10 Most Quotable Screenplays of the 21st Century, Ranked (original) (raw)
Published Apr 3, 2024, 12:00 PM EDT
Jeremy has more than 2500 published articles on Collider to his name, and has been writing for the site since February 2022. He's an omnivore when it comes to his movie-watching diet, so will gladly watch and write about almost anything, from old Godzilla films to gangster flicks to samurai movies to classic musicals to the French New Wave to the MCU... well, maybe not the Disney+ shows.
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Love it or hate it, the fact remains that movies with high numbers of quotes tend to get popular and remain so for years – or even decades – after release. If a line strikes a balance between being funny and memorable, helped even further by someone with a distinct manner of speech saying it, then it’s likely to become quotable. Given how humor can play a role here, this often happens for classic comedies, but a more serious movie can still become one that gets quoted often if it’s well-written and popular enough.
Sometimes, the more serious quotes are taken seriously, whereas other times, a movie will become heavily quoted and referenced thanks to memes or online jokes, with such recontextualization often coming from a place of love, rather than derision. The following movies were all released post-2000, yet have already emerged as memorable and easy to quote. They’re ranked below, starting with the very quotable and concluding with the most quotable.
10 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' (2019)
"Don't cry in front of the Mexicans."
Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt as Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth, talking outside in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Image via Sony Pictures
Quentin Tarantino loves over-the-top violence, well-spoken characters, rewriting history, and referencing movies of old, with all these loves coming together for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Light on narrative (but not on runtime), this film follows a down-on-his-luck actor and his loyal stuntman/best friend as they navigate Los Angeles during the late 1960s, themselves being fictional characters while also interacting with real-life figures from the time.
Given Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is something of a hang-out movie, much of it involves characters either going about their days or spending time together, with many scenes being dialogue-driven. It might not be as quotable as some of the movies Tarantino made in the 1990s, but it’s not too far off, with Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth seeming to get most of the best lines.
9 'Shrek' (2001)
"I like that boulder. That is a nice boulder."
Outhouse in 'Shrek' 2001
Image via DreamWorks Animation
Shrek was likely to be a defining childhood movie for many who were born during the 1990s (and perhaps some who were born outside the decade, too). Now, anyone who was younger than 10 when Shrek came out would be in their 20s or 30s, and likely spending a good deal of time online, which would explain how Shrek – both the film and the character – has become such a prominently memed one (for better or worse).
Yet even before the film got a second life as a continually evolving source of memes, Shrek was already an iconic parody of “normal” fairytale movies that also played certain tropes found in the genre straight, giving it some heart beneath the cynicism, satire, and mildly crude humor. Beyond many lines being funny, you’ve also got Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy doing very distinct and memorable voice acting that only heightens the dialogue, and makes it all the more easy to quote.
Release Date
May 18, 2001
Runtime
90 minutes
Director
Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson
8 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy (2001-2003)
"What about second breakfast?"
Image via New Line Cinema
What happens when you take an already great work of literature and adapt it into three stellar movies, all having a total runtime of longer than nine hours? You get too many memorable quotes to even count, which is the case for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy… and that’s before taking into account the extended editions, which take over 11 hours to watch.
Dialogue within The Lord of the Rings has become quotable for a whole variety of reasons. Some of the intended comedic lines are indeed funny, some are inspiring or emotional (like Sam’s speech at the end of The Two Towers), and others have had a second life as memes (including the infamous “One does not simply walk into Mordor” line). There are quotes ironic, unironic, and some in between when it comes to this trilogy, with all these lines giving this beloved fantasy epic serious staying power pop culture-wise.
Release Date
December 19, 2001
Runtime
178 Minutes
Director
7 'Mean Girls' (2004)
"Gretchen, stop trying to make fetch happen."
Lindsay Lohan as Cady, Rachel McAdams as Regina, Lacey Chabert as Gretchen, and Amanda Seyfried as Karen in Mean Girls (2004)
Image via Paramount Pictures
One of those 2000s comedies people love to revisit – and one that’s nostalgic now, considering it’s two decades old – Mean Girls has endured and remained popular enough to even get a musical film version in 2024. The story takes place in a surprisingly cutthroat high school where a new girl befriends a clique of popular girls, only for certain conflicts to emerge and cause increasing amounts of drama for all involved.
It's a film that is trying to shed light on serious things, but also does so while focusing on being funny and undoubtedly succeeding when it comes to that. With a screenplay by Tina Fey and tons of characters who are either sarcastic or a little dim-witted, the potential for a good line or insult is seized at just about every opportunity; a recipe for quotability, in the end.
Release Date
April 30, 2004
Runtime
96 minutes
Director
Mark Waters
Main Genre
Comedy
6 'The Room' (2003)
"Oh hi, Mark."
Image via TPW Films
Considered not just one of the worst movies of 2003, but among the worst of all time, The Room is a rather beautiful disaster that shows how a movie doesn’t need to be technically good to resonate and endure. In the 20+ years since The Room’s release, a cult fanbase has grown around it, with the film essentially becoming common knowledge by 2017, with the release of The Disaster Artist, a movie about making The Room.
