I always love it when someone in a movie makes a really evil and scary-sounding threat to another character. Here are some of my favorite examples:
David Lynch’s Dune - towards the end of the movie the Guild guy visits Emperor Shaddam IV and says: “Remedy this situation! Restore the Spice production…or you will live out your life in a pain amplifier!”
I especially love this one because you don’t know what a “pain amplifier” is. (This is a very effective technique for making something more dramatic, actually. Like the line about the C-beams and the Tannhauser Gate in Blade Runner - you’re never shown what that is exactly, so your imagination fills in the details.)
And, in There Will Be Blood, Daniel Plainview is talking to the guy from the rival oil company and all of a sudden says something like, “I’m going to come into your house while you sleep and I’m going to cut your throat.” That one’s pretty good too, but it’s not as sinister sounding as the “pain amplifier.”
Prince Humperdinck: First things first, to the death.
Westley: No. To the pain.
Prince Humperdinck: I don’t think I’m quite familiar with that phrase.
Westley: I’ll explain and I’ll use small words so that you’ll be sure to understand, you warthog faced buffoon.
Prince Humperdinck: That may be the first time in my life a man has dared insult me.
Westley: It won’t be the last. To the pain means the first thing you will lose will be your feet below the ankles. Then your hands at the wrists. Next your nose.
Prince Humperdinck: And then my tongue I suppose, I killed you too quickly the last time. A mistake I don’t mean to duplicate tonight.
Westley: I wasn’t finished. The next thing you will lose will be your left eye followed by your right.
Prince Humperdinck: And then my ears, I understand let’s get on with it.
Westley: WRONG. Your ears you keep and I’ll tell you why. So that every shriek of every child at seeing your hideousness will be yours to cherish. Every babe that weeps at your approach, every woman who cries out, “Dear God! What is that thing,” will echo in your perfect ears. That is what to the pain means. It means I leave you in anguish, wallowing in freakish misery forever.
Prince Humperdinck: I think you’re bluffing.
Westley: It’s possible, Pig, I might be bluffing. It’s conceivable, you miserable, vomitous mass, that I’m only lying here because I lack the strength to stand. But, then again… perhaps I have the strength after all.
[slowly rises and points sword directly at the prince]
Westley: DROP… YOUR… SWORD!
Prince Humperdinck: [Humperdinck’s mouth hangs open, drops sword to floor]
Marty Augustine (Mark Rydell) in the underrated The Long Goodbye.
Augustine brings his girlfriend over and starts telling Marlowe how she is the most important thing in his life, complimenting her on her beauty, and tenderly saying how much he loves her.
They he smashes a bottle into her face.
As she stands bleeding and whimpering, he turns to Marlowe and says, “You, I don’t even like.”
That was Unforgiven with Clint playing Will Munny-
Will Munny: All right, I’m coming out. Any man I see out there, I’m gonna shoot him. Any sumbitch takes a shot at me, I’m not only gonna kill him, but I’m gonna kill his wife, all his friends, and burn his damn house down.
Not a direct threat but rather describing a threat posed by a third-party:
“Listen, and understand. That terminator is out there. It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.” – Kyle Reese in The Terminator
Travis Bickle: “Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There’s no escape. I’m God’s lonely man… June 8th. My life has taken another turn again. The days can go on with regularity over and over, one day indistinguishable from the next. A long continuous chain. Then suddenly, there is a change.” – Taxi Driver
Vito Corleone: “I make him an offer he don’ refuse. Don’ worry.” – The Godfather, Part II
Al Capone: “I want you to get this fuck where he breathes! I want you to find this nancyboy Eliot Ness, I want him dead! I want his family dead! I want his house burned to the ground! I wanna go there in the middle of the night and I wanna piss on his ashes!” – The Untouchables
Max Cady: “I am going to teach you the meaning of commitment. Fourteen years ago I was forced to make a commitment to an eight by nine cell, now you are going to be forced to make a commitment. You could say I’m hear to save you.” – Cape Fear
Neil McCauley “What am I doing? I’m talking to an empty telephone…‘Cause there is a dead man on the other end of this fuckin’ line.” – Heat
Sam: “What’s the color of the boathouse at Hereford?..What’s the color of the boathouse…What’s…you got the gun. I’m unarmed. Do something. Go ahead. Do something. Do something!” – Ronin
Conrad Brean: “Stanley, don’t do this. You’re playing with your life here.” – Wag The Dog
In the same movie, Little Bill Dagget: “Now Ned, them whores are going to tell different lies than you. And when their lies ain’t the same as your lies… Well, I ain’t gonna hurt no woman. But I’m gonna hurt you. And not gentle like before… but bad.”
Little Bill Daggett: You’d be William Munny out of Missouri. Killer of women and children.
Will Munny: That’s right. I’ve killed women and children. I’ve killed just about everything that walks or crawled at one time or another. And I’m here to kill you, Little Bill, for what you did to Ned.
“I’ll have my daughter back, and I’ll piss on the ashes of those who took her from me.” : From the Highlands. Eric Flint
“PLEASE DROP YOUR WEAPON. YOU HAVE TWENTY SECONDS TO COMPLY. YOU NOW HAVE FIFTEEN SECONDS TO COMPLY. YOU ARE IN DIRECT VIOLATION OF PENAL CODE 1-17-79. YOU HAVE FIVE SECONDS TO COMPLY. FOUR. THREE. TWO. ONE. I AM NOW AUTHORIZED TO USE PHYSICAL FORCE.” : Robocop, ED-209.