Now THAT'S how you end a movie! For this list, we’ll be looking at the most memorable closing lines in movie history that wrap up the film in a shocking, impactful, or emotional manner.
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00:00Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while. You could miss it.
00:05Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 20 closing lines in movies.
00:12Because if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life, maybe we can too.
00:19Wait here for a little while. See what happens.
00:25Then I woke up.
00:27For this list, we're looking at the most memorable closing lines in movie history
00:31that wrap up the film in a shocking, impactful, or emotional manner.
00:36Which of these do you find the most memorable? Let us know in the comments below.
00:46Arguably Martin Scorsese's masterpiece,
00:48Goodfellas subverts the glamorous lifestyle that's often depicted in mafia movies.
00:56While Henry Hill initially enjoys the pleasures of mob life,
01:04he quickly learns that it is a devious and grim business filled with violence and backstabbing.
01:10Eventually, he commits the ultimate betrayal by turning informant and placing both Polly
01:14and Jimmy behind bars. He is subsequently placed into witness protection,
01:19where he is forced to live a boring life as an average nobody.
01:23The closing line is a great way to summarize the story's primary theme of lifestyle disappointment,
01:29and effectively puts an end to the glitz and glamour of the story.
01:33Right after I got here, I ordered some spaghetti with marinara sauce,
01:36and I got egg noodles and ketchup. I'm an average nobody.
01:42Get to live the rest of my life like a schnook.
01:50Few directors can capture the innocent magic of childhood quite like Steven Spielberg.
02:02In many ways, E.T. is the story of a brief but unforgettable childhood friendship,
02:12only with scary government scientists and aliens.
02:15When it comes time for E.T. to return home,
02:17the alien tells Elliot that their bond is still strong.
02:21The quote is a perfect and beautiful summation of the movie's themes.
02:25Loving personal relationships have a tendency to dissolve,
02:28yet they remain firmly ingrained in our memories and hearts.
02:33And that's the magic of Spielberg's movie.
02:40While the story is exciting and unique in its inclusion of a telekinetic alien,
02:44it speaks to universal truths around friendship, love, and memory.
02:53After accidentally using Doc's DeLorean to travel back in time to 1955,
02:58Marty McFly should have known to expect the unexpected
03:01when it comes to his old scientist friend.
03:03But that still didn't stop the young time traveler
03:05from being surprised one last time before the credits rolled.
03:08After Marty returns to 1985,
03:11Doc urgently arrives in the DeLorean wearing futuristic gear.
03:22The two immediately need to speed off to the future to solve a new crisis.
03:26When Marty gets worried they don't have enough road to get the DeLorean up to speed,
03:31Doc reassures him with an iconic line.
03:41It was an awesome way to close the movie and set up the sequel.
03:50This Christopher Nolan film challenges viewers
03:52not only through its complex and labyrinthine plot,
03:55but also through its characterization of protagonist Leonard Shelby.
03:59Throughout much of the film, Shelby is portrayed as a sympathetic character.
04:15However, the ending throws our perceptions into question.
04:19He's depicted as little more than a violent criminal
04:21who will intentionally deceive himself in order to eliminate people who have wronged him.
04:26The final line indicates that Leonard will continue in his cyclical nature
04:30of forgetting and harming people for no good reason.
04:33He'll also receive the tattoo that will eventually lead to Teddy's demise.
04:38With one last line, Leonard is placed in a whole new light
04:42and viewers must reevaluate their sympathies for the character.
04:52Perhaps the most legendary Hollywood monster movie of all time,
04:56King Kong is more complex than the typical monster fare.
04:59Its depiction of Kong is quite ambiguous.
05:02On the one hand, he's a violent animal with fatally destructive tendencies.
05:16But he also loves Andero and grows panicked once taken out of his natural habitat.
05:22After Kong falls to his demise in the famous climax,
05:25a policeman literally states that the airplanes took him down.
05:28However, Carl Denham waxes poetic
05:31and suggests it was Kong's love for Anne that led to his untimely end
05:35and thus ends a rather morose action film,
05:38leaving viewers with unique feelings of sympathy and pity for its titular monster.
