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The Title of the Movie as dialogue

post #1 of 58
6/30/11 at 7:09am
Thread Starter 

Sometimes I wonder if screenwriters come up with a title first, then manage to squeeze it into their script later. This can't always be the case, but at times it feels like it.

 

Now titles are important, and often express a theme or important event in a film, so I'm not saying they can't be incorporated into the dialogue. Rather, I'm saying it's the presentation of the moment, which includes the music, the editing, and the actor's seeming awareness of the moment which informs their choices on the scene. For instance:

 

Yesterday I watched the Paul Rudd/Jennifer Aniston rom-com The Object of My Affection, and at one point in the movie a scholarly character says, "One shouldn't be too hard on oneself when the object of one's affection returns the favor with rather less enthusiasm than one might have hoped." Sounds cringe worthy, but it's actually downplayed and the moment passes quickly.

 

Bond movies are the worst perpetrators in this department. I'll never recover from Brosnan's smirky, "So you live to die another day." I think I groaned outloud in the theater.

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post #2 of 58
6/30/11 at 7:13am

"This boat is full of Pirates of the Caribbean on stranger tides!"

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post #3 of 58
6/30/11 at 7:27am

Not great quality, but...

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post #4 of 58
6/30/11 at 7:59am

I always liked the declarations of the titles in the Lord of the Rings films: "You shall be the fellowship of the ring!" "Who now can stand against the might of the two towers?" "Authority is not given to you to deny the return of the king, steward!"

 

So yeah, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

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post #5 of 58
6/30/11 at 9:07am

"Next Saturday night, we send you back to the future!"

 

Always loved that.

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post #6 of 58
6/30/11 at 9:19am

"What a view!"

 

"To a kill!"    

 

Cue John Barry.  

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post #7 of 58
6/30/11 at 9:24am

"Next Saturday night, we send you back to the future... Part 3!!!"

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post #8 of 58
6/30/11 at 9:28am

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bartleby_Scriven View Post

Bond movies are the worst perpetrators in this department. I'll never recover from Brosnan's smirky, "So you live to die another day." I think I groaned outloud in the theater.


Yeah, that was pretty horrible. I didn't mind "the world is not enough", but I told someone who hadn't seen the movie about it and he groaned. To me, the most forced example was, "love, actually, is all around us". Come on, that's just so forced. A line obviously written just to have the novelty of a character saying the title of the movie. It should be "love is actually all around us". I had to laugh at Reese Witherspoon saying, "y'all can't walk no line" as well. That was cute, but it felt a little unnatural to me. My favourite instance of a character saying the title is Gary Oldman's declaration at the end of that Batman picture. So perfect.

 

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post #9 of 58
6/30/11 at 9:29am

Jean-Claude Van Damme's friend in Lionheart, 1990:

 

"You got the heart of a lion, Lionheart."

 

"LIONHEAAARRTTT!!!"

 

etc

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post #10 of 58
6/30/11 at 9:53am

It's odd that this thread didn't start with this:

 

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post #11 of 58
6/30/11 at 9:58am

I love that the video includes Super Mario Brothers, but manages to miss Chinatown.

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post #12 of 58
6/30/11 at 10:29am

Yeah. How could they forget it? It's Chinatown! *badumching*.

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post #13 of 58
6/30/11 at 11:07am

"Everybody out of the Chunnel!"

 

Nothing else comes to mind. Except Game of Thrones, of course. 

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post #14 of 58
6/30/11 at 11:34am

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Spider View Post

I always liked the declarations of the titles in the Lord of the Rings films: "You shall be the fellowship of the ring!" "Who now can stand against the might of the two towers?" "Authority is not given to you to deny the return of the king, steward!"

 

So yeah, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.


These were what first popped into my head when I saw the thread.  I particularly like the Fellowship one. 

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Naisu Baddi View Post

 My favourite instance of a character saying the title is Gary Oldman's declaration at the end of that Batman picture. So perfect.

 


Pitch perfect. Like Bartleby said, it's all about the presentation.  He says it right over that beautiful final shot of Bats riding off on his steed, er, bike, with his cape flapping and the music swelling, and in that moment, he's earned that nickname.  If he'd said it any earlier, it would have felt out of place.

 

The only one that I can remember cringing at was The Rundown.  The Rock says it right near the end of the film, and it felt so awkward.  "Your kid was a tough rundown, Billy."  Ugh.  That title is shit, and I knew going in that the film didn't settle on that name until after initial production, so for that entire scene I was thinking about how it had probably been re-shot in pickups just to include that damn line.


 

 

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post #15 of 58
6/30/11 at 1:00pm

"You can say anything to me. I hope you still know that."
 


