10 terrible movie lines that ruined the entire film
The medium of film may be a visual one, centring stylistic editing, camerawork and elaborate set designs as its prime source of artistry or entertainment. But as we all know, the writing of a screenplay is just as critical in the grand scheme of things, meaning its quality should match up with that of images and performances.
Screenwriters can turn a good movie into a brilliant one, proving to be just as infleuntial as a director or cinematographer. The characters’ lines can illustrate a conceptual landscape or provide hilarious, intense or emotional entertainment. This is why a failed film line, whether in writing or performance, can be the root of its mishaps, souring an overall enjoyable movie in the process.
A movie line can fail from graceless execution in both pen and acting, coming across as try-hard for all the wrong reasons. It can happen to an action hero attempting to pull off a ‘Schwarzenegger’ or a thriller character trying to demonstrate the film’s edge; either way is painful to witness.
A poorly delivered line can take the terror out of a thrilling horror or interrupt a serious action flick with a lousy taste. Including brilliant comic book adaptations with awful death scenes and sci-fi sequels that skipped needed plot information, here are ten movie lines that spoilt all the fun.
10 awful lines from good movies:
10. “Is it still raining? I hadn’t noticed” – Four Weddings (Mike Newell, 1994)
We know the saccharine screenplays of Richard Curtis aren’t for everyone, with the writer of such movies as Love Actually and Bridget Jones’s Diary regularly splitting opinions. Still, whatever you think of the writer, one thing everyone should be able to agree on is that the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral is the best movie that he’s ever penned, even if one line of dialogue threatened to ruin the entire thing.
As the title suggests, Mike Newell’s film tells the story of four weddings and a funeral, all attended by Charles (Hugh Grant), his friends and his potential lover, Carrie (Andie MacDowell). Finally getting together at the film’s soggy climax, the pair kiss in the pouring rain, which for some reason forces Carrie into uttering: “Is it raining? I hadn’t noticed”.
9. “Somehow Palpatine returned” – Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (J.J. Abrams, 2019)
Disney’s acquisition of LucasFilm in 2012 was largely met with large fanfare; finally, sci-fi fans could see the continuation of the epic cosmic adventure. It’s fair to say the anticipation for Disney’s sequel trilogy was never even nearly reached by the awful trilogy of movies, however, with the movie studio failing to create a compelling and cohesive storyline that continued throughout each movie.
Such resulted in possibly the laziest line of dialogue ever delivered in a blockbuster movie, as Oscar Isaacs’s character Poe Dameron utters, “Somehow Palpatine returned” at the start of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. To this day, the return of Palpatine makes no sense and “somehow” certainly doesn’t satisfyingly suffice.
8. “I Don’t Like Sand” – Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (George Lucas, 2002)
Staying with a galaxy far, far away just for a moment, we can’t move on until we’ve addressed some of George Lucas’ awful writing in his prequel trilogy from 1999-2003. Whilst the awful dialogue has been partly embraced by fans of the franchise, there are some truly unforgivable moments, such as one scene in Attack of the Clones when Anakin Skywalker discusses his dislike of one common granular material.
“I don’t like sand. It’s coarse, and rough, and irritating, and it gets everywhere,” Anakin groans to his love interest Padmé Amidala, who looks like she’s on the precipice of laughter. Apparently, George Lucas thinks this is what flirting sounds like.
7. “You better hold on tight, Spider Monkey” – Twilight (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008)
For a certain generation of young movie fans, things don’t get much better than the Twilight series, which explores the relationship between a small-town high-schooler and a 108-year-old vampire. Appropriately camp, given its source material, the first Twilight film is tween gothic fun, starring Robert Pattinson as the blood-sucking creature who almost derails the movie at one point when he utters something almost unforgivable.
While treating his newfound lover to a weird gravity-defying piggyback ride through the forest, he turns his head and mutters to the poor girl, “You better hold on tight, Spider Monkey”. Perhaps the least attractive thing anyone’s ever said.
6. “Save Martha” – Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice (Zack Snyder, 2016)
It should go without saying that Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice is a travesty of a superhero movie, bringing together two comic book titans without much idea of how the two characters could exist within the same story. Setting up a rather stupid reason to duke it out, writers Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer go one step further when penning the reason why the two heroes decide to lay down their arms.
“Save Martha”, Superman pleads to Batman shortly before he believes he will be killed, but to his surprise, the caped crusader stops his attack. You see, Batman’s mother is also called Martha, meaning he and Superman have something in common after all. It’s just stupid.
5. “I’m not your fucking mommy!” – The Ring Two (Hideo Nakata, 2005)
Hideo Nakata’s supernatural sequel following the 2002 film’s events shows the demonic tape’s evil still reaching the journalist who attempted to destroy it for good. The Ring Two stars Naomi Watts, Simon Baker, David Dorfman, Elizabeth Perkins, Gary Cole and Sissy Spacek.
The Ring Two, and its predecessor, presents some of the 2000s most acclaimed and infamous horror stories, with iconic visuals and scares that have shaped the supernatural. Unfortunately, what’s meant to be the ultimate kick-ass final girl scene, where Watt’s character kicks the demonic and vengeful Samara back down the well, is delivered with utmost embarrassment. After Samara calls the character her mommy in a final attempt to overpower her through pity, Watt’s Rachel screams back that she isn’t her mommy before closing the cursed well for good. Stale delivery and overall poor execution weigh this climactic line down with a sour tone.
4. “Some of the sweetest candies are sour as death inside” – Jawbreaker (Darren Stein, 1999)
This underrated black comedy teen drama was directed by Darren Stein and stars Rose McGowan, Rebecca Gayheart, and Julie Benz as an exclusive girl clique in their high school. Charlotte Ayanna appears as a fourth member the girls accidentally kill, leading to a cover-up that fractures the friendship.
In the long line of re-watchable 1990s teen flicks of all genres, Jawbreaker is a slick and stylish contribution that deserves more recognition for exploring the pressures of American high school. However, in a flimsy attempt to showcase some classic ’90s edge and thrill, a police officer attempts to conjoin the murder weapon, a jawbreaker sweet, with the aftermath of a death in a metaphor that makes any English teacher weep. It may have seemed semi-decent on a page, but hearing it aloud makes for a painful drop in an enjoyable film.
3. “My father’s work is done” – The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan, 2012)
The final instalment in Christopher Nolan’s brilliant DC comics adaptation sees Batman, played by Christian Bale, take on Tom Hardy’s Bane. Anne Hathway appears as Catwoman to assist the Dark Knight in saving Gothan city, with Marion Cotillard playing Talia al Ghul.
Despite brilliant visuals, a plot thread with societal concepts and raw acting, The Dark Knight Rises suffers from a harrowing flaw of one of the worst movie deaths. Cotillard’s Ghul is caught in a fatal truck crash, using her last moments to tell Gotham’s heroes she’s completed her father’s work in activating a bomb and pitifully slumps her head down. The line and acting put a damper on the whole project. When talking about the painful scene with Inverse, Collitard stated, “sometimes there are failures, and when you see this on screen, you’re thinking, ‘why? Why did they keep that take?'”
She adds: “It was tough to be identified just with this scene. When I’m doing the best I can to find the authenticity in every character that I’m playing, it’s tough to be known just for this scene.”
2. “Why is he still alive?… He shouldn’t be alive. It vexes me. I’m terribly vexed” – Gladiator (Ridley Scott, 2000)
Ridley Scott’s epic historical drama stars Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Ralf Möller, Oliver Reed, Djimon Hounsou, Derek Jacobi, John Shrapnel, Richard Harris, and Tommy Flanagan. It tells the story of a Roman general betrayed by an Emperor’s son in a murderous scheme to obtain the throne.
Phoenix’s performance as the amoral Commodus showed Hollywood just how talented and irreplaceable the star was. In between his compelling and engaging work is a terribly written line no actor, not even one as gifted as Phoenix, could master. When asking why Crowe’s Maximus Decimus Meridius is still alive, the character stresses that the enslaved person’s living status has him “vexed”. The line reads jagged and hollow, wrapped up in a tone indicating it was the last thing Phoenix wanted to say.
1. “Alan” – Jurassic Park III (Joe Johnson, 2001)
This prehistoric sci-fi film was directed by Joe Johnston and written by Peter Buchman. It takes audiences back to the second Jurassic Park, where a family of velociraptors terrorise Dr Grant and a couple searching for their son. The weakest instalment in the original trilogy stars Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Téa Leoni, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan and Michael Jeter.
Jurassic Park III is nowhere near as strong and promising as the first two films, but it does spotlight the terrifying and intelligent hunters of the velociraptors to make for some chilling kill scenes. However, this comes at a price. One ridiculous scene showcases Dr Grant having a bizarre nightmare on the plane involving one of the dinosaurs saying his name, which is actually one of the other passengers trying to wake him up. If Dr Grant has unsettling dreams about dinosaurs, he might want to stop studying them as a line of work.
