GregHowley.com

Most Quotable 80s movies

June 20, 2008 - -

I'm a huge fan of the movies of the eighties. These are the movies I grew up with, and to me, they'll always be as rad as they were when I first saw them. I've got full-sized movie posters on the wall in my office of Big Trouble in Little China, Clash of the Titans, and The Breakfast Club. Movies like The Dark Crystal, The Highlander, The Princess Bride, RAD, Breathing Fire, Explorers, and Labyrinth will be classics forever in my mind.

So now I bring you some of the most quotable movies of the eighties.

Ghostbusters

  • Someone blows their nose and you want to keep it?
  • There is no Dana, only Zuul!
  • Well, let's say this Twinkie represents the normal amount of psychokinetic energy in the New York area. Based on this morning's reading, it would be a Twinkie thirty-five feet long, weighing approximately six hundred pounds.
  • Gozer the Traveler. He will come in one of the pre-chosen forms. During the rectification of the Vuldrini, the traveler came as a large and moving Torg! Then, during the third reconciliation of the last of the McKetrick supplicants, they chose a new form for him: that of a giant Slor! Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you!
  • Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say "YES"!

Big Trouble In Little China

  • Jack Burton: What does that say?
    Wang Chi: Hell of Boiling Oil.
    Jack Burton: You're kidding.
    Wang Chi: Yeah, I am. It says Keep Out.
  • Wang Chi: A brave man likes the feel of nature on his face, Jack.
    Egg Shen: Yeah, and a wise man has enough sense to get in out of the rain!
  • All I know is, this Lo Pan character comes out of thin air in the middle of a goddamn alley while his buddies are flying around on wires cutting everybody to shreds, and he just stands there waiting for me to drive my truck straight through him. With light coming out of his mouth!
  • Like I told my last wife, I says, "Honey, I never drive faster than I can see. Besides that, it's all in the reflexes.
  • Egg Shen: Can see things no one else can see. Do things no one else can do.
    Jack Burton: Real things?
    Egg Shen: As real as Lo Pan!
    Jack Burton: Hey, what more can a guy ask for?
    Egg Shen: Oh, the six-demon bag!
    Jack Burton: Terrific, a six-demon bag. Sensational. What's in it, Egg?
    Egg Shen: Wind, fire, all that kind of thing!
  • When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, and he looks you crooked in the eye and he asks you if ya paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Have ya paid your dues, Jack?" "Yessir, the check is in the mail."

The Breakfast Club

  • Don't mess with the bull, young man. You'll get the horns.
  • Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?
  • Screws fall out all the time, the world is an imperfect place.
  • It's sorta social. Demented and sad, but social.
  • Naked blonde walks into a bar with a poodle under one arm, and a two-foot salami under the other. The bartender says, I guess you won't be needing a drink. Naked lady says...

Conan the Barbarian

  • Fire and wind come from the sky, from the gods of the sky. But Crom is your god. Crom. And he lives in the earth.
  • Infidel Defilers. They shall all drown in lakes of blood.
  • Crom, I have never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it. No one, not even you, will remember if we were good men or bad. Why we fought, or why we died. All that matters is that two stood against many. That's what's important! Valor pleases you, Crom... so grant me one request. Grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, then to HELL with you!
  • Now they will know why they are afraid of the dark. Now they learn why they fear the night.
  • To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women.

The Empire Strikes Back

  • I have a bad feeling about this...
  • Impressive. Most Impressive.
  • Why, you stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf-herder!
  • Excitement. Heh. Adventure. Heh. A Jedi craves not these things.
  • No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try.
Comments on Most Quotable 80s movies
 
Comment Fri, June 20 - 1:55 PM by Kris Johnson
Best quote in The Empire Strikes Back: "Great shot, Jansen!"

Not because it's a memorable line; exactly the opposite. No one ever quotes it except me and my friend, Jim (and, to be honest, Jim started it), and when we do drop it into a conversation, no one ever recognizes it.
 