 

 

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post #16 of 58
6/30/11 at 1:02pm

One of the most tone deaf uses:

 

"It would be... the perfect storm."

 

Yeah we got it.  The movie poster told us that when we bought our tickets.  No need to beat us over the head with it.

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post #17 of 58
6/30/11 at 8:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by HarleyQuinn22 View Post

The only one that I can remember cringing at was The Rundown.  The Rock says it right near the end of the film, and it felt so awkward.  "Your kid was a tough rundown, Billy."  Ugh.  That title is shit, and I knew going in that the film didn't settle on that name until after initial production, so for that entire scene I was thinking about how it had probably been re-shot in pickups just to include that damn line.


Weird thing is, the title was originally "Welcome To The Jungle." and there's that one moment when The Rock is hoisted up in a trap, and Seann William Scott is guffawing like an ass, screaming "WEEEELCOME TO THE JUUUUNGLE."

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post #18 of 58
6/30/11 at 8:18pm

My fave:

 

"So I was in Boston, I just ended up there. Seemed far enough away. They come to me then, it just happened, you know how that is, things happen and other things happen and its your life. They were looking to get somebody to go undercover here, they wanted to get somebody who knew the kitchen who was known. And I coulda said no but I thought I could do it. It was like this opportunity in which I could look the entire thing in the eye. And you'd be gone, or married forgotten about me I thought. And Jack, I would leave him out of it. But it was only an idea. Nothing to do with the truth. It was just a fuckin' idea like... You believe in the angels or the saints or there's such a thing as a state of grace. And you believe it, but it's got nothing to do with reality. It's just an idea. I mean you got your ideas and you got reality, and they're all... they're all fucked up. "

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post #19 of 58
6/30/11 at 8:24pm



 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gabe T View Post


Weird thing is, the title was originally "Welcome To The Jungle." and there's that one moment when The Rock is hoisted up in a trap, and Seann William Scott is guffawing like an ass, screaming "WEEEELCOME TO THE JUUUUNGLE."



And before that, it was called "Helldorado" and there's a moment where the camera zooms in on a sign with the town's name "El Dorado" graffitied to say "Helldorado".  Did they think we'd forget what film we were watching?!

 

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post #20 of 58
6/30/11 at 9:10pm

This bit reminds me of hearing about how when seeing a film, Penn and Teller would stand up and start to applaud whenever a character mentioned the movie's title.

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post #21 of 58
6/30/11 at 9:16pm

I don't know about you, but I personally think the ending of "Road to Perdition" would have been a lot more effective if the narrator had said, "Whenever people ask me about my father, I just say: He never wanted me to go down...THE ROAD TO PERDITION". DAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH NAHHHH NAHHH.......(cue rousing, heartwarming music).

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post #22 of 58
7/1/11 at 2:30am

"Warriors, come out to play-ay!"

 

"Dude, Where's My Car?"

 

"Whoever she was, I must have scared The Living Daylights out of her."

 

"The Last Starfighter... is dead!"

 

"We now return to Amazon Women on the Moon, with no further commercial interruptions."

 

"So you guys are all astronauts, on some kind of... Star Trek."


Edited by Hammerhead - 7/4/11 at 11:43am
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post #23 of 58
7/1/11 at 2:43am

Holy shit that FIRST CONTACT one. Alfre Woodard must've cried after that one.

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post #24 of 58
7/1/11 at 4:24am

Didn't James Cromwell say that line?

 

Also let's not forget Picard's "That's what they come here to do.... STOP FIRST CONTACT!"

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post #25 of 58
7/1/11 at 7:30am

"So that's what sharks dream about.....the Deep Blue Sea.".....that was the first time I ever noticed this in a movie and still makes me cringe.

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post #26 of 58
7/1/11 at 9:54am

I don't care how cheesy it is. I love that Star Trek line. To me it's quintessential "so-bad-it's good" line.

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post #27 of 58
7/1/11 at 11:06am

"Speed Racer, slow down!"

 

Heheheh

 

Character names don't really count, but that one is cute.

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post #28 of 58
7/1/11 at 11:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Naisu Baddi View Post

I don't care how cheesy it is. I love that Star Trek line. To me it's quintessential "so-bad-it's good" line.



Nicholas Meyer really dropped the ball when he didn't have Montalban say "Prepare yourselves... to feel THE WRATH OF KHAN!".

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post #29 of 58
7/1/11 at 11:45am

I just rewatched Romancing the Stone last night and I never noticed before that Danny DeVito nearly says the title when he holds up Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. He accuses Douglas from trying to 'romance the stone right out from under' Turner. Quoting from memory there so it might not be verbatim.

