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Do You Remember The Catchy Taglines Of These Ten Unforgettable Movies?

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Allow us to take you on a trip to the past, to a bygone era before the dawn of streaming services and on-demand content. Going to the movies wasn’t limited to just paying a ticket and watching a particular film: Back in the day, seeing the posters on the walls of the lobby and getting psyched about upcoming releases was also very much part of the experience of going to your local movie theater.

While today we might play that exciting movie trailer on an endless loop on YouTube, advertisement agencies always relied on drawing audiences through catchy and flashy campaigns. And an integral part of these strategies was sometimes what made a movie either a hit or a failure: an exciting tagline. We have gathered the phrases that helped transform the ten films in this list into the iconic pieces of pop culture we now hold sacred.

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Ridley Scott’s 1979 film redefined the concept of space for audiences around the world. We stopped seeing the outer limits of our galaxy as "the Final Frontier" to be explored, and we now learned to fear that cold vacuum of endless silence.

Part of that dread definitively came from the movie’s legendary tagline. The poster showed a glowing alien egg over a pitch-black background, and unveiled a phrase that still makes us feel uneasy: "In space, no one can hear you scream."

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Whenever someone mentions Martin Scorsese’s cult neo-noir, Robert DeNiro’s iconic "You talkin’ to me?" line usually comes to mind. And while this phrase is certainly legendary, Taxi Driver had a less-know tagline that also perfectly captures the essence of the film.

The 1976 original poster shows DeNiro’s character of Travis Bickle standing in the middle of a deