Final Lines in the Movies, Part II Quiz

Answer: Vision Quest

This bit of wisdom is from the voice-over of Louden Swain (Matthew Modine), the main character of the film who has just won the wrestling match for which he has spent the entire film training vigorously.

"Vision Quest" (1985) seems on the surface to be just a movie about high school wrestling, but it's really more a coming-of-age story and a compelling romance. Check it out!

Answer: The Big Chill

"The Big Chill" (1983) is, to some, the ultimate baby boomer film. Seven friends from college re-unite years later at the funeral of one of their own, with mixed results. The line above is jokingly offered by Michael Gold (Jeff Goldblum) to the owners of the house where he and the others have been staying during their occasionally tumultuous weekend.

Answer: The Big Lebowski

"The Big Lebowski" (1998) is a hilarious, cockeyed take on film noir, centering on an ex-hippie who stumbles into playing detective due to a series of bizarre coincidences. The final line of the film is spoken by a man known only as The Stranger (Sam Elliott), a narrator of sorts who speaks directly to the audience at several points in the film.

This last line, though, is directed not at the audience, but at a bartender in a bowling alley.

Answer: The Blues Brothers

Jake and Elwood Blues spend most of this 1980 film trying to raise money to prevent the closure of the orphanage in which they were raised. After extensive hijinks and blues music, they finally succeed in paying the Cook County Assessor's office the necessary fee to save the orphanage.

The clerk who processes this payment and speaks the final line of dialogue is played by none other than Steven Spielberg, a personal friend of director John Landis.

By the way, the Blues Brothers' band does perform one more song ("Jailhouse Rock") after this scene, but I don't count lyrics of a song to be dialogue. Neither should you! =)

Answer: Hitch

"Hitch" (2005) stars Will Smith as "the Date Doctor", a man who gets paid to advise men on how to get the women of their dreams to accept their advances.

Alex "Hitch" Hitchens' voice-over at the beginning of the film informs the audience that there are certain "basic principles" that must be acknowledged in order to navigate romance successfully...but by the film's end, he seems to have abandoned that concept completely. This last line, oddly enough, is delivered directly to the audience.

Answer: Grand Canyon

Writer-director Lawrence Kasdan fills "Grand Canyon" (1991) with a lot of moralizing and ruminating about the disheartening state of modern society set against a Los Angeles backdrop. Simon (Danny Glover) tells his newfound friend Mac (Kevin Kline) that what he needs to put things into perspective is a visit to the Grand Canyon.

In the very last scene of the film, Mac's family and Simon's family make that visit together. During Mac's first real look at one of the natural wonders of the world, Simon and Mac exchange these lines.

Answer: Running Scared

"Running Scared" (1986) stars Billy Crystal and the late Gregory Hines as Chicago cops who entertain the idea of retiring early. During a vacation in Florida, they actually buy a bar, intending to make its upkeep their new career. By the end of the film, though, they have clearly changed their minds about leaving the police department.

This final line is spoken by Danny Costanzo (Crystal) to two other detectives.

Answer: sex, lies and videotape

No, I did not suddenly lose the use of my SHIFT key: the title of this film is in fact spelled without capital letters. Blame Steven Soderbergh, who wrote and directed this 1989 film (his first) that tells the tale of an unhappily married woman, her amorous sister, her cheating husband, and an old friend of her husband's who passes through town and changes her life with his unusual ideas and the things he does with his handheld video camera.

These last lines are spoken by Ann (Andie McDowell) and Graham (James Spader), respectively.

Answer: Superman II

Superman (Christopher Reeve) apologizes to the President of the United States as he replaces the part of the roof of the White House that had been severely damaged by three criminals from his home world of Krypton.

Most of this 1980 film focused on Superman's conflict with these criminals, as well as his desire to pursue a romantic relationship with Lois Lane (Margot Kidder).

Director Bryan Singer swore up and down that his 2006 film "Superman Returns" was intended to be a direct sequel to "Superman II", which leads me to ask the following question: if the last line of "Superman II" is a promise from Superman that he won't be going away anytime soon, why does Singer's film begin with a title card stating that Superman subsequently left Earth for FIVE YEARS?

Answer: Ocean's Eleven

This 2001 remake focused on a scheme devised by newly-released ex-con Danny Ocean (George Clooney) to rob three casinos owned by the man who is now seeing his ex-wife Tess (Julia Roberts). By film's end, it's clear that Danny was more interested in getting Tess back than getting rich.

Earlier in the film, Tess tells Danny that she sold her wedding ring, but she is wearing it when she and Danny's best friend Rusty (Brad Pitt) pick him up at the end of his prison sentence. The lines exchanged above are the last we hear in the film.

Answer: The Usual Suspects

No spoilers here for those who haven't seen the film. Suffice it to say that this 1995 film about the exploits of five career criminals is full of enough twists and turns to make one's head spin, thanks to an Academy Award-winning script by Christopher McQuarrie, top-notch directing by Bryan Singer, and superb acting by the entire cast -- including Kevin Spacey, whose character speaks this final line in the film.

Answer: Fletch

Investigative reporter Irwin Fletcher (Chevy Chase) pretends to be many different people throughout this film. At one point, he poses as a country club member, and encounters a rude, boorish rich man named Mr. Underhill. Fletch then orders an expensive lunch and charges it to Underhill's account.

At the end of the film, Fletch's voice-over explains that the vacation that he and his new paramour are enjoying was also fraudulently charged to the Underhills!

Answer: Apollo 13

Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) closes out the film with this voice-over after he and his crew, against astonishing odds, return to Earth safely after a lunar mission that was positively plagued with mechanical problems and life-threatening catastrophes.

The film is based, of course, on the true story of the Apollo 13 mission, chronicled in the real Jim Lovell's book "Lost Moon." It's an excellent read, by the way.

Answer: The Godfather

After Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) lies to his wife Kay (Diane Keaton) about his involvement in the death of his sister's husband, Kay is shuffled out of Michael's study, and several of Michael's henchmen enter the room to pay tribute to him. One of them kisses Michael's ring and calls him, for the first time in the film, "Don Corleone."

The last shot of the film depicts Kay's shocked and troubled expression as the door to Michael's study slowly closes, effectively locking her out of her husband's nefarious new life.

Answer: Big Trouble in Little China

Truck driver Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) gets dragged into a bizarre adventure in San Francisco's Chinatown that involves magic, kung-fu street gangs, unearthly monsters, and anything else that director John Carpenter could squeeze into this joyride of a film.

These last lines are spoken by Jack into the CB radio in his truck -- he is essentially bragging to anyone who might be listening about his recent triumph over the forces of evil and his overall "tough guy" persona. What he doesn't know is that one of the "monsters" from Chinatown has stowed away in the back of his truck. The film ends with the monster revealing itself to the audience, and presumably working its way toward the cab of the truck to give Jack yet more trouble!