Movie catchphrases

I recently read James Cameron's treatment for 'The Terminator' and it made very interesting reading. One thing I noticed is Arnold Schwarzenegger's famous catchphrase:

"I'll come back!"

'Wait,' I hear you cry. '"I'll come back?!" That's not the right phrase! It's "I'll be back!"'

But as some of you know, in the original script, the line was "I'll come back" as opposed to the classic we all know now. The line went on to be used in other Arnie movies, including 'Commando', 'Raw Deal', 'The Running Man', 'Total Recall', 'The Sixth Day' and many more. So this begs the question:

What is the greatest movie catchphrase and what makes them so memorable? Feel free to answer in the comments section, but for now, I'll run down my top catchphrases -

10. No, Mr Bond...I expect you to die! ('Goldfinger') - James Bond is a smart-mouthed agent. But here, he is outwitted by the bad guy! That's what makes this line so powerful and clever.

9. My momma always said, "Life's like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get. ('Forest Gump') - Simply because it's true.

8. Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die! ('The Princess Bride') - For a child's fantasy film, this revenge story is very dark. We have a character who is desperately searching to avenge his father's death. So when he finally finds the killer, we really want him to succeed.

7. This is SPARTA!!! ('300') - A legend on the internet, but as a Classics fan, I know it's realistic. The Spartans were the best and most feared warriors ever. This quote rings so true for them.

6. Say "what" again. Say "what" again. I dare you, I double dare you, motherfucker, say "what" one more Goddamn time! ('Pulp Fiction') - Only Sam Jackson can make the weirdest hair in the world be this scary!



5. My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance...in this life or the next. ('Gladiator') - Is there a more powerful revenge story than that of Maximus? Here he stares at the man responsible and doesn't take his revenge, but swears he will!

4. Do I feel lucky? Well do ya, punk?! ('Dirty Harry')- The ultimate badass, Dirty Harry is the only person cool enough to deliver this awesome speech! Important note: count the number of shots your enemies fire from a revolver!



3. You are one ugly motherfucker! ('Predator') - Arnie squares off against the Predator as the fearless killing machine (the alien, not Arnie) removes his helmet, revealing the terrifying, grotesque face underneath. This never gets old!



2. I'll be back! ('Terminator') - The use of 'be' is what makes this quote so amazing. He will be there and when he is, you'll die!



1. Yippie ki yay, motherfuker! ('Die Hard') - The ultimate defiance of John McClane in a film all about holding on till the end. A classic action movie and a classic action quote. Holds no great meaning other than to say "fuck you" to those trying to kill him.



So, what's your favourite movie catchphrase and why?

New Projects

On my website, I've updated the 'Projects' section so anyone can see what I'm working on.

You all know about 'Exile' (my uni script), but here are a few you might not know about:

FALLEN
The premise for Fallen is simple - what if the Archangel Gabriel fell from Grace? How would this happen and why? The epic explores an alternative view of Christianity, which focuses on desperation and forgiveness.

DEAD ALLIANCE
Dead Alliance is an action/horror about a vampire hunter and his ongoing battle with the vampire lord. When a band of young vampires take over, an alliance is forged between the two. Is the enemy of my enemy is my friend...or my enemy?

ONE LAST JOB
This short tells the story of a police detective as he hunts down a brutal child killer. In a tense, action-packed finale, Detective Malcolm does battle with the murderer, but as the clash draws to a close, things take a very supernatural turn.

Read about more of my projects here.

Treatment prep

I mentioned here that I was going to Charles Harris' treatment workshop next Saturday (12th).

I've had an email through talking about the prep work for the seminar. It involves reading James Cameron's 40-page treatment for 'The Terminator', making notes and answering questions etc. It's already looking to be very useful.

I'm hoping to learn a lot next Saturday and meet some new, interesting people. We're all going to the pub afterwards, so I better prep some business cards (I never got round to ordering any 'proper' ones, so basic card ones will have to do).

Is anyone else at all going to the workshop? I have no idea how many places there are!

