GREATEST MOVIE MISQUOTES

Some of the most classic film lines or scenes are really only legendary and/or apocryphal, or they are merely movie misquotes, but after many years of repetition, they have become part of the filmgoing public's consciousness. Many of these examples are film quotes that were either commonly attributed wrongly, or in fact were never actually spoken, such as:

• "Play it again, Sam" - was a line never spoken by Ingrid Bergman or Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942) to Sam (Dooley Wilson), the nightclub pianist and reluctant performer of the sentimental song 'As Time Goes By' (written by Herman Hupfeld). The closest Bogart came to the phrase was this: "You played it for her, you can play it for me...If she can stand it, I can. Play it!"
  
  The line "Play it again, Sam" appeared in the Marx Brothers' A Night in Casablanca (1946). When "Play It Again Sam" became the title of a Woody Allen comedy Play It Again, Sam (1972) that, in part, spoofed the classic 1942 film, the misquote was further reinforced. Variations on the line were spoken, however, by the two leads:
  
  Play 1942 clip (Ingrid Bergman): (123 KB)
  Play 1942 clip (Humphrey Bogart): (80 KB)
  
  
• The last line of Casablanca (1942) is also often misquoted (and the name Louis mis-spelled as Louie) - the correct line is: "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." It is often stated as: "This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship" or "I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship."
  
  Play 1942 clip (Humphrey Bogart): (47 KB)
  
  
• One of the most oft-quoted lines in cinema history has often been misquoted or paraphrased, notably in director Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles (1974) as "Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!", in Gotcha! (1985), in "Weird Al" Yankovic's UHF (1989) as: "Badgers??? We don't need no steenkin' badgers!", and in Troop Beverly Hills (1989) regarding the patches of the Wilderness Girls Troop as: "Patches? We don't need no stinkin' patches." In its original form in director John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), it was actually: "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!"
  
  Play 1948 clip: (90 KB)
  
  
• James Cagney's triumphant shout atop a oil tank before blasting himself into oblivion has often been erroneously quoted. The line is not: "Top of the world, Ma!", but "Made it, Ma. Top of the world!"
  
  Play 1948 clip: (76 KB)
  
  
• Bette Davis' most famous film line as aging stage actress Margo Channing in All About Eve (1950) was: "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night." The line has often been misquoted, substituting the word "ride" for "night."
  
  Play 1950 clip: (51 KB)
  
  
• "I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. De Mille" has often been presented as Norma Desmond's (Gloria Swanson) line, but it's actually a misquote of her original closing: "All right, Mr. De Mille, I'm ready for my closeup" - in Sunset Boulevard (1950).
  
  Play 1950 clip: (27 KB)
  
  
• The tagline from Cool Hand Luke (1967) has often been modified from its original. The Captain (Strother Martin) said to recalcitrant chain gang prisoner Luke (Paul Newman): "What we've got here is (pause) failure to communicate," NOT "What we have here is a failure to communicate."
  
  Play 1967 clip: (57 KB)
  
  
• In The Graduate (1967), Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) asked the Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) character: "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. Aren't you?," NOT "Mrs. Robinson, are you trying to seduce me?" At one point, however, Mrs. Robinson asked Benjamin: "Would you like me to seduce you?"
  
  
• Vigilante SF cop 'Dirty' Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) never said: "Do you feel lucky, punk?" while holding his giant-sized .44 Magnum at a downed bank robber in the opening of Dirty Harry (1971). He did say, however, in part: "...But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?" The same full quotation is ritualistically repeated again almost verbatim at the film's conclusion.
  
  Play 1971 clip (excerpt): (27 KB)
  
  
• Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975) has often been misquoted, when Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) exclaimed to his crewmate Quint (Robert Shaw): "You're gonna need a bigger boat." He has been attributed as saying: "We're gonna need a bigger boat."
  
  Play 1975 clip: (14 KB)
  
  
• In Star Wars (1977), Obi Wan Kenobi (Sir Alec Guinness) NEVER said verbatim: "May the force be with you," but he did say at least two other variants: "The Force will be with you...always" (clip 1) and "Remember, the Force will be with you...always" (clip 2) [However, it appears that Han Solo said "May the force be with you" to Luke Skywalker just before the big battle.]
  
  Play 1977 (clip 1): (43 KB)
  Play 1977 (clip 2): (50 KB)
  
  
• The oft-quoted line by Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore (Robert Duvall) - a hawkish, lunatic, flamboyant commander, who wears a black horse soldier's Stetson cavalry hat with a cavalry sword emblem, sunglasses, and a yellow dickey, in Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) is often inaccurately abbreviated. It is often stated simply as: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning...Smells (or smelled) like... victory."
  
