 Greatest
Opening Film Lines and Quotes
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Greatest
Opening Film Lines and Quotes
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These are many of the best-known opening lines, fade-ins, and first words of dialogue heard throughout cinematic history - the initial opening words of films sometimes heard even before the title credits. In quite a few cases, the memorable opening lines are also some of the greatest lines in film history. They often reveal a vital truth about the film, introduce the film, or help to define what the film was all about. The words, often spoken by an off-screen narrator or character, often help to set a mood or tone before the film begins, and they are often great one-liners.
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| Famous Opening Line | Film Title |
| “Revolution is the only lawful, equal, effectual war. It was in Russia that this war was declared and begun.” (title card) | Battleship Potemkin (1925, USSR) |
| “OK. Say, Jones and Barry are doing a show!” | 42nd Street (1933) |
| (sung) “Gone are my blues and gone are my tears. I've got good news to shout in your ears. The long-lost dollar has come back to the fold. With silver you can turn your dreams to gold. So...” | Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) |
| “Hunger strike, eh? How long has this been going on?” | It Happened One Night (1934) |
| Senator Samuel Foley - dead, yeah, yeah, died a minute ago - here at St. Vincent's.” | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) |
| “This picture takes place in Paris in those wonderful days when a siren was a brunette and not an alarm --- and if a Frenchman turned out the light, it was not on account of an air raid!” | Ninotchka (1939) |
| “Apaches, Captain! The hills are swarmin' with 'em.” | Stagecoach (1939) |
| “For nearly forty years this story has given faithful service to the Young in Heart; and Time has been powerless to put its kindly philosophy out of fashion. To those of you who have been faithful to it in return...and to the Young in Heart...we dedicate this picture.” (title card) | The Wizard of Oz (1939) |
| “Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” | Rebecca (1940) |
| “R-O-S-E-B-U-D.” | Citizen Kane (1941) |
| “You're only wasting your time writing speeches like that. Why worry about the people and their problems? Think of your own.” | The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941) |
| “I am packing my belongings in the shawl my mother used to wear when she went to the market. And I'm going from my valley. And this time, I shall never return. I am leaving behind me my fifty years of memory. Memory. Streams that the mind will forget so much of what only this moment has passed, and yet hold clear and bright the memory of what happened years ago - of men and women long since dead...” | How Green Was My Valley (1941) |
| “Even as fog continues to lie in the valleys, so does ancient sin cling to the low places, the depressions in the world consciousness.” | Cat People (1942) |
| “The magnificence of the Ambersons began in 1873.” | The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) |
| “Our story takes us down this shadowed path to a dark and guarded building in the British midlands...” | Random Harvest (1942) |
| “I am Matthew Macauley. I have been dead for two years, but so much of me is still living that I know now the end is only the beginning. As I look down on my homeland of Ithaca, California, with its cactus, vineyards and orchards, I feel so much of me is still living there - in the places I've been, in the fields, the streets, the church, and, most of all, my home where my hopes, my dreams, my ambitions, my beliefs still live in the daily lives of my loved ones.” | The Human Comedy (1943) |
| “This is a Hallowe'en tale of Brooklyn, where anything can happen - - and it usually does. At 3 P.M. on this particular day, this was happening -” (title screen) | Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) |
| “This is the story of that unconquerable fortress - the American home, 1943.” | Since You Went Away (1944) |
| “Mildred!” | Mildred Pierce (1945) |
| “Deep among the lonely sun-baked hills of Texas, the great and weatherbeaten stone still stands. The Comanches called it Squaw's Head Rock. Time cannot change its impassive face, nor dim the legend of the wild young lovers who found Heaven and Hell in the shadows of the rock...” | Duel in the Sun (1946) |
| “To me a dollar was a dollar in any language.” | Gilda (1946) |
| "This is the universe. Big, isn't it?" | A Matter of Life and Death/Stairway to Heaven (1946) |
| “Manhattan, New York, USA. In any discussion of contemporary America and how its people live, we must inevitably start with Manhattan, New York City, USA. Manhattan, glistening modern giant of concrete and steel reaching to the heavens and cradling in its arms seven million, seven million happy beneficiaries of the advantages and comforts this great metropolis has to offer. Its fine, wide boulevards facilitate the New Yorkers' carefree, orderly existence.” | Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) |
| “I never knew the old Vienna before the war, with its Strauss music, its glamour and easy charm - Constantinople suited me better. I really got to know it in the classic period of the Black Market. We'd run anything, if people wanted it enough and had the money to pay...” | The Third Man (1949) |
| “Yes, this is Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California. It's about five o'clock in the morning. That's the Homicide Squad - complete with detectives and newspapermen. A murder has been reported from one of those great big houses in the ten thousand block. You'll read about it in the late editions, I'm sure...” | Sunset Boulevard (1950) |
| “This is the Appian Way. The most famous road that leads to Rome, as all roads lead to Rome.” | Quo Vadis? (1951) |
| “I beg your pardon, but aren't you Guy Haines?” | Strangers on a Train (1951) |
| “Somebody's comin', Pa.” “Well, let him come.” |
Shane (1953) |
| “I don't know about you, but it always makes me sore when I see those war pictures. All about flying leathernecks and submarine patrols and frogmen and guerrillas in the Philippines. What gets me is that there never was a movie about POWs - about prisoners of war.” | Stalag 17 (1953) |
| “Joey, Joey Doyle!...Hey, I got one of your birds.” | On the Waterfront (1954) |
| "It started - for me, it started - last Thursday, in response to an urgent message from my nurse, I hurried home from a medical convention I'd been attending. At first glance, everything looked the same. It wasn't. Something evil had taken possession of the town." (original theatrical version before studio intervention) | Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) |
| “Gelsomina!....Gelsomina!” | La Strada (1956, It.) |
| “Call me Ishmael.” | Moby Dick (1956) |
| “Who are you?” “I am Death.” |
The Seventh Seal (1956, Sw.) |
| “Have you ever heard of multiple personality?” | The Three Faces of Eve (1957) |
| "Greetings, my friends! We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friends; future events such as these will affect you in the future. You are interested in the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable; that is why you are here. And now for the first time we are bringing to you the full story of what happened on that faithful day. We are giving you all the evidence, based only on the secret testimonies of the miserable souls who survived this terrifying ordeal. The incidents, the places, my friends, we can not keep this a secret any longer; let us punish the guilty, let us reward the innocent. My friends, can your heart stand the shocking facts about the grave robbers from outer space?" | Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) |
| “You never did eat your lunch, did you?” “I'd better get back to the office. These extended lunch hours give my boss excess acid.” |
Psycho (1960) |
| "On Sunday, August 13th, 1961, the eyes
of America were on the nation's capital, where Roger Maris was hitting home
runs #44 and 45 against the Senators. On that same day, without any warning,
the East German Communists sealed off the border between East and West Berlin.
I only mention this to show the kind of people we're dealing with - REAL
SHIFTY!" |
One, Two, Three (1961) |
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“He was the most extraordinary man I ever knew.” |
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) |
| “Maycomb was a tired old town, even in 1932 when I first knew it. Somehow, it was hotter then. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon after their three o'clock naps. And by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frosting from sweating and sweet talcum. The day was twenty-four hours long, but it seemed longer...” | To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) |
| “Don't tell me, you didn't know it was loaded.” | Charade (1963) |
| “My car's thirsty. Can I please have some water?” “God is good. He has sent me a big, strong man.” |
Lilies of the Field (1963) |
| “Excuse me...my name's Barrett, sir.” | The Servant (1963) |
| “As in every stone of this size, there is a flaw.” | The Pink Panther (1964) |
| “This is a story of long, long ago, when the world was just beginning.” | One Million Years, B.C. (1966) |
| “Hey boy, what you doin' with my Mama's car? Wait there!” | Bonnie and Clyde (1967) |
| “Hello, gorgeous.” | Funny Girl (1968) |
| “Please, sir, I want some more.” | Oliver! (1968) |
| “Here you are, sir. Main Level D.” | 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) |
| “Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou nor thy sons with thee least ye shall die...” | The Wild Bunch (1969) |
| “What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful and brilliant? That she loved Mozart and Bach, the Beatles, and me?” | Love Story (1970) |
| “Radar!” “Yes, sir.” |
M*A*S*H (1970) |
| (voice-over) “There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Korova milkbar sold milk-plus, milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom, which is what we were drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence.” | A Clockwork Orange (1971) |
