Greatest Opening Film Lines
2010s
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Film Title
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Famous Opening Lines
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Black Swan (2010)
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- "I had the craziest dream last night. I was
dancing the White Swan. It was different choreography, though. It
was more like the Bolshoi's. It was the prologue when Rothbart casts
his spell."
- "Oh, look how pink. So pretty."
- (unison) "Pretty!"
- "You're in a good mood."
- "He promised to feature me more this season."
- "Well, he certainly should. You've been there long enough, and
you're the most dedicated dancer in the company."
Play clip (excerpt):
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Easy A (2010)
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(voice-over partly) "The rumors of my promiscuity
have been greatly exaggerated. I used to be anonymous, invisible
to the opposite sex. If Google Earth were a guy, he couldn't find
me if I was dressed up as a 10-story building. Pretty cutting-edge
stuff, huh? A high school girl feeling anonymous. Who am I? What
does it all mean? Why am I here? Blah. But don't worry, this isn't
one of those tales. Though it sure started out that way. And then
it changed pretty quickly when I started lying about some very personal
things. So let the record show that I, Olive Penderghast, being of
sound mind, and below-average breast size, swear to tell the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Starting now. And what
better way to share my private thoughts than to broadcast them on
the Internet? So here it is. Part one. The shudder-inducing and cliched,
however totally false account of how I lost my virginity to a guy
at a community college. Let me just begin by saying that there are
two sides to every story. And this is my side, the right one."
Play clip (excerpt): |
Kick-Ass (2010)
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- Guardian of the Universe protecting us against the forces
of evil.
- He can catch a bullet. Halt a speeding train. And leap tall buildings
in a single bound.
- Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? A mailman by day. The city's
guardian by night.
- Defending the citizens of New York from the forces of evil.
- The world has been protected by a group of extraordinary men and women
who have dedicated themselves to fighting crime.
- Mysterious traveller from another dimension.
- He has powers far beyond the capabilities of mere earthlings.
(voice-over) "I always wondered why nobody did it before
me. I mean, all those comic books, movies, TV shows. You'd think that
one eccentric loner would've made himself a costume. I mean, is everyday
life really so exciting? Are schools and offices so thrilling that
I'm the only one who ever fantasized about this? Come on, be honest
with yourself. At some point in our lives we all wanted to be a superhero.
That's not me, by the way. That's some Armenian guy with a history
of mental health problems. Who am I? I'm Kick-Ass. That's me back before
any of this crazy s--t happened. Guess I was the last person you'd
expect to become a superhero. Not sayin' there was anything wrong with
me. But there's not nothing special either. I wasn't into sports, I
wasn't a mathlete, or a hard-core gamer. I didn't have a piercing,
or an eating disorder, or three thousand friends on MySpace. My only
superpower was being invisible to girls. And out of my friends, man,
I wasn't even the funny one. Like most people my age, I just existed."
Play clip (excerpt):
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Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
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(title card) "Not so long ago in the mysterious land
of Toronto, Canada, Scott Pilgrim was dating a high schooler."
- "Scott Pilgrim is dating a high-schooler?"
- "Really? Is she hot?"
- "How old
are you now, Scott? Like, 28?"
- "I'm not playing your little games, kids."
- "So, you've been out of high school for, like,
13 years."
- "I'm 22. Twenty-two."
- "And you're datin' a high-school girl. Not
bad, not bad."
- "Thank you, thank you."
- "So, did you guys, like, you know,
do it yet?"
- "We have done many things. We ride the bus together. And we
have meaningful conversations about how yearbook club went and about
her friends and, uh, you know, drama."
- "Have you even kissed her?"
- "We almost
held hands once, but then she got embarrassed."
- "Well, aren't you pleased as punch?"
- "I don't know what you're talking about."
- "So, what's her name?"
- "Knives Chau. She's Chinese."
- "Wicked."
- "So, when do we get
to meet her?"
- "Oh, please, let it be soon."
- "That's for me."
- "Hi."
- "You promise to
be good?"
- "Of course I'll be good."
- "Seriously, please be good."
- "Am I normally
not?"
- "Hey, Knives, this is Stephen Stills. He's the talent."
- "Hey. Is she gonna geek
out on us?"
- "She'll just sit in the corner, man."
- "I mean, I want her to geek
out on us."
- "She'll geek. She geeks. She has the capacity to geek."
- "Okay. You're
good."
Play clip (excerpt):
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The Social Network (2010)
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- "Did you know there are more people with genius IQs living in China
than there are people of any kind living in the United States?"
- "That can't possibly be true."
- "It is."
- "What would account for that?"
- "Well first, an awful
lot of people live in China. But, here's the question: how do you distinguish
yourself in a population of people who all got 1600 on their SATs?"
- "I didn't know they take SATs in China."
- "They
don't. I wasn't talking about China anymore, I was talking about me."
- "You got a 1600?"
- "Yes. I could sing in a cappella group, but I can't sing."
- "Does
that mean you actually got nothing wrong?"
- "Or you row crew or you
invent a 25 dollar PC."
- "Or you get into a final club?"
- "Or I get into a final club,
exactly."
- "You know, from a woman's perspective, sometimes not singing in
an a cappella group is a good thing."
- "This is serious."
- "On the other hand, I do like
guys who row crew."
- "Well, I can't do that."
- "I was just
kidding."
- "And yes, I got nothin' wrong on the test."
- "Have you ever tried?"
- "I'm trying right now."
- "To row crew?"
- "To get into a final club. To row crew? No. Are you, like, whatever,
delusional?"
- "It's just, that sometimes you say two things at once and I'm
not sure which one I'm supposed to be aiming at."
- "But you've seen guys who row crew, right?"
- "No."
- "Okay,
well, they're bigger than me. They're world class athletes. And a second
ago, you said you like guys who row crew, so I assumed you had met one."
- "I guess I meant I liked the idea of it, you know, the way a girl
likes cowboys."
- "Okay."
Play clip (excerpt): |
True Grit (2010)
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(title card) - The wicked flee when none pursueth.
Proverbs 28:1.
(voice-over) "People
do not give it credence that a young girl could leave home and go
off in the winter time to avenge her father's blood. But it did happen.
I was just fourteen years of age when a coward by the name of Tom
Chaney shot my father down and robbed him of his life and his horse and
two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band. Chaney
was a hired man. And Papa had taken him up to Fort Smith to help
lead back a string of Mustang ponies he had bought. In town, Chaney had
fallen to drink and cards, and lost all his money. He got it into
his head he was being cheated and went back to the boarding house
for his Henry rifle. When Papa tried to intervene, Chaney shot him.
Chaney fled. He could have walked his horse, for not a soul in that
city could be bothered to give chase. No doubt Chaney fancied himself
scot-free. But he was wrong. You must pay for everything in this
world, one way and another. There is nothing free, except the
grace of God."
Play clip (excerpt):
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Bridesmaids (2011)
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- "I'm so, I'm so glad you called."
- "I'm so glad you
were free."
- "God, I-
I love your eyes. Okay, now, now what? Ah!"
- "Cup my balls."
- "Okay, yes. All right.
I can do that. Ha!"
- "Oh! There it is. Oh."
- "Oh, that feels good."
- "You
know what to do. (laughter)"
- "Okay, you know what? Slow it down, slow it down."
- "Okay."
- "Slow it down. There we go."
- "How's that?"
- "That's good, nice and
slow. See? Doesn't that feel good?"
- "Yeah. No, I want to go fast."
- "You want to go fast?"
- "Fast."
- "Yeah, No... Oh, yeah. That feels good."
- "Oh, Yeah. Oh."
- "Yeah."
- "Oh, yeah.
Okay. You
know what, uh? I think, I think maybe we are on different rhythms here.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. (laughter)"
Play clip (excerpt): |
The Descendants (2011)
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(voice-over) "My friends on the mainland think
just because I live in Hawaii, I live in paradise. Like a permanent
vacation - we're all just out here sipping Mai Tais, shaking our
hips and catching waves. Are they insane? Do they think we're immune
to life? How can they possibly think our families are less screwed-up,
our cancers less fatal, our heartaches less painful? Hell, I haven't
been on a surfboard in 15 years. For the last 23 days, I've been
living in a paradise of IVs and urine bags and tracheal tubes. Paradise?
Paradise can go f--k itself."
Play clip (excerpt): |
Drive (2011)
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(voice-over) "There’s a 100,000 streets
in this city. You don’t
need to know the route. You give me a time and a place, I give you a five-minute
window. Anything happens in that five minutes and I’m yours.
No matter what. Anything happens a minute either side of that and you’re
on your own. Do you understand? Good. And you won't be able to reach me on
this phone again."
Play clip (excerpt): |
The Help (2011)
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- "I was born 1911, Chickasaw County, Piedmont Plantation."
- "And did you
know as a girl growin' up, that one day you'd be a maid?"
- "Yes, ma'am,
I did."
- "And you knew that because..."
- "My mama was a maid. My grandmama
was a house slave."
- "House slave. Do you ever dream of bein' somethin'
else? What does it feel like to raise a white child when your own child's
at home bein' looked after by somebody else?"
- "It feel..."
(voice-over) "I done raised
17 kids in my life. Lookin' after white babies, that's what I do."
Play clip (excerpt): |
Jane Eyre (2011)
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- (whispered) "I will die."
- "St. John?"
- "I found her at the door."
- "She's white as death."
- "Hannah, some of that hot milk."
- "St.
John, we would have stumbled upon her corpse in the morning. And she would
have haunted us for turning her away."
- "She's no vagrant. I'm sure of it."
- "There's milk for ya."
- "Here."
- "Ask her,
her name."
- "What's your name?"
- (off-screen) "Jane Eyre."
- "Tell us how we may help you."
- "Your
name?"
- (off-screen) "Where are you?"
- "Must hide..."
- "St. John, we must get her warm."
- "Let us take her upstairs."
- "Will she die?"
Play clip (excerpt): |
The Master (2012)
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"You know how to get rid of the crabs?...You
gotta shave one testicle. All the crabs go over to the other testicle.
