Meaningful Echo / Live-Action Films

Meaningful Echoes in live-action movies.

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• In 300:
  Theron: [just before raping Queen Gorgo] This will not be over quickly. You will not enjoy this. I'm not your King.
  Queen Gorgo: [just before killing Theron] This will not be over quickly. You will not enjoy this. I am not your Queen!
• In Aladdin (2019), when Aladdin wishes for Genie to "Make me a prince", Genie points out "there's a lot of grey area" in it, saying he could either be asking Genie to turn him into a prince or produce a prince out of thin air. During the climax when Jaffar makes his third wish to be "the most powerful being in the universe. More power than [the Genie]", Genie once again comments "there's a lot of grey area in that wish" as he uses the wish to transform Jaffar into a genie, resulting in him getting trapped in a lamp.
• Batman Returns.
  "Mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it."
  "A kiss can be even deadlier if you mean it."
  • First time this exchange happens between Batman and Catwoman during a brief but sensual moment in a fight. When later they meet at a dancing party in their normal-life appearances (and unaware of each other's secret) they accidentally repeat the lines and thus recognize each other right away.
• A terrifying twist in Being John Malkovich. Near the beginning of the movie Craig and Lotte are making dinner and the parrot is being annoying. When Lotte goes to put it up it says "Help! She's locking me in a cage!" and it's kind of cute. Later in the movie however when Craig goes crazy and stuffs Lotte in a cage, s/he screams "Help! He's locking me in a cage!". Not so cute.
• Blade Runner: when Leon attacks Deckard, he tells him "Wake up; time to die," as a standard Prepare to Die line. At the very end of the film, when Roy stops attacking Deckard, the last words of his speech are "time to die" - but this time, referring to his own death.
• In The Bourne Series (the films) one of the assassins sent to kill Bourne in the first movie tells him to "look at us. Look at what they make you give", which stops Bourne from delivering a killing shot. At the end of the third movie Bourne says the same thing to an agent who has him dead to rights; the agent lowers his gun and lets Bourne escape.
• Casper: "Can I Keep You?"
• In Coldblooded, the veteran hitman tells the apprentice hitman "you're too close" (meaning he'll get splattered by blood from his victim) on his first hit. Much later, when the former apprentice pulls out a gun to kill the veteran hitman, his last words are "you're too close."
• In The Colour of Magic, the words, "goodbye world" are both used in bad instances, and both times by Rincewind. Firstly, he utters these words when he tries to jump into the river Ankh. The second time he says it, he's falling off the edge of the world and sees the star that the Disc is heading towards.
• Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation: The recording of the titular conversation is played over and over, but its true meaning isn't understood until the final repetition. Of course, it's partially implied that the ending was All Just a Dream anyway, and the recording might not mean that at all.
• The Dark Knight Trilogy:
  • Batman Begins. Rachel Dawes reproaches Bruce Wayne for acting like an Upper-Class Twit. He tries to defend himself, but since he doesn't yet want anyone to know he's secretly a superhero, he just vaguely hints that there's a lot more to him than the playboy façade he wears in public. She isn't satisfied with his answer, telling him "It's not who you are underneath, but what you do, that defines you." Later, when Rachel asks Batman his name, Bats answers indirectly (in a way that, to most people, would come across as a simple refusal to answer) by referring to the last line of her prior reproach: "It's not who I am underneath, but what I do, that defines me."
    • Don't forget Alfred's "Why do we fall, sir?"
  • The Dark Knight Rises "...and then you will have my permission to die."
  • In Batman Begins, Carmine Falcone screams What the Hell Are You? at Batman. In The Dark Knight Rises Roland Doggett asks Bane the same question:
    Doggett: What are you?
    Bane: I'm Gotham's reckoning.
• A variation occurs in The Decoy Bride. At one point Katie tells James that her ex-fiancé was in a band, and that when he dumped her, he told her she was just one song, not a whole album. Later on, when James, who is a writer, rejects Katie because he's set on marrying Lara, Katie says: "This is where you tell me I'm just one chapter, not a whole book." This comment is then echoed in turn, as when James comes back to her at the end of the film, the dedication of his newest book says that "Sometimes a chapter can be a whole book."
• In the Denzel Washington movie Déjà Vu (2006), Doug Carlin asks Claire Kuchever, "What if you had to tell someone the most important thing in the world, but you knew they'd never believe you?" She responds, "I'd try." At the end of the movie, Claire asks Doug the same, and he responds the same.
• Dirty Harry has a famous example. Early in the film, Harry gives his "Do you feel lucky, punk?" speech in a jokey manner to an inept bank robber, bluffing him with an empty revolver. In the film's climax, Harry gives the exact same speech to Scorpio Killer, this time his delivery is full of venom and dead serious, before shooting him with that revolver.
