Beam Me Up Scotty / Live-Action Films

Actors and filmmakers:

Actors and filmmakers

• In no film did James Cagney ever say "You dirty rat!" This is a misquote of both a line from the 1931 film Blonde Crazy, in which he refers to another character as "that dirty double-crossing rat", and one from the 1932 film Taxi!, in which he calls someone "you dirty yellow-bellied rat". At his AFI lifetime achievement award show in 1974, Cagney set the record straight before quickly proceeding to parody the trope. Part of the spread of this misconception among later generations can be traced to the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, which had a memorable scene where Michelangelo said "You dirty rat! You killed my brother!" while doing a Cagney impression.
• Tony Curtis never said "Yonda liez da castle of me faddah". In Son of Ali Baba, he said "Yonder lies the valley of the sun and beyond, the castle of my father."
  • He's also quoted, in The Black Shield of Falworth, as saying "We have come ta storm da castle", which is where the line in The Princess Bride comes from.
• Clint Eastwood didn't say "Do you feel lucky, punk?" in Dirty Harry. He said:
  "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well do you, punk?"
  • And he says it two distinctly different ways, one at the very beginning of the movie, and then again at the very end. The first time, he says it so the gunman will think he has more ammo and will drop his weapon (he's out of bullets). The second time, he states it so the Ax-Crazy villain will try him (he has another bullet left).
  • The line can be heard at the start of Magnum Force in its simpler "do you" form — the movies were encouraging the Memetic Mutation.
  • Eastwood did in fact say "Go ahead, make my day!", but that line was uttered in the third sequel, Sudden Impact, and not the original Dirty Harry film, as most believe.
  • Speaking of Eastwood, in High Plains Drifter he doesn't say, "I'm faster than you'll ever live to be." He actually says, "A lot faster than you'll ever live to be."
• Sally Field (in)famously gushed "You like me, you really like me!" after her 1985 Oscar win. Except she didn't...
  "I haven't had an orthodox career, and I've wanted more than anything to have your respect. The first time I didn't feel it, but this time I feel it, and I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!"
• An inversion: sometimes Greta Garbo's quote "I want to be alone" is said to have never been said, or to have only been used in an interview. But it actually does appear in one of her movies: Grand Hotel.
  • She said "I want to be left alone" (i.e., live a normal life without mobs of fans and paparazzi) in an interview, around the time Grand Hotel was made. Later, she had to clarify the difference between the film and reality.
  • Ginger Rogers, of all people, says "I want to be alone!" on a train with a thick Swedish accent in the film The Major and the Minor. So apparently Billy Wilder heard Greta wrong too.
• Nor did Cary Grant ever say "Judy, Judy, Judy!". Apparently, comedian Larry Storch was doing a Cary Grant impersonation in a nightclub when Judy Garland walked in. He greeted her from the stage in character and it somehow became part of the Grant mystique, mystifying even Cary, himself.
  • It may have come from Cary Grant's film Only Angels Have Wings where Rita Hayworth's character is named Judy. Grant never repeats it in a row as in the quote but he says it a lot.
  • In an acceptance speech for the American Film Institute's lifetime achievement award, Cagney ribbed impressionist Frank Gorshin (and poked fun at the often misattributed line) by saying "And, Frank, I never said 'Ooh, you dirty rat.' What I really said was 'Judy, Judy, Judy!'"
• Alfred Hitchcock is supposed to have said, "Actors are cattle." However, as he himself put it, "What I said was that all actors should be treated like cattle." He corrected himself after Carole Lombard, hearing him make the comment on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941), set up an actual stable in the middle of the shooting set and put cattle in it with signs around the necks of the animals with the actors' names on them.
• The line "Well who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?" is often attributed to the famed comedian/actor Groucho Marx. However, it was actually his brother, Chico Marx, who said the line in the movie Duck Soup. When Chico said this, he was in disguise as Groucho's character, Rufus Firefly, which is why the line is routinely wrongly attributed to Groucho.
• One of the most quoted lines from Laurel and Hardy is Ollie's "This is another fine mess you've gotten me into, Stanley," (the "Stanley" is often omitted). This line was never spoken in any of their films. The line that was actually frequently used by Ollie was, "This is another nice mess you've gotten me into," and he never added a "Stanley" to the line either. The confusion apparently stems from one of the L shorts entitled "Another Fine Mess."
• Will Smith:
  • His character in Independence Day never said "Welcome to Earf!", despite what the Internet would like you to believe. He actually said the word "Earth" correctly. This likely stems from the quote being paired with the image of Will Smith chomping on a cigar, which looks like it would have impaired his pronunciation. Said cigar comes immediately after the "Welcome to Earth" scene, in which Smith says the line after punching an alien in the face. What he says with the cigar in his mouth is, with impaired pronunciation, "Now that's what I call a close encounter."
  • The film adaption of I Am Legend spawned a minor Internet meme called "Goddamnit Frank!", which references a scene in which Neville freaks out after seeing a mannequin in the middle of the road and begins incoherently screaming at it. The mannequin's name was actually Fred. There's another mannequin named "Hank," so it's possible people combined the two names to come up with Frank. Also, he doesn't say 'goddammit', either. The line is "Dammit, Fred! Dammit!"
• John Wayne has many famous quotes misattributed to him:
  • Wayne did not say, "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do" in Hondo. It's actually, "A man oughta do what he thinks is best". Lines much closer to this have been heard in other classic Westerns, though not one with John Wayne: in Shane, Alan Ladd says "A man's gotta be what a man's gotta be"; and in Winchester '73, Jimmy Stewart says "Some things a man has to do, so he does 'em."
  • "Life is hard. It's harder if you're stupid" is also frequently attributed to Wayne, either in one of his movies or in Real Life. This phrase actually originated from George V. Higgins' novel The Friends of Eddie Coyle, later made into a movie starring Robert Mitchum. If Wayne ever made the comment, he was probably quoting Higgins.
  • While not a misquote, Wayne calls someone "pilgrim" in precisely in two films, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and McLintock. Comedians, impersonators, and Pop-Cultural Osmosis have made pilgrim into Wayne's signature catchphrase.
  • During the 2020 United States Democrat presidential primaries, former Vice President Joe Biden jokingly referred to one questioner as a "lying dog-faced pony soldier", mistakenly believe it to be a quote from a John Wayne film (it's not). There was a 1952 film called Pony Soldier (starring Tyrone Power, not John Wayne), in which a Native American chief states "The pony soldier speaks with a tongue of the snake that rattles", and in John Wayne's She Wore a Yellow Ribbon the narrator refers to the U.S. Calvary as "dog-faced soldiers". There's also the fact that, even if it were a real quote, the reference was way too old for the majority of the audience, including the high school-aged questioner, and would still have completely gone over their heads and just come across as a weirdly inappropriate insult instead of good-natured banter using a recognizable pop culture quote.
• Mae West never said, "Come up and see me some time." The actual line, from the 1933 film She Done Him Wrong, is "Why don't you come up some time, see me?" which mostly just moves words around but really changes the emphasis.
  • Mae West didn't say "Is that a gun in your pocket Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?" in any film. It's sometimes said to be in She Done Him Wrong, but actually she said it in Real Life to a policeman who was escorting her.
  • West did say this in a movie, but not until 1978, when she was 85 years old. She asks "Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?" in the movie Sextette.
• While Edward G. Robinson did certainly punctuate sentences with "M'yeah" or end them as a rhetorical question by adding an inquiring "See?" he didn't do it nearly as often as pop culture would like you to believe. Also, whenever someone does a vocal parody of a 1920's gangster voice they tend to smash the two of them together to create, "M'yeah, see?" which Robinson definitely never said at any point.

Movies:

A–M

• In The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, John Bigbooté's famous line "It's not my goddamn planet! Understand, monkey boy?!" is often shortened to "It's not my goddamn planet, monkey boy!" when quoted by fans.
• Alexander Nevsky: A variation of the phrase "all who draw the sword will die by the sword", tends to be attributed to Alexander since it appears in the movie. In reality, there is no mention of him ever saying it in public, and the phrase is actually attributed to Jesus.
• Aliens:
  • Ellen Ripley never says "nuke it from orbit". The actual line is "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure." And it's often attributed only to Corporal Hicks, who repeated it in concurrence with Ripley.
  • Also, "Game over, man" didn't appear until well after "We're screwed!". And it's "Get away from her, you bitch", not "Stay away", that mistake was popularized by Scream 2 where they correct the right line with the wrong.
• In Anatomy of a Murder, Jimmy Stewart's character defense attorney Paul "Polly" Biegler did not say "now I'm no big city lawyer" or "I'm just a Simple Country Lawyer". What he said was, "I'm just a humble country lawyer doing the best I can against the brilliant prosecutor from the big city of Lansing". Also, he was using Obfuscating Stupidity to allow a surprise witness when he said that, he was a very accomplished lawyer and politician who know how to play to the jury by positioning himself as the local underdog. Lansing, Michigan is not a very big city but by calling it one he shows just what a small-town guy he is.
• In Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Ron is often quoted as saying "Well, that escalated quickly" when the correct quote is "Boy, that escalated quickly." Also, he sounded genuinely surprised when he said it, though people often say the line in a deadpan voice for comedic effect.
• ...And Justice for All: Al Pacino doesn't say "I'm out of order? You're out of order! This whole court is out of order!"; it's "You're out of order! You're out of order! The whole trial is out of order! They're out of order!"
• Animal Crackers: Groucho Marx's famous line is "One morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I don't know". This line is often quoted as said in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, with the end replaced with "I'll never know."
• The most famous line from Apocalypse Now is actually much longer than often thought. People tend to quote it as "I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It smells like... victory" and speak it as a Badass Boast. However, the complete quote goes: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning. Y'know, one time we had a hill bombed...for 12 hours, and when it was all over, I walked up, we didn't find one of them, not one stinking dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory..." with deep sorrow. However, the line is quoted just as rendered above by Charlie Sheen in the very last scene of The Chase (1994).
• In Austin Powers, it's "You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads", not "Beware of laser sharks" or "Beware of sharks with Frickin' Laser Beams on their heads".
  • "Shall we shag now, or shag later?" is one of Austin Power's most iconic catchphrases and is assumed to have been said by him multiple times throughout all 3 films. However, the actual wording used by Powers is "Shall we shag now, or shall we shag later?" and he has said it once only in International Man of Mystery. Tom Cruise's parody portrayal of Powers says the line in the opening of Goldmember though.
• Avengers: Infinity War:
  • Robert Downey Jr. says to Benedict Cumberbatch, "Doctor, do you concur?" Some believe this is an allusion to the fact that they have played Sherlock Holmes and is a stand-in joke for the "No Shit, Sherlock" joke that fans wanted but that filmmakers rejected. In reality, though, it merely alludes to Benedict Cumberbatch's character being a medical doctor, as the line was never spoken in either Sherlock Holmes (2009) or in Sherlock.
  • While the line “What does this monster have to mourn?!” is in the movie, it’s often misattributed to Star-Lord for some reason. It’s actually said by Drax.
  • Fans often quote the line "a soul for a soul" in their Thanos impression and there is even a popular meme template with him saying this line. It's actually said by Red Skull and never quoted by Thanos. He's completely silent in the scene the meme image comes from.
  • Also with the Red Skull, the line "I guide others to a treasure I cannot possess" became a popular meme. However, the original line was only part of a sentence, the full sentence being "But it cast me out, banished me here, guiding others to a treasure I cannot possess."
  • Overlapping with Never Trust a Trailer, Thanos's speech about "[knowing] what it's like to lose" is quoted often, except it's the trailer version being quoted (e.g. "Destiny still arrives") instead of the slightly different one in the final cut ("Destiny arrives all the same"). Similarly, the just-as-quoted "This does put a smile on my face" only appears in the teaser trailer.
• Avengers: Endgame: A lot of fans misquote Hawkeye's memetic line as "Don't do that. Don't give me hope" whenever good news seems to be on the horizon. That being said, Clint never actually says the first sentence in the film, only saying "Don't..." in a pleading tone before saying the rest.
• Back to the Future:
  • Biff Tannen doesn't ever actually say "Hello McFly", instead he repeats "Hello, hello, anybody home? Think McFly, think." A child character misquoting this line in the later movie Jack is to blame for this.
  • Many also quote George McFly as saying "I don't like confrontations!", to the point that Rex from Toy Story saying that line is often listed as a Shout-Out to Back to the Future. What George actually says is not an exclamation, but part of a larger statement, "I know what you're going to say, son... and you're right. You're right. But... Biff just happens to be my supervisor... and I'm afraid I'm just not very good at... confrontations."
  • Another line attributed to George McFly that got a Shout-Out in Toy Story is "I just don't think I could take that kind of rejection!" George actually says "I don't know if I could take that kind of rejection." It's actually Marty who says something closer to the misquote earlier in the film, when he says "I mean, I just don't think I can take that kind of rejection." The later scene is meant to be a Call-Back to the earlier scene, with Marty realizing that he and his father are more alike than he realized.
• In Batman & Robin, Mr. Freeze utters dozens of ice- and snow-related puns. "Ice to meet you" is not one of them. The line "Ice to see you" was previously used by McBain in a spoof of Arnold Schwarzenegger's action films in The Simpsons. And that line never appeared in the movie itself or the trailer.
• In the wake of the tremendous success of Beetlejuice in 1988, the phrase "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!" became a well-known Memetic Mutation. Problem is, while a number of characters in the movie do say "Beetlejuice" three times (or at least attempt to), on only one occasion is the name said three consecutive times; more often the speakers pause for a relatively long time before completing the triad because a part of them really doesn't want Beetlejuice to show up. However, Lydia normally said it without an interrupting pause on the animated series.
• The Big Lebowski: Walter shouts a good deal of his lines, but some of the hammiest in writing are actually said calmly. Shouted versions of quotes including "THIS IS NOT NAM! THIS IS BOWLING! THERE ARE RULES!" or "Say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, AT LEAST IT'S AN ETHOS!" don't come from the movie in that form.
• The most quoted and oft-parodied line from Braveheart is "They can take our lives, but they can never take our freedom!" The actual wording is "They may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!"
• It's sometimes claimed that in Bride of the Monster, Bela Lugosi said his manservant Lobo (Tor Johnson) was "as harmless as a kitchen" [sic] as a sign of his diminished faculties and/or Wood's incompetent direction. But actually, he says the line fine: "Don't be afraid of Lobo; he's as gentle as a kitten."
• Jack Twist's line from Brokeback Mountain is actually "I wish I knew how to quit you," not "I wish I could quit you" or "I can't quit you".
• Steve Rogers' line in Captain America: The First Avenger when facing the bully in the alley, which gets a call back later on when facing Red Skull and again in Captain America: Civil War in that film's climax against Iron Man, is quoted as "I can do this all day". In all three cases, he actually says "I could do this all day." It's only in Avengers: Endgame, when past Cap says it, to present Cap's annoyance, that he uses "can".
• The censorship of The Cannonball Run for its initial video release isn't quite as severe as some people make it out to be; sure, "ass", "shit" and "Goddamn" are censored, but the most common claim, "hell" becoming "heck" and "damn" on its own becoming "darn", isn't true at all.
• Kenneth Williams has never squawked once in the Carry On movies "Ooh, Matron!" whenever he hears some Innocent Innuendo, but he has said "Ah, Matron," and "Ooh!! Matron..." whenever he's pleased to see her or wants her attention. Note the punctuation changes between the two phrases on the latter quote.
• "Play it again, Sam", (not) from Casablanca. But so many people have remembered it that way that Woody Allen used that phrase as the name of his homage to Bogart and the movie, and it's also the name of a Belgian independent record label founded in 1983 (today: PIAS Recordings). The actual line is "Play it, Sam," spoken by Ilsa, then the following exchange later on where the word again is implied but not stated:
  Rick: You know what I want to hear.
  Sam: [lying] No, I don't.
  Rick: You played it for her, you can play it for me!
  Sam: [lying] Well, I don't think I can remember...
  Rick: If she can stand it, I can! Play it!
  • Another quote from the film is often misremembered, Captain Renault's line "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here." Several variations on that quote have circulated over the years, including the rather different "Shocked I tell you."
• Chariots of Fire had plenty of triumphant scenes, some in slow motion, but none using the title music. But parodies only use that tune. (slow motion running with that theme is accurate, though)
• In Clash of the Titans (1981), Zeus was often quoted with "Release/Unleash the Kraken!" Laurence Olivier's original line was "Let loose the Kraken!" He does say the line word for word (very deadpan and low, with great reluctance) towards the end of the film when circumstances force him to send the Kraken to devour the princess Andromeda as a sacrifice. "Release the Kraken!" would later be used by Liam Neeson's Zeus in the 2010 remake.
• Clockwise: John Cleese' iconic quote, "It's not the despair, Laura. I can stand the despair. It's the hope!" is often misquoted as "It's not the despair, I can stand the despair. It's the hope I can't stand!" or similar.
• Cool Hand Luke: The Captain's infamous speech about Luke is often shortened and ironically quoted with proper grammar: "What we have here is a failure to communicate." He actually says "What we've got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it, well, he gets it. I don't like it any more than you men." The screenwriter actually chose the grammatically incorrect version to show the Captain as an ignorant redneck playing at being smart.
• The oft-quoted scene from "Crocodile" Dundee or rather, oft-misquoted: "That's not a knife/You call that a knife? This is a knife" actually goes:
  Sue: "He's got a knife!"
  Crocodile Dundee: (Laughs) "That's not a knife." (Draws large bowie knife) "That's a knife."
  • The incorrect version is quoted in Wolf Creek.
• The Dark Knight:
  • The Joker as portrayed by Heath Ledger is often misquoted as asking "Do I look like a man with a plan?", when Harvey Dent says that his (Harvey's) disfigurement and the death of Rachel Dawes was part of his (the Joker's) plan, most likely because people associate the rhyming words "man" and "plan". The quote is, however: "Do I really look like a guy with a plan?"
  • Yet another from Nolan's Joker is his famous magic trick. Many seem to think it was "Wanna see a magic trick?" as though he walked into the room full of mob bosses as a living Big-Lipped Alligator Moment. Instead, it was more of a bizarre response to Gambol's question of "Give me a reason why I shouldn't have my boy pull your head off?" And the Joker's was "How about a magic trick?"
  • His line from the hospital scene is often made into image macros, with the phrase "nobody bats an eye". Although that would have been a neat pun, that is not what he said. This is the actual quote:
    The Joker: If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it’s all ‘part of the plan’. But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!
  • Never in The Dark Knight does the Joker say that "We live in a society." The meme is so pervasive that Joaquin Phoenix absentmindedly replaced "system" with "society" during the final rant in Joker and it was left in, and viewers assumed it was a Mythology Gag. The trailer for Zack Snyder's Justice League also made rounds across the Internet when Jared Leto's Joker says, "We live in a society, where honor is a distant memory. Isn't that right... Batman?", which was left out of the final film.
  • "Harvey Dent, can we trust him?" or "Harvey Dent, can he be trusted?" is never said by Batman at any point in the film. The phrase originated from CollegeHumor's Badman series, which parodies The Dark Knight Trilogy. In several of the videos, Batman would utter the line as a catchphrase and at random moments for humorous effect. This has resulted in memes centered around the line with many people assuming that Batman frequently quips it throughout the entire trilogy. The closest that Batman ever says such a quote is when Gordon mentions the new district attorney, prompting Batman to ask "do you trust him?". Also, Harvey Dent isn't introduced at this point in the movie yet, so he isn’t referred to by name in the aforementioned scene.
• Dead Poets Society: Most parodies of the ending scene have every character shout "O Captain! My Captain!" when they stand up. In the film, Todd and Knox say the phrase while everyone else stands without saying anything.
• In the original Die Hard, the main villain Hans Gruber claims to quote Plutarch with "And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer." In fact, not only is this wording nowhere in Plutarch's biography of Alexander, but the closest thing to it is a scene where Alexander does the exact opposite — namely, weeping because he's realized that there are countless worlds out there, and he has yet to conquer even one. It's something of a Genius Bonus meant to imply Gruber isn't nearly as cultured or eloquent as he thinks, as well as that Gruber is wrong about how successful his big scheme is. But, lacking a Classical education, many people have reused the quote claiming it to be an authentic line from Plutarch.
• Bram Stoker's original Dracula never said the line "I vont to suck your blood!", or anything like it. He was much too sophisticated and had an English accent (in fact losing his accent is his explicit motivation for the whole first section). It wasn't until Bela Lugosi played Dracula that the accent became forever rooted in our memory, but even then, the line is not spoken. This applies to imitations of many lines Lugosi did say, because Lugosi never pronounced w as a v but rather as wh.
• Duck Soup:
  • During the cabinet meeting, Rufus T. Firefly is often quoted as saying "A child of five could understand this. Send somebody to fetch a child of five". However, the actual line is "Why a four-year-old child could understand this report! Run out and find me a four-year-old child, I can't make head or tail of it!"
  • Groucho Marx is sometimes wrongfully quoted as saying "who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?" as a result of this movie. In fact, it was his brother, Chico Marx, who says the line. When Chico said it, he was in disguise as Groucho's character, Rufus Firefly, so that is likely where the confusion comes from.
  • At no point does Firefly ever say "Of course you know this means war!" in the picture, despite it being oft cited as the source of Bugs Bunny's Let's Get Dangerous! catchphrase. "This means war!" is spoken twice, but by his rival, Ambassador Trentino of Sylvania, in response to Firefly provoking him. That said, if people say Bugs Bunny's line came from Groucho Marx, they are correct — he does say the line, but in A Night at the Opera.
• Enchanted: A random New Yorker is sometimes misheard as having said, "Get the fuck outta here!". He actually said, "Get that bus outta here!".
• The Exorcist: The demon possessing Regan never said "Fuck me Jesus!" while making her stab herself in the crotch with a crucifix. It said "Let Jesus fuck you!" There was a scene where a possessed Regan repeatedly said "Fuck me!" to the doctors attending to her, so it's easy to see how the two lines have gotten crossed.
• People like to quote Ben Stein's character from Ferris Bueller's Day Off as saying, "Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?" but that's not how it happened. When he's taking attendance, he repeatedly says, "Bueller... Bueller..." until one of the other students tells him that Ferris is absent. Later on, when he's teaching, he asks for audience participation and that's when he says, "Anyone? Anyone?" He knows that Ferris is absent at this point, so there's no reason to be calling on him to answer a question in class.
• Jack Nicholson's memorable line from A Few Good Men is frequently misquoted in parodies as "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth." The dialogue between Nicholson and Tom Cruise actually goes:
  Jessup: You want answers?
  Kafee: I want the truth!
  Jessup: You can't handle the truth!
• The famous line from Field of Dreams is "If you build it, he will come," not, as is often misquoted, "If you build it, they will come."
• Flash Gordon: Vultan's line GORDON'S ALIVE!!! is regularly quoted as a triumphant cry, and has become an Author Catchphrase of BRIAN BLESSED himself. In the actual movie, however, Vultan expresses the line with (for Brian Blessed) quiet incredulity. (The catchphrase is probably better remembered from the sound clip incorporated in the Queen song, in which an echo effect is used. It also seems to be conflated in the popular imagination with Vultan's later and similarly iconic cry of DIVE!!!)
• In the original version of The Fly (1958), there's plenty of "Help me! Help me!" but no "Be afraid. Be very afraid." The David Cronenberg 1986 remake is the source of "Be afraid," and has "Help me, please help me."
  • He actually does say "Help me, please help me" in the '58 version. The fact that almost no one knows that is a further example of this trope.
  • Less of wording and more of intonation, "Help me!" is often done high pitched in parodies such as Beetlejuice. In the original movie, however, it was more of a deep, nasal sound, like an insect buzzing.
  • The iconic image of the fly's body with a man's head is not in the original movie either. It comes from Return of the Fly. The only time the human-headed fly is seen in The Fly is when its body is wrapped in spider silk, revealing only a deformed-looking human head and hand.
• Forrest Gump:
  • He never said, "I love you, Jenny". But he did say (after trying to rescue her from the guys grabbing her on stage) "I can't help it. I love you".
  • He also never says "Life is a box of chocolates". His mother says that and he refers back to that elsewhere ("My momma always said life was like a box of chocolates"), but he never says it in the present tense, with or without the "like".
  • His line "I'm sorry I had a fight in the middle of your Black Panther Party" is often misquoted as "I'm sorry I ruined your Black Panther Party", possibly because the second one sounds funnier to a lot of people (the implication is meant to be that he thinks the Black Panther Party is like a birthday or toga party rather than a political party)
• 42nd Street: "But you keep your feet on the ground and your head on those shoulders of yours and go out, and, Sawyer, you're going out a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!" is misquoted in many ways, e.g. "You're going out (there) a youngster, but you're coming back a star!", "You're going out (on that stage) a nobody, (kid), but you're coming back a star!", or "You're going out a chorus girl, but you're coming back a star!" In the stage version, though, it's "You're going out there a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!" so that technically is a correct quote...
• It's often said that "Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, except backward and in high heels." The original quote is from a 1982 Frank and Ernest cartoon:
  Sure he was great, but don't forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did, backward... and in high heels.
• Friday the 13th: Jason Voorhees's Iconic Item is not a chainsaw. Despite the "chainsaw and hockey mask" combination being a regular part of any slasher parody, Jason has never used a chainsaw in any of the Friday the 13th films. One is used against him in part 2, against his copycat killer in part 5, and he once uses a Bushmaster (a circular saw blade at the end of a weedwhacker) to kill someone in part 7, but never a chainsaw. His most notable weapon is a machete. The reason for parodies using a chainsaw and hockey mask combination is that they’re also parodying Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
• Discussed in Frost/Nixon. Frost is known for starting his broadcasts by saying "Hello, good evening and welcome," but, according to Frost, "I don't actually say that." In broadcasts shown within the film, he says "Hello. Good Evening." and "Good evening and welcome," but never says all three at once.
• The iconic exchange "I didn't kill my wife!/I don't care!" from The Fugitive happens in the sewers before the next most-iconic scene in the movie, Kimble jumping over the waterfall rather than allowing himself to be arrested. However, parodies (chiefly The Simpsons) will combine them in order to reference both.
• Ghostbusters (1984) does not contain the line "It's true, your Honor. This man has no dick." The line is a mash-up of the original line "Yes, it's true. This man has no dick." and the edited-for-television version "It's true, your Honor. The man is some kind of rodent, I don't know which." Also, Egon didn't say, "You mother--" when shoving Walter Peck; he said, "Your mother", likely about to say that Peck's mother was a violation of environmental law.
• The Godfather:
  • Vito doesn't say "You come to me, on the day of my daughter's wedding?" He says "You come into my house on the day my daughter is to be married and you ask me to do murder — for money." The phrase "day of your daughter's wedding" is used later, but not by Vito.
  • Also — this is a slightly nitpicky one, but that's what we're here for — at the beginning, Michael tells Kay that "Luca Brasi put a gun to his head, and my father assured him that either his brains or his signature would be on the contract." "Brains" and "signature" are often transposed — presumably people think it packs more of a punch if the horrible option comes last, but that just ain't the way it is.
  • Also, Michael never says "You broke my heart, Fredo, you broke my heart." He actually says "I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart, you broke my heart."
  • Jack Woltz never yells to Tom Hagen: "And a man in my position can't afford to look ridiculous!!". The correct phrase is: "And a man in my position can't afford to be made to look ridiculous!!"
• Gone with the Wind:
  • Scarlett O'Hara says "Tomorrow is another day", not "Tomorrow's another day" at the end of the film.
  • Rhett Butler's memorable final line, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn," is sometimes misquoted as "Frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a damn." (In the actual book, the line is simply "My dear, I don't give a damn", with no "frankly"). The misquotation has appeared in several places where the line was used comically, including Clue and an episode of Mama's Family. Used to a great comedic effect in a Sunday comic of Pearls Before Swine.
  • Not a line quoted particularly often, but "I don't know nothin' about birthin' babies" is sometimes changed to "I don't know nothing about birthin' no baby."
• The Graduate: "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me. [awkward pause] Aren't you?" is misquoted as "Are you trying to seduce me, Mrs. Robinson?" or "Mrs. Robinson, are you trying to seduce me?" The awkward pause is often left out as well, which ends up turning the "Aren't you?" into a rhetorical question. In the film, the speaker is genuinely confused about the situation.
• People often quote Rocket Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) as saying "I'm gonna need that guy's leg." or some other paraphrase of the actual quote, which is "That dude there. I need his prosthetic leg." The paraphrase is actually closer to the second time the gag is used, where he says "I'm gonna need one more thing... THAT GUY'S EYE!"
• In Happy Gilmore, Bob Barker is attributed to saying "The price is wrong, bitch!" It's Happy (Adam Sandler) who exclaims this line. Bob later says "Now you've had enough... bitch."
• People often quote Home Alone with the line "Merry Christmas, you filthy animal." This one pops up sometimes in ironically-minded Christmas accouterments. Unfortunately, no one in the movie says this. The actual line, which is spoken in the movie within the movie Angels with Dirty Souls, is "Keep the change, you filthy animal." However, "Merry Christmas, you filthy animal." is said in the sequel.
• Some people quote the line when the Grinch's heart grows in How the Grinch Stole Christmas! as "Help me! I'm feeling!" The line is actually "Max! Help me! I'm feeling!".
• Inception:
  • Although the "WE HAVE TO GO DEEPER" meme has spread like wildfire, that line's never actually said in the film.
  • The popular snowclone "An X within an X. X-ception", or sometimes just the "X-ception" part, follows this trope. The phrase isn't in the movie (the closest is "a dream within a dream. Two levels"), and having a dream within a dream isn't inception. Inception is planting an idea in one's mind. Going multiple levels in the dream just helps with doing that, and helps with extraction (stealing an idea) as well.
• Clerks has Randal quoting Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom with "No time for love, Doctor Jones!". But Short Round's actual line was "Hey, Dr. Jones, no time for love."
• People quoting the Georgie scene from Stephen King's It always say "Everything floats down here", which he doesn't even come close to saying. True he says the line "They all float down here", but that's much later in the film.
• No James Bond villain has ever said: "Good evening, Mr. Bond. We've been expecting you." Bits of it, yes, and sometimes they were said by other people, but never the entire quote. For example, one of Dr. No's henchmen shouts "We've been expecting you!". In Diamonds Are Forever, Blofeld says (over intercom and imitating Willard Whyte's voice) "Howdy. Welcome, son, we've been expecting you", and a minute later says "Good evening, Mr. Bond."
  • Just before the final showdown in The Spy Who Loved Me, Stromberg DOES say "Good evening Mr. Bond, I'VE been expecting you."
  • Bond doesn't actually say "The name's Bond, James Bond" that often either ("Bond... James Bond" however is in practically every film) and orders vodka martinis rarely too. The former line has only been known to appear in A View to a Kill, GoldenEye, and Casino Royale (2006). In some films, he does say "My name is Bond, James Bond" — for example, at the start of Diamonds, while he's questioning the Egyptian's mistress about the whereabouts of Blofeld.
    • Also, the infamous "Oh, James!", which has been attributed to the simpering Bond Girls has only been said in about 1/3rd of the films.
  • The title character in Goldfinger is often quoted as saying "I don't expect you to talk, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die." The actual exchange goes as follows:
    Bond: Do you expect me to talk?
    Goldfinger: No, Mr. Bond! I expect you to die!
• In Jaws, the line is "You're gonna need a bigger boat", not "We're gonna need a bigger boat." The presence of Brody (the speaker) on the boat as well undoubtedly contributes to the confusion.
  • However, Chief Brody does say the line just seconds later, but the full line is "We're gonna need a bigger boat, right?"
  • Also, the quote "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water" is sometimes attributed to this movie. In fact, it's the tagline to the sequel, hence the part about going back in the water.
  • Hooper's line as he conducts his autopsy is "This was no BOAT accident", repeated twice. He does mention an ostensible BOATING accident as he starts the autopsy, which may explain the source of the confusion.
• Jerry Maguire: The infamous "You had me at hello" line is not spoken by the title character, but rather by Dorothy Boyd, played by Renée Zellweger.
• Joker (2019): Franklin Murray's line to Arthur Fleck in the climax is often quoted and paraphrased as "You're laughing. Someone was killed today because of what you did, and you're laughing." thanks to Memetic Mutation (with the "someone was killed today because of what you did" part replaced with anything else). What he actually says in the film is "Two policemen are in critical condition, and you're laughing. You're laughing. Someone was killed today because of what you did."
• King Kong (1933): Carl Denham's famous closing line is often quoted as "'Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes. 'Twas beauty killed the beast." But onscreen it's actually spoken in uncontracted form. ("It was beauty killed the beast.")
• Knute Rockne, All American: Knute Rockne says "And the last thing he said to me, 'Rock,' he said, 'sometime when the team is up against it and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go out there with all they got and win just one for the Gipper.'" (Airplane! does manage to paraphrase the quote "correctly", with Leslie Nielsen saying, "...win just one for the Zipper.") Often quoted as "Win one for the Gipper," or "Win this one for the Gipper."
• Lethal Weapon:
  • Roger Murtaugh is not getting too old for this shit, he already is. He does say it that way in both the second and third movie, ("I'm getting too old for this shit!")
