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AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes

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AFI 100 Years... series
1998100 Movies
1999100 Stars
2000100 Laughs
2001100 Thrills
2002100 Passions
2003100 Heroes & Villains
2004100 Songs
2005100 Movie Quotes
200525 Scores
2006100 Cheers
200625 Musicals
2007100 Movies (Updated)
2008AFI's 10 Top 10

Part of The American Film Institute (AFI 100 Years... series), AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes is a list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema. The American Film Institute revealed the list on June 21, 2005, in a three-hour television program on CBS. The program was hosted by actor Pierce Brosnan and had commentary from many Hollywood actors and filmmakers. A jury consisting of 1,500 film artists, critics, and historians selected "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn," spoken by Clark Gable as Rhett Butler in the 1939 American Civil War epic Gone with the Wind as the most memorable American movie quotation of all time.

Criteria

Jurors were asked to consider the following criteria in making their selections:

  • Movie Quotation: A statement, phrase or brief exchange of dialogue spoken in an American film.[1] Lyrics from songs are not eligible.
  • Cultural Impact: Movie quotations that viewers use in their own lives and situations; circulating through popular culture, they become part of the national lexicon.
  • Legacy: Movie quotations that viewers use to evoke the memory of a treasured film, thus ensuring and enlivening its historical legacy.

The list

The table below reproduces the quotes as the AFI published them.[2]