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post #30 of 58
7/1/11 at 12:25pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike's Pants View Post

Didn't James Cromwell say that line?

 

Also let's not forget Picard's "That's what they come here to do.... STOP FIRST CONTACT!"


Yeah, Woodard's moment of glory was "Borg? Sounds Swedish."

 

Meanwhile, Christopher Plummer got to name-drop The Undiscovered Country in that film.

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post #31 of 58
7/1/11 at 4:41pm

I don't think there's any natural way to say "star trek" in a sentence. Bless the writers of "Star Trek: First Contact" for trying to pull it off, though. Q saying, "it's time to put an end to your Trek through the stars" on the series was cool, but Cromwell's line sounded like a cute allusion more than a spontaneous thought. It doesn't quite work, but it makes me laugh every time, and for that reason, I'm glad it happened.

 

Art, I think Khan saying something like, "now you will feel my wrath!" could have worked and come across pretty natural. It wouldn't be any more hokey than some of the more melodramatic stuff he said that pissed off Gene Rodenberry with its cheesiness (i.e. "I'll chase him 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares maelstrom and 'round perdition's flames before I give him up!").

 

Speaking of movie adaptations of TV shows...I guess the title of the movie is technically "The X-Files", but if you consider the title of the 1998 X-Files movie "The X-Files: Fight the Future", one of the last lines counts as a very funny example for this thread:

 

"He's but one man. One man alone cannot fight the future."  biggrin.gif

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post #32 of 58
7/1/11 at 4:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Naisu Baddi View Post

Art, I think Khan saying something like, "now you will feel my wrath!" could have worked and come across pretty natural. It wouldn't be any more hokey than some of the more melodramatic stuff he said that pissed off Gene Rodenberry with its cheesiness (i.e. "I'll chase him 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares maelstrom and 'round perdition's flames before I give him up!").

 

haha.. I was joking with that bit, man. Saying the title "in-movie" tends to break the 4th wall & take one out of the movie. I'm glad there was no "And now... we search..FOR SPOCK!" line in III.

 

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post #33 of 58
7/1/11 at 4:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Naisu Baddi View Post

I don't think there's any natural way to say "star trek" in a sentence. Bless the writers of "Star Trek: First Contact" for trying to pull it off, though. Q saying, "it's time to put an end to your Trek through the stars" on the series was cool, but Cromwell's line sounded like a cute allusion more than a spontaneous thought. It doesn't quite work, but it makes me laugh every time, and for that reason, I'm glad it happened.

 

Art, I think Khan saying something like, "now you will feel my wrath!" could have worked and come across pretty natural. It wouldn't be any more hokey than some of the more melodramatic stuff he said that pissed off Gene Rodenberry with its cheesiness (i.e. "I'll chase him 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares maelstrom and 'round perdition's flames before I give him up!").

 

Speaking of movie adaptations of TV shows...I guess the title of the movie is technically "The X-Files", but if you consider the title of the 1998 X-Files movie "The X-Files: Fight the Future", one of the last lines counts as a very funny example for this thread:

 

"He's but one man. One man alone cannot fight the future."  biggrin.gif


Khan was kind of paraphrasing Moby Dick there, dude. And Roddenberry complaining about "cheesy" dialogue makes me laugh my ass off.

 

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post #34 of 58
7/1/11 at 6:51pm

It being a literary reference doesn't make it any less goofy. I laughed my ass off when Christopher Plummer exclaimed, "To be or not to be!" right before being blown to bits. cool.gif Of course the original literature was some powerful stuff to put it mildly, but in that context, it was funny. Yes, Rodenberry's reaction is quite amusing considering what a mediocre writer he was. Here's the quote I was referring to:

 

 "I thought they were very lucky they had the actor they did in Ricardo Montalban to play Khan, since it was not a well-written part. ‘I will chase you through the moons of Jupiter’ and so on, in the hands of almost any other actor would have gotten snickers from the audience. Montalban saved their ass. Khan was not written as that exciting a character, he was rather flimsy. The Khan in the TV episode was a much deeper and better character than the movie Khan, except that Montalban pulled it off."

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post #35 of 58
7/1/11 at 7:00pm

Well, he's right about Montalban, but Trek has always kind of worked well with melodrama. Heck, many episodes of the original series work like gangbusters dramatically even though they're goofy as all hell in several areas.

 

Anyway, back to the topic at hand: do character-name-as-title mentions count, or only if they're somewhere significant, like they're the first line of the movie or something?

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post #36 of 58
7/2/11 at 10:03am

I think we'll have to leave out character names unless they get spoken onscreen, say, 5 times. Likewise for films that use a song title or lyric.