  • He also bluntly says what Riggs is trying to say but unwilling to admit in the fourth movie: "You're getting too old for this shit."
• A common Stock Phrase is "We Have Ways of Making You Talk", often said by a Nazi villain in a thick German accent ("Ve haff vays," etc). The phrase originates in The Lives of a Bengal Lancer from 1935, it's "We have ways to make men talk,", and the character saying it in the film is an Indian prince. A closer variant happens in the 1943 anti-Nazi film Hangmen Also Die!. However, the line is "You know we have means to make you talk."
• The Lord of the Rings: It's not uncommon for Théoden's pre-charge speeches to be merged when quoted. The line from The Two Towers is "Fell deeds awake. Now for wrath. Now for ruin. And the red dawn!" and the line from The Return of the King is "Ride now, ride now, ride! Ride for ruin and the world's ending!" What you often get is combinations of the two, such as "Ride for wrath, ride for ruin and the red dawn/the world's ending" and "Now for wrath, now for ruin and the world's ending."
  • "Fell deeds awake" is taken from the verses spoken by Théoden at Edoras in The Two Towers:
    Arise now, arise, Riders of Théoden!
    Dire deeds awake, dark is it eastward.
    Let horse be bridled, horn be sounded!
    Forth Eorlingas!
  • "Now for wrath, now for ruin, and a red dawn," is taken from the last line of the verses spoken by Éomer in The Return of the King (with "nightfall" changed to "dawn" as was appropriate for Helm's Deep; a lot of people were pissed that this threw off the rhythm, not to mention the all-important alliteration):
    Out of doubt, out of dark to the day's rising
    I came singing in the sun, sword unsheathing.
    To hope's end I rode and to heart's breaking
    Now for wrath, now for ruin and a red nightfall!
  • And the movie version is taken from Théoden's Pelennor Fields speech in the book which is this:
    Arise! Arise, Riders of Théoden!
    Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!
    Spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,
    A sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
    Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!
  • Éomer also shouts, "Ride, ride to ruin and the world's ending!" in the middle of the battle after he goes berserk after seeing his sister dead (or so he thinks) and the Rohirrim cry "Death" as with one voice. The movie moves these lines to the start of the battle.
  • The Uruk-hai's actual quote is "Look's like meat's back on our menu, boys."
• The Maltese Falcon (1941): Sam Spade says "The, uh, stuff that dreams are made of" at the end, not "It's the stuff that dreams are made of". This in turn is a variant of "... such stuff / As dreams are made on," from Shakespeare's The Tempest.
• Due to the franchise's fondness for Bathos and Casual Danger Dialogue, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is often associated by memes with various stock comedic phrases that it's rarely-if-ever actually used, such as "Well, that just happened!", "That sounded better in my head", or "He's Right Behind Me, isn't he?"^note Funnily, a variant of this was used in Thor: Love and Thunder, some months after the joke became common.
• In Mary Poppins, the chimney sweeps sing "It's the master, step in time!" but they don't sing "What's all this, step in time!" It's just "What's all this! What's all this! What's all this! What's all this! What's all this!"
• The Matrix:
  • Smith's monologue is often misquoted: "Human beings are a virus," or "Human beings are a disease, and we are the cure" (which was actually used in one of the trailers). The unedited version of the line is:
    There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague and we are the cure.
  • While not a line of dialogue, the iconic Bullet Time sequence with Neo dodging the bullets actually has the bullets graze and hurt him — nearly every parody of this scene has the character elegantly avoid harm, unless the joke is that they get harmed regardless.
  • Additionally, Morpheus never has a line beginning with "What if I told you..." at any point in the film, Memetic Mutation to the contrary.
• In Mean Girls, Gretchen's line "Oh my god, Karen, you can't just ask people why they're white" is often misquoted as "You can't just ask someone why they're white."
• The most infamous quote from Mommie Dearest is often rendered as "No more wire hangers!" when in reality the quote is a very hammy "No wire hangers EVAAAAR!!!" (or simply "No...wire... HANGEEERS!!!")
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail:
  • The Black Knight's most memorable quote is "It's only a flesh wound!" and has even been merchandised as such when he really said "Just a flesh wound." The misquotation may have been influenced by the scene where the knights first see Camelot and one of the servants remarks "It's only a model." Additionally, the Black Knight does not make the "flesh wound" comment until both of his arms have been cut off and Arthur points it out. What he says after Arthur slices off his first arm is, "'Tis but a scratch."
  • Also, Dennis the peasant says, "Help, help, I'm being repressed!" — not "oppressed."
  • No one ever says "not dead yet," though that's what's sung in Spamalot. The old man being put in the cart says "I'm not dead!" Later, during the Tale of Sir Launcelot, Concorde twice says "not quite dead" first speaking about himself, and later about Prince Herbert. Also in the same segment, people attending to Princess Lucky's father say "He's not quite dead!" An anti-euthanasia group even uses the false quote as their organization's name, intending to refer to the aforementioned cart scene.
• Despite all the memes, the titular character of Morbius never says, "It's Morbin' time!" (which is actually a reference to "It's Morphin' time!") or "Stand back, I'm beginning to morb!" The joke plays on the fact that since no one has actually seen the film, they can't confirm if he says it. And it does not help that some people who have seen the memes think he actually does say "It's Morbin' time!" and then watch it to see if he says it, only to walk out disappointed.
• In the original Mortal Kombat: The Movie, Shang Tsung never actually says "Your soul is mine!" when he points towards the camera like he does in the Mortal Kombat 11 video game. The actual line in that particular scene is "Your brother's soul is mine!", since it's from the opening dream sequence when he is about to kill Liu Kang's brother. He does say "Your soul is mine" to another character he kills in a later instance, but he never does it pointing towards the camera.

N–Z

• Napoleon Dynamite advises Pedro, "just listen to your heart," not, "just follow your heart."
• The actual line from Howard Beale's (Peter Finch) rant in Network is "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" Often misquoted as "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" Some people shout the latter out of windows, but Beale doesn't. However, he does instruct his audience to do so.
• Though Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain is attributed to Night of the Living Dead (1968) and credits it as its Trope Namer, the line was actually first spoken in Shaun of the Dead. The 1985 horror-comedy The Return of the Living Dead comes close, but it only mentions that in Night, they killed the zombies by "[destroying] the brain", and here, removing the head only comes after destroying the brain proves to be unsuccessful (not that it achieved anything other than reducing the zombie to little more dangerous than a headless chicken). The actual quote from Night goes "Kill the brain, and you kill the ghoul." (The 1990 remake, meanwhile, refers to "incapacitating the brain".) The closest any of George A. Romero's films get to using the line is in Dawn of the Dead (1978), where, during a news report early on, an expert on the subject of zombie survival says, "A dead body must be exterminated either by destroying the brain or severing the brain from the rest of the body."
  • No zombies in any Romero film mutter for braaaaains or have a preference for eating them over other parts of the body either. This was invented by Return.
• No Country for Old Men: Anton Chigurh never says "Call it, Friendo," to the gas station clerk. He asks "What business is it of yours where I'm going, Friendo?" and tells him to call a coin toss a few lines later. It doesn't help that the editing in the trailer uses a portmanteau of the lines.
• Many people associate the phrase "ladies and germs" with Osmosis Jones. This was never said in the movie itself. (Not to mention, the term was around long before 2001.) In fact, Hawkeye Pierce says it a couple of times in M*A*S*H, and he probably thinks he is quoting Milton Berle. Berle probably got it from old vaudeville routines.
• Many people think Zoozie of The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure said "This is the greatest movie ever!" before the movie started. She actually said, "This is the most amazing movie ever!" Also, many people quote the movie's Phrase Catcher as "Goofy Toofie, pull up your pants!" rather than "Goofy Toofie, pick up your pants!", the way it was actually said in the film.
• Neither Jean Gabin in Pépé le Moko (1937) nor Charles Boyer in Algiers (1938) says "Come with me to the Casbah [...] we'll make beautiful music together...." It comes from a Yosemite Sam/Pepé Le Pew cartoon.
  • No-one in Algiers utters the "Come with me" line, though Hedy Lamarr's Gaby does ask Charles Boyer's Pepe le Moko, "Can't you leave the Casbah?" The "beautiful music" part doesn't even come from the same movie, but from 1936's The General Died At Dawn, in which Gary Cooper says to Madeline Carroll, "We could make beautiful music together."
