Most Chilling Lines in a Film

Post Reply New Topic

In War Games (1983) when Mathew Broderick's character asked Joshua (the super computer at NORAD) whether it is playing Global Thermonuclear War as a game or for real the machine replies:

"What's the difference?"

That was a really poignant moment in the film and sent chills through me.

What other lines in films do you think are as effective and chilling?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFZIcfqmewU[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVzAMmpMra8[/youtube]

"“I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti."

-Dr. Hannibal Lector {The Silence Of The Lambs}

"Orphans always make the best recruits."

M to James Bond in Skyfall

"Say five words. I want to die. I want to die - - say it."

-Rutger Hauer as John Ryder in The Hitcher.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCi_PIz5ekU[/youtube]

This is from Fight Club.

"I understand. In death, a member of Project Mayhem has a name."

At this moment, you realise that the cult cannot be stopped, not even by its leader. Any attempt by the leader to stop the cult will be interpreted as a "profound riddle", instead of as an order. It's a really interesting idea.

Does it have to be film, strictly? Or can it be TV or web videos as well?

...Bugger it, I'll add them all the same.

From Batman Begins, two of the most chilling lines come from Jonathan Crane, aka the Scarecrow.

One is run of the mill scary at the end, though it's merely creepy at the start. Crane is talking to Falcone after the latter makes a threat. "Would you like to see my mask? I use it in my experiments. Um, probably not very frightening to a guy like you, but these crazies? They can't stand it." As Crane pulls out his mask and activates it, Falcone muses on how the nutter took over the nuthouse, only to be blasted by some fear toxin. Crane then says, in a distorted, nearly indecipherable voice, "They scream and they cry. Much as you're doing now!"

The second is when Batman is interrogating Crane, having blasted him with his own fear toxin. Disbelieving Crane's assertion that he's working for the apparently deceased Ra's al Ghul, Batman tries to interrogate Crane further, only for Crane, in the depths of madness, to murmur, "Dr. Crane isn't here right now, but if you'd like to make an appointment...". Both blackly comic, and utterly chilling.

I could name a number of them from Doctor Who, but I'll mention two. The first is at the end of this clip from The Tomb of the Cybermen...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9or2yDvC3Ck[/youtube]

...and the second is at the end of the clip, though the buildup is longer, from The Time of Angels...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOMzxX7jqEM[/youtube]


Finally, for a comedy web video series, Dragonball Z Abridged manages to make Frieza extremely chilling (sorry, pun unintended) with a single line. I've tried to link to the appropriate moment, but if it stuffs up, the relevant part is at 10:50.

http://youtu.be/SYN_VNYKz7g?t=10m50s

Seth Brundle: I'm saying... I'm saying I - I'm an insect who dreamt he was a man and loved it. But now the dream is over... and the insect is awake.

--The Fly

I can assure you Lightoller, this ships got 1hr , two at the most.
Titanic

I see Dead people
The sixth Sense

Here's Johnny! Jack Nicholson
The Shining

Now! come on you b***h! George Clooney
The Perfect Storm

Its their last hope before all the fishermen die.
It chills me to the bone.
still.. here's a mini clip

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9Tdw5nG4dQ[/youtube]

i have always felt a kind of chill at a line in The Sound of Music:

"Somewhere out there is a lady who I think will never be a nun."

Somehow it manages to tie everything up in a concise, ironic negation...

"I swear to you Peter, wherever you go, wherever you are...I vow there will always be daggers bearing notes signed James Hook! They will be flung at the doors of your children's children's children...do you hear me?"
"What do you want, old man?"
"...Just you."
~Hook (1991)~

"Oh, look, it's his little friend! Let's watch her die together, shall we?"
King CyBug, Wreck-It Ralph

You don't fear death. You welcome it. Your punishment must be more severe. But not of your body. Of your soul. Home, where I learned the truth about despair, as will you. There's a reason why this prison is the worst hell on earth. . . Hope. Every man who has ventured here over the centuries has looked up to the light and imagined climbing to freedom. So easy. . . So simple. . . And like shipwrecked men turning to sea water from uncontrollable thirst, many have died trying. I learned here that there can be no true despair without hope. So, as I terrorize Gotham, I will feed its people hope to poison their souls. I will let them believe they can survive so that you can watch them clamoring over each other to 'stay in the sun.' You can watch me torture an entire city and when you have truly understood the depth of your failure, we will fulfill Ra's al Ghul's destiny. . . We will destroy Gotham and then, when it is done and Gotham is ashes, then you have my permission to die.

Bane from The Dark Knight Rises.

"You stupid c**t! You think you can threaten me with her? I should have killed you when I had the chance!"

John Cusack as real life serial killer Robert Hanson in The Frozen Ground.