Rank Quotation Character Actor/Actress Film Year
1 "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." Rhett Butler Clark Gable Gone with the Wind 1939
2 "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse." Vito Corleone Marlon Brando The Godfather 1972
3 "You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could've been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am."[3] Terry Malloy Marlon Brando On the Waterfront 1954
4 "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."[4] Dorothy Gale Judy Garland The Wizard of Oz 1939
5 "Here's looking at you, kid." Rick Blaine Humphrey Bogart Casablanca 1942
6 "Go ahead, make my day." Harry Callahan Clint Eastwood Sudden Impact 1983
7 "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."[5] Norma Desmond Gloria Swanson Sunset Boulevard 1950
8 "May the Force be with you." Han Solo Harrison Ford Star Wars 1977
9 "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night."[6] Margo Channing Bette Davis All About Eve 1950
10 "You talkin' to me?" Travis Bickle Robert De Niro Taxi Driver 1976
11 "What we've got here is failure to communicate."[7] Captain Strother Martin Cool Hand Luke 1967
12 "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore Robert Duvall Apocalypse Now 1979
13 "Love means never having to say you're sorry." Oliver Barrett IV Ryan O'Neal Love Story 1970
14 "The stuff that dreams are made of."[8] Sam Spade Humphrey Bogart The Maltese Falcon 1941
15 "E.T. phone home." E.T. Pat Welsh E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 1982
16 "They call me Mister Tibbs!" Virgil Tibbs Sidney Poitier In the Heat of the Night 1967
17 "Rosebud." Charles Foster Kane Orson Welles Citizen Kane 1941
18 "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" Arthur "Cody" Jarrett James Cagney White Heat 1949
19 "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" Howard Beale Peter Finch Network 1976
20 "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Rick Blaine Humphrey Bogart Casablanca 1942
21 "A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti." Dr. Hannibal Lecter Anthony Hopkins The Silence of the Lambs 1991
22 "Bond. James Bond." James Bond Sean Connery[9] Dr. No[10] 1962
23 "There's no place like home."[11] Dorothy Gale Judy Garland The Wizard of Oz 1939
24 "I am big! It's the pictures that got small." Norma Desmond Gloria Swanson Sunset Boulevard 1950
25 "Show me the money!" Rod Tidwell Cuba Gooding Jr. Jerry Maguire 1996
26 "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?"[12] Lady Lou Mae West She Done Him Wrong 1933
27 "I'm walking here! I'm walking here!"[13] "Ratso" Rizzo Dustin Hoffman Midnight Cowboy 1969
28 "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.'"[14] Ilsa Lund Ingrid Bergman Casablanca 1942
29 "You can't handle the truth!" Col. Nathan R. Jessup Jack Nicholson A Few Good Men 1992
30 "I want to be alone." Grusinskaya Greta Garbo Grand Hotel 1932
31 "After all, tomorrow is another day!" Scarlett O'Hara Vivien Leigh Gone with the Wind 1939
32 "Round up the usual suspects." Capt. Louis Renault Claude Rains Casablanca 1942
33 "I'll have what she's having." Customer Estelle Reiner When Harry Met Sally... 1989
34 "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow." Marie "Slim" Browning Lauren Bacall To Have and Have Not 1944
35 "You're gonna need a bigger boat."[15] Martin Brody Roy Scheider Jaws 1975
36 "Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"[16] "Gold Hat" Alfonso Bedoya The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948
37 "I'll be back." The Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger The Terminator 1984
38 "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth."[17] Lou Gehrig Gary Cooper The Pride of the Yankees 1942
39 "If you build it, he will come."[18] Shoeless Joe Jackson Ray Liotta (voice) Field of Dreams 1989
40 "Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." Forrest Gump Tom Hanks Forrest Gump 1994
41 "We rob banks." Clyde Barrow Warren Beatty Bonnie and Clyde 1967
42 "Plastics." Mr. Maguire Walter Brooke The Graduate 1967
43 "We'll always have Paris." Rick Blaine Humphrey Bogart Casablanca 1942
44 "I see dead people." Cole Sear Haley Joel Osment The Sixth Sense 1999
45 "Stella! Hey, Stella!" Stanley Kowalski Marlon Brando A Streetcar Named Desire 1951
46 "Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars." Charlotte Vale Bette Davis Now, Voyager 1942
47 "Shane. Shane. Come back!" Joey Starrett Brandon De Wilde Shane 1953
48 "Well, nobody's perfect." Osgood Fielding III Joe E. Brown Some Like It Hot 1959
49 "It's alive! It's alive!" Henry Frankenstein Colin Clive Frankenstein 1931
50 "Houston, we have a problem."[19] Jim Lovell Tom Hanks Apollo 13 1995
51 "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"[20] Harry Callahan Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry 1971
52 "You had me at 'hello.'" Dorothy Boyd Renée Zellweger Jerry Maguire 1996
53 "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know."[21] Capt. Geoffrey T. Spaulding Groucho Marx Animal Crackers 1930
54 "There's no crying in baseball!" Jimmy Dugan Tom Hanks A League of Their Own 1992
55 "La-dee-da, la-dee-da." Annie Hall Diane Keaton Annie Hall 1977
56 "A boy's best friend is his mother." Norman Bates Anthony Perkins Psycho 1960
57 "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good."[22] Gordon Gekko Michael Douglas Wall Street 1987
58 "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."[23] Michael Corleone Al Pacino The Godfather Part II 1974
59 "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again." Scarlett O'Hara Vivien Leigh Gone with the Wind 1939
60 "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!"[24] Oliver Oliver Hardy Sons of the Desert 1933
61 "Say 'hello' to my little friend!" Tony Montana Al Pacino Scarface 1983
62 "What a dump."[25] Rosa Moline Bette Davis Beyond the Forest 1949
63 "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?"[26] Benjamin Braddock Dustin Hoffman The Graduate 1967
64 "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!" President Merkin Muffley Peter Sellers Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 1964
65 "Elementary, my dear Watson."[27] Sherlock Holmes Basil Rathbone The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 1939
66 "Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape." George Taylor Charlton Heston Planet of the Apes 1968
67 "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." Rick Blaine Humphrey Bogart Casablanca 1942
68 "Here's Johnny!"[28] Jack Torrance Jack Nicholson The Shining 1980
69 "They're here!" Carol Anne Freeling Heather O'Rourke Poltergeist 1982
70 "Is it safe?" Dr. Christian Szell Laurence Olivier Marathon Man 1976
71 "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet!"[29] Jakie Rabinowitz/Jack Robin Al Jolson The Jazz Singer 1927
72 "No wire hangers, ever!"[30] Joan Crawford Faye Dunaway Mommie Dearest 1981
73 "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?" Cesare Enrico "Rico" Bandello Edward G. Robinson Little Caesar 1931
74 "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown."[31] Lawrence Walsh Joe Mantell Chinatown 1974
75 "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." Blanche DuBois Vivien Leigh A Streetcar Named Desire 1951
76 "Hasta la vista, baby." The Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator 2: Judgment Day 1991
77 "Soylent Green is people!" Det. Robert Thorn Charlton Heston Soylent Green 1973
78 "Open the pod bay doors, HAL." Dave Bowman Keir Dullea 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968
79 Striker: "Surely you can't be serious."
Rumack: "I am serious … and don't call me Shirley." 		Ted Striker and Dr. Rumack Robert Hays and Leslie Nielsen Airplane! 1980
80 "Yo, Adrian!" Rocky Balboa Sylvester Stallone Rocky 1976
81 "Hello, gorgeous." Fanny Brice Barbra Streisand Funny Girl 1968
82 "Toga! Toga!" John "Bluto" Blutarsky John Belushi National Lampoon's Animal House 1978
83 "Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make." Count Dracula Bela Lugosi Dracula 1931
84 "Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast."[32] Carl Denham Robert Armstrong King Kong 1933
85 "My precious." Gollum Andy Serkis The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 2002
86 "Attica! Attica!" Sonny Wortzik Al Pacino Dog Day Afternoon 1975
87 "Sawyer, you're going out a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!" Julian Marsh Warner Baxter 42nd Street 1933
88 "Listen to me, mister. You're my knight in shining armor. Don't you forget it. You're going to get back on that horse, and I'm going to be right behind you, holding on tight, and away we're gonna go, go, go!" Ethel Thayer Katharine Hepburn On Golden Pond 1981
89 "Tell 'em to go out there with all they got and win just one for the Gipper." Knute Rockne[33] Pat O'Brien Knute Rockne, All American 1940
90 "A martini. Shaken, not stirred."[34] James Bond Sean Connery[9] Goldfinger[35] 1964
91 "Who's on first?"[36] Dexter Bud Abbott The Naughty Nineties 1945
92 "Cinderella story. Outta nowhere. A former greenskeeper, now, about to become the Masters champion. It looks like a mirac...It's in the hole! It's in the hole! It's in the hole!" Carl Spackler Bill Murray Caddyshack 1980
93 "Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!" Mame Dennis Rosalind Russell Auntie Mame 1958
94 "I feel the need—the need for speed!" Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell and Lt.jg Nick "Goose" Bradshaw Tom Cruise and Anthony Edwards Top Gun 1986
95 "Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary." John Keating Robin Williams Dead Poets Society 1989
96 "Snap out of it!" Loretta Castorini Cher Moonstruck 1987
97 "My mother thanks you. My father thanks you. My sister thanks you. And I thank you."[37] George M. Cohan James Cagney Yankee Doodle Dandy 1942
98 "Nobody puts Baby in a corner." Johnny Castle Patrick Swayze Dirty Dancing 1987
99 "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too!" Wicked Witch of the West Margaret Hamilton The Wizard of Oz 1939
100 "I'm the King of the World!" [38] Jack Dawson Leonardo DiCaprio Titanic 1997
Houston, we've had a problem.
On the real Apollo 13 mission, Jim Lovell reporting, "Houston, we've had a problem".
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Trivia

