Top 10 Science Fiction Movie Quotes

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Mar152010

Monday, March 15, 2010 at 2:36PM tagged

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Top 10 Science Fiction Movie Quotes

By Ethan Gilsdorf

Science fiction movies voice our fear of what may come to pass if we don't clean up our act (death, destruction, apocalypse), and express our hope for a good life here on planet earth (or other planets) should we choose the right path. In other words, SF can inspire strong opinions about the future of the human race. It can even and create belief systems as powerful as religion. Just look at L. Ron Hubbard.

When I was a kid, instead of quoting Bible passages for spiritual guidance, sometimes my family quoted Star Wars. Imagine the scene in my chaotic house: sink overflowing with dishes, something burning on the stove, dogs tearing apart a trash bag, cats pooping in the basement. The only logical response was to shout, "3PO! 3PO! Shut down all the garbage mashers on the detention level!" (Hence my paranoia about technology, too.) Reciting lines from Episode IV didn't necessary solve my family problems, but it did provide comic counterpoint.

Plus, the Force seemed as plausible an explanation for how the universe hung together as other ideologies and philosophies that had reached the backwoods of rural New Hampshire. In fact, fictional characters like Yoda, Darth Vader, Hal 9000, E.T. felt as real to me as anything else. Raised on monster movies and cineplex fare, I happily let their words infect my brain. I know they've corrupted yours.

But which lines of SF movie dialogue have reached mythic status? Which ones that truly made a permanent stain on our cultural fabric? In my search for the best, most indelible SF movie quotes ever, here was my criteria. 1) They had to be memorable. 2) They had to show staying power over the years. 3) And they had to lines you and I use in everyday life to punctuate our humdrum lives with irony, drama, and humor. (Oh, and number 4: they had to appear in a SF movie, not TV show or book.)

In my humble opinion, here are the ten best. I expect you might quibble with my picks, but heck, that's what these lists are all about. To paraphrase one famous movie line, the more I tighten my grip on this top ten list, the more quotes will slip through my fingers.

(Tune in for my next post, my choices for the Top 10 Fantasy Movie Quotes)

10) "Klaatu barada nikto" --- The Day the Earth Stood Still

In the 1951 SF classic The Day the Earth Stood Still, "Klaatu barada nikto" are the secret words Klaatu (Michael Rennie) passes on to Helen Benson (Patricia Neal). One of the most famous commands in all of SF, the three words are a kind of failsafe code that keeps the robot Gort from destroying the Earth. Good to know. Memorization of this should be required along with the Pledge of Allegiance, your mommy's and daddy's address, and the Lord's Prayer --- just in case.

9) "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that." --- 2001: A Space Odyssey

In the 1968 Stanley Kubrick film (based on the novel by Arthur C. Clarke), there's a mission to Jupiter, and the super-smart HAL 9000 computer, seeing that the humans might blow it, begins to off the crew members one by one. Dave Bowman heads out for a spacewalk to rescue his buddy, but HAL locks him out. Bowman: "Open the pod bay doors, HAL." HAL: "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that." HAL's passive monotone makes me wonder if there was ever a creepier line said by a computer.

8) "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die." --- Blade Runner

Replicant Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) waxes poetic to Decker (Harrison "Am I a replicant, too?" Ford), to the dreamy score by Vagelis in one of most bittersweet lines from SF. Then a pigeon or dove flies off into the rare blue sky of rainy cyber-punk Los Angeles, circa 2019 and, I swear, nary a geek in the house can escape with dry eyes.

7) "Doo-Do-DOO-Do-DUMMM" --- Close Encounters of the Third Kind

This isn't technically a line of dialogue, it's a few bars of music (I'm stretching the category here), but heck, when I saw Close Encounters of the Third Kind in the theater back in 1977 and that big mother ship landed on Devil's Tower and began to play "Name that Tune" with the scientists, the musical orgasm blew my mind. I was 11 at the time and I never looked at the night sky the same.

6) "Get away from her, you bitch!” – Aliens

Yes, James Cameron has a mother complex. In the ultimate fem-smack-down, Ellen Ripley makes her grand re-entrance to protect the little feral girl Newt, clomping in the hydraulic crab forklift walker thing to take on the baddest momma alien of all. Aliens (1986) was either a giant leap forward (or backward?) for feminism and science fiction.

5) "Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!" --- Planet of the Apes

As George Taylor, Heston gets to utter this, the first words ever spoken by a human to the apes. It may be 1968 in the real world (sexual revolution, student protests, that sort of thing), but in Charlton Heston's world, the poor guy's trapped on an f-ed up planet run by apes. Now, wait a minute --- either this is way, way in the future ... or way, way in the past. Are the apes hippies? Do they belong to the NRA? Either way, don't mess with Heston.

4) "The needs of the many outweigh ... the needs of the few... Or the one." --- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

(sorry, can't find a video clip; can anyone find it?)

The Needs of the Many sound bite Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan sound bites

I know you wanted me to pick Kirk's line, "KHAAANNNN!" But when Spock sacrifices himself (by entering the irradiated zone that's part of the Enterprise's warp drive system and fixing the main reactor just in time), another great SF line was born. The quote is actually tag-teamed by Shattner and Nimoy, each on one side of a transparent barrier. Spock says, "Do not grieve, Admiral. It is logical. The needs of the many outweigh ..." to Kirk adds, "the needs of the few," and Spock ends with: "Or the one ... " Sniff! (Don't worry, Spock won't be dead for long.)

3) "E.T. phone home" --- E.T.

You've said it. I've said it. Say no more. Enough said.

2) "I'll be back" --- The Terminator

Before the Governator was in charge of California, he had another deadly mission: to travel back in time to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (maybe he could have killed Huey Lewis and the News instead?). Of course, in later Terminator movies, Schwarzenegger got all warm and fuzzy and was on the side of good. This is SF movie quote that is probably repeated (to the annoyance of girlfriends and wives everywhere) more than any other.

1) " Do... or do not. There is no try." – The Empire Strikes Back

Many of us who originally saw the 1980 film fondly remember this scene in the swamps of Dagobah featuring the grumpy and whiny student, Luke Skywalker, and his impatient, diminutive, Kermit the Frog-like teacher, Yoda. Whiny Luke can't get it up (no, not that – the "it" is an X-wing sunken in the). Yoda, the Zen master, Luke: "All right, I'll give it a try." Yoda: "No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try." And with such few words, a green rubber puppet inspired an entire generation, and made us believe in forces we can't see or understand.

Ethan Gilsdorf is the author of the travel memoir / pop culture investigation Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms. More information at http://www.ethangilsdorf.com

Ethan Gilsdorf |

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Reader Comments (8)

I agree with all of these save the Close Encounters reference. I would suggest an alternate be "it's all in the yellow record," from 1984's Buckaroo Banzai. It's the perfect response to the constant (in my world) question of "what's going on here?" That or any of another dozen satisfyingly derailing quotes from this seminal film.

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I like The Terminator. It is really pretty cool !

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