05:55It's telling that one of the most colorful and inventive movies ever made
06:04ends in a sepia-toned ramshackle home in Kansas.
06:07After her dangerous and otherworldly adventures in Oz,
06:11Dorothy says goodbye to her new friends
06:13and returns to her comfortable home world by tapping her heels.
06:26Dorothy's family insists that Oz was nothing but a dream,
06:32but she knows different and is happy to be home,
06:35where the dangers of green-faced witches and flying monkeys are not a concern.
06:40While the journey taught Dorothy some valuable lessons
06:43and provided her with memories she will never forget, home is where the heart is.
06:48The film ends with a comforting and reassuring line that speaks to the value of family.
06:56It's an edge-of-your-seat tale detailing the battle for the soul of Gotham
07:12in one of the greatest superhero movies of modern times.
07:16Of course you're going to be treated to an epic ending.
07:18After Harvey Dent goes on a crime spree, he dies during the final showdown.
07:25Batman volunteers to take the blame for all of Dent's crimes
07:37to preserve the deceased man's legacy.
07:39When Jim Gordon's son asks why the Dark Knight is running away,
07:43the Commissioner gives us an incredible closing speech.
07:46Gary Oldman's pitch-perfect and emotional delivery still sticks with us today.
07:51We will always remember what Batman sacrificed for Gotham.
08:08Martin Scorsese is great at subverting popular genres with more realistic stories,
08:13and in this case, he turns the sports genre on its head.
08:17Rather than telling an uplifting underdog story,
08:19Raging Bull is a brutal film that depicts the collapse of Jake LaMotta's life
08:23under the weight of his temper and ambition.
08:36In the end, an aged and washed-up Jake is left without a family
08:40and practicing comedy rather than boxing.
08:43Right before he goes on stage, Jake repeatedly tells himself that
08:50which is an ironically tragic line given the pitiful state of his life.
08:55Jake LaMotta is not a sympathetic character,
08:58but the ending is the closest he will get to being one.
09:06A gangster classic,
09:08White Heat stars James Cagney as ruthless criminal Cody Jarrett.
09:12Cody has lofty ambitions,
09:14but like many gangsters, he meets a bad end while trying to rob a chemical plant.
09:18Cody eventually climbs atop a spherical gas tank,
09:22shoots it and yells,
09:27It's followed by a huge explosion and the movie's final line.
09:32This ending is a great bit of irony.
09:35Earlier in the movie,
09:36Cody uttered the top-of-the-world line to convey his aspirations,
09:39but in the end, the only world he could conquer was far from a planet.
09:44He just managed to reach the top of a gas tank.
09:47Both Cody and the gangster dream end in a massive fireball.
10:00Coming from one of Stephen King's more grounded and touching stories,
10:04Stand By Me is a classic movie that speaks on the virtues of childhood friendship.
10:08Hey, hey you guys, I bet you anything that if we find him,
10:12we'll get our pictures in the paper.
10:14Yeah, yeah, we could even be on TV!
10:16Following their adventure, the characters mature and part ways,
10:19which is an all-too-familiar occurrence when growing up.
10:22Gordy slowly loses touch with Teddy and Vern,
10:25and Chris later dies in a bar fight,
10:28leaving a nostalgic and rather sullen Gordy
10:30reminiscing about the time he shared with his boyhood buddies.
10:33The closing lines of the film that are written by Gordy on his computer
10:36are great for sparking nostalgia in the hearts of viewers.
10:40Sharing experiences with close friends is one of the greatest aspects of growing up,
10:44and this movie knows it.
11:03A rare prison movie with a happy ending,
11:06The Shawshank Redemption concludes with Red and Andy reuniting
11:10on the beach of Zihuatanejo.
11:12The moment, and the speech that precedes it, are both monumental for Red.
11:16Rehabilitate it? It's just a bullshit word.
11:21So you go on and stamp your form, Sonny, and stop wasting my time.
11:26Not only because he's finally free after decades in prison,
11:30but also because he finally has a chance to feel good about the future.