| “Death ends a life, but it does not end a relationship, which struggles on in the survivor's mind toward some resolution which it may never find.” | I Never Sang For My Father (1971) |
| “I believe in America.” | The Godfather (1972) |
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“All right, Curly, enough's enough. You can't eat the venetian blinds. I just had 'em installed on Wednesday.” |
Chinatown (1974) |
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"There's an old joke: Two elderly women are at a Catskill Mountain resort. And one of 'em says: 'Boy, the food in this place is really terrible.' The other one says: 'Yeah, I know. And such small portions.' Well, that's essentially how I feel about life. Full of loneliness and misery and suffering and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly." |
Annie Hall (1977) |
| “Will you just watch the hair? You know, I work on my hair a long time and you hit it. He hits my hair.” | Saturday Night Fever (1977) |
| “In the decade of the 1930's, even the great city of Metropolis was not spared the ravages of the worldwide depression. In the times of fear and confusion, the job of informing the public was the responsibility of the Daily Planet, a great metropolitan newspaper whose reputation for clarity and truth had become a symbol of hope for the city of Metropolis.......” | Superman: The Movie (1978) |
| “Long ago, the great Frith made the world. He made all the stars, and the Earth lived among the stars. He made all the animals and birds, and at first, he made them all the same. Now, among the animals in these days was El-Ahrairah, the prince of rabbits. He had many friends, and they all ate grass together. But after a time, the rabbits wandered everywhere, multiplying and eating as they went. Then Frith said to El-Ahrairah, 'Prince Rabbit, if you cannot control your people, I shall find ways to control them.'...” (narrated prologue) | Watership Down (1978) |
| “Saigon. Shit! I'm still only in Saigon. Every time I think I'm gonna wake up back in the jungle...” | Apocalypse Now (1979) |
| “'Chapter One. He adored New York City. He idolized it all out of proportion.' Uh, no, make that: 'He-he...romanticized it all out of proportion. Now...to him...no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin.' Ahhh, now let me start this over...” | Manhattan (1979) |
| “The life of a playwright is tough. It's not as easy as some people seem to think.” | My Dinner with Andre (1981) |
| “Norman. Come here. Come here, Norman. Hurry
up. The loons! The loons! They're welcoming us back.” “I don't hear a thing.” |
On Golden Pond (1981) |
| “1954. You don't get years like that anymore. It was my favorite year...” | My Favorite Year (1982) |
| “When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind...” | The Outsiders (1983) |
| “The dream is always the same.” | Risky Business (1983) |
| “He even took the gramophone on safari.” | Out of Africa (1985) |
| “God, she's beautiful. She's got the prettiest eyes. She looks so sexy in that sweater. I just want to be alone with her and hold her and kiss her, tell her how much I lover her, take care of her. Stop it, you idiot. She's your wife's sister.” | Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) |
| “On the 23rd Day of the Month of September in an early year of a decade not too long before our own, the human race suddenly encountered a deadly threat to its very existence, and this terrifying enemy surfaced, as such enemies often do, in the seemingly most innocent and unlikely of places...” | Little Shop of Horrors (1986) |
| “I am Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, your senior drill instructor. From now on, you will speak only when spoken to, and the first and last words out of your filthy sewers will be 'Sir!' Do you maggots understand this?” | Full Metal Jacket (1987) |
| “September 21, 1945... that was the night I died.” | Grave of the Fireflies (1988, Jp.) |
| “Take off your clothes.” | The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) |
| “Wake up! Wake up, wake up, wake up, up you wake, up you wake, up you wake, up you wake! This is Mr. Senor Love Daddy, your voice of choice, the world's only twelve-hour strongman on the air, here on We Love Radio, 108 FM, the last on your dial but first in your hearts and that's the truth, Ruth.” | Do the Right Thing (1989) |
| “My name is Lester Burnham. This is my neighborhood; this is my street; this is my life. I am 42 years old; in less than a year I will be dead. Of course I don't know that yet, and in a way, I am dead already.” | American Beauty (1999) |
| "You look at that river gently flowing by. You notice the leaves rustling with the wind. You hear the birds; you hear the tree frogs. In the distance you hear a cow. You feel the grass. The mud gives a little bit on the river bank. It's quiet; it's peaceful. And all of a sudden, it's a gear shift inside you. And it's like taking a deep breath and going... 'Oh yeah, I forgot about this'." |
An Inconvenient Truth (2006) |
| "According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway. Because bees don't care what humans think is impossible." |
Bee Movie (2007) |
