What’s better than a dramatic entrance? A dramatic exit!
Inspired by the exit Jack Ryan makes in the first episode of the eponymous Amazon TV series, what are other dramatic exits?
Ground rules: non fatal, preferably of the hero, and superheroes & supervillains don’t count.
“Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” No cite needed.
The hero get to fly away with his girlfriend in a Gunstar in The Last Starfighter.
Anna’s literal exit at the end of The Third Man.
Joseph Cotton has a short train ride in Shadow of a Doubt.
Yes, lots of us have been smitten by Teresa Wright, and lived to admit it.
Another ride, 17 years later (admittedly fatal for the fish):
Happy trails, Marian!..
Maybe-dead King Arthur sails off with Guinevere and nuns into the sunset in Excalibur.
Thelma and Louise
The Lone Ranger TV show (each episode):
“Who was that masked man?”
“That was the Lone Ranger.”
(in the distance, riding) “Hi-yo, Silver! Away!”
On NCIS, when Gibbs’s coffee consumption was still a thing:
*“Where you goin’, Boss?”
“To the head!”**
*Mistranslated into Russian as “To see the Director.”
Kirk in “The City on the Edge of Forever”:
“Let’s get the hell out of here!”
Rosalind Shays on LA Law:
*“You’re staying with a man who doesn’t love you.”
“I really don’t want to talk about it. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”*
Best line? “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn!”
Worst line? “How is this possible? Because he is the Kwisatz Haderach!”
“There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. . .”
Well, this seems like it’s gonna end up including exits *and *parting lines, and some will be “dramatic” while others will be badass but maybe quiet. For a fave of mine: Barney Greenwald’s exit speech in The Caine Mutiny as delivered by José Ferrer. When he says “If you wanna do anything about it, I’ll be outside… I’m a lot drunker than you are, so it’ll be a fair fight”, you *believe *it.
Doug: “No, dad! No! Like bumming a smoke from Doug is gonna make things copacetic twixt me and you. I’m Doug and you’re dad. Teens and adults don’t mix. Forget it, I’m outta… I’m outta herrrre.”
Our last sight of Sherif Ali (Omar Sharif) in Lawrence of Arabia—black robe swirling as he strides into the Damascus palace.
(Looked for a clip but haven’t found one.)
While not really that dramatic, I’ve always liked the original Q’s (Desmond Llewelyn) exit in The World is not enough. One of the highlights in Brosnan’s often uneven Bond tenure, made all the more poignant by Llewelyn’s death shortly after filming the scene. Bond and Q share a few jokes at the new guy’s (John Cleese) expense. Bond shows a bit of rarely seen vulnerability at the thought of Q retiring, giving their relationship a kinda father/son vibe. Q then gets the last word and makes an appropriate exit from the franchise.
In the movie Head, The Monkees jump off a bridge at both the beginning and the end.
How can I be the first one to mention …that guy, whoever he actually was…at the end of The Usual Suspects?
“Hey, Doc, we better back up; we don’t have enough road to get up to 88.”
“. . . roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need . . . roads.”
[/cue the music]
My favourite: Snagglepuss, reading his stage directions - “Exit, stage left!” 