11:34It's telling that the final line of the movie is,
11:49Red hopes for a list of specific things,
11:52like meeting Andy and seeing the Pacific,
11:54but in the end, he's left hoping in a general manner
11:57after suffering years of despair.
11:59It's a deeply touching bit of character development,
12:02and an affirmation of the joys of life.
12:10The narrator in Fight Club went through a lot in a short time.
12:14He learned he had a twisted alternate personality named Tyler,
12:18endured lots of pain, and had to witness an explosive plan.
12:32My eyes are open.
12:35After finding a way to keep his alternate personality at bay,
12:38he's joined by his love interest Marla.
12:41The narrator's closing line to her sums up his hectic life
12:44in one of the most hilarious understatements of all time.
12:48Accompanied by the pixie's where is my mind,
12:50this closing line perfectly wraps up the offbeat nature of Fight Club.
12:54You met me at a very strange time in my life.
12:57The statement also leaves us with a little hope
13:00that the narrator and Marla make it through the explosive end.
13:07If there's one turn of phrase that you do not want to hear
13:10from a villain who has a history of seeing humans like literal snacks,
13:14it's this one.
13:15I do wish we could chat longer, but I'm having an old friend for dinner.
13:21Jodie Foster's Clarice Starling has been a big part of the narrative,
13:25Jodie Foster's Clarice Starling has spent this entire movie
13:28waging a psychological battle against Hannibal Lecter,
13:31but in the end, the villain claims the upper hand.
13:34Lecter calls Clarice to catch her up on what he's up to
13:37with a legendary piece of dialogue.
13:40Perhaps the doctor really is gonna whine and dine
13:42an old friend or associate of his in a traditional way,
13:45but given Lecter's reputation,
13:47we sincerely doubt this dinner is gonna end well for everyone.
13:51Clarice can only close the film by repeating the villain's name
13:54as he makes his move.
14:10A science fiction classic with themes of humanity,
14:13Blade Runner ends with a fantastic question.
14:16Throughout the film, Rick Deckert must battle with himself
14:19regarding the potential humanity of the replicants
14:21he has been hired to eliminate.
14:22The movie forces the viewer to ask the same questions
14:26and challenges them to sympathize with robots.
14:41One of the film's primary themes is the end of life
14:44and the conundrum of death.
14:45Whether robot or human, everything eventually dies,
14:49whether they were hunted down and killed,
14:51or whether they perished of natural causes.
14:53Officer Gaff, who was familiar with Deckert's journey,
14:56leaves the film with words that are harsh, poetic, and truthful.
15:13Dropping the title of your movie into dialogue
15:16doesn't always sound the most natural.
15:19However, the classic film Chinatown
15:21pulls it off in an incredible way.
15:23During the film, the private investigator Jake
15:26really gets put through the mill.
15:28The wild events of the movie culminate
15:30in a sobering and emotional climactic scene.
15:32Although it seems like Jake wants to confront the chaos
15:35one last time, he's told,
15:41This line became an iconic way to signal
15:43the ending of his bittersweet journey.
15:45The movie subsequently closes with calls for any witnesses
15:49and the audience to leave the sad tale behind.
16:12After George Taylor crash lands his spaceship
16:14on a planet full of sentient primates
16:16over 2,000 years after he left Earth,
16:19he becomes desperate to escape the clutches
16:21of this oppressive society.
16:24He goes through many trials while trying to stay alive
16:27in this strange world.
16:28Despite everything George endures during the movie,
16:31he still has some hope left in the film's closing scene.
16:34However, everything changes when he makes a discovery
16:37on a peaceful-looking beach.
16:39It turns out the ruins of the Statue of Liberty
16:41are present on this planet.
16:43This confirms that George has been on Earth
16:46the entire time.
16:47This fantastic twist is complemented
16:50by an unforgettable line and performance from the lead
16:53as he faces the sad truth.
17:14Number four.
17:15The beginning of a beautiful friendship.
17:17Casablanca.
17:21Casablanca is a romantic drama from the 1940s
17:24that is still well-regarded today.
17:26This classic is rounded off with one of the most
17:28quotable closing lines in cinema history.