• Early in Double Indemnity, Neff responds to an insult from Keyes with an ironic "I love you, too". At the end of the movie, when it becomes clear that behind his gruff exterior Keyes actually has a lot of affection for Neff, Neff repeats the line more seriously.
• Early in Dredd, Judge Dredd asks Anderson whether she's ready right before fighting some bad guys. She responds "Yes, sir", and Dredd declares "You don't look ready." Late in the film, Dredd again asks Anderson whether she's ready right before fighting the Big Bad. She responds "Yeah", and Dredd declares "You look ready."
• In Enchanted Giselle tells Robert in the beginning that she's searching for her Prince and True Love's Kiss, because it's "the most powerful force in the world." In the end, after Giselle has been put in an enchanted sleep by Queen Narissa, he remarks that only True Love's Kiss can save her—"It's the most powerful thing in the world."
  • Also, "Is this a habit of yours? Falling off of stuff?" "Only when someone's around to catch me." Only in the echo it becomes "Only when you're around to catch me."
  • A subtle one was that the first song sung in the film contained the lyric "I've been dreaming of a true love's kiss." The last song sung by Carrie Underwood in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue also contained the lyric "I've been dreaming of a true love's kiss." Also counts as a Book Ends.
• Ford V Ferrari:
  • After his doctor's appointment, Shelby drives away recklessly. During this, Shelby gives the "There’s a point at 7000RPM" speech via voiceover. He does the same just before Miles' fatal crash near the end of the film.
  • At the Willow Springs 100, Shelby whispers to himself "Not yet... not yet... now" as if he's telling Miles when to make an overtaking move for the win. At Le Mans, he says the same thing, this time to un-lap the leading Ferrari.
• In Forrest Gump, when Forrest tells Jenny he loves her, she annoyingly tells him he doesn't know what love is. Years later, he proposes to her, but she declines, telling him he doesn't really want to marry her. His response: "I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is."
• The Fugitive: "I don't care." Gerard means it the first time; the second time he's visibly conflicted, and by the third and final time he's pretty much blatantly lying.
• "By Grabthar's hammer, by the suns of Warvan, you shall be avenged!" This is established early on in Galaxy Quest as the Catchphrase of Dr. Lazarus. Alexander Dane, who plays Dr. Lazarus, has grown sick of hearing it from his fans and now utterly loathes it, dispassionately phoning it in whenever he's forced to say it. When Quellek, a Thermian who looked up to Dr. Lazarus (believing him to be a real person) as his personal hero and modeled his life after him, is killed, Alexander says the phrase to him with real conviction and sincerity for the first time in the movie.
• In Ghost (1990), when Sam's girlfriend Molly tells him she loves him, he routinely replies with "Ditto", sometimes to her annoyance. Later on, after Sam dies and finds himself wandering around as an invisible ghost, he discovers that one woman, Oda-May, can hear him when he speaks. While trying to use Oda-May to prove to Molly that he's still here, he asks Oda-May to tell her he loves her. Molly retorts, "Sam would never say that," to which he immediately tries "Ditto". It works. In the final scene, Molly is allowed to speak with Sam one last time before he departs. At last, he tells her he loves her. She takes advantage of the opportunity for payback and replies, "Ditto."
• The Ghost Ship: After Louie delivers a complaint from the crew to Captain Stone, the captain promises to consider it but light-heartedly says, "You know, there are some captains who might hold this against you." The next scene features Louie being murdered. Merriam (who was present when Louie talked to the captain) is understandably freaked out when Stone says the same thing to him after Merriam has him brought before a board of inquiry.
• At the end of Good Burger, Ed taunts Kurt as he's being arrested by echoing his Catchphrase: "Remember, when you mess with Good Burger, YOU go in the grinder!"
• Sean from Good Will Hunting tries to bond with Will by telling him the story of how he met his wife. He says he saw her at a Red Sox game and excused himself from his friends to go talk to her. He told them "Sorry, guys. I have to go see about a girl." At the end, Will has a job lined up, but decides to go after Skylar (who's left town) instead. He explains this in a letter to Sean telling him "If the professor calls, tell him I'm sorry. I had to go see about a girl." After reading this, Sean says "Son of a bitch. He stole my line."
• In Gladiator, as Maximus holds the icons of his wife and son, Jubal tells him, "You will see them again, but not yet," to motivate him to live and fight despite being made a slave. At the end of the film, as Jubal buries the icons in the Colosseum, he whispers to Maximus, "I will see you again. But not yet," signifying that he is looking forward to the future.
• In The film of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry throws Umbridge's punishment back in her face:
  Umbridge: [being carried away by rampaging centaurs] Tell them I mean them no harm!
  Harry: I'm sorry, Professor. "I Must Not Tell Lies."
