# WTF Movie Lines

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [April 16, 2010, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314 "2010-04-16T06:19:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314/21 "2010-04-16T20:43:01Z")

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> [@statsman1982](#):
>
> Of course, sometimes a horse is just a horse.

Of course of course.

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**Author:** ![Justin\_Credible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a8b319/32.png) [@Justin\_Credible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Credible)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314/22 "2010-04-16T20:57:21Z")

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> [@Lord\_Ashtar](#):
>
> If it weren’t for those horses, he might not have spent that year in psych school.

Good one.

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**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314/23 "2010-04-16T20:58:19Z")

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> [@Sudo\_Intellectual](#):
>
> The Goonies … Data says “The octopus was really scary”. Which always made me scratch my head.

> [@Push\_You\_Down](#):
>
> The octopus scene got cut because apparently the octopus looked very cheesey. The scene was also immortalized on one of the Burger King collectble glasses.

I unexpectedly first saw that scene a few years ago with some friends. There was a lot of the usual line quoting going on and that scene happened and we were dumbfounded. The scene was right before or after they boarded the pirate ship and I think they “defeat” the octopus by putting headphones on it which makes him dance around. It’s terrible. I mean it’s so good…So terrible.

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**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314/24 "2010-04-16T21:01:28Z")

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> [@Meltdown](#):
>
> In “It’s a Wonderful Life,” there’s a scene where the never-been-born George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) wanders into the bar and has an argument with the bartender, who he thinks is a friend of his. The bartender says “I don’t know you from Adam’s off ox.” Or something.
> 
> From context, it is clear that this is some bizarre version of “I don’t know you from Adam” that has since faded into obscurity, but it always strikes me as a very strange thing to say, no matter how many times I see the film.

Never struck me as bizarre, because my parents used that phrase all the time. But maybe they just picked it up from the film, although I doubt it.

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**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314/25 "2010-04-16T21:05:26Z")

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> [@Meltdown](#):
>
> In “It’s a Wonderful Life,” there’s a scene where the never-been-born George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) wanders into the bar and has an argument with the bartender, who he thinks is a friend of his. The bartender says “I don’t know you from Adam’s off ox.” Or something.
> 
> From context, it is clear that this is some bizarre version of “I don’t know you from Adam” that has since faded into obscurity, but it always strikes me as a very strange thing to say, no matter how many times I see the film.

Ask an older person (over 70 for preference), you might get some more context on this saying. I have heard it some time vaguely in the past, probably from my parents.

“Off ox” is I think an expression from farming (with oxen pulling the plow). If there are two oxen, one is the lead and the other is the off ox, or something like that.

Fascinating, innit?

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**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314/26 "2010-04-16T21:18:10Z")

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> [@Roderick\_Femm](#):
>
> “Off ox” is I think an expression from farming (with oxen pulling the plow). If there are two oxen, one is the lead and the other is the off ox, or something like that.
> 
> Fascinating, innit?

[Confirmation](http://www.word-detective.com/111097.html). (You have to scroll all the way to the bottom.)

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**Author:** ![MrSquishy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9e5f3/32.png) [@MrSquishy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrSquishy)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314/27 "2010-04-16T21:24:58Z")

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> [@Small\_Hen](#):
>
> Watson: “They’re just horses!”  
> Freud: “They’re not just horses! They’re the most intelligent horses in the world, and they want to kill you!”
> 
> WTF? Did I miss something? Was it mentioned, offhand, that the villain was breeding super-intelligent, bloodthirsty horses? What the hell, movie?

I wonder if it could be some kind of reference to [Little Hans](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Graf#.27Little_Hans.27).

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314/28 "2010-04-16T21:34:27Z")

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There was a scene in Dogma where Bartleby (Ben Affleck) discovers Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) on the train and yells out “Schueller Bob!” There’s no explanation in the movie why he’d said this.

