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Part 4 |
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Part 4 |
Introduction: 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. See also Greatest Last Words and Closing Film Lines.
(chronological, by film title - Part 4) Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 |
| Famous Opening Line | Film Title |
| "Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of. And unto this, Conan, destined to wear the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a troubled brow. It is I, his chronicler, who alone can tell thee of his saga. Let me tell you of the days of high adventure!" |
Conan the Barbarian (1982) |
| “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) |
| "What am I working on? Uh, I'm working on something that'll change the world and human life as we know it." | The Fly (1986) |
| “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) |
| (voice-over) "I was 12 going on 13 the first time I saw a dead human being." | Stand By Me (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) |
| "Once upon a time, many years ago, two burglars broke into our neighbor's house in Rockaway. Mr. and Mrs. Needleman had gone to a movie, and the following events occurred..." | Radio Days (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) |
| "Garbage. All I've been thinking about all week is garbage. I mean, I just can't stop thinking about it." |
sex, lies and videotape (1989) |
| "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. To me, being a gangster was better than being President of the United States." | GoodFellas (1990) |
| (voice-over) "Three billion human lives ended on August 29, 1997. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day. They lived only to face a new nightmare, a war against the machines..." | Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) |
| "Oh... f--k! F--k!" | Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) |
| (voice-over) "One time my cousin Walter got this cat stuck up his ass. True story. He bought it at our local mall, so the whole fiasco wound up on the news. It was embarrasing for my relatives and all, but the next week, he did it again. Different cat, same results, complete with another trip to the emergency room. So, I run into him a week later in the mall and he's buying another cat. And I says to him: 'Jesus, Walt! What are you doing? You know you're just gonna get this cat stuck in your ass too. Why don't you knock it off?' And he said to me: 'Brodie, how the hell else am I supposed to get the gerbil out?' My cousin was a weird guy." | Mallrats (1995) |
| (narrated) "Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family, Choose a f--king big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suit on hire purchased in a range of f--king fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the f--k you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sittin' on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing f--king junk food into your mouth. Choose rottin' away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarassment to the selfish, f--ked-up brats that you've spawned to replace yourself. Choose a future. Choose life...But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?" | Trainspotting (1996, UK) |
| (voice-over) "'Come to Los Angeles! The sun shines bright, the beaches are wide and inviting, and the orange groves stretch as far as the eye can see. There are jobs aplenty, and land is cheap. Every working man can have his own house, and inside every house, a happy, all-American family. You can have all this, and who knows... you could even be discovered, become a movie star... or at least see one. Life is good in Los Angeles... it's paradise on Earth.' Ha ha ha ha. That's what they tell you, anyway." |
L.A. Confidential (1997) |
| ”Way out west there was this fella I wanna tell ya about. Goes by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least that was the handle his loving parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. See, this Lebowski, he called himself ‘The Dude.’” | The Big Lebowski (1998) |
| "We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold." | Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) |
- "I need a father who's a role model, not some horny geek boy who's gonna spray his shorts whenever I bring a girlfriend home from school. What a lame-o. Someone really should just put him out of his misery." |
American Beauty (1999) |
| (voice-over) “People are always asking me if I know Tyler Durden…” | Fight Club (1999) |
| "What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?" | High Fidelity (2000) |
| "Say, any of you boys smithies? Or, if not smithies per se, were you otherwise trained in the metallurgic arts before straitened circumstances forced you into a life of aimless wanderin'?" | O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) |
| (voice-over) "Who am I? You sure you wanna know? The story of my life is not for the faint of heart. If somebody said it was a happy little tale, if somebody told you I was just your average guy, not a care in the world, somebody lied. But let me assure you, this, like any story worth telling, is all about a girl. That girl. The girl next door. Mary Jane Watson. The woman I've loved since before I even liked girls..." | Spider-Man (2002) |
| "Do you consider the book to be autobiographical?" | Before Sunset (2004) |
| “God will forgive them. He'll forgive them and allow them into Heaven. I can't live with that.” | Dead Man's Shoes (2004) |
| "Who are you?" | The Machinist (2004) |
| "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) |
| “I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me. Years ago we had the church. That was only a way of saying - we had each other. The Knights of Columbus were real head-breakers; true guineas. They took over their piece of the city. Twenty years after an Irishman couldn't get a f--king job, we had the presidency. May he rest in peace. That's what the n-----s don't realize. If I got one thing against the black chappies, it's this - no one gives it to you. You have to take it.” | The Departed (2006) |
| "Are you watching closely?" | The Prestige (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) |
| "I was Sheriff of this county when I was 25 years old. Hard to believe." | No Country For Old Men (2007) |
| (voice-over, in part) "This is Harvey Milk speaking on Friday, November 18th. This is only to be played in the event of my death by assassination. During one of my early campaigns, I began to open speeches with a line and it became kind of a signature...'My name is Harvey Milk, and I want to recruit you'...." |
Milk (2008) |
(voice-over) "I'd never given much thought to how I would die. But dying in the place of someone I love seems like a good way to go. So I can't bring myself to regret the decision to leave home. I would miss Phoenix. I'd miss the heat. I would miss my loving, erratic, harebrained mother. And her new husband...But they want to go on the road, so I'm gonna spend some time with my dad, and this will be a good thing. I think. In the state of Washington, under a near constant cover of clouds and rain, there's a small town named Forks. Population, 3,120 people. This is where I'm moving. My dad's Charlie. He's the chief of police...." |
Twilight (2008) |
| (title card) "The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug" - Chris Hedges | The Hurt Locker (2009) |
| (voice-over) "We had such potential, such promise. But we squandered our gifts, our intelligence. Our blind pursuit of technology only sped us quicker to our doom. Our world is ending. But life must go on." | 9 (2009) |
Greatest
Opening Film Lines and Quotes