'EXILE' - part 3

Read part 1
Read part 2

Today, I finished off the 1st draft for 'EXILE'. It comes to 116 pages - 22,930 words.* I'll need to cut it down a fair bit to make it no longer than 100 pages. I have a few scenes in mind, so the next stage is to go through, edit like mad (to get rid of those action lines that have one word on them) and think about what to cut. I'll really tighten the writing - nothing in there that doesn't develop the story or characters.

In total, to write the first draft, it took me just under 21 hours, not including planning etc.

But for now, I'm going to back everything up and e-mail it to myself - don't want to risk losing it after all that hard work!

*Note: the dissertation most people will be writing will have to be 10,000 words. My script will be at least twice that. Not that I mind, but does that seem right to you?

You are Satan!

At work today, I offered a woman some chocolate at the till (as you do). To which she responded: "Stay behind me Satan. And you too!"

Yes folks, I was likened to Lucifer! Apparently in terms of evil, it goes as follows:

Cliff Richard
Satan
Neil Baker at chocolate shop

That prompted me to think about a show/film where Lucifer was forced to work in a shop of supermarket, as a sort of work experience thing. I decided it would have to be a comedy and while I may come out with the occasional witty comment, I'm no comedy writer.

That is all - I am down there with the Devil! Beat that!!!

Weekly Interview (11)

This week's interview comes from The Dialogue and features a Q&A with Callie Khouri ('Thelma & Louise'). Here she talks about the difficulty of writing on demand, easy writing, working from experience and what good a writer can do. Enjoy...

'EXILE' - part 2

Read part 1

Last time, I talked about the planning for 'EXILE' (my uni script). Since then, I've taken my 12-page outline and expanded it to 16 pages hitting just over 9000 words. I've expanded the story itself and also added subplots and completely new scenes. One character has undergone a transformation to become a justified love interest as well.

I was going to produce a thorough scene breakdown, but I think the outline is detailed enough. So yesterday I got to work on the script. So far, things are going well - I've written 43 pages, averaging at 7 pages an hour. If I continue at that speed, it'll take me about another 9 hours to complete. Of course I won't stay at a constant speed because the hardest scenes are yet to come.

So far, I've only been troubled by one - a particularly emotional, disturbing and violent scene where a young girl is burnt alive at the stake as her father watches on helplessly. It was hard to get the perspective right - it would be easy to portray the people who carry out this crime as evil, crazy maniacs, but I wanted to give them another side. So it was very hard to find the right balance of blame in the scene.

I'm not entirely happy with how it turned out, but that's what rewrites are for. I know that at least 4 others scenes I'm yet to write will cause a lot of problems.

I've successfully tackled the exposition of Act I, as yesterday I thought long and hard about how to get the expo across. I came across a very short but interesting article on how to do just that.

Every bit of exposition so far has been set in a scene that is either tense or emotional:

4. Surround it with conflict or action
Distract the audience with conflict or action. In the Terminator, James Cameron presents a 10-minute scene full of nothing but exposition. 10 minutes of exposition! But the audience never notices. While Reese is explaining to Sarah – and the audience – all the pertinent background information (where he’s from, why he’s there, what the future holds, what the Terminator is), the two are constantly surrounded by conflict and action (fleeing the police and engaging in a battle with the Terminator.)

'EXILE' is - in a sense - a mystery film. We're not quite sure why things are happening. So it's very important to reveal just enough at the right time - don't overload all the info early on or the mystery will be gone, but similarly, don't leave it too late or people won't have a clue what's going on:

5. Feed it to a hungry audience
Wait to reveal information until the audience is begging to know it. Set up the desire for the reader to know the information by withholding it for as long as possible. In Chinatown, Robert Towne carefully builds anticipation. When Evelyn Mulwray’s secret in finally revealed, the audience is eager to hear the information. Callie Khouri achieves the same effect with the build-up and presentation of Louise’s secret in Thelma and Louise.

Part 3 of this blog post series will arrive when I've finished the first draft of the script (probably at the end of the week) or when I come across an interesting or troublesome moment in the writing process.

Until then, laters!