• In Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, the crew of the Flying Dutchman's Madness Mantra is "Part of the crew, part of the ship". It is often however misremembered in the opposite order as "Part of the ship, part of the crew."
• Some of the most oft-quoted lines in The Princess Bride are slightly altered, most notably "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." This is typically quoted as "That word doesn't mean what you think it means" or "I don't think that word means what you think it means" or similar variant phrasings.
• The final line in Planet of the Apes (1968) is "YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP! OH, DAMN YOU! GODDAMN, YOU ALL TO HELL!" Most recitations of the line leave out "God" in the last sentence, most likely because of TV edits or quoters who dislike using blasphemy.
• Pulp Fiction:
  • Jules Winnfield's famous hamburger speech is often misquoted by putting words or phrases in the wrong order:
    Jules: "What country you from?!"
    Brett: "W-what?"
    Jules: "'What' ain't no country I ever heard of! They speak English in 'what'?"
    Brett: "...what?"
    Jules: "ENGLISH, MOTHERFUCKER, DO YOU SPEAK IT?!"
  • In an example that's made its way into a trope name, I Just Shot Marvin in the Face is actually "Aw man... I shot Marvin in the face..." with no "just".
• Parodies of Rebel Without a Cause often depicted James Dean’s character Jim Stark being a motorcyclist, but at no point in the film does he have one. The closest it comes is his friend Plato riding a scooter. The association comes from James Dean being part of a motorcycle gang in East of Eden and the assumption that a hellion such as Jim must have also been a biker.
  • Likewise, some people misremember Jim as wearing a black leather jacket, like a stereotypical '50s greaser. While James Dean sometimes wore leather jackets in real life, in the movie his iconic jacket is a bright red nylon windbreaker.
• Rocketman: People often misquote Elton's line during his backstage fight with Bernie before the "Pinball Wizard" sequence as "People don't pay to see Reg Dwight, they pay to see Elton Fucking John!" He actually says the exact line, just without "fucking", though he does say it in a different sentence after said line.
• Rocky:
  • The quote "Yo, Adrian! I did it!", said Rocky upon winning the title, is sometimes used to specifically represent the first movie and not the franchise as a whole. The quote is actually from the sequel Rocky II. Furthermore, in the first film, Rocky actually lost the match, and it was only in the sequel that he won. In the first movie, he merely shouts "Adrian!" repeatedly as he's surrounded by journalists and photographers after the final bell, trying to locate her.
  • Ivan Drago's "I must break you" from Rocky IV is often misquoted as "I will break you."
• The Room (2003):
  • Johnny's "What a story, Mark" sometimes gets remembered as "What a funny story, Mark" or "Crazy story, Mark".
  • Though Johnny says his infamous "Ohai ______!" catchphrase numerous times in the film, the flower shop scene is not one of them. In that scene, he just says "Hi doggie!"
  • A great deal of people remember Johnny denying ever hitting Lisa with a drawn-out “I did naaaaaaaaht”, to the point where James Franco does it while playing Tommy Wiseau in ‘’The Disaster Artist’’. It might be funnier to remember it that way, and Johnny might make an odd face on the word “not”, but he just says “naht”, quickly, not drawn out. This is made obvious by the side-by-side comparisons of various scenes shown in the end credits of Franco’s film.
• When Tony Manero (John Travolta) strikes his trademark "Staying Alive" Dance Pose in Saturday Night Fever, the song that's playing isn't "Stayin' Alive". It's "You Should Be Dancing" by the same authors (from their 1976 album Children of the World). The dance pose with "Stayin’ Alive" playing actually comes from Airplane!, with Ted Stryker (Robert Hays) doing Tony Manero’s dance pose.
• In Saw, Jigsaw never says "Do you want to play a game?" or "Would you like to play a game?" in his tapes. What he actually says is "I want to play a game".
• Scary Movie has a scene where Marlon Wayan's character imitates the kid from The Sixth Sense and says, in a hushed whisper "I see dead people" i.e the exact same line as the original film. For some reason, many people misremember the line as "I see white people", perhaps confusing it with the movie Undercover Brother, where a character really does say that, or just due to thinking it would be funnier that way.
  • Host Billy Crystal used the line "I see white people" at the 2000 Academy Awards when The Sixth Sense received multiple nominations. He was jokingly musing what black Oscar nominee Michael Clarke Duncan was thinking.
• The Seventh Seal: The most famous line of the film is "I am Death. I have come for you". Needless to say, it doesn't happen, or rather, it is an exchange between Block and Death.
  Block: Who are you?
  Death: I am Death.
  Block: You have come for me?
• The Silence of the Lambs:
  • Not once does Hannibal Lecter say "Hello, Clarice." What he actually says is "Good evening, Clarice."
    • He does say in Hannibal, "Is this Clarice? Well, hello Clarice." And without the comma between "Hello" and "Clarice," the intonation is different. A pedantic point, but this is a pedantic article.
  • At no point does Buffalo Bill say "It puts the lotion on its skin" or "It puts the lotion in the basket". What he actually says is "It rubs the lotion on its skin" and "It places the lotion in the basket" respectively. He does say "Put the fucking lotion in the basket," at one point, so it's likely that that's where the confusion originates.
• In the film version of The Sound of Music, a supposed Blooper that people remember is that Captain von Trapp's first wife allegedly died "seven years ago," yet her youngest child, Gretl, is only five years old. This is a mishearing. What the Mother Abbess says is that the first Mrs. von Trapp died "several years ago." (Four years earlier in Real Life, to be specific.)
• In Soylent Green, Charlton Heston does not run, stop, assume a dramatic pose, and shout out "Soylent Green is made out of people! IT"S PEOPLE!" — that was Phil Hartman on Saturday Night Live. Heston actually just shouts "Soylent Green is people!" while being carried away in a stretcher after being mortally wounded, and Edward G. Robinson says in a low voice "Soylent Green is made out of people."
• The slaves in Spartacus actually shout "I'm Spartacus!" You can't actually hear anyone saying "I am Spartacus!" or "No, I am Spartacus!" despite the fact that one of these misquotes is a Trope Namer.
• A Spider-Man 2 picture meme of the train passengers lifting Spider-Man's unconscious body includes the caption "Carefully, he's a hero". This line is never said during the scene nor at any point in the movie, but one of the train passengers does tell the others to be gentle when placing him on the floor.
• Memes from Spider-Man: Far From Home have Mysterio say "Now, this is an Avengers level threat", usually in response to an example of Serious Business. The actual line from the movie is "Now that is an Avengers level threat."
• Contrary to what South Park fans may think, Jaime Escalante doesn't say "How do I reach these kids?" in Stand and Deliver.
• At no point in Stand by Me does anyone say "Perhaps the treasure was the friends we made along the way" or anything similar. The meme got linked to the movie, but is completely unrelated.
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Some people mistakenly think that "KHAAAAAN!" is a Skyward Scream, when Kirk actually just yells it facing forward into his communicator, which was followed by an exterior shot of the planet. As far as intent, people often portray it as a classic example of how hammy William Shatner is, when in fact Kirk (the character) is purposely hamming it up, to make Khan think he had outsmarted Kirk. The line is also often quoted as a long shout ("KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"). As performed, the line is just slightly longer than it would be if simply spoken.
• Star Wars:
  • Darth Vader doesn't say "Luke, I Am Your Father." The actual exchange was:
    Darth Vader: Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.
    Luke: He told me enough! He told me you killed him!
    Darth Vader: No — I am your father.
    • Luke's line is often misquoted as "You Killed My Father"
    • People quoting the line often mess up the emphasis as well even when they get the words right. Specifically, the emphasis should be on I, as he was responding to Luke's assertion that Vader had "betrayed and murdered" his father, while parodies usually put the emphasis on am. Many also assume that Luke's Big "NO!" follows immediately. In fact, Luke's first response is "No. No. That's not true. That's impossible!". Vader then responds "Search your feelings, you know it to be true!" and then Luke gives his Big "NO!", which is immediately followed by a smaller "No!" that doesn't last as long. If anything, it appears as though more people are confusing this scene with its shout-out in Toy Story 2 between Utility-Belt Buzz and Emperor Zurg. Buzz does say "You Killed My Father", Zurg emphasizes both "I" and "am" (and even then, some people apparently get it backward between both films) and it is Buzz's single Big "NO!" that is an immediately drawn-out, vertical skyward scream (following the elevator they are both riding on no-less).