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post #37 of 58
7/2/11 at 1:54pm

Shocked no one has mentioned the UCB sketch about titular lines. "Man, I'm getting so tired of all these star wars."

 

 

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post #38 of 58
7/2/11 at 2:35pm

I've heard of that one but never seen it.

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post #39 of 58
7/2/11 at 4:30pm

"We have got to get... out of Africa!"

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post #40 of 58
7/2/11 at 4:32pm

"It must be some kind of...Hot Tub Time Machine." Then he looks right in the camera.

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post #41 of 58
7/2/11 at 4:58pm

"Don't screw around with me Maverick, you're a hell of an instinctive pilot, maybe too good.

 

I'd like to bust your butt but I can't, I got another problem here. I gotta send somebody from this squadron to Miramar.

 

I gotta do something here, I still can't believe it.

 

I gotta give you your dream shot!

 

I'm gonna send you up against the best.

 

You two characters ... are going to TOP GUN."

 

 

From the Tony Scott classic "To Miramar"

 

 

 


 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sleeplesslumber View Post

I just rewatched Romancing the Stone last night and I never noticed before that Danny DeVito nearly says the title when he holds up Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. He accuses Douglas from trying to 'romance the stone right out from under' Turner. Quoting from memory there so it might not be verbatim.


 

Nice. Man, I love that movie.

 

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post #42 of 58
7/2/11 at 6:18pm

I love that movie too, Bucho, but you have to admit it's kind of a terrible title. Nice that DeVito works it in a bit more subtly, though.

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post #43 of 58
7/2/11 at 7:31pm

I don't think anyone can beat this in terms of shocking terribleness. Kevin Hooks' loose (and totally shit) remake of THE DEFIANT ONES, the 1996 Laurence Fishburne / Stephen Baldwin buddy action film, FLED.

 

Fishburne (to Baldwin's character): Come on, Dodge, time to FLED!

 

That's actually a line in the movie, and I just don't understand how such a thing could happen. Stephen Hawking couldn't make sense out of it.

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post #44 of 58
7/2/11 at 8:40pm

I'll never forgot the time I saw a trailer for that and the trailer announcer guy said, "SEE HOW THEY RUN, SEE HOW THEY..." and then there's a soundbyte edited into there of someone saying, "Fled!".  So awkward. So funny.

 

- I love "Clueless", but I think it was a little unnecessary for her to actually say, "I was just totally clueless" in her narration summing up what she learned from her experience in the movie. I love the movie and consider it pretty much perfect, but that line felt a little shoehorned in there.

 

- I like that moment in "Bubba Ho-Tep" when Elvis is trying to think of a way to describe the mummy and comes up with "...some kinda...Bubba Ho-Tep". It's hard for a line like that not to be an eye roller, but I think Campbell did a pretty good job of making it sound just like a spontaneous idea he'd come up with, rather than just a blatant excuse to say the title. 


Edited by Naisu Baddi - 7/2/11 at 8:52pm
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post #45 of 58
7/2/11 at 9:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Spider View Post

I love that movie too, Bucho, but you have to admit it's kind of a terrible title. Nice that DeVito works it in a bit more subtly, though.


I have to? Awwwww.

 

Does anyone ever say "gleaming the cube" in Gleaming The Cube?

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post #46 of 58
7/3/11 at 7:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bucho View Post


I have to? Awwwww.

 

Does anyone ever say "gleaming the cube" in Gleaming The Cube?


Well, you don't have to, but just think about it for a while. :D

 

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post #47 of 58
7/3/11 at 10:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chaz View Post

"It must be some kind of...Hot Tub Time Machine." Then he looks right in the camera.


Probably the worst example of this I've ever seen. So unfunny and it was convinced it was the opposite. Terrible.
 

 

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post #48 of 58
7/3/11 at 2:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobby Bear View Post


Probably the worst example of this I've ever seen. So unfunny and it was convinced it was the opposite. Terrible.
 

 


Except it was perfectly delivered and one of the only actually hilarious bits in the movie. Even after seeing it a dozen times in a trailer it was still magnificent in the film. Robinson had that shit locked down.

 

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post #49 of 58
7/3/11 at 2:54pm

There are lots of hilarious bits in HOT TUB TIME MACHINE. And yes, Robinson's line reading is one of them.

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post #50 of 58
7/3/11 at 8:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobby Bear View Post

"You can say anything to me. I hope you still know that."
 



I think Cameron Crowe is guilty of putting the title of the movie in every single film he's written and directed.

 

Even if it's indirectly, like naming Stillwater's tour the "Almost Famous" tour.

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