"
How pointless. Why didn't he just get a nail and a fire extinguisher?
-Tom
That's it. I'm viraling you out.
-xtien
If the Deep Blue Sea line counts (twice), then I'm going to go with:
"Hang on a minute, lads, I've got a great idea. Err... Err..."
Good to know. The last time I brought it up here, the groupthink wailed on me. I think maybe they were sour about Ocean's 12, which I also don't mind just for the sake of more time with the characters.
I wish "Legen--wait-for-it" were eligible for this topic.
I have to admit I liked the line in Avengers. "We knew this wouldn't work if they didn't have something to..."
Ok yes fine, fan-service, but, y'know, tasteful fan service.
Also: Aliens: "Kane seemed fine. Later, we were having dinner. It must have laid something inside his body because, he, um, he started to..."
"Look man, I only need to know one thing: where they are." It's not just Vasquez's rejoinder but Sigourney Weaver's line reading reminding us how traumatized she was by the events of the previous film.
Last edited by Gordon Cameron; 08-14-2012 at 06:57 AM.
Ha, nice. I'd forgotten how much fun the interplay between Paul Winfield and Lance Henriksen was in that movie.2. Terminator: "There was this guy one. You see this scar."
It might have just been bleeped in the ad copy, actually. I admit I haven't actually seen Jaws in four years, because I don't want to spoil the experience of having seen it in a proper theater.
Hey Tom, wasn't Bond doing the one-liners long before Jaws?
Yes, exactly! What makes him such a compelling character is that he'd never asks something as bland as, "Do you have any weapons?" I just watched the whole series with my boy and I love how he always improvises weapons out of normal household flotsam. Instead of using the pithy line to dispatch bad guys, he's using ordinary junk: pens, towels, magazines and toasters.
Such an understatement, considering the exit. If you have a "best understatements 3x3," this might be my #1 pick.
I'm just in love with the way Franka Potente plays that moment. Bourne tells her to get her shoes and she responds with, "Sure yes. Sure." The way she says that second "sure" just knocks me out. She's so fucking good in this movie, and they are so good together. The way Bourne checks his watch after the window. The way she reacts to the papers with her pictures on them. So good.
It really rewards multiple viewings.
-xtien
-Do you take care of this car?
-What do you mean?
-The tires felt a little splashy on the way over here.
Se7en. I think it's right at the beginning of the final act, Mills and Somerset are suiting up for the final showdown, joking around, then in a moment Mills begins to well up a bit, saying "You know...", Somerset looks at him but then Mills just walks away.
I always wondered about this.
The first line that came to mind was "I'm a leaf on the wind, watch how I--" but I wonder if it counts since he finished the line just minutes earlier. Could I get a ruling?
I think it's legit.
One that I like is "No wait! I'm the-- " from The Prestige, though it's really more for the scene itself, which is the resolution to an interrupted scene from earlier in the film, and the implications it has.
Yeah, they appear in the Bond films pretty early on. I don't know about Dr. No, but From Russia With Love has Sean Connery's remark about Rosa Kleb "getting her kicks," and then they're off to the races. "Shocking." "I think he got the point." Etc.
While Mr Spock had any number of deadpan lines, he wasn't all that homicidal. There are few if any examples of the Vulcan Death Quip.
Thank kew! Thank kew! Try the space veal!
3) Young Frankenstein: The monster comes to life. Life! The doctor has given his creation life! Then the monster turns on his father-analogue. "Quick, give him a seda--"
Charades ensue.
2) Vizzini from The Princess Bride. His laughter is oddly truncated. If not for the iocane powder, who knows how much longer he would have laughed, or if he would have dazzled the Dread Pirate Roberts with more examples of his dizzying intellect?
1) Shaun of the Dead buries the exposition that would explain the unusual behavior of the dead coming back to life. That's the joke: Shaun is too zombielike to pay attention to the world around him, so he misses out on really important news like why dead people are eating live people. We get tantalizing hints on the radio and TV, cut off before the audience can hear them. Is it a space probe unexpectedly re-entering the -- Was it rage-infected monkeys esca-- Sure, the What of the Zombie Apocalypse is more important than the Why, but Shaun misses that until well until Z-day.
He's flipping through channels as it dawns on him that Something Is Wrong:
[Shaun is channel hopping; Channel 4 News]
Krishnan Guru-Murthy: Though no one official is prepared to comment, religious groups are calling it Judgement Day. There's...
[VH1, playing "Panic" by The Smiths]
Morrissey: – Panic on the streets of London...
[ITV News]
Newsreader: – as an increasing number of reports of...
[Football]
Commentator: – serious attacks on...
[Five News]
Newsreader: – people, who are literally being...
[Nature documentary, leopards eating a gazelle]
Narrator: – eaten alive.
[Sky News]
Jeremy Thompson: Witnesses' reports at best are sketchy, but one unifying detail seems to be that the attackers in many instances appear to be...
[T4]
Vernon Kaye: – dead excited to have with us here a sensational chart topping...
Enough! You are, all of you are beneath me! I am a god, you dull creature, and I shall not be bullied by...
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