  • The first title card always reads "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." "Long, long ago" is seen in the inside cover of a few novels, but never in the films. A similar variation "A long, long time ago in a galaxy far away" is also said at the beginning of the "Weird Al" Yankovic song "The Saga Begins". However, that may be just to match the lyrics and melody of "American Pie", which the song is a parody of.
  • Anakin's infamous "sand" speech in Attack of the Clones ("I don't like sand... It's coarse and rough and irritating. And it gets everywhere...") is definitely an awkwardly written bit of dialogue, but he doesn't actually say "Not like you, you're soft and smooth." to Padmé at the end of it. He says "Not like here, everything here is soft and smooth", referring to his lush, green surroundings on Naboo. (He does refer to Padmé immediately after, which is probably the source of the confusion.) Also, "I don't like sand" is sometimes misremembered as "I hate sand."
  • The "Hello, there!" "General Kenobi!" *ignites four lightsabers* exchange is a pretty common meme based on Revenge of the Sith. While the first two parts are indeed a direct quote, Grievous doesn't pull out his lightsabers right after saying "General Kenobi", he does a little later, after Obi-Wan has defeated his bodyguards and the two have had a second exchange of dialogue.
  • Palpatine's "Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise" is often misquoted as beginning with "Have you ever heard..." when its actually "Did you ever hear..."
  • An often joked-on Grievous line, "Your lightsabers will make a fine addition to my collection!" is often quoted as "This will make a fine addition to my collection!"
  • Obi-Wan's Despair Event Horizon speech: "You were the Chosen One! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them!" The second sentence is routinely quoted as "You were supposed to destroy the Sith, not join them!" Obi-Wan actually does say that in the GBA/DS game adaptation, though.
  • Obi-Wan's "I felt a disturbance in the Force" line actually goes "I felt a great disturbance in the Force... as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced." People often quote it as "I felt a disturbance in the Force as if millions cried out in terror and were silenced" or sometimes with "fear" in place of "terror".
  • In the final battle of Return of the Jedi Admiral Ackbar's line "concentrate all fire on that Super Star Destroyer" is sometimes misquoted as "focus all firepower on that Super Star Destroyer."
  • Also in Return of the Jedi, several sources, including at least one licensed book, mention Luke giving a Big "NO!" in response to Vader's assertion that Leia may join the Dark Side. He actually lets out a Big "NEVER!".
  • The line "may the Force be with you" is often delivered by fans and non-fans alike with a hoarse British accent, implying that Alec Guinness said it as Obi-Wan Kenobi. Though Kenobi says this line multiple times in the prequels, it's with Ewan McGregor playing him. Kenobi never said the line in the original trilogy. He does say "Use the Force, Luke," and "The Force will be with you always." The first person to say the iconic line with that exact phrasing was Han Solo in an O.O.C. Is Serious Business moment in A New Hope.
  • In The Last Jedi it's Rey who tells Kylo that her parents were random nobodies, not the other way around. Kylo is asking her to admit the truth to herself, knowing she knows deep down.
  • Jar Jar is often attributed to saying "yousa in big doo-doo dis time" however in The Phantom Menace he never says it himself instead General Roos Tarpals says it to him after he returns after his exile.
  • In the same film, variations of the line "This is so wizard!" is often associated with Young Anakin. The line is actually said to him by his friend Kitster.
• Related phenomenon: While M. Bison really did say OF COURSE! in Street Fighter the context of the line is frequently mistaken to be something he said after stating his goal to Take Over the World, instead of in response to Sagat pointing out that Guile was alive. The misconception of it being used in that context comes from The Nostalgia Critic’s Running Gag of showing that clip whenever he mentions a character in the work he’s reviewing wanting to Take Over the World.
• The saying "That's a fact, Jack!" is a misquote of one of Bill Murray's lines in Stripes. In the actual movie, he says "That's the fact, Jack!".
• After the release of Suicide Squad (2016), the quote "She was fearless and crazier than him. She was his queen, and God helps anyone who dared to disrespect his queen.", said to be associated with the Joker and Harley Quinn, rose to prominence, to the point of reaching Memetic Mutation status in some circles. Such a quote is never actually said in the film; it's actually derived from two separate quotes from Amanda Waller regarding Harley and the Joker's relationship: "That was just the beginning. She's even crazier than him and more fearless.", and "They became the king and queen of Gotham City, and God help anyone who disrespected the queen."
• Sunset Boulevard: Norma's famous line — "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up," — is often misquoted as "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille." Such as in Angels in America when Prior is having a self-deprecating dream.
• Tarzan never said "Me, Tarzan. You, Jane." Johnny Weissmueller, star of a series of Tarzan movies, gave the phrase in an interview as an indication of the kind of dialogue he was being given, but even he didn't say that exact phrase in any of the movies (a fact notable enough to be mentioned in court proceedings regarding the film). This was probably paraphrased from a scene from the 1932 Tarzan, the Ape Man:
  Jane: (pointing to herself) Jane.
  Tarzan: (he points at her) Jane.
  Jane: And you? (she points at him) You?
  Tarzan: (stabbing himself proudly in the chest) Tarzan, Tarzan.
  Jane: (emphasizing his correct response) Tarzan.
  Tarzan: (poking back and forth each time) Jane. Tarzan. Jane. Tarzan?
• Taxi Driver: Travis's often-parodied You Talkin' to Me? monologue includes the line "Well, I'm the only one here" that is frequently misquoted as "Well, I don't see anyone else here."
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III was not released under the subtitle "Turtles in Time" as commonly believed. The subtitle was actually the name of the second arcade game, which otherwise has no relation to the movie. It eventually got so confusing to fans that when the movie was released to Blu-ray in 2009, the distributors decided to refer to the movie as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Turtles in Time in the packaging.
• The Ten Commandments (1956):
  • A case of intonation, rather than actual words: God, speaking through the Burning Bush, does call out Moses's name twice. However, it is not prolonged, with a descending pitch. Just "Moses...Moses...." in a flat monotone. The pharaoh does but with rising intonation.
  • And Edward G. Robinson's character never said "Where's your Messiah now? Where's your Messiah now, see?" Billy Crystal made the line up for his routine about the movie.^note he was delivering the line as if Edward G. Robinson was playing a gangster, which he was known for.
• The Terminator:
  • The T-800's line to the police officer is misquoted "I'm a friend of Sarah Connor. I was told that she was here, could I see her please?" when the correct line should be "...I was told that she's here..."
  • The line "Come with me if you want to live'' is often quoted while impersonating Arnold Schwarzenegger's distinctive Austrian accent. While he did deliver the line in the second movie, the line originated in the first movie spoken by the American-accented Kyle Reese.
  • From Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the Terminator never said "I'll be back" as it sinks into the lava with a thumbs up. It only said "Goodbye..." before sinking down quietly into the lava before giving a thumbs-up as its body sinks deep enough. The line was instead uttered during the raid on Cyberdyne and the police arriving ("Stay here. I'll be back.") where it temporarily disabled the police officers by Knee Capping them.
  • The T-1000 has never said "Have you seen this boy?" in the film. It's actually quoted from his cameo appearance in Wayne's World.
• They Live!: the original Chew Bubblegum line was "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum." Almost everyone quotes it as "I'm here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I'm all out of gum."
• This is Spın̈al Tap: often misquoted as "There's a fine line between clever, and stupid", David St. Hubbins actually says "It's such a fine line between stupid, and clever." Likewise, Nigel Tufnel said neither "This one goes to eleven" nor "These go up to eleven"; the correct line is "These go to eleven."
• 300's trademark "THIS! IS! SPARTA!!" the scene is often quoted as if Leonidas immediately responds to the Persian messenger who declares that Leonidas's actions are "blasphemy" and "madness". While this is sorta-correct in the trailer ("This is madness!" is immediately followed with "TIS"), in the film itself there is a long pause, with Leonidas looking at Queen Gorgo who then silently nods with approval, and then he says "Madness?" followed by the famous line.
• The Three Stooges are commonly associated with the punny legal firm name "Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe", supposedly deriving from one of their short subjects. Some sources claim that this is a misquote and the correct phrase is "Dewey, Burnham and Howe", but in fact, neither such name appeared in any of their shorts at all. The joke's association with the Stooges derives from a pair of very popular posters featuring the comedians, not any of their actual films, and it's a very old lawyer joke, much older than even the Stooges' careers. It's worth noting that the production company behind the popular radio show Car Talk, which featured a somewhat similar insult-comedy style as the Stooges, was called Dewey, Cheatham & Howe, perhaps adding to the confusion.
• Titanic: Rose asks Jack to "draw [her] like one of [his] French girls", not "paint [her]". It strains credibility enough that a drawing would be so well-preserved after more than 80 years underwater, let alone a fresh painting that probably wouldn't have even had time to dry fully, given the ship sank mere hours later. Also of note, said line is not delivered by a nude Rose as she lounges around her room after making love to Jack, as is often depicted in parodies. She says it fully clothed and makes it explicitly clear in the narration that she and Jack did not sleep together in her room at all, not before, during, or after he drew her.
• Trading Places: Randolph Duke doesn't actually say "Sell, Mortimer, sell!" towards the end of the movie. The Dukes had their own trading broker, Wilson, working at the floor of the commodities market, so Randolph actually says "We've got to get Wilson and tell him to sell!" and Mortimer later says "Wilson, for Christ's sake, sell!". In addition, immediately before they realize what's going on, Randolph says of the protagonists, "They're selling, Mortimer."
• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre never featured the line "We don't need no stinking badges!" The actual lines are:
  Bandit: We are federales. You know, the mounted police.
  Dobbs: If you're the police, where are your badges?
  Bandit: Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinking badges!
  • That said, if someone says, "We don't need no stinking badges!" they are quoting a movie: Blazing Saddles.
    • If they say Badgers: UHF
  • Another one — Bogart never says "Can you help a fellow American who's down on his luck?" That's from the Bugs Bunny cartoon short 8 Ball Bunny. The actual line is: "Say, mister, care to stake a fellow American to a meal?"
• The infamous line from Troll 2 is actually "Oh my gosh!", not "Oh my God!" It's also preceded by "They're eating her! And then they're going to eat me!", not "And then they're going to eat me too!"
• In Tropic Thunder, Kirk Lazarus is often misattributed as saying "Nigga, you just went full retard." (which wouldn't make sense considering Lazarus went on a diatribe against that word later in the film) The actual conversation went as follows:
  Lazarus: Everybody knows you never go full retard.
  Tugg: What do you mean?
  Lazarus: Check it out. Dustin Hoffman, Rain Man, look retarded, act retarded, not retarded. Count toothpicks to your cards. Autistic, sure. Not retarded. Then you got Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump. Slow yes, retarded maybe, braces on his legs, but he charmed the pants off Nixon and won a ping-pong competition? That ain’t retarded. He's a goddamned war hero, you know any retarded war heroes?
  Tugg: *Pauses, then shakes his head*
  Lazarus: You went full retard, man. Never go full retard. You don't buy that? Ask Sean Penn. 2001, i am sam? Remember? Went full retard, went home empty-handed.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
  • The line "My God, it's full of stars" is never said or sort of said in the movie. The closest it gets to this line is in a moment toward the end when a starfield bursts onto the screen, but not a single word is spoken during this light show (or after it, for that matter). A version does appear in Arthur C. Clarke's novel (part of the same project), where it's "The thing's hollow — it goes on forever — and — oh my God! — it's full of stars!" But the shorter line as it's usually quoted comes from the sequel novel and film 2010: The Year We Make Contact.
  • In addition, the very famous and oft-quoted line "I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Dave" never appears in 2001. Rather HAL says "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that" and later says "I'm afraid, Dave" when being disconnected. And before that, he does say "I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen."
  • And as if there weren't enough misquotations, the line, "Good morning Dave" is never uttered. "Good evening Dave" and "Good afternoon gentlemen" on the other hand are.
  • "Will I dream?" This quote is often misattributed to 2001 (it's actually from the sequel 2010) and/or misquoted as "Dave, will I dream?" or "Will I dream, Dave?" In the movie, HAL addresses this question not to Dave but to Dr. Chandra.
• Nicolas Cage doesn't actually exclaim "YOU DON'T SAY!!!" in Vampire's Kiss, which is the source of that meme. In the actual scene, he is giving a longer monologue and is looking increasingly more manic as he gives it.
• Classic Western The Virginian: Gary Cooper's taunting line was not, "Smile when you call me that!" or "When ya call me that, smile!" but "If you wanna call me that, smile." Easy to get confused, because, in the original novel, he says "When you call me that — smile!" Since then, of course, that line has mutated further, to the Stock Phrase "Smile when you say that!"
• In Wall Street, Gordon Gekko didn't utter the exact phrase "greed is good". He said, "greed, for lack of a better word, is good." The trailer did shorten it to "greed is good" though, and the sequel inevitably made it an Ascended Meme. In an episode of The Daily Show, John Hodgman answers a question by quoting the speech. Perhaps to get around the contradiction between the original and remembered quote, he begins by saying "The answer, for lack of a better word, is greed." Except that instead of "greed", he says "greeb".
• One of the most famous lines from Waterworld is, "Dry land is not a myth, I've seen it!" And yet, the line is never heard anywhere, in any form in the entire movie. It is, however, present in the Universal Studios water show based on the movie, which has been seen by many more people. Actual quote: The Mariner says "Dry land is a myth!" She says "I've seen it. It was in a basket we found Enola in. Dirt richer and darker than yours." The Cable Guy makes this mistake, which is particularly notable due to the character immediately bragging about how many times he's seen the movie. Abridged Heathcliff was legitimately impressed when Kirito correctly debunked the line's association with the movie.
• What's Love Got to Do with It (1993): In the infamous "Eat the cake, Anna Mae!" scene, despite what Jay-Z would have you think, Ike Turner never says those exact words to Tina nor does he yell at her to eat it. Instead, he keeps saying "You should have some cake" or something similar and she keeps saying she doesn't want any, which leads to him holding a slice closer and closer to her mouth until he "playfully" (in his drug-addled mind, at least) smashes it in her face, which leads a fight with Tina's friend Jackie.
• The line from White Heat is not "Top of the world, Ma!"; it's "Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" Lex Luthor misquotes it in the 1st season finale of Lois & Clark, and The Simpsons has done it a few times.
• In Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka says "Good day, sir!" and "I said 'Good day'!" but never "I said 'Good day, sir!'"
  • The screenshot that was responsible for the Condescending Wonka meme was taken out of context: his actual attitude during that specific shot was amused.
• The Wizard of Oz:
  • The line "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!" is a misquote of Dorothy's line. The actual quote is "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."
  • The Wicked Witch says "Fly, fly, fly!", not "Fly, my pretties! Fly!" or "Fly, my monkeys, fly!" This misquote is likely due to the Wicked Witch calling Dorothy "my pretty" in several other lines.
  • Dorothy (nor anyone else) does not say "It's a twister, Auntie Em". One of the farmhands, Zeke (the "real life" counterpart of the Lion) does say "It's a twister! It's a twister!", and later on in the same sequence, Dorothy yells "Auntie Em! Auntie Em!".
  • In Airplane!, Stephen Stucker as Johnny says (while tangling himself in phone cords) "Auntie Em! Toto! It's a twister! It's a twister!"
  • Every single page on the Internet and TV shows using the joke quote Scarecrow's mangling of the Pythagorean Theorem as "The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side", and sometimes even quote it in a manner usually beginning with the phrase "In an isosceles triangle...". He actually says "Sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side". This is probably the only page on the Internet which actually gets the quote right.
    • Also, some people believe the Tin Man said this quote.
  • The Wizard of Oz never said "Pay no attention to The Man Behind the Curtain! I am the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz!" He actually said "Oh! Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! The Great and Powerful...has spoken!"
  • Dorothy's famous words near the end: "But it wasn't a dream. It was a place. And you — and you — and you — and you were there." Often remembered as "I had the most wonderful dream..." (or some variation, rather than insisting it was real), followed by "... and you were there, and you were there, and you were there..."
  • In the book Orphan Train, when describing a visit to the cinema to see the film, Vivian, the main character of the portion of the book that takes place in the 1930s, misquotes Dorothy's famous line after she clicks the ruby slippers together three times as "It's good to be home!" rather than "There's no place like home!".
  • The three singing Munchkins who present Dorothy with a lollypop are members of the Lollypop Guild, not the Lollypop Kids. This misconception is so common that even the grave marker of Jerry Maren – the central, green-clad member of the trio – identifies him as a "Lollypop Kid."
• Zulu: the line isn't "Zulus. Thousands of 'em.", but "The sentries report Zulus to the southwest. Thousands of them." Also, Michael Caine (Lt. Bromhead) doesn't say it; it's Color Sergeant Bourne, played by Nigel Greene.

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