Whether it’s Arnie’s “I’ll be back” (The Terminator, 1984), Sean Connery’s “Martini. Shaken, not stirred” (Goldfinger, 1964) or Harrison Ford’s “May the force be with you” (Star Wars: A New Hope, 1977), film quotations have a permanent place in the vocabulary of any cinema-goer.
Even a short acquaintance with Western cinema means you’ll be familiar with lines like “E.T., phone home” (FT., 1982) and “There’s no place like home” (The Wizard of Oz, 1939).
Yet some of the most commonly quoted lines were never spoken. Here, we take a look at some of cinema’s most misquoted lines:
The Empire Strikes Back (1980) — The line “Luke, I am your father” is frequently attributed to Darth Vader. What he actually said was, “No. I am your father.”
Snow White (1937) — “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” was never uttered by the wicked Queen. Instead, she asks “Magic mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?”
Casablanca (1942) — The famous line “Play it again, Sam” was never spoken by any of the film’s cast. Though the line is credited to Humphrey Bogart, it’s Ingrid Bergman who comes closest with the line, “Play it Sam.”
Dirty Harry (1971) — Clint Eastwood’s Harry Callahan never says the line, “Do you feel lucky, punk?” The actual words he offers to the bank robber are “Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?”
Star Trek (1979) — “Beam me up, Scotty” was a line never delivered by William Shatner’s Kirk. What he actually says is “Kirk to Enterprise. Scotty, beam us up.”
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) — Anthony Hopkins doesn’t greet Jodie Foster with the line, “Hello, Clarice” upon first meeting her. The closest he comes is during a later meeting, when he bids her, “Good evening, Clarice.”
