# What is the most commonly used phrase in English that came from a movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [December 2, 2024, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068 "2024-12-02T16:37:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/281 "2025-02-07T16:32:31Z")
No, not quite… According to Michael Rennie, in an interview on (IIRC) _ **Entertainment Tonight** _ back in the '80s, it means “Gort, come and get me.” ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/282 "2025-02-07T16:34:41Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I just heard the “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” bit on TV this morning. That’s gotta be up there in usage. There was a brief period in the mid-90s when you **could not run** past certain people without them shouting “RUN, FORREST!” ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/283 "2025-02-07T20:12:09Z")
I also remember encountering “kick the bucket” for the first time while watching _It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World_ with my family at the theater. I was about six years old then—in 1963—and my dad explained the phrase to me. That was my favorite movie for a long time. I could never remember how many “mads” were in the title. I recall tacking on ~ 15 “mads” when telling friends about it. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/284 "2025-02-07T20:46:58Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Does anyone other than me ever use the phrase “Klaatu barada nikto”? Know it. Don’t use it. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/285 "2025-02-07T20:50:17Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Does anyone other than me ever use the phrase “Klaatu barada nikto”? I know it but I cannot think if anyone I know who would recognize it. Maybe my brother…maybe. Means don’t kill everyone…chill out. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/286 "2025-02-07T20:59:31Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > The first time I encountered “Kick the bucket” was in 1963 (I was eight years old), when Jimmy Durante does just that at the beginning of _ **It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World** _. I didn’t realize the significance of that action until I heard my dad mention it to someone else. While that film is indeed a comedy masterpiece, the term is far older- _The idiom first appeared in Francis Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue in 1785._ > [@terentii](#): > > Does anyone other than me know what it means? It is from _When the Earth Stood still._ In means “stop” more or less, iirc. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/287 "2025-02-07T21:07:33Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > When the movie “The Bucket List” came out in 2007, that wasn’t a phrase I’ve ever heard anyone use, but after the movie, it became a commonly understood phrase. I am fairly sure we used the phrase ‘bucket list’ in the UK before 2007, but I can’t find any citations. ‘Kick the bucket’ is (or has been in the past) a commonplace phrase, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the term ‘bucket list’ originated here. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/288 "2025-02-07T21:25:13Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > I am fairly sure we used the phrase ‘bucket list’ in the UK before 2007, but I can’t find any citations. There were some mentions of the term before the film, but not exactly in line with the idea of having a list of things to do before you die. More or less the Film created that precise meaning. It came from “kick the bucket” it seems. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/289 "2025-02-07T21:27:50Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > There were some mentions of the term before the film, but not exactly in line with the idea of having a list of things to do before you die. Well, we used it literally in the same sense as the movie, which I have not seen, and don’t think I’ve even heard of. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2025, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/290 "2025-02-07T21:30:08Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I’m curious how the term “gaslighting” took off maybe 10 or 15 years ago, when the movie _Gas Light_ originally came out in 1940, with the really famous one with Ingrid Bergman & Charles Boyer (_Gaslight_) coming out in 1944. I sometimes ask people I hear use the term if they’ve seen the movie, and most of them look blankly at me. > > I’m thinking the term must have been used somewhere else around 2010 Hi Rivkah. The lead track of Steely Dan’s 2000 album “Two Against Nature” was _Gaslighting Abbie_. Steely Dan was a group with major hipster influence, and the album was their first in 20 years - it won four Grammys, including best pop vocal album. I was unfamiliar with the concept of gaslighting, and had to look it up to understand the song. So, I’ve assumed that was what relaunched the phrase, although it took most of a decade to reach major cultural dispersion. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/291 "2025-02-08T00:56:56Z")
> [@Baal\_Houtham](#): > > I was unfamiliar with the concept of gaslighting, and had to look it up to understand the song. So, I’ve assumed that was what relaunched the phrase, although it took most of a decade to reach major cultural dispersion. Gaslighting came from a 1938 play and then a 1940/1944 movie. Not sure it was ever “relaunched.” [![](https://i.imgur.com/Xlt5kBx.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/Xlt5kBx.png) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/292 "2025-02-08T01:30:30Z")
I was wondering about it because Jim Rockford says the phrase in an episode of _ **The Rockford Files** _ when he’s threatened by an oversized goon. That’s the only place I’ve heard it used outside of _ **The Day the Earth Stood Still** _. I didn’t get the joke at first because I hadn’t seen the classic movie yet, and I suspect a lot of people didn’t get it either. I’ll go with Michael Rennie’s translation of it. If anybody knows what it means, it would be he. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/293 "2025-02-08T01:33:48Z")
Of course, it gained a lot of traction in regard to politics over the last ten years. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/294 "2025-02-08T01:42:42Z")
It was never actually used in the play or film, was it? I think it acquired the meaning it has now after someone who had seen the movie coined it. There must be a technical term for a word being inspired by a work of drama or literature, but I’ve no idea what it is. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/295 "2025-02-08T01:51:42Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I remember it being kicked around during the bleak Minnesota winter of 1984. It was quite the cool and trendy Edina-milieu catchphrase. So was “cocooning,” i.e., stocking up with warm clothing, hot chocolate, and good books to read while you’re hibernating for several months. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/296 "2025-02-08T02:07:21Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > It was never actually used in the play or film, was it? No, and in any event, the play was called _Angel Street._ The 1940 version of the film was terrible, and about its only contribution was the title, albeit, it was 2 words, not one; the 1944 film, with 1 word, was ripe for verbing-- which is to the point-- the lights, and the gas are nouns in the movie. I’m not sure the lights are ever referred to as “gas lights,” because the movie is set at a time when they are the most common kind of light, the only other kind I can think of being candle light. Until electric lights had mostly supplanted gas lights, would you refer to gas lights as such. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/297 "2025-02-08T02:09:01Z")
“Verbing.” I like that! 👍 ---
**Author:** ![Galactus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galactus/32/3581_2.png) [@Galactus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galactus)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/298 "2025-02-08T02:28:59Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Does anyone other than me ever use the phrase “Klaatu barada nikto”? > > Does anyone other than me know what it means? 🤨 I know it, but I always mess up the last word. I don’t think it will be a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/299 "2025-02-08T02:59:41Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > …the play was called _Angel Street._ The 1940 version of the film was terrible, and about its only contribution was the title, albeit, it was 2 words, not one… "_ **‘Gas Light’** _ is a 1938 thriller play, set in 1880s London… …it has endured through an impressive list of incarnations[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_Light#cite_note-Times-1) most notably _ **Five Chelsea Lane** _ (1941 American play – renamed for Los Angeles production), _ **Angel Street** _ (1941 American play – renamed again when Los Angeles production transferred to [Broadway](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadway_theatre)), and _[Gaslight](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslight_(1958_film))_ (1958 Australian television play)… The play was adapted to the big screen as two films, both entitled _Gaslight_—a [1940 British film](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslight_(1940_film)), and a [1944 American film](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslight_(1944_film)) directed by George Cukor, also known as _The Murder in Thornton Square_ in the UK." —[Gas Light - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_Light) > [@terentii](#): > > Does anyone other than me know what it means? In the context of the film, it seems to mean: Klaatu is down, go find him, bring him back to the spaceship and raise him from the dead. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2025, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/300 "2025-02-08T03:02:24Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > In the context of the film, it seems to mean: Klaatu is down, go find him, bring him back to the spaceship and raise him from the dead. Which is basically what Michael Rennie said. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068.md?page=16)