Of course, there is the attractive blond amendment to this horror-movie truism.
It goes, “You split up and … look for the source of that noise/blood/whatever while I take a shower (without locking the door).”
And let’s not forget the ubiquitous “Go! GoGoGo!”
I figure a close second is the romantic-comedy or dramatic staple line of, “And what is that supposed to mean?”
“Let’s Get Out Of Here” is not a cliché. A cliché is when it is used to excess, inappropriately, and becomes predictable. But that’s a standard phrase used in everyday life, and is a perfectly logical thing to say in most circumstances.
However “Take Evasive Action” being used instead of “Let’s Get Out Of Here” is a cliché. And I really really wish it would stop. At no other time do these movie military people utter something like that in such a stilted way. They don’t say “We are disinclined to acquiesce to your request.” It’s always “No!” or “Go!” or “Kill the bastards!” or “Long live King Richard!!”. But whenever it’s time to get the hell out of there, it’s always “Take evasive action!”
Fuck the hell off.
Also: "OHHHHHHHHHH SHIT!!!"
(usually with two lead characters doing a doubletake then looking sidelong at each other as they say it, then start to run like hell)
and: “What’s the plan?” or, “Do you have a plan?” (in other words “what’s the next plot point?”)
Or if it’s a lone black man doing a double take: “Oh, HELL no!!!”
Another one I like is when The Hero walks up to The Mobster at a restaurant. Mobster is having a grand old time with his Skank and some other friends, but when Hero shows up, he knows there is important business to be discussed, so he always looks at his Skank with total contempt and utters the one-word line to her, “Blow.” Skank is mortified, then leaves. Poor Mafia Skank. Will you ever find true love?
Another line I hear a lot is : “I’m too old for this shit (crap, stuff).”
I opened this thread to mention that and one more. “Are you OK?” is a line that really grates me. When Hero’s sidekick took a bullet in the shoulder, the proper line shouldn’t be “Are you OK?”, but “How bad is it?”
The other is “Someone call 911!” frantically shouted by hero as he bends down over bleeding friend. Are you a doctor? Can you actually do something for the injured? Well, then, shouldn’t you call 911 and actually be uuseful. Speaking of which, doing mouth to mouth (soon to be followed by spluttering seawater) only works if you bend the head back so as to open up the throat.
…
To be fair, when that skydiver lost both parachutes and fell into the underbrush, his buddy came and found him and asked, “Are you okay?” I think it’s just a reflex thing - we want to communicate, find out if the person is alive/conscious, express concern, and so on. What are you going to say, “Are you alive?” That seems dumb as no one’s going to answer in the negative, not to mention it’s not very “power of positive thinking.” I agree, “How bad is it” makes more sense, but it’s not something we repeat dozens of times a week, like “are you okay?”
Hahahahaha!! Comedy Gold. Well played.
What drives me totally bonkers is not a line, but the entire “Villain Speech”. :mad:
You know, the one where the villain and the hero finally confront one another near the end of the film but the villain has the upper hand.
Of COURSE, he’s dressed to the nines, baths in Dom Perignon, and eats Picassos for breakfast. He points his artsy-fartsy pistol and with smug superiority and begins his diatribe:
“Well if it isn’t [insert hero’s name here]. So glad you good join us. Come, sit, sit. I want to show you something. You will come to understand that my genius cannot be denied…” And so on, blah, blah, blah. :rolleyes:
Just once, JUST ONCE, why can’t the villain be some dork who hasn’t been laid since the Carter administration? All this dude wants to do is blow up the world. End Of Story.
The hero walks into the room unexpectedly, startles the bad guy, and BLAM!, the hero is instantly shot dead.
“YEA!! GOT HIM!”, says the villain. He then opens a Snickers and checks his email.
That’s one thing I liked in the awful but enjoyable Shanghai Knights. During a brief lull in a chase scene, Jackie Chan’s character asks Owen Wilson’s character what the plan is, and OW’s character proceeds to talk at length about how he’d like to get himself straightened out, settle down with a nice girl, have lots of kids…
Heh, one of my favorite little things in the Horatio Hornblower movie “Loyalty” is when Hornblower is confronted by the traitor after having been captured by the French. Basically, the guy mentions that there is another traitor, much more highly placed than he is.
“I bet you would love to know who he is.”
“If I am to hang, it would cost you nothing to tell me.”
“It would be a cruel fate indeed to go to the gallows tormented by the fact that you have no idea who betrayed you. Guard.”
Guards escort Hornblower back to his cell
I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Watching Armageddon and Steve Buscemi just said this to Bruce Willis !!
A friend of mine who does a lot of Shakespeare plays told me that, as a last resort whenever he or his buddies blank on their next line, they say, “We shall speak of this anon!” and walk offstage.
Another one mentioned in Ebert’s book is “What’s that supposed to mean?” which appears in approximately half of all straight dramas ever produced.
It’s TV rather than cinema, but I think the line worked pretty well at the end of “City on the Edge of Forever” (perhaps because it was so atypical for Kirk, and he sounded so beaten down while keeping up a good face while saying it).
I nominate Children of Men as the prime offender 
Re: the subject, Pablo Francisco has a hilarious routine on this, starring Ahnuld as the Tortilla Boy.
[. . .]*Double the Action!
“Get douhn!”
Triple the excitement!
“We haf to get outta hiehr!”
Triple the action!
“Get douhn again!”*