17:31In the movie, World War II has spread across Europe
17:34and no one can sleep safely at night.
17:37So when Rick Blaine's old flame Elsa Lund
17:39turns up in his Moroccan bar,
17:41he decides to help her.
17:42But he can't do it alone.
17:44Rick finds aid with an unlikely ally,
17:47a lawman named Captain Louis Renault.
17:49Although they should be enemies,
17:51the two men become close throughout the film.
17:53Rick cements their bond with a fantastic statement
17:57that ends the drama on a light and optimistic note.
18:00It doesn't make any difference about
18:01I bet you still owe me 10,000 francs.
18:03And that 10,000 francs should pay our expenses.
18:07Our expenses?
18:08Mm-hmm.
18:09Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
18:18A picture that could have just been about the movies
18:20turned out to be about so much more.
18:22It's fitting that its closing line is the final piece
18:25that makes this film an absolute marvel.
18:27After spending a bulk of the movie in the past,
18:29the last scene very regrettably takes place in the present.
18:33It's here that we realize how far
18:35once great film star Norma Desmond has fallen.
18:38After committing a terrible crime,
18:40the police prepare to take her in.
18:42The cameras have arrived.
18:44They have.
18:46Tell Mr. DeMille I'll be on the set at once.
18:49What is this?
18:55Well, it's one way to get her downstairs.
18:58Since she honestly believes the news cameras
19:00are part of a new film she's about to star in,
19:02she gives one last grand performance.
19:05We don't see if Norma is brought back to reality,
19:08but we do hear how her final performance ends.
19:12All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.
19:21There are so many turns in this legendary thriller
19:24that the ending completely caught us by surprise.
19:27Most of the mystery of the movie revolves around
19:29the mysterious crime boss Kaiser Soze.
19:31You never knew.
19:33That was his power.
19:35The greatest trick the devil ever pulled
19:39was convincing the world he didn't exist.
19:41Just when we thought we'd end the film without meeting him,
19:45it's revealed that we already have.
19:47It turns out that Roger Verbal Kint was Kaiser Soze all along.
19:52Unfortunately, the authorities realize this fact
19:55way too late to stop the villain from getting away.
19:58After Kint drops his facade and becomes Soze once more,
20:01he delivers final words that leave us absolutely stunned.
20:05And like that, he's gone.
20:09Before we unveil our top pick, here are some honorable mentions.
20:13The horror, the horror, Apocalypse Now,
20:16a haunting summation of war,
20:18and one of the greatest lines in American cinema.
20:29It's a strange world, isn't it?
20:31Blue Velvet pretty much encapsulates the entirety of David Lynch's work.
20:35It's a strange world, isn't it?
20:42Long Live the New Flesh, Videodrome,
20:45a revolting and tragic final line for one of the best body horror movies ever made.
20:51Long live the new flesh.
20:53The stuff that dreams are made of,
20:55The Maltese Falcon,
20:56an ironic final line considering the tragic events of the story.
21:00What is it?
21:05The stuff that dreams are made of.
21:09So long, partner.
21:10Toy Story 3, perhaps the most heartbreaking line ever uttered in an animated movie.
21:16So long, partner.
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21:44We've given you uplifting closing lines, ambiguous dialogue and iconic statements,
21:49but there's one deranged closing that stands above them all.
21:53Psycho is a thrilling Alfred Hitchcock picture
21:56that slowly reveals what exactly is going on with Norman Bates at his motel.
22:01We're initially led to suspect that his mother is behind the vicious crimes we witness.
22:05However, it's revealed that Norman was the real crook all along.
22:10The other half has taken over, probably for all time.
22:17Did he kill my sister?
22:19Yes, and no.
22:23He eventually gets caught and taken away from his motel.
22:26We hear his mother's voice as it plays in Norman's head for the last time before the credits roll.
22:31Hitchcock's masterful direction, the excellent voiceover and Anthony Perkins' perfect performance
22:37all build up to the closing line to end all others.
22:41They'll see and they'll know and they'll say why she wouldn't even harm a fly.
22:55Do you agree with our picks?
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