  • And then again in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:
    Harry: You're lying, Dolores... and one must not tell lies.
• In Hulk, after Betty makes the Hulk change back into Bruce in San Francisco, Bruce tells her that she found him, echoing Betty's first line in the film, but with a deeper meaning.
• In The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, when Katniss manages to make contact with President Snow, he mockingly says "Miss Everdeen; what an honor" - echoing Katniss' very first words to him in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
• Inception has many:
  • Dom's repetition of Saito's words about dying alone as an old man, filled with regret.
  • The entire You're waiting for a train speech given by Mal was originally said by Cobb, when he and Mal were stuck in Limbo. He says this as they lay their heads on a railroad track, so a train could run over their heads to wake themselves up.
• I, Robot has "Save her! Save the girl!". First said by Spooner in the flashbacks to the accident that got him suspicious of robots in the first place, then repeated by him in the climax to Sonny. Although the meaning comes more from the different reactions to the words than the words themselves.
• In Independence Day. President Thomas Whitmore and his wife playfully call each other "Liar" over the telephone. Later in the movie, in a poignant moment, Whitmore hesitantly tells his wife that the doctors think she will be okay, to which she retorts "Liar".. In the same movie, Capt. Hiller has a habit of telling people he likes to make an entrance. The line carries some extra meaning when he says it to his wife, who had thought he was dead, upon their reunion.
• Kingdom of Heaven has a few.
  • Godfrey gives Balian a knight's oath near the film's beginning. As they face the final battle, Balian uses the same oath to knight all of the fighting men en masse.
  • After being shipwrecked, Balian is forced to kill a Muslim cavalier, but he spares the life of the man's servant and even lets him walk away a free man. Astonished, the servant tells him that, "Your quality will be known among your enemies before ever you meet them." The "servant" later reveals his true identity to Balian by saying these words as he in turn spares Balian's life; he is actually a high-ranking general and one of Saladin's advisors.
• Early in Kingsman: The Secret Service, Harry declares "manners maketh man" right before beating the crap out of Eggsy's abusive stepfather's goons who have been harassing the two of them. The final scene has Eggsy honor his mentor who has been shot in the head by the Big Bad by saying the exact same phrase right before beating the crap out of said abusive stepfather.
• A Knight's Tale: In the beginning, Roland mentions to William how God loves him and he replies because no one else will. Near the end, when William was in the stocks and being ridiculed by the crowds, Roland stands by his side and reminds him that God loves him and so does he.
• The Last Command: Russian general Sergius puffs smoke into arrested revolutionary Leo's face. Later, in Hollywood, where Leo is now a rich film director, and Sergius is an extra in his movie, Leo returns the insult.
• From the 2000s movie version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe:
  • In the opening scene, Edmund leaves the bomb shelter to run back to the house and save a photograph of his father. Furious that his actions put them all at risk, Peter snaps at him, "Why can't you just do as you're told?" In the final battle, Edmund disobeys Peter's order to "get out of here" and strikes a critical blow, but is gravely wounded in the process. After Lucy heals him, Peter, visibly crying, hugs Edmund tightly, and then, with a smile, gently chides, "When are you gonna learn to do as you're told?"
• The epilogue of The Loft, set six months after the main events of the film, ends with the newly-divorced Chris leaving a bar when he is approached by Anne Morris who asks him if he wants to get a coffee with her: echoing their first conversation.
• The Lord of the Rings has several.
  • Early in The Fellowship of the Ring, Sam panics after losing sight of Frodo in a cornfield. He tells Frodo that Gandalf told him not to lose him and that he intended not to. Then, at the very end, after nearly drowning in an attempt to follow Frodo as he tried to leave for Mordor, he tearfully repeats:
  I made a promise, Mr. Frodo. A promise. "Don't you leave him, Samwise Gamgee." And I don't mean to. I don't mean to.
  • A non-verbal one starts in the same scene. When Sam nearly drowns in the Anduin, Frodo reaches down and grabs his hand, pulling him to safety. In The Return of the King, Frodo is left hanging over the lava pit in the center of Mt. Doom. This time, it's Sam who reaches down and pulls him to safety.
  • In the second film, The Two Towers, Éomer and Théoden had made comments that hope isn't meant to be found in Rohan. Before the battle at Helm's Deep, a young boy drafted into the battle almost hopelessly mentioned to Aragorn that he has heard from others that there is no hope. Having heard Éomer and Théoden earlier, Aragorn simply replied back that "There is always hope". If you've read the appendices, you realize these are lots and lots of Anvilicious references to Aragorn's childhood name: Estel, pronounced the femmy way, is Elvish for "hope."