Smith explained it [elsewhere](http://www.newsaskew.com/summaries/dogma.shtml):

> [@](#):
>
> We were working on ‘Chasing Amy’, and our old office on Broad St. was the production headquarters. Affleck - not being a mega-star in them thar days - would spend time off from the flick around the office, as there is little else to do in Red Bank besides make movies. One day, he noticed the German theatrical release poster for ‘Clerks’, and immediately insisted that we made it ourselves; that there was no way the flick traveled overseas, as it was a piece of Americana-laced horseshit (that’s how an Affleck affectionately teases; at least, I’m pretty sure he was teasing…). Anyhoo, I countered by saying that ‘Clerks’ did play Das Fatherland, and that it’d gone over pretty well - so well, in fact, that they’d even sent us a poster and some lobby cards. He asked if they’d translated the flick or subtitled it, and I said when Scott and I watched it at the Munich Film Fest, it played in English with no subtitles, and folks laughed in the right places. I boasted (jokingly) that Germans were inundating me following the screening, touching my coat, whispering in awe “Schueller Bob!” He found that very funny, and from time to time, he, himself, would call me “Schueller Bob.” He thought - as it was the implication, though I don’t know German really - that ‘schueller’ meant ‘silent’.
> 
> Years pass, and we’re shooting the train scene in ‘Dogma’. My hands grab Ben, he’s supposed to turn and make a shocked utterance, and I pull him out of the shot. On the second or third take, he said “SCHUELLER BOB?!?” Me, him, and Mosier cracked up hysterically. He begged me to leave it in. I told him “Three people are going to get it.” He said “No - it’s more than that. It’s back story.” He then went on to explain that since Bartleby’s been walking the earth since the plagues, he’s come across many incarnations of Silent Bob - all of which had, in one way or another, thwarted Bartleby’s plans (nevermind that Bartleby was always pretty straight-laced; Affleck never much cares for any backstory that he doesn’t make up himself). And since the original angelic tongue was Germanic (Affleck’s theory, based on nothing other than it suited his present hypothesis), Bartleby utters “Schueller Bob,” when Bob grabs him in the fight, because in the heat of battle, Bartleby finally sees clearly the face of his immortal enemy through time.
> 
> Since he worked so hard on all that in such a short amount of time (about ten seconds or less), I said we’d do another take where he’d repeat “Schueller Bob,” this time with no character break (we’d laughed aloud when he first said it). So to follow through, when I throw him off the train, he yells “I’ll get you for this, Schueller Bob!!!”
> 
> It was a throwaway gag that only three people were very amused by. Now, you guys are let in on the joke.

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**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314/29 "2010-04-16T21:46:03Z")

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“Schueller” Bob for Silent Bob in German? I would think something more like “Stummer” Bob.

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**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314/30 "2010-04-16T21:53:44Z")

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There were a couple of lines in **The Eiger Sanction** that made no sense to me, until I started a [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=126076) in Cafe Society asking about them.

At one point Clint, in training, is running after an Indian climber and says “Screw Marlon Brando!” I wonder how many people watching these days would get that one.

At another point George Kennedy says another character was “Dead as Kelsey’s Nuts” - apparently a real expression I’d never heard before.

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**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314/31 "2010-04-16T22:06:53Z")

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I just read an explanation for this one, in _Ferris Beuler’s Day Off_. Near the end of the movie, Ferris is recounting for Cameron all the amazing things they did/saw that day, and includes “we ate pancreas…”.

I always assumed that was a reference to their fancy French meal at Chez Quis (get it? Shakey’s?). And it is, but apparently part of that scene was cut out, in which the Ferris and the gang order sweetbreads from the menu and dig in, only to learn from the obnoxious waiter that “sweetbreads” is what gastronomics call calf’s thymus gland.

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**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314/32 "2010-04-16T22:31:28Z")

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> [@Sudo\_Intellectual](#):
>
> The Goonies … Data says “The octopus was really scary”. Which always made me scratch my head.

> [@Arglefraster](#):
>
> That’s the line I came in here to mention. I’ve always wondered if it refers to a scene that got cut. If so I’d love to see it.

> [@Push\_You\_Down](#):
>
> …The octopus scene got cut because apparently the octopus looked very cheesey. The scene was also immortalized on one of the Burger King collectble glasses.

[Here is the deleted Goonies octopus scene](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLqpxpvgVsg). Yeah, it’s **really** cheesy, and the animatronic octopus is horrible. Plus, for a film that at least _pretends_ to take place in the real world, it breaks any kind of suspended disbelief.

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**Author:** ![emcee2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emcee2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emcee2k)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314/33 "2010-04-16T22:45:31Z")

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> [@Lord\_Ashtar](#):
>
> If it weren’t for those horses, he might not have spent that year in psych school.

