Iconic Lines in Films That We Still Recite - And a Few We Get Wrong!

Isn't it interesting that you can't remember what you walked into the kitchen for, but if I asked you how Marisa Tomei solved the case in My Cousin Vinny, you could spout it off in a perfect Brooklyn accent. Or perhaps you forget what you ate for lunch yesterday, but you certainly know all the reasons "ogres are like onions" (Shrek 2001). Iconic movie quotes have a way of being in our minds and our mouths for generations. Today, I'm rolling back the film to look at where some of the most famous movie quotes have taken us.

"You can't handle the truth!"

There's no shortage of court TV and film–I think the diehard Suits fans could fill up this whole article without using any other source. The courts brought us this piercing line by Colonel Nathan R. Jessup (Jack Nicholson) opposite Tom Cruise in the 1992 film A Few Good Men. But this isn't the only under-oath quote we recall. Because of course everyone in 2001 learned not to wet their hair for at least 24 hours after getting a perm so as not to "deactivate the ammonium thioglycolate"– it's the cardinal rule of perm maintenance! (Legally Blonde) And, like I mentioned before, there was a time when everyone had "No, the defense is wrong" pinging in their ears. My Cousin Vinny character Mona Lisa Vito, absolutely destroys the prosecution with her unmatched automobile knowledge. "Anyone who's been stuck in the mud in Alabama knows: you step on the gas, one tire spins, the other does nothin."

"They may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!"

On the battlefield, we scored iconic and inspiring lines like this Mel Gibson speech from Braveheart (1995). In ’98, Tom Hanks taught us to live a life worthy of the people who died for us. The exact quote is "James... earn this. Earn it." (Saving Private Ryan). Those lines, paired with the visuals of a lifetime, immortalized Spielberg's film. Then of course we all breathe in the patriotism when Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore (played by Robert Duvall) so conversationally says, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" (Apocalypse Now). I've been told it smells like victory, but I don't know if that's really my style.

"You're killing me, Smalls."

Words muttered by dads and baseball coaches across the world every day. The Sandlot (1993) brings us to the lineup of movie quotes from the dugout! Hamilton “Ham” Porter, played by Patrick Renna gave us this generational saying that's perfect for any exasperating situation. In ’92, another winner for Tom Hanks, Coach Jimmy Dugan shouts "There's no crying in baseball." It's not only a memorable quote, it also gave us a fill in the blank for any endeavor:

Me when I have to look up the spelling for "Spielberg" for the tenth time:

"There's no- no crying in jour- journalism" (said through tears).

And here's one that many people misquote from Field of Dreams (1989): "If you build it, HE will come" rather than "THEY will come".

Some we got wrong...

You'd think that these sayings that we've repeated for generations would at least be accurate, after all, it's usually less than a sentence! The declining literacy rate is surely to blame. So, along with the previous examples, here are some popular quotes that we remember slightly wrong.

1. Field of Dreams: "If you build it HE will come." VS "THEY will come."
2. Jaws: "YOU'RE gonna need a bigger boat." VS "WE'RE gonna need a bigger boat."
3. The Empire Strikes Back: "NO, I am your father!" VS "LUKE, I am your father" (that one stings)
4. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: "MAGIC mirror on the wall" VS "MIRROR mirror on the wall"
5. Dracula: "I want to suck your blood!!!" VS he just never says this. That was early stage fan fiction.

These tiny misquotations might sound pretentious, but it's still a bit fascinating that these quotes—that people have used in conversation for years—are wrong! And nobody cared to tell anybody? At the end of the day it really doesn't matter if a quote is word-perfect, but I do recommend having a few in your repertoire you can whip out at a dinner party with your boyfriend's 'film bro' neighbors (it was a long night).

"You stay classy, San Diego!" -Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy