When it comes to cinema, the narrative (linear or non-linear) is not just a sequence of events. It is a painstakingly woven chain of cause and effect. In a good narrative, nothing is random. Everything is there for a reason. Every word counts.
A movie’s first half, as we know, is for exposition, where characters and their objectives are established. But layered narratives also use it to drop hints for the ultimate reveal or climax. They are secret hints; if you can spot them, that’s your movie-watching genius.
Sometimes, these hints are too subtle, and you might not spot them during your first watch. Then watch the movie again; this time with a careful focus on what characters do and say, and you just might find a clue that’s telling what’s going to happen in the future.
Before you do that, go through these examples. You must have already watched most of these films, so you know what happens in the end. Now watch these scenes again and see if you can link them with the ending.
11 Movie Lines That Predict the Ending
1. “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.” (All About Eve, 1950)
Written by: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Directed by: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
The film shows Margo Channing (Bette Davis), a celebrated Broadway actress, taking Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), an up-and-coming actress, under her wings. However, soon it dawns upon her that Eve is not as simple as she appears and might be trying to steal her spotlight, career, and life.
The line appears at a party scene, in which Margo implies her friction with Eve might explode. And it does. It sets the cynical, combative tone for the entire movie and frames the entire plot as an emotional rollercoaster.
2. “I think we’re all in our private traps.” (Psycho, 1960)
Written by: Joseph Stefano | Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) steals $40,000 from her employer and runs away. While on the run, she spends a night at Bates Motel, owned by Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). This scene appears much earlier in the film, where, after checking in, she has a leisurely chat with Norman.
This line, spoken by Norman, is a subtle hint at his fractured psyche/identity. It’s his dangerous private psychological trap, which finally decides Marion’s fate as well as the movie’s entire narrative. It also captures the movie’s central theme.
3. “That’s my family, Kay. That’s not me.” (The Godfather, 1972)
Written by: Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola | Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
The movie starts at Connie’s (Talia Shire) wedding, at which Michael (Al Pacino) explains to Kay (Diane Keaton), his girlfriend, how his crime family operates its business. Then he promptly adds this line, implying he is the apple that fell far from the tree.
This line is central to Michael’s arc because it directly contradicts his destiny and the movie’s ending. Writing uses denial to conversely predict Michael’s eventual downfall.
4. “I have a very bad feeling about this.” (Star Wars, 1977)
Written by: George Lucas | Directed by: George Lucas
The iconic line has become a running gag in the Star Wars franchise, but it was Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) who first said it in A New Hope. As the Millennium Falcon charges towards the Death Star to destroy it, Luke, sitting in the cockpit with Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness), gets nervous and says this line.
While technically, the line appears towards the end of the movie, it earns its spot on this list because the franchise consistently ties it to looming conflicts. It represents the persistent early unease, which is always justified when it becomes reality.
5. “I am your density.” (Back to the Future, 1985)
Written by: Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale | Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
In the movie, the protagonist Marty McFly’s (Michael J. Fox) father is introduced as a diffident and timid person. When Marty travels 30 years back into the past, he meets his teenage father, George (Crispin Glover), who, in his unconfident way, is trying to woo Lorraine (Lea Thompson), his future wife and Marty’s mother. While expressing his love for her, he fumbles and says “density” instead of “destiny.”
The word “density” means solidity and substance. Its use in this line predicts George’s ultimate embracing of courage. The line is an incredible piece of accidental foresight.
6. “If you build it, he will come.” (Field of Dreams, 1989)
Written by: Phil Alden Robinson | Directed by: Phil Alden Robinson
Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner), an Iowa farmer, is troubled because he never repaired his broken relationship with his late father, John. One day, while walking on his farm, he hears a mysterious voice that says, “If you build it, he will come.” He then sees a vision of a Baseball field on his farm with Joe “Shoeless” Jackson (Ray Liotta) standing in it. Ray’s father was a devoted baseball fan. Due to this sentimental reason, Ray follows through despite financial difficulties.
The line (and the mystic voice-over) is the driving force of the entire movie. It promises a yet-to-be-revealed miraculous payoff. The line’s full emotional weight drops in the film’s final moments.
7. “Life finds a way.” (Jurassic Park, 1993)
Written by: Michael Crichton, David Koepp | Directed by: Steven Spielberg
The wealthy John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) creates a theme park on a remote island where the main attraction is the genetically cloned dinosaurs. He invites a group of scientists to inspect the park’s viability before he opens it for the public. One of the scientists, Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), wary of the project, delivers this line as a scientific critic of Hammond trying to veer the natural evolution of life.
The line predicts the ultimate failure of genetic manipulation and human-imposed barriers that plan to contain the life that will emerge from it. It correctly foreshadows the film’s disastrous climax.
8. “Remember, all I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.” (The Matrix, 1999)
Written by: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski | Directed by: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburn) offers Neo (Keanu Reeves) two pills: a blue pill, if he wants nothing to change from his existing make-believe life; a red pill, if he wants to wake up in the reality that will reveal who he truly is. When Neo chooses the red pill, Morpheus says this line.
The line is an immediate setup for the film’s massive structural reveal of the simulation, called the Matrix. It also establishes Neo’s ultimate journey to realising his destiny. In a nutshell, the film’s ultimate twist hides in this early statement.
9. “I see dead people.” (The Sixth Sense, 1999)
Written by: M. Night Shyamalan | Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan
Child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) starts treating a troubled young boy, Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), who claims he can see dead people wandering around him. These visions have caused him social anxiety.
This confession comes quite early in the movie, and from then on becomes the entire engine of the plot. However, it hides its true foreshadowing power in plain view until the end. The climax gives us the big reveal—Dr. Crowe is one of those dead people. What’s more, he himself is unaware of his own demise. The line has, since its release, gone down in history as one of the best hidden secrets in cinema.
10. “Self-improvement is masturbation, but self-destruction is the answer.” (Fight Club, 1999)
Written by: Jim Uhls | Directed by: David Fincher
An unnamed Narrator (Edward Norton) is stuck in a mundane corporate job. He meets a charismatic and nihilistic soap salesman, Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). They both start a secretive underground club, which ultimately evolves into an anarchic Project Mayhem. Tyler says this line shortly after they have become friends. The Narrator accepts it but doesn’t understand its consequences until the end.
In this line, “self-destruction” has two meanings. The first meaning is that it’s the Narrator’s search for chaos and rebellion. The other meaning is the real twist—Tyler is not an actual person, but merely a projection of the Narrator’s own destructive urges. This makes the line an intensely internal and strange struggle.
11. “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” (The Dark Knight, 2008)
Written by: Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan, David S. Goyer | Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) delivers this line at a fundraiser during a discussion about moral compromises necessary to protect the city from an escalating threat of the Joker (Heath Ledger).
This powerful line is actually the philosophical thesis that predicts Harvey’s own tragic climax later in the movie. When Harvey becomes Two-Face and joins the Joker, the line materialises in flesh. Additionally, it also foreshadows Batman’s (Christian Bale) ultimate decision to take the blame for the murders that Harvey (as Two-Face) committed. For the necessary appearances, Batman lives long enough to become the villain in the eyes of Gotham to save the city’s soul.
Source link