It's technically a melodrama about a tragic love triangle, but The Room also works as an accidental comedy, thanks to the strange screenplay, the memorably hammy lines of dialogue, and all sorts of wonderful non-sequiturs. There are individual scenes in The Room that are more quotable than most entire movies, and even if the whole thing became quotable and popular by accident, The Room is nevertheless a film worth celebrating.
Release Date
June 27, 2003
Runtime
100 minutes
Director
Tommy Wiseau
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5 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan' (2006)
"My wife is dead? High five!"
Image via 20th Century Studios
A biting piece of modern satire that ranks among the most memorable comedies of the past few decades, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan was inescapable upon release, and in some of the years following. Viewers both understanding and not understanding the film continually quoted it, with the titular character’s catchphrases of “Very nice,” and “High five,” going the way of certain Monty Python quotes by feeling overdone.
There was just something too infectious about the main character, and Borat was a movie where just about every scene had a memorable line or exchange of dialogue. Its 2020 sequel, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, didn’t have nearly the same impact, with 2006’s Borat simply being a lightning-in-a-bottle-type movie which people could not resist quoting ad nauseam during the late 2000s.
Release Date
November 3, 2006
Runtime
84 minutes
Director
4 'The Wolf of Wall Street' (2013)
"Gotta pump those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers."
Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan on a boat holding a glass with the American flag behind in The Wolf of Wall Street
Image via Paramount Pictures
Certain recent Martin Scorsese movies have been quite downbeat; notably, the likes of 2016’s Silence, 2019’s The Irishman, and 2023’s Killers of the Flower Moon. But, in 2013, the filmmaker released what might be one of his funniest and most energetic films with The Wolf of Wall Street, which saw him team up with Leonardo DiCaprio once more to shed light on a different kind of crime to what past Scorsese films like Goodfellas and Casino had dealt with.
The Wolf of Wall Street isn’t so much about organized crime or murder, and instead looks at the destruction and chaos caused by corruption and fraudulent behavior on Wall Street. It’s a film with serious things to say, but it’s also a consistently funny dark comedy, with plenty of narration and fast-paced conversations – both of which are packed with profanity – ensuring the film is also one of Scorsese’s easiest to quote.
3 'The Dark Knight' (2008)
"Some men just want to watch the world burn."
Heath Ledger as the Joker brooding and looking menacing in The Dark Knight.
Image via Warner Bros.
The Dark Knight is one of the greatest superhero movies ever made, functions fantastically as a crime/action/thriller film, and has one of the best movie villains of all time, thanks to Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker. It’s a movie that runs for two and a half hours yet doesn’t feel it, and asks genuinely interesting questions about the character of Bruce Wayne/Batman while reflecting the paranoid and oftentimes bleak era in which it was made.
That’s all to say it’s not a comedy (minus some small bits of humor here and there), but it is immensely quotable. The Joker already has some striking things to say, but when those words are coupled with Ledger’s bizarre and instantly iconic way of speaking, most of what the character says has become quotable. The other characters all get their moments to shine dialogue-wise, but it is the Joker who plays the biggest part in The Dark Knight’s screenplay remaining so iconic.
Release Date
July 16, 2008
Runtime
152 minutes
Director
Main Genre
Crime
2 'Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith' (2005)
"Another happy landing."
Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan fight on Mustafar in 'Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith'
Image via Lucasfilm
Similar to the aforementioned The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith has lived on through memes and so many surprisingly quotable lines. It is the most bombastic and eventful of any Star Wars movie George Lucas directed, with the heightened drama and emotion of it all making it a stirring and exciting film, but also, at the same time, a potentially goofy and easy-to-meme one.
But with Revenge of the Sith, most of the time, the memes surrounding it feel like they come from a good place, which is harder to say for similar memes involving the less well-received The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. From featuring one of the most famous declarations of “No” in history to a certain line about having the high ground, Revenge of the Sith is an absolute treasure trove of iconic quotes.
Release Date
May 19, 2005
Runtime
140 Minutes
Director
George Lucas
1 'Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy' (2004)
"60% of the time, it works every time."
Image via DreamWorks Pictures
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is a comedy where just about the whole thing feels as though it was made up as the actors/writers went along, and the film is all the better for it. There are probably more lines in the film that have been quoted numerous times than lines that haven’t, with it easily holding up as one of the best comedies of its decade as a result.
Revolving around a news team in the 1970s having their worldviews turned upside down after the hiring of a female reporter, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is non-stop chaos and features a series of very funny actors – including Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, and Steve Carell – all trying to one-up each other. Whether the characters are talking about being in glass cases of emotion, mentioning how they’re kind of big deals, or yelling about not knowing what they’re yelling about, Anchorman ends up being almost nothing but memorably quotable lines of dialogue.
Release Date
July 9, 2004
Runtime
94 Minutes
Director
Adam McKay
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