  Play 1979 clip: (129 KB)
  
  The full quotation is: "You smell that? Do you smell that?...Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know, that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smells (or smelled) like - victory. [A bomb explodes behind him.] Some day, this war's gonna end."
  
  
• The startling revelation of fatherhood by Darth Vader (David Prowse, voice of James Earl Jones) to Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) in Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) was not: "Luke, I am your father," but: "No. I am your father." [However, the trilogy's most famous line was never actually delivered by Vader - on the set, he really said: "Obi-Wan killed your father," but the line was secretly re-dubbed later.] Luke responds in horror: "No! No! That's not true. That's impossible." [The misquoted line: "Luke, Luke, I am your father" was stated in the film Tommy Boy (1995), by the title character Tommy (Chris Farley) as he goofed off in front of an electric fan.]
  
  Play 1980 clip: (41 KB)
  
  
• The multi-part sci-fi Star Trek TV and film series (first telecast as a one-hour TV show in 1966 and lasting until 1969 before syndication, and inspiring numerous feature films, beginning with Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)), popularized the common phrase, "Beam me up, Scotty." Contrary to popular belief, Captain Kirk (William Shatner) never uttered the line: “Beam me up, Scotty”. The actual command, "Kirk to Enterprise. Beam us up, Scotty" was voiced by Captain Kirk (voice of William Shatner) in Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek animated TV series from 1973-75. The closest Kirk ever got to saying the exact line was "Scotty, beam me up!" in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).
  
  Play 1986 clip: (4 KB)
  
  Throughout the years, however, there have been a number of variants, such as "Gentlemen, Beam me aboard," or "Picard to Farragut, two to beam up." The "beam" quote was a reference to the ship's teleportation device and the affectionately-regarded ship's chief engineer and second officer, Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott (James Doohan). "Beam me up, Scotty" was spoken by Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) in one of the episodes of the TV series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and also referenced by Rockhound (Steve Buscemi) in Armageddon (1998) as: "While I don't share his enthusiasm, you know me, beam me up Scotty." And in the animated Fox-TV series Family Guy, in a 1999 episode (Season 1, Episode 2) titled "I Never Met the Dead Man," William Shatner showed up at the Griffin family's house and said, "Beam me up, God!"
  
  
• Detective Joe Friday (Jack Webb) in the 50s NBC-TV classic police series Dragnet never said, "Just the facts, ma'am," although there were variations, such as: "All we want (or know) are the facts, ma'am." However, the inaccurate line was reinforced in the collective memory when Milton Berle parodied the show in a classic spoof, and when Dan Aykroyd uttered the line in the updated Dragnet (1987):
  
  Play 1987 clip: (10 KB)
  
  
• References to the "Greed is Good" speech truncate the actual words of the lengthy quote, spoken by Oscar-winning Michael Douglas (as ruthless stockbroker Gordon Gekko) in Wall Street (1987). The actual line was: "The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit..."
  
  Play 1987 clip (excerpt): (50 KB)
  
  
• "If you build it, they will come" was NOT what the voice said in Field of Dreams (1989). Instead, it was: "If you build it, he will come."
  
  Play 1989 clip: (38 KB)
  
  
• A "misquote" of sorts - relating to a wrongly-attributed photograph for Home Alone (1990) that was used to prominently advertise the film. It's often assumed that Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) has his hands up to his face and is screaming at the realization he's been left "home alone" or abandoned. In fact, he's screaming because he has just applied too much aftershave to his cheeks.
  
  
• A minor misquote has often plagued the title character's (Tom Hanks) most famous line of dialogue in Forrest Gump (1994): "My mama always said, 'Life is (was) like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.'" It should be WAS, not IS. The line wasn't in the novel by Winston Groom -- the closest it came was the novel's first line with reversed meaning: "Let me say this: bein a idiot is no box of chocolates."
  
  Play 1994 clip: (87 KB)
  
  
• In Apollo 13 (1995), astronaut Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) told Mission Control: "Houston, we have a problem." The line has often been misquoted as: "Houston, we've got a problem." The historical quote was more accurately: "Houston, we've had a problem."
  
  Play 1995 clip: (14 KB)
  
  
• Another of the most mis-quoted lines was from James Cameron's blockbuster Titanic (1997). The line spoken by Leonardo DiCaprio's character was: "I'm the king of the world," NOT "I'm king of the world."
  
  Play 1997 clip: (222 KB)
  
  See also, "Greatest Last Film Lines and Quotes" with some of the greatest curtain-call lines ever.