Bennion’s Most Memorable Movie Quotes

No list-by-committee like the AFI’s Top 100 Whatevers is going to completely reflect any one person’s individual tastes. Given that this here blog-thingie lets me write about any damn thing I want to, I thought I’d supplement the previous entry with some of my own personal favorite movie quotes that didn’t make the “official” list. I present them in no particular order…


From Star Wars (this whole movie is a memorable quote for me, but, for the sake of my three loyal readers, I’ll restrain myself to just a few):

  • “I find your lack of faith disturbing.”
  • “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope…”
  • “You don’t need to see his identification.”
  • “Sorry about the mess.”
  • “No reward is worth this.”
  • “You came in that thing? You’re braver than I thought.”
  • “Sometimes I amaze even myself.”
  • “Almost there…”
  • “The Force is strong in this one.”

From The Empire Strikes Back:

  • “Laugh it up, fuzzball.”
  • “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”
  • “My hands are dirty, too. What are you afraid of?”
    (Actually, this entire scene between Han and Leia is really great and memorable, but this particular line makes me smile.)
  • Leia: “I love you!”
    Han: “I know.”
    (Hey, if the AFI is going to allow two-character exchanges, then I figure I can, too…)
  • “I am your father.”
    (That one’s pretty obvious and overexposed, but this is a list of memorable lines, after all, and I don’t think there’s more memorable one in the last twenty-five years of film history. Certainly not anywhere in the entire six-part Star Wars saga.)

From Return of the Jedi:

  • Han: “Luke! How we doing?”
    Luke: “Same as always.”
    Han: “That bad, huh?”

From Raiders of the Lost Ark:

  • “I don’t know, I’m making this up as I go.”

From Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (another great “quote movie”):

  • “You lost today, kid. That doesn’t mean you gotta like it.”
  • “Ah, Venice.”
  • “It tells me that goose-stepping morons like you should try reading books instead of burning them!”
  • “Dad, I was the next man.”

From Batman (1989 version):

  • “Where does he get those wonderful toys?”

From Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid:

  • “Think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?”
  • Sundance: “What are you doing?”
    Butch: “Stealing your woman.”
    Sundance: “Take her.”

From Ocean’s 11 (2000 version):

  • “You’re in or you’re out, right now.”
  • “Ten oughta do it, you think? You think we need one more? You think we need one more. Alright, we’ll get one more.”

From Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn:

  • “I have been and always shall be your friend.”
  • “I shall leave you as you left me… as you left her… in the heart of a dead planet… buried alive. Buried alive.”
  • “Khhhhhaaaaaaannnnn!”
  • “From hell’s heart, I stab at thee. For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee…”
    (Yeah, I know it’s actually from Moby Dick, but I love Ricardo Montalban’s reading of it.)

From Star Trek III: The Search for Spock:

  • Sulu: “The word, Admiral?”
    Kirk: “The word is no. I am therefore going anyway.”
  • “Don’t call me ‘Tiny.'”
  • Kirk: “The Kobayashi Maru has set sail for the promised land.”
    McCoy: “You’re taking me to the promised land?”
    Kirk: “What are friends for?”
  • Kirk: “My God, Bones… what have I done?”
    McCoy: “What you had to do. What you always do. Turn death into a fighting chance for life.”

From Casablanca (another highly quotable film, this one is already heavily represented on the AFI’s list, but here are my favorite bits):

  • “I have often speculated why you don’t return to America. Did you abscond with the church fuinds? Did you run off with a senator’s wife? I like to think you killed a man. It’s the romantic in me.”
  • Renault: “What in heaven’s name brought you to Casablanca?”
    Rick: “My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.”
    Reneault: “Waters? What waters? We’re in the desert.”
    Rick: “I was misinformed.”

From The Untouchables:

  • “You want to get Capone? Here’s how you get Capone: when one of his pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way.”

From Bull Durham:

  • “The rose goes in the front, Big Guy.”

From Conan the Barbarian:

  • Some guy: “Conan, what is best in life?”
    Conan: “To drive your enemies before you, to crush them, and to hear the lamentations of their women.”

From The Sword and the Sorcerer:

  • “Well, then, let’s be off. We’ve a battle in the offing… kingdoms to save, and women to love!”

I could go on doing this all afternoon, but I don’t want to wear out my welcome, so I’ll wrap this up for now with a few lines from perhaps the most quotable movie of all time, Army of Darkness:

  • “Hail to the king, baby!”
  • “Gimme some sugar, baby!”
  • “Lady, you got real ugly…”
  • “Groovy.”
    And who could forget this amazing little gem of the screenwriter’s craft:
  • “Alright, listen up, you primitive screwheads: this is my boomstick!”
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4 comments on “Bennion’s Most Memorable Movie Quotes

  1. Dave

    Yea, those are some pretty damn good quotes. Still, no Aliens quotes? I did notice that about 1/3 of those were movies with Harrison Ford.
    Yes, you did add some Casablanca quotes that AFI missed. Good call. I really think that that movie is quotable from start to finish. Incidentally, it was the most represented movie on their ballot.
    The Conan quote is great! If for nothing else, to hear Arnold stumble through the word, “lamentations.”
    AoD is good, but for Bruce Cambell quotes I’d have to submit, for you approval of course, from Evil Dead II:
    Ash: Gimme back my hand… GIMME BACK MY HAND!
    and
    [Ash grabs a chainsaw, and cuts off his posessed arm]
    Ash: That’s right… who’s laughing now… who’s laughing *now*?
    Okay, you had to be there.

  2. jason

    And fortunately — or not, depending on how you look at it — I have been there!
    The high preponderence of Harrison Ford lines is purely coincidental, I assure you. Also, the lack of Aliens quotes is simply because I was running long and forced myself to stop. Like I said, I could have gone on all night.
    For the record, I also missed “There is no Sanctuary,” and “Run, Runner!” from Logan’s Run, and “I’m learning to live with a lot of things,” from Darkman…

  3. Sharla

    Actually, given the actual dearth of dialogue in Conan the Barbarian, there are a surprising number of catchy and highly applicable to everyday life one liners. My particular favorite (and the one I most often appeal to) is “Contemplate this on the tree of woe.” Now, to milk the line of its full power, not only must you repeat the words…but you must utter them with the breezy, nonchalance of Jones himslf. This one often comes in handy when I am about to mete out a punishment for unacceptable behavior. Brian’s heard this one a few times.

  4. jason

    Well, hey, Sharla – nice to hear from you!
    Yeah, you got to love those portentious (or is that pretentious?) lines from early-80s fantasies films, especially if they’re read by someone like JEJ.
    Hope all is well…