Well, I’m going to have an aneurysm.

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**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314/34 "2010-04-16T22:54:45Z")

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I’m debating whether this qualifies or not; I suppose it might be more of a WTF was the writer of the movie thinking? In the movie “Species,” they’re tracking the killer alien babe through the subways, and at a junction point, they see blood and body parts littering one leg of the subway. One of the characters says, “I think she went this way.” My response (and the response of the rest of the movie theatre) was, “I hope to GOD she went that way!” and then we all cracked up. 🙂

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**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314/35 "2010-04-16T23:03:04Z")

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> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> There was a scene in Dogma where Bartleby (Ben Affleck) discovers Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) on the train and yells out “Schueller Bob!” There’s no explanation in the movie why he’d said this.
> 
> Smith explained it [elsewhere](http://www.newsaskew.com/summaries/dogma.shtml):

Kevin Smith actually has alot of these lines, especially in the early films. _Mallrats_, for example, has that scene right before the “stinkpalm” where Mr. Svenning refers to Brodie as his “neighbor,” referencing a deleted scene. I remember thinking, “Huh, they’re neighbors? WTF does that have to do with anything?”

There’s also one in _Chasing Amy_ where Silent Bob begins to tell the “Chasing Amy” story and Jay asks why he’d never heard of it before, only to chastize Silent Bob later for always telling that “fucking gay story.”

ETA: Oh, also, every single line in _The Room_ is a WTF line. I’ve mentioned this film here recently, but it’s just so fucking weird…

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**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314/36 "2010-04-16T23:17:01Z")

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> [@kidneyfailure](#):
>
> ETA: Oh, also, every single line in _The Room_ is a WTF line. I’ve mentioned this film here recently, but it’s just so fucking weird…

Oh, Hi **kidneyfailure**!

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314/37 "2010-04-16T23:42:18Z")

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The champion WTF Line:

“The Line” from **Shark Attack 3: Megalodon**. (NSFW – Go to Youtube and search for “Shark Attack 3 Line”)

Everyone who has seen the movie went WTF the first time they saw it. Everyone who first watched on DVD immediately stopped the disk and rewound to check if that was really what they heard. It comes out of nowhere and is completely unexpected (unless you’ve hear about it beforehand, of course).

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**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2010, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314/38 "2010-04-17T00:00:17Z")

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> [@Skammer](#):
>
> I just read an explanation for this one, in _Ferris Beuler’s Day Off_. Near the end of the movie, Ferris is recounting for Cameron all the amazing things they did/saw that day, and includes “we ate pancreas..”.
> 
> I always assumed that was a reference to their fancy French meal at Chez Quis (get it? Shakey’s?). And it is, but apparently part of that scene was cut out, in which the Ferris and the gang order sweetbreads from the menu and dig in, only to learn from the obnoxious waiter that “sweetbreads” is what gastronomics call calf’s thymus gland.

There are two kinds. Neck sweetbreads are thymus gland and stomach sweetbreads are pancreas. So somebody is confused in that account.

The biggest WTF line I can recall right now is one that is just plain incomprehensible. Near the end of _The Running Man_, Arnold Schwarzenegger is pursuing Richard Dawson and is confronted by the bodyguard Sven (played by Danish bodybuilder Sven-Ole Thorsen). Sven [says something](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0z02M-je1E) and then walks off, leaving his boss to face Ahnold’s revenge. Like the person who uploaded the youtube clip, I re-watched the scene several times on VHS and never could make out the line. It turns out to be a callback to an earlier scene where Dawson derided him for taking steroids.

As imposing a physical presence as Mr. Thorsen is, English dialogue isn’t his strong suit. They really should have had someone dub him.

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**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2010, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314/39 "2010-04-17T00:23:12Z")

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> [@Snirk](#):
>
> “From my point of view, the jedi are evil!”
> 
> …though I guess that’s for a different reason.

“Only a Sith deals in absolutes!” Uh… yeah, that’s an absolute right there, Ben.

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**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2010, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-movie-lines/536314/40 "2010-04-17T00:35:29Z")

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For everyone quoting Star Wars, I’m afraid I can do you all one better:

“Seeing you alive brings warm feelings to my heart.” Yoda

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