  • And an odd backwardsish one: In the theatrical version of The Two Towers, Faramir has two rather odd lines that don't quite mesh with David Wenham's usual delivery: "A chance for Faramir, captain of Gondor, to prove his quality," and "Tell him I send a mighty gift." A flashback in the extended edition reveals the source of the phrases he's repeating: both lines were spoken by Faramir's father in an earlier scene of heartbreaking emotional abuse.
  • Isildur and Elrond/Frodo and Sam's visits to and exchanges in the Cracks of Doom in the first and third films respectively.
• In The Lovely Bones the last words Ray says to Suzie before she is murdered are "You are beautiful, Suzie Salmon". Later on when she enters Ruth's body so she and Ray could have their first kiss, he repeats the line.
• In the first scene of Machete, when Machete's partner tries to talk him out of going up against the powerful drug lord Torrez, Machete asks him, "If not us, then who?" Towards the end of the film, when a pair of local teenagers offer to help Machete battle Torrez and his men, he blows them off until one of them asks him, "If not us, then who?" He relents.
• The Machinist:
  • "I'd like to report a hit and run" when Trevor finally regains his memories and comes to terms with his crime.
  • Trevor has the exact same conversation with Stevie (a call-girl) and with Maria late on. This is a clue that Maria doesn't exist and his only in his imagination.
    Stevie/Maria: Are you okay?
    Trevor: Don't I look okay?
    Stevie/Maria: If you were any thinner you wouldn't exist.
• Maleficent: Aurora meeting Maleficent for the first time echoes how Maleficent first met Stefan when they were kids. In a cloathing example, Aurora's cloak is meant to invoke the robe Maleficent was wearing the night Stefan betrayed her.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Captain America: The First Avenger:
    • "I had him on the ropes", said first by Steve when Bucky gets rid of a bully that is beating Steve up, echoed later by Bucky after Steve gives him the help necessary to kill a HYDRA soldier who has him cornered. This echo is particularly meaningful as it is Steve's first words to Bucky in the film, and Bucky's last words to Steve before falling from the train to his apparent death.
    • "I can do this all day", said by Steve twice: first to the bully who is punching him in the alley, then later, to Schmidt after he has allowed himself to be captured and Schmidt has just punched him repeatedly. He would later say these same words to Tony Stark over seventy years later during the fight that effectively ends their friendship. It's also called back to in Winter Soldier: "Please don't make me do this."
    • When Peggy asks Steve why he's never been dancing, he tells her that it didn't seem important once the war started and tells her "Figured I'd wait." "For what?" "The right partner." — Later, when Steve, Peggy, and Bucky are at a bar with music playing, Peggy remarks that she "might even, when this is all over, go dancing", to which Bucky asks "Then what are we waiting for?" and she doesn't look away from Steve as she responds with his earlier line: "The right partner."
    • After Bucky (apparently) dies saving Steve, Peggy goes to Steve to tell him that it wasn't his fault, and when he continues blaming himself she says: "Did you believe in your friend? Did you respect him? Then stop blaming yourself; allow Barnes the dignity of his choice. He must have damn well thought you were worth it." — Later, when Steve is on the plane and tells Peggy he has to crash it to save the world, he tells her simply "This is my choice.", echoing her line (not word for word, but clearly in meaning) about Bucky's choice to sacrifice himself for something important.
    • Steve's very first line is when a guy in the recruitment office asks him if news of all the war deaths is causing him to have second thoughts about joining the Army; Steve just says, "Nope!" In his final confrontation with Schmidt, when asked if he ever gives up, he repeats the sentiment.
  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier:
    • "I'm with you to the end of the line." First said from Bucky to Steve after the funeral of Steve's mother. Said again seventy years later. After stopping Project Insight, Steve drops his iconic shield into the Potomac below, and resolutely tells Bucky, now the Winter Soldier with no memories of the past, that he won't fight him. When Bucky starts beating the crap out of him and is about to deliver the final blow, screaming into Steve's face that he [Steve] is his mission, Steve simply tells him to finish it, "'Cause I'm with you to the end of the line." This stuns Bucky long enough for the glass beneath them to finally break and for Steve (who's also suffering several gunshot wounds on top of the beating just given to him) to fall into the river — only then to be saved from certain death by the Winter Soldier.
    • "There's a chance you might be in the wrong business", said first by Natasha to Steve in response to his remarks that she always lies about who she is and it's hard to know who she is, but that he'd like her to be a friend; later when she says she can't tell the difference between whose lies she's telling anymore, Steve echoes the line back to her.
    • At the beginning of the film, Steve trolls Sam by lapping him several times as they both jog on the National Mall, warning "On your left!" every time he passes. Near the end, when Steve wakes up in the hospital and Sam is sitting to his right, he looks over and tells him "On your left," and Sam smiles.
