The most memorable movie catchphrases

In the first “Terminator” movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s killer android from the future doesn’t say much. When he does speak, though, it can be ominous. That’s definitely true with the iconic line he ends up using multiple times through the series, “I’ll be back.”

The catchphrase that spawned a bunch of terrible impressions around the office. “Borat” made a splash with provocation and scatological humor. Most of all, Sacha Baron Cohen’s character is best known for the way in which he said the two words “My wife!” You still hear the impression these days, although usually, it’s ironic.

“Casablanca” is full of many memorable lines. “Play it, Sam.” “Round up the usual suspects.” The list goes on. At the top of the list, though, is Rick’s parting line to Ilsa, a line he had used before: “Here’s looking at you, kid.”

You would think we’d go with “Luke, I am your father,” but as you may know that’s not what Darth Vader actually says. Plenty of characters say “May the Force be with you,” however. It’s a true catchphrase that still pops up even in “The Mandalorian.”

Several men have said this line at this point. James Bond has a specific way of introducing himself. It began with Sean Connery in “Dr. No” and became a staple of the series. Even the serious Daniel Craig has busted out a “Bond, James Bond” or two.

“Show me the money!” is said multiple times in “Jerry Maguire,” but admittedly it’s just in one scene. Tom Cruise’s Maguire” and Cuba Gooding Jr.’s Rod Tidwell are saying it – and eventually yelling it – back and forth at each other over the phone. Let’s just say this catchphrase had us at hello.

Even people who have never seen “Taxi Driver” know “You talkin’ to me?.” It’s a quote that has been parodied time and time again over the years. In the context of the movie the quote is pretty disconcerting, in part because nobody is, in fact, talkin’ to Travis Bickle. He’s imagining a confrontation in a mirror, the better to try out his new gun apparatus.

Michael Corleone introduces the idea of an offer you can’t refuse early in “The Godfather.” As such, when Don Corleone says this line later in the movie, it’s been established conceptually. Marlon Brando’s distinct voice definitely helped this line become a catchphrase, one people often say mimicking Don Vito in the process.

“Die Hard” is an R-rated action film, a great one at that, so it can get away with a saucy line or two. Certainly, the iconic line from the film is John McClane’s answer to Hans Gruber’s assertion that he’s a cowboy. As the series continued, this line became a repeated motif. However, when the sequels went from being R-rated to PG-13, they had to find a way to work around the swearing, usually with the help of an explosion.

“The Dark Knight” really clicked with audiences, and it won Heath Ledger an Oscar for his turn as Joker. While many of us enjoyed the impish malevolence of Jack Nicholson’s turn as the Clown Prince of Crime, or even better Cesar Romero’s campy run on TV’s “Batman,” Ledger’s Joker was searingly dark. And yet, he also had a bit of a catchphrase in “Why so serious?”

Here’s another catchphrase often spouted with an accent. It’s usually a bad take on Al Pacino’s bad “Cuban” accent from “Scarface.” That movie is insane and over the top in a bunch of different ways, but that’s certainly true of the big moment when Tony Montana picks up his giant gun and instructs his assailants to “Say hello to my little friend.”

“Titanic” was the highest-grossing movie of all-time for years, and it inspired a massive hit song in “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion. It also inspired a catchphrase in “I’m king of the world.” One of the people who said that outside of the movie? That would be director James Cameron when he took home the Oscar for Best Director. He really gave himself a good line there.

Usually, catchphrases come from popcorn movies. They rarely come from moody, grim Oscar bait. And yet, “There Will Be Blood” gave us a line that has endured through pop culture and been spouted many times over. After all, who can resist yelling “I drink your milkshake!” like Daniel Plainview? It’s just too much fun.

Groot says this quite often. That is to say, it’s basically all he says. The treelike alien pretty much only communicates through saying, “I am Groot.” Each time he says it, it means something different, but we hear it the same way. Good think Rocket knows how to interpret for his buddy.

“Toy Story” basically made computer animation a success, and it turned Pixar into a monolith. The movie changed film animation forever. Woody and Buzz Lightyear are now iconic characters, and who can forget “To infinity, and beyond!” Buzz’s catchphrase? It’s his catchphrase in the world of the movie, but also in our world as well.

OK, so this one was a bit ironic. Most of us never say “Finding Forrester.” However, we saw the trailer, where we saw Sean Connery say the immortal words “You’re the man now, dog.” It inspired a meme website that just played the phrase over and over. We remember nothing else about this film, but “You’re the man now, dog” lives on forever.

This is a TV catchphrase, one uttered by Ed McMahon on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” over and over. However, it has also become a movie catchphrase as well. When Jack Torrance puts an ax through the door of the Overlook Hotel, he repurposes McMahon’s catchphrase for his own sinister purposes. It’s arguably the most-iconic utterance of the phrase.

Tom Hanks usually plays nice guys and kind people. His Jimmy Dugan is a little rougher around the edges. The alcoholic ex-baseball player finds himself managing an all-women's team in “A League of Their Own.” When one of his players starts to cry, Jimmy loses it, memorably yelling this line, before repeating it again in a sterner tone a little while later.

This one is probably based entirely on the voice. Gollum says it all the time through the “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” films. That definitely makes it a catchphrase in that sense. However, people also grew fond of saying it in real life, mostly because they liked to do Gollum’s voice in the process.

“Network” is a cynical film about the world of television, but it also has a crackling script with many great lines. None of them popped like, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” though. Newsman Howard Beale, who has had a psychic break, begins imploring his viewers to go to their windows, open them, and yell this phrase out. They listen, giving us a montage of people exclaiming to the world that they are mad as well, and they do not intend to take this anymore.

Speaking of quotable films, “Airplane!” is full of laugh lines that get quoted to this day. It’s an iconic comedy that is wall-to-wall jokes. Leslie Nielsen’s deadpan delivery is fantastic, and on multiple occasions when he is told “Surely you can’t be serious” he replies with this line or a variation thereof.

E.T.’s English is limited, which is fair, given that he’s an alien. He may speak in incomplete sentences, but “E.T. phone home” is still a memorable line that gave us a quotable catchphrase that has stood the test of time for decades.

Aaron Sorkin knows how to write a memorable line. “A Few Good Men” has a few of them, mostly from Jack Nicholson, who also is the one who said “Heeeere’s Johnny!.” During a heated exchange, Tom Cruise asks for the truth, to which Colonel Jessup angrily replies “You can’t handle the truth!” A line that would exist outside the film was born at that moment.

This is one of the very first movie catchphrases from the film that, adjusting for inflation, is still the highest-grossing movie of all time. “Gone With the Wind” was a true epic, and it has a few famous lines. The one that is often called the best movie quote ever, though, is Rhett’s line “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Swearing in a 1939 movie? What a scandal!

Hey, the Terminator did say he’d be back, and he is indeed. The only character with two catchphrases on our list, Arnold dropped this line on us for the first time in the action thriller “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” Sure, “Hasta la vista, baby” is incredibly silly, but it undoubtedly stood out. There’s a reason why everybody remembers it to this day.