I searched and didn’t find anything similar–if there were threads like this, they’re probably older and I don’t want to bring up dead threads.
So, what are some of your favorite opening or closing lines from movies? Not necessarily the most dramatic or the best, but the ones you’ve enjoyed the most. (Please provide spoiler boxes if necessary)
Favorite opening: “This story is about love.” (Christian, Moulin Rouge)
Favorite closing: Sleepy Hollow, spoilers just in case. “You’ll soon get your bearings, Young Masbeth. The Bronx is up, the Battery’s down…and home is this way.” Ichabod Crane, spoiler-boxed because there are some points in the movie where you might think he won’t make it, and since he has the last line, you can deduce he does. Don’t want to ruin the tension.
Another favorite closing: Pirates of the Caribbean, spoiler-boxed because it’s rather new. “Now bring me that horizon…[hums]…and really bad eggs.” Captain Jack Sparrow
I mentioned this in another thread. Not the best movie in the world (in fact a pretty bad movie) but at the end of The Pickup Artist Mollie Ringwald and Robert Downey Jr’s characters are getting busy. Robert is going on and on. The last line is Molly saying “If you shut up, I’ll come.”
It was the only time I laughed watching that movie.
Johnny Depp much, Buckleberry? I think some of the same discs playing in my house lately are at your house, too.
I’m partial to Hudson Hawk’s closer: “And so, Eddie finally got his cappuccino.”
Hudson Hawk is like a really ugly, stupid puppy you can’t help but love, even though it keeps shredding the couch cushions. As a film, it’s focus on it’s own trivia just makes it better. Who even remembered the cappuccino by that point?
:dubious: I hadn’t noticed :: innocent :: :: whistles :: Really, I’ve only seen those two–I can’t gather the courage to watch Blow and I can’t seem to find Edward Scissorhands or Benny and Joon to rent (I don’t want to buy them and find out I don’t like them…though I doubt that would happen). I rented From Hell, but there was so much nudity and blood in the first few minutes I turned it off. :: shudder ::
Um…it appears I’ve lost focus.
Aha! Another favorite closer: “We may yet, Mr. Frodo. We may yet.” Samwise Gamgee, paraphrased reply to Frodo’s “I don’t suppose we’ll ever see them again, Sam,” Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
I can never remember exact quotes, so this is going to have to be paraphrased. But the last line of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) is an excellent example of understatement: “Look, everybody! Hank’s back!”
Some people say the best closing line in movie history was in Some Like it Hot. Those people are wrong. The best closing line is from My Man Godfrey (1936):
A down-on-his-luck socialite, played by William Powell, works as a butler for the eccentric Bullock family and eventually works his way back up to a little status and independence. In the final scene, Irene Bullock, the brilliant Carole Lombard, breezes into his new apartment and proceeds to take over his life. In fact, the mayor is pressed into service to perform a civil wedding ceremony. (“Does your family know you’re getting married?” “Oh, everybody knows about it except Godfrey”) Everyone in place, the happy bride and befuddled groom join hands and she says “Stand still, Godfrey, it’ll all be over in a minute.”
I’m going to have to give this question a little more thought…BF’s suggestions are good, as is the Some Like it Hot quote. If Gone with the Wind had ended with Rhett’s line, that would have been a good ending. The last lines of To Kill A Mockingbird are almost the same as the book ("…and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning") and they are beautiful.
An aside (or hijack, is that the correct term?) for Buckleberry Ferry: We discovered Johnny Depp at my house with POTC and have been having a Depp video fest ever since. “From Hell” was too bloody for me too, but Mr. Depp was cool as ever and did you stay long enough to catch Robbie Coltrane -Hagrid!- as his assistant? I “rented” Benny & Joon, Edward Scissorhands, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and a couple others from our public library. Of those the one you must see is Gilbert Grape.
end hijack, I guess.
[aside] well he’s back, I barely got a few seconds into his first opium…hallucination? I turned that off toot sweet. Too bad I didn’t get to see Mr. Coltrane. Much coolness.
I’ve seen Sleepy Hollow roughly five times, though. (I say roughly because there was one time it was just on in the background and another where I wasn’t paying much attention.)
Heard good things about Grape, however–might be my next rent. [/aside]
Another good closer: (paraphrased) “You know, I have a feeling I’ve seen that ship…a long time ago…when I was very young.” George Darling, Peter Pan
And the opener, by the narrator of the same: “All this has happened before. And it will all happen again. But this time it happened in London.”
[more hijack] I watch Sleepy Hollow a minimum of once a week because a) the costumes rock my world, and b) my own personal name is Katrina and I just like to hear him say it.[/hijack]
Airplane! (1980)
Afetr ALL the credits have gone by this truly IS the last line of the movie - “Just 15 more minutes…that’s all I’m giiving him” - spoken by a taxicab passenger who has been waiting (for about three quarters of the movie) for the driver to return.
Of all the movies I own on DVD, I think my favorite opening (although it’s only partially the line) is Terminator 2… the camera pans across a freeway, the super-ominous movie plays, then the flash, and the fire, and the skulls, and…
“Three billion human lives ended on August 29, 1997. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day…”
Good times.
As for ending lines, this is more lighthearted, but the last line of Dragnet with Tom Hanks and Dan Akyroyd is one of the single funniest moments in any movie, ever.
I just watched The Breakfast Club. Best closer: Brian’s letter to Vernon: <snip> …But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club.
Millier’s Crossing
Opening line:
“I’m talkin’ about friendship. I’m talkin’ about character. I’m talkin’ about… hell, Leo, I ain’t embarassed to use the word… I’m talkin’ about ethics.”
I think some of the same discs playing in my house lately are at your house, too.