  • Avengers: Age of Ultron:
    • Early in the film, Tony asks how the Avengers could possibly hope to defeat the next alien invasion of Earth.
      Steve: Together.
      Tony: We'll lose.
      Steve: Then we'll do that together too.
    • During the climax of the film, Tony and Ultron have this exchange:
      Ultron: How can you possibly hope to stop me?
      Tony: Well, like the old man said: together.
  • Doctor Strange:
    • During their first meeting, an extremely bitter and skeptical Stephen Strange dismisses the Ancient One's attempts to introduce him to magic by referring to her as "another tiny, momentary speck within an indifferent universe." Much later, while interrogating Kaecilius over his plans to bring Earth to Dormammu and bestow eternal life on humanity, Strange asks about the people who've had to die just to make this plan a reality, only for Kaecilius to dismiss them as "tiny, momentary specks within an indifferent universe." Strange is deeply shaken by the similarity - and Kaecilius notices.
    • After being caught practicing highly-dangerous time magic with the aid of the Book of Cagliostro - and being given a very angry warning of all the things that could have happened as a result - Strange sheepishly mutters "they really should put the warnings before the spells." Later, thanks to the pages he stole from the same book, Kaecilius is able to unleash Dormammu upon Earth... only to discover that the eternal life he wanted involves being transformed into a Mindless One and trapped forever in the Darkness Dimension.
      Doctor Strange: Yeah, you know, you really should have stolen the whole book, because the warnings... the warnings come after the spells.
  • Avengers: Infinity War:
    • Vision talks about destroying the stone in his head, saying that one life is nothing in comparison to half the universe, but Steve Rogers insists that it should, and "We don't trade lives, Vision." Then, when Steve saves Vision from Corvus Glaive, he tells Vision to run, only to be strangled by Corvus during their fight. Only for Vision to then run Corvus through with his spear. This exchange happens afterwards:
      Steve: I thought I told you to go.
      Vision: We don't trade lives, Captain.
  • Avengers: Endgame:
    • When Sam Wilson comes back to life, he announces his presence by telling Steve Rogers, "On your left."
    • Thanos attempts this. When the heroes ambush him at the start, he tells them he's already destroyed the Infinity Stones and that there's no way to undo what he did, saying, "I am inevitable." The 2014 version of Thanos later sees this scene through Nebula's memory banks. At the climax, he repeats the line to Tony Stark, thinking that he's about to succeed again. It doesn't go as planned.
    • In the ending, Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes repeat some dialogue from Captain America: The First Avenger, but with the roles reversed.
      Steve: Don't do anything stupid until I get back.
      Bucky: How can I? You're taking all the stupid with you.
• From The Mask of Zorro, in the beginning in the movie, Don Diego, the first Zorro, was telling his adventures to his baby daughter before abruptly changing the ending, as his wife was watching in amusement. Then, at the end of the movie, Alejandro, the new Zorro, was telling a story to his newborn child, before quickly changing the story's ending, as he noticed his wife (Don Diego's daughter) was watching him.
• The Matrix trilogy:
  • In The Matrix Reloaded, the scene of Neo revealing that the prophecy about the One was a lie parallels the scene in the first film where Morpheus reveals to Neo the truth about the Matrix. But this time, their roles are reversed, with Morpheus being the one in denial and Neo being the one who espouses the inconvenient truth.
  • The Matrix:
    Neo: No, I don't believe it. It's not possible.
    Morpheus: I didn't say it would be easy, Neo. I just said it would be the truth.
  • The Matrix Reloaded:
    Morpheus: I don't believe that.
    Neo: I know it isn't easy to hear, but I swear to you, it's the truth.
  • In Reloaded, when Neo mentions the Oracle in his conversation with the Architect, he gets an exasperated "Please" in response.
  • In The Matrix Revolutions, when Neo mentions the Architect to the Oracle, she also responds with "Please."
  • Also from Revolutions, the Oracle tells Neo that "everything that has a beginning has an end." During the Final Battle, Smith repeats those words to Neo, and it's implied that the Oracle is speaking through him, since he doesn't remember what he just said.
• Men in Black:
  • In the opening scene, Kay's partner Dee decides that he's no longer up to the job due to his age:
    Dee: I'll tell ya, Kay. I will miss the chase.
    Kay: No, you won't.
  • Kay then uses the Neuralizer on Dee. Later, at the end of the film, Kay decides it's time for him to retire as well, and has this exchange with his new partner Jay.
    Kay: See you around, sport.
    Jay: No. You won't.
• Les Misérables (1935): When the Bishop gives Valjean the candlesticks, he tells him, "Life is to give, not to take." Later, Valjean passes on the candlesticks to Cosette and Marius, and tells them, "Remember, as was once told me: life is to give, not to take."
• Miss Congeniality: The lead Grace is coerced into pretending to compete in the Miss America contest, and while being coached by Michael Caine's character is repeatedly told to say "Yes", never "yeah". Kathy Morningside, the head of the pageant, also reminds her that it is not a beauty pageant, it is a scholarship program. Later in the film, when Grace is escorting the villain of the story into a cop car...
  Morningside: They steal my life! They steal my beauty pageant!
  Grace: Hey! Hey! It is not a beauty pageant! It is a scholarship program!
  Morningside: Yeah, yeah...
  Grace: Yes. [slams cop car door]
• Two lines in More Dead Than Alive:
  • "Never holster an empty gun." The first time this is given as a piece of gunslinger advice from Cain to The Gunfighter Wannabe Billy as Billy is bragging about what a badass gunslinger he would have been. The second time outlaw Luke Santee says to Billy after Billy has beaten him to the draw only to discover that his pistol is empty because he didn't reload it after murdering Ruffalo. It seems Billy never listens. Luke guns him down.
  • "That's the cost of one life, not twelve!" First said by Cassidy in sour grapes mode when he doesn't think Cain should have been let out of prison even after serving 18 years. The second time occurs after Cain is gunned down by Karma. A hysterical Monica asks him why he had down that, when Cain had paid for his crimes by spending 18 years in prison. Karma coldly replies with this line and then rides off.
• In Mortal Kombat: The Movie, Johnny Cage says "This is where you fall down" to his final opponent in the film shoot (who forgot to react like he was actually hit), and later to Goro, his final opponent in the tournament (who's hanging on by his fingers after being knocked over a cliff).
• Stanza XXVII of Horatius (The Lay) in Oblivion (2013) . Gets used three times. First time is just a random passage of a book Jack scavenged that he reads aloud. The second time it's said by Malcolm Beech to tell Harper that he's different from the army of Harper clone soldiers that assisted in devastating the planet, since he has curiosity and they were "soulless". The third time is said by Harper right before his Heroic Sacrifice by setting off the nuke inside of the Tet.
  "And how can man die better
  than facing fearful odds
  for the ashes of his fathers
  and the temples of his gods."
• Office Space: "Fuckin' A". First said by Peter's neighbor Lawrence, and then by Peter himself at the end of the movie.
• Path to 9/11: Donnie Wahlberg's line "He won't let us down." is followed, much later, by "We let him down."
• Pirates of the Caribbean:
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl: Jack says to Will: "you can accept that your father was a pirate, and a good man, or you can't." At the end of the film, this exchange occurs about Jack.
    Swann: He's a pirate.
    Will: And a good man.
  • Also in Curse of the Black Pearl, the mention of the Code being "more like guidelines". Said first by Barbossa to Elizabeth when he refuses to let her go after their "parlay", then Elizabeth repeats it to the other pirates while trying to convince them to go back and rescue Jack. Comes back a final time at the end, as the pirates' justification for coming back to rescue Jack even though the Code would tell them to do otherwise.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: Pintel saying "Goodbye, Poppet", and Barbossa saying "Farewell, Mrs. Turner" as Elizabeth walked away from the crew of the Black Pearl for the final time.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: "You are different. Are you not?" Said first by Syrena to Philip when she explains why she saved him during the mermaid attack; later said by Philip to Syrena when he explains why he came to save her after Blackbeard had tied her up in an attempt to get one of her tears.
  • Cross-film example: in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Jack tells Will that according to the Pirates' Code "Any man who falls behind, is left behind." Which leads to this exchange after Will abandons Jack to Barbossa:
    Gibbs: Where's Jack?
    Will: He fell behind.
    • Followed up in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest:
      Gibbs: Where's the Commodore?
      Jack: He fell behind.
• In Plan B, Bruno stands very close to Pablo in one scene and it momentarily looks like they might kiss until Bruno plays off their closeness as him just wanting to compare their heights, asking Pablo "Which one of us do you think is taller?" and making a show of measuring their heights with his hand. Much later, after the two of them have realized that their Gay Bravado jokes were really just hiding their true feelings for each other, Pablo teasingly tells Bruno, "Let's see which one of us is taller," and imitates his height-measuring hand gesture before the two of them kiss for real.
• Literally happens towards the end of Planes, Trains and Automobiles. As he's heading home, Neal recalls Del's earlier line, "I haven't been home in years", and it echoes in his head as he comes to a "Eureka!" Moment and realises the truth about Del: he's a homeless drifter ever since his wife Marie died 8 years earlier.
• Purgatory: "Welcome to Refuge." First said to Blackjack's gang, then Dolly and the other recently-dead. Finally said to Sonny when he wonders why his fatal wounds don't hurt.
• In Return to Oz, Doctor Worley recommends electroshock therapy, stating that it's "just the thing to cheer Dorothy up." Later on, during his Pet the Dog moment, the Nome King (Worley's counterpart in Oz) exclaims "I know just the thing to cheer you up!" a subtle indication that his offer is just as much a Death Trap as the shock therapy.
• Rock Star:
  • Chris, at the beginning of the movie, at a Steel Dragon concert singing along with the lead singer (reaching higher notes even) gaining a Fascinating Eyebrow from the singer. Later in the movie Chris is now up on stage and hears one fan doing what he did. Only he brings the guy on stage and gets him a mic so he can join in on the song. Both times the song sung is called "Stand up and SHOUT!".
  • "I told them I needed to take a piss... (Later) "Where you going mate?" "To take a piss." "Take your time."
• Rush Hour: The first movie contains a scene where some henchmen beat up Carter. Sang, one of the villains, says, "Wipe yourself off, you're bleeding." Towards the end of the movie, Carter fatally shoots Sang and says, "Wipe yourself off, man. You dead."
• In School of Rock Freddy quotes Dewey's previous speech back to him in order to get him to come along to the show.
• Shaun of the Dead Towards the beginning of the film when Ed silently passes gas, Shaun is disgusted but can't help from laughing. Ed tells him "I'll stop doing 'em when you stop laughing", to which Shaun replies (while laughing) "I am not laughing". Near the end of the film when Ed is near death in the basement of the Winchester, the two are sharing a final hug when Ed passes gas, and Shaun reacts with disgust as before. Ed says "I'll stop do 'em when you stop laughing", and Shaun—this time with tears in his eyes—says "I am not laughing."
• In Smiles of a Summer Night, Henrik quotes Martin Luther on temptation: "You cannot stop the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from nesting in your hair." Later, he declares: "Let the birds nest in my hair."
• In The Sound of Music, Rolf sings to Liesel "Sixteen Going On Seventeen", as him giving her advice, since he is older than her by a year. Later on, Maria (now married to Captain Von Trapp) sings the song to Liesel after Rolf had acted indifferently towards her, in guidance on how she will someday find the right man.
  • The scene itself where Rolf and Liesel were singing together in the garden and proclaiming their love for one another is shown again when Maria and Captain Von Trapp were singing together in the same garden, also declaring their love for each other. The Ironic Echo comes in when the first couple did not last, while the latter did and got married.
• Space Jam: A New Legacy:
  • "You never let me just... do me." First said by Dom to his father LeBron while calling him out, then LeBron to himself when while fully realizing WHY. Finally, it comes back at the end when Le Bron encourages Dom to join the video game development camp rather than the basketball camp.
  • While trying to teach the Tune Squad how to play basketball normally, LeBron keeps stressing the "fundamentals." Near the end, Bugs tells him that taking care of those you love is fundamental.
• Speed Racer: At the beginning of the film, Speed flashes back to him and big brother Rex driving on the Thunderhead and Rex telling him about how the car is a living thing, and that Speed needs to listen to the car tell him what it needs. At the climax, when Speed is stalled in the Grand Prix, a watching Racer X echoes this, revealing to the audience that he's really Rex.
• Spider-Man:
  • The line "Don't tell Harry" is said at least twice. The first time is when Peter discovers that Mary Jane works in a cafe and she asks him not to tell Harry, who doesn't understand that many people need to work "demeaning" jobs to make ends meet. The second time is when Norman just impaled himself on his own glider and his last words to Peter was not to tell Harry his dark secret.
  • Mary Jane and Peter had just ran into each other and he tells her that "I was in the neighborhood". Later, when she was about to be attacked by some thugs, Spider-Man saves her and tells her the exact same lines.
• Star Trek
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few... or the one." And echoed again in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock: "Because the needs of the one... outweigh the needs of the many."
    • "I have been and always shall be your friend". The earlier line was: "You are my superior officer. You are also my friend. I have been and ever shall be yours."
  • Star Trek (2009):
    [after Kirk takes over as Acting Captain]
    Uhura: I sure hope you know what you're doing, Captain.
    [after Kirk is promoted to Captain for real, with a much more pleasant emphasis]
    Uhura: Dock control reports ready, Captain.
  • Also, in Spock Prime's first meeting with Kirk, he told him "I have been, and always shall be, your friend", an echo of a line he said to Kirk Prime in The Wrath of Khan.
  • An interesting one, where both Captain Robau and Captain Pike both surrender themselves to Nero, to buy the rest of the crew enough time to either escape or fight back.
• Star Wars:
  • In The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader defeats Luke by cutting off his hand, which has to be replaced with an artificial one. In the next film, Luke defeats Vader and ends up cutting off his hand, which was already artificial.
    Palpatine: There is no doubt that this child is the offspring of Anakin Skywalker.
    Vader: How is that possible?
    Palpatine: Search your feelings, Lord Vader. You will know it to be true.
    [Luke confronting Vader at Cloud City]
    Vader: No. I am your father.
    Luke: No... No, that's not true...That's impossible!
    Vader: Search your feelings, you know it to be true.
  • In Attack of the Clones, Anakin mentions that he once used "aggressive negotiations"; that is, negotiations with a lightsaber. Later in the film, during the battle in the stadium, Anakin asks Padme, "You call this a diplomatic solution?" Padme replies, "No, I call it "aggressive negotiations"."
  • In Rogue One, Galen and Lyra Erso's last words to Orson Krennic are "You will never win" before their respective deaths. When their daughter Jyn confronts him as she is about to send the Death Star plans to the Rebel Alliance, she wraps up their dying convictions with this quote:
    Jyn Erso: I'm Jyn Erso, daughter of Galen and Lyra. You've lost.
  • The Last Jedi has Luke's line "Impressive. Every word in that sentence was wrong." The first time he says it, it's to sarcastically mock Rey's limited knowledge of the Force. Later, he says it in defiance of Kylo Ren's claim that he's about to crush the Resistance and end the Jedi forever by killing Luke.
    • When Snoke orders him to kill Rey, Kylo Ren says "I know what I have to do." This is a paraphrase from his monologue before killing his father in The Force Awakens, so he is surreptitiously cluing Rey in to his plan to kill Snoke and spare her.
    • Taken a step further in The Rise of Skywalker when Kylo is confronted by a hallucination of his father., repeating word for word, "I know what I have to do, but I don't know if I have the strength to do it." Except this time, he makes the right choice.
• The HBO original Strip Search is an entire movie built on this trope. It shows parallel interrogations of an American woman by a Chinese soldier and an Arab man by a female American federal agent using the exact same script. Some lines are more intimidating in one context over the other (an offhand comment about visiting Israel is much creepier when delivered to the Arab man), but in general the movie draws most of its emotional power from seeing the Americans treat a prisoner exactly the same as China.
• Teen Beach Movie: Mack saying "I'm Mack!"; the first time during "Surf Crazy", she's reluctant and bored. The second time during the ending song "Surf's Up", she's happy and jovial.
• In The Thin Red Line Witt's monologue about his mother's death is mirrored by a later scene of his own death.
• TRON: Legacy:
  • After rescuing Sam, Quorra attempts to make a jump with Sam telling her they won't make it. After she made the jump, she responds with "Made it." Later with their roles reversed, Sam rescuing Quorra from the command tower, she doesn't think they'll be able to escape. After jumping from the tower using Sam's BASE skills and landing safely, he says "Made it."
  • Sam announces that "I'm not a program. My name is Sam Flynn" twice. The first time is when Jarvis and Clu are inquiring his identity and Sam is trying to figure out what is going on. The second time is as a Badass Boast when he is confronting the guards in Clu's ship.
  • One that is hard to notice:
    Kevin Flynn: [in a clip at the beginning, talking about the Grid] In there is a new world! In there is our future! In there is our destiny!
    Clu: [near the climax, talking about Earth] Out there is a new world! Out there is our victory! Out there is our destiny!
  • A bit more obscure is Quorra's line "Then one day they came for me."
• Truman Burbank of The Truman Show turns his neighborly catchphrase of "In case I don't see ya! Good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight." into this at the climax of the film, as he bids the audience farewell.
• In the Veronica Mars movie, when Logan is leaving to serve in the Navy, there's a callback to this scene from the TV show.
  Logan: It's 180 days Veronica, what's 180 days to us? Our story's epic. Spanning years, continents.
  Veronica: Lives ruined. Bloodshed.
• X-Men: First Class:
  • Raven/Mystique encountering Charles in a kitchen in her true form when they first meet. However, the second time shows how they have both changed and starting to grow apart in ideals. Bonus for them switching positions. The first time, it was Raven by the fridge with Charles walking in. The second time was Charles by the fridge with Raven walking in.
  • Also, shortly after they first meet, when Erik's about to go off on his own again, Charles tells him, "Shaw's got friends. You could use some!" Later, after Shaw's attack on the CIA when Charles wants to send the new mutant recruits home, Erik tells him "Shaw's got his army, we need ours."
  • One of the Nazis Erik tortures in Argentina says he was only obeying orders (i.e. the Final Solution). When Xavier says this to stop Erik from killing the sailors who just fired on them, it turns out to be the wrong thing to say.
• In Yankee Doodle Dandy, when the 4 Cohans perform together, George M. Cohan thanks the audience by saying, "My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you and I thank you." At the end of the movie when President Franklin Roosevelt presents him with the Medal of Freedom, Cohan thanked the President with those same words.

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