Comment Fri, June 20 - 3:16 PM by Greg
Actually, one of my favorite Star Wars quotes is from Jedi.

"You rebel scum!"
 
Comment Fri, June 20 - 4:38 PM by Kris Johnson
Gotta agree with you on that one. There's so much venom in that guy's voice, only the Emperor can match him for sheer scorn toward the Rebellion.

Oh, another favorite quote of mine from Empire: "The son of Skywalker must not become a Jedi." Alas, that quote does not exist in the re-revised edition, as Clive Revell was replaced by Ian McDiarmid.
 
Comment Fri, June 20 - 6:34 PM by tagger
Here are a few more-

Ted Striker (Robert Hays): "Surely you can't be serious."
Dr. Rumack (Leslie Nielsen): "I am serious. And don't call me Shirley."
Airplane! Paramount, 1980*

* OK, OK--technically, 1980 is the final year of the seventies, not the first of the 80s, but most of the 'danes thought the 21st Century began in 2000, so what the hell?

Ripley (Sigourney Weaver): "Get away from her, you bitch!"
Aliens, Twentieth Century Fox, 1986

Emperor Joseph II (Jeffrey Jones): "There are simply too many notes."
Amadeus, Orion, 1984

Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd): "Roads? where we're going we don't need roads."
Back To The Future, Universal, 1985

Elwood Blues (Dan Aykroyd): "We're on a mission from God."
The Blues Brothers, Universal, 1980*

Mrs. Parker (Melinda Dillon): "You'll shoot your eye out."
A Christmas Story, MGM, 1983

**My mother actually SAID this to me circa 1957. I never did get a BB gun. Had to join the Marine Corps to play bang-bang Still got both eyes, Mom!**

John McClane (Bruce Willis): "Yippie-Ki-Yay, motherfucker!"
Die Hard,Twentieth Century Fox, 1988

Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray): "We came. We saw. We kicked its ass."
Ghostbusters, Columbia, 1984

Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford): "Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes?"
Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Paramount, 1987

Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood): "Go Ahead, make my day."
Sudden Impact, Warner Bros., 1983

The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger): "I'll be back."
The Terminator, Orion, 1984

Nada (Roddy Piper): "I Have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubble gum."
They Live, Universal, 1988

Thanks to my buds at the AFI.
 
Comment Sat, June 21 - 9:06 AM by pmd
KHAN!!!!!!!
 
Comment Sat, June 21 - 10:15 AM by tagger
Yeah--forgot that one. Another B2TF line from Doc Brown: "When this sucker hits eighty-eight miles an hour, you're gonna see some serious shit."

From Doc and Marty--

(While recovering the DeLorean from behind the 1955 billboard)

Doc: "I finally invent something that works?"

Marty: "You bet your ass it works!"

It's easy to miss this line because the mixing was so bad.

 
Comment Sat, June 21 - 11:51 AM by Ngewo
Kris....that's funny about the Jansen quote. My old roommates name was Jackson, so I would always use that quote when we shot pool, or played hockey, or whatever....No one ever got it either.
 
Comment Sun, June 22 - 11:03 AM by pmd
[Sniff]

"He'll keep calling me, he'll keep calling me until I come over. He'll make me feel guilty. This is uh... This is ridiculous, ok I'll go, I'll go, I'll go, I'll go, I'll go. What - I'LL GO. Sh1t."

[Turns the engine on then turns it off and hits the passenger seat]

"Gawd D4mn it!"

[Turns the car on and revs it up/laying on horn]

"Ahhhhhh!"

[Gets out of the car]

"Forget it. That's it!"

[Paces behind the car and jumps up and down in frustration]
 
Comment Mon, June 23 - 10:11 AM by The Dock
Host: Mr. Froman thank you for your understanding in this matter.
Ferris: Its understanding, that allows people like us to tolerate a person such as yourself.
Host: Thank you, enjoy your luncheon.