With six movie quotes featured, Casablanca is by far the most represented film on this list. Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz are tied for second, with three each. Sunset Boulevard, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Graduate and Jerry Maguire each have two quotes.

Rick Blaine (Casablanca) is the character with the most quotes (four); Dorothy Gale (The Wizard of Oz), Harry Callahan (Dirty Harry and Sudden Impact), James Bond (Dr. No and Goldfinger), Norma Desmond (Sunset Boulevard), Scarlett O'Hara (Gone with the Wind) and The Terminator (The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day) have two quotes each.

With five, Humphrey Bogart is the actor with the most quotes (four from Casablanca and one from The Maltese Falcon); Al Pacino, Bette Davis, Marlon Brando, Tom Hanks, and Vivien Leigh all have three; while Jack Nicholson, Judy Garland, Gloria Swanson, Dustin Hoffman, Clint Eastwood, Charlton Heston, James Cagney, and Arnold Schwarzenegger have two each. Sixty-three of the other sixty-four actors appear once each. Sean Connery also has two entries, but his two quotes were also spoken by five other actors.[9] As well as the five quotes spoken by Bogart, a further quote on the list (from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre) was spoken to him, by Alfonso Bedoya.

The line "My precious.", from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, is the only quote from a movie released in the 21st century and the only one by a CGI character.

Quotation distribution by decade:

  • 1910s: 0
  • 1920s: 1
  • 1930s: 16
  • 1940s: 17
  • World War II years (1939–1945): 21
  • 1950s: 9
  • 1960s: 13
  • 1970s: 16
  • 1980s: 17
  • 1990s: 10
  • 2000s: 1

Top years:

  • 1942: 9
  • 1939: 7
  • 1967: 5
  • 1933: 4
  • 1976: 4

Footnotes

  1. ^ AFI defines an American film as an English language motion picture with significant creative and/or financial production elements from the United States. Additionally, only quotations from feature-length American films released before January 1, 2004, were considered. AFI defines a feature-length film as a motion picture of narrative format that is typically over 60 minutes in length.
  2. ^ "AFI's List of Nominated Quotes" (PDF). American Film Institute. Retrieved March 13, 2015.
  3. ^ Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta repeats Brando's speech in Raging Bull.
  4. ^ The ballot entry for this quote included the word "got," which was removed from the AFI web page at some point
  5. ^ Often misquoted as "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille.".
  6. ^ Often paraphrased as "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy ride"
  7. ^ Paul Newman repeats the line later in the film, mocking the prison warden, though he says "a failure", rather than simply "failure." Also heard quoted in this form.
  8. ^ This paraphrases a line from The Tempest by William Shakespeare: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on" (often misquoted as "made of")
  9. ^ a b c Also George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig.
  10. ^ Appears in some form in a total of 24 films; Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, The Man With The Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View To A Kill, The Living Daylights, Licence To Kill, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre.
  11. ^ According to The Annotated Wizard of Oz, "[L. Frank] Baum [who quotes the phrase in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz] appears to be playing with the famous sentiment of John Howard Payne's 1823 song, 'Home, Sweet Home' [the melody of which, by Sir Henry Bishop, is played over several repetitions of the line]: 'Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.' ... Baum's irony was apparently lost on the makers of the famous movie. Arthur Freed, assistant to the producer Mervyn LeRoy, was responsible for making 'There's No Place Like Home' the theme of the 1939 MGM picture....He was adamant that Dorothy repeat 'There's No Place Like Home' when she clicks her heels together three times.'" Michael Patrick Hearn (Ed.), The Annotated Wizard of Oz, p. 77, n. 1.
  12. ^ Mae West paraphrased the line in her next film I'm No Angel as "Come up and see me sometime". Hence the line in She Done Him Wrong is often misquoted as "Why don't you come up and see me sometime?"
  13. ^ Sometimes claimed to be an ad lib.
  14. ^ Usually misquoted as "Play it again, Sam."
  15. ^ Baer 2008, pp. 201–202 Reportedly an ad lib. Commonly misheard as "We're gonna need a bigger boat," as for example at the Urban Dictionary.
  16. ^ Popularly misquoted as "Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!", most likely from Blazing Saddles, in which the line was so worded.
  17. ^ An actual quotation from Lou Gehrig's retirement speech.
  18. ^ Often misquoted as "If you build it, they will come."
  19. ^ The line is based on an actual message from Apollo 13. Astronaut Swigert said "Houston, we've had a problem here," then Lovell repeated "Houston, we've had a problem".
  20. ^ Often misquoted as "…"Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" or "…"Are you feeling lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"
  21. ^ Often misquoted as "How he got in my pajamas, I'll never know." The time frame also varies ("yesterday," "once," etc.).
  22. ^ The scene from the film in which this line appears is also excerpted in the movie's trailer, but in the trailer the sequence is edited so that Gekko's line occurs as simply "Greed is good." This shorter version of the line has become more popular – and more widely quoted – than the version in the film.
  23. ^ This maxim is attributed to several military strategists, notably Sun-tzu, Chinese general.
  24. ^ Often misquoted as "Well, here's another fine mess you've gotten me into!"
  25. ^ Although occurring in the 1949 film, this line did not become a widespread catchphrase until after the 1961 premiere of Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. In the opening scene of that play, Martha quotes this line and then (since she has apparently forgotten) she asks George which of Bette Davis's films it is from.
  26. ^ Often misquoted as "Mrs. Robinson, are you trying to seduce me?"
  27. ^ This line, which does not appear in any of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories, was first said onscreen in The Return of Sherlock Holmes. The line's first occurrence is in the stage play Sherlock Holmes, written entirely by William Gillette with Doyle's approval, for which Gilette listed Doyle as co-author.
  28. ^ An ad-lib. The line is Ed McMahon's signature introduction of Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show.
  29. ^ A longtime Jolson catchphrase also heard, with variations, in his earlier Vitaphone short film "A Plantation Act" (1926)
  30. ^ Usually misquoted as: "No more wire hangers, ever!"
  31. ^ Parodied in the film Hot Fuzz when Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) tells Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg), "Forget it, Nicholas, it's Sandford."
  32. ^ Frequently heard as "...Twas beauty killed the beast"
  33. ^ This quotation is sometimes attributed to Ronald Reagan portraying George Gipp. Reagan's line—from earlier in the film—is "Ask 'em to go in there with all they've got, win just one for the Gipper."
  34. ^ Later, "Vodka Martini, shaken, not stirred." In the film You Only Live Twice, accidentally "Stirred, not shaken."
  35. ^ Appeared in multiple other films.
  36. ^ Although "Who's on first?" appeared in numerous other Abbott and Costello films prior to 1945, the one featured in The Naughty Nineties is considered the best rendition of the sketch.
  37. ^ According to his The New York Times obituary on November 6, 1942, "During the 'Gay Nineties' period, George M. coined [this as] his famous curtain speech..."
  38. ^ Originally a quote by Muhammad Ali who repeatedly "yelled that sentence". soon after winning his first bout against Sonny Liston in 1964.
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