You got to light the hair on fire on that one. When they all go scurrying
out, you take an icepick and you f--kin' stab every single last one
of them."
Play clip (excerpt): |
The Great Gatsby (2013)
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(voice-over partly) "In my younger and more vulnerable
years, my father gave me some advice. 'Always try to see the best
in people,' he would say. As a consequence, I'm inclined to reserve
all judgments. But even I have a limit. Back then, all of us drank
too much. The more in tune with the times we were, the more we drank.
And none of us contributed anything new. When I came back from New
York, I was disgusted... Disgusted with everyone,
and everything. Only one man was exempt from my disgust...Gatsby."
Play clip (excerpt): |
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
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(advertisement voice-over) "The world of investing
can be a jungle. Bulls. Bears. Danger at every turn. That's why we
at Stratton Oakmont pride ourselves on being the best. Trained professionals
to guide you through the financial wilderness. Stratton Oakmont. Stability.
Integrity. Pride."
(voice-over) "...My name is Jordan Belfort. Not him, me. That's
right. I’m
a former member of the middle class raised by two accountants in a tiny
apartment in Bayside, Queens. The year I turned 26 as the head of my own
brokerage firm, I made $49 million dollars which really pissed me off
because it was three shy of a million a week. No, no, no, no, no. My
Ferrari was white, like Don Johnson’s
in Miami
Vice, not red. See that humongous estate down there? That’s
my house. My wife, Naomi, the Duchess of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, a former
model and Miller Lite girl. Yeah, she was the one with my cock in her
mouth in the Ferrari, so put your dick back in your pants. In addition
to Naomi and my two perfect kids, I own a mansion, private jet, six cars,
three horses, two vacation homes and a 170 foot yacht. I also gamble
like a degenerate, I drink like a fish, I f--k hookers maybe five, six
times a week, have three different Federal agencies looking to indict
me. Oh yeah, and I love drugs."
Play clip (excerpt): |
Divergent (2014)
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(voice-over) "We're lucky to be in The City. They
say the war was terrible, that the rest of the world was destroyed.
Our founders built the wall to keep us safe, and they divided us
into five groups, factions, to keep the peace. The smart ones, the
ones who value knowledge and logic, are in Erudite. They know everything.
Amity farm the land. They're all about kindness and harmony, always
happy. Candor value honesty and order. They tell the truth, even
when you wish they wouldn't. And then there's Dauntless. They're
our protectors, our soldiers, our police. I always thought they were
amazing. Brave, fearless and free. Some people think Dauntless are
crazy, which they kind of are. My faction is Abnegation. The others
all call us 'stiffs.' We lead a simple life, selfless, dedicated
to helping others. We even feed the Factionless, the ones who don't
fit in anywhere. Because we're public servants, we're trusted to
run the government. My father works alongside our leader, Marcus.
It all works. Everyone knows where they belong. Except for me."
Play clip (excerpt): |
Gone Girl (2014)
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(voice-over) "When I think of my wife, I always
think of her head. I picture cracking her lovely skull. Unspooling
her brains. Trying to get answers. The primal questions of any marriage:
'What are you thinking?' 'How are you feeling?' 'What have
we done to each other?'"
Play clip (excerpt): |
The Interview (2014)
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(singing in Korean, subtitled) "Our Beloved
Leader is wise. He is gentle, kind and strong. We wish him joy. We
wish him peace. We wish him love. And the one thing in our time,
we wish more than this is for the United States to explode in a ball
of fiery hell. May they be forced to starve and beg, and be ravaged
by disease. May they be helpless, poor and sad and cold! They are
arrogant and fat. They are stupid and they're evil. May they drown
in their own blood and feces. Die America, die! Oh please won't you
die? It would fill my tiny little heart with joy! May your women
all be raped by beasts of the jungle while your children are forrced
toooo waaaatch!"
- "We now turn to the hostile nation of North Korea. The rocket
they are testing is believed to be big enough to reach the West Coast
of the United States."
- "Today, an official of the United Nations tried
to tell the world...So there will be no mistake. That we are living
in the midst of a modern-day Hitler."
- "A young, untested leader with
nuclear ambition."
- "Kim Jong-un."
- "Kim Jong-un."
- "We are talking about Kim Jong-un."
Play clip (excerpt): |
Lucy (2014)
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(voice-over) "Life was given to us a billion
years ago. What have we done with it?"
Play clip (excerpt): |
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
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"Things are never gonna be the same now. I
mean, look at this. You got aliens. You got big green guys tearin'
down buildings. When I was a kid, I used to draw cowboys and Indians." |
Wonder Woman (2017)
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(voice-over) "I used to want to save the world,
this beautiful place, but I knew so little then. It is a land of magic
and wonder, worth cherishing in every way, but the closer you get,
the more you see the great darkness simmering within. And mankind?
Mankind is another story altogether. What one does when faced with
the truth is more difficult than you'd think. I learned this the hard
way, a long, long time ago. And now, I will never be the same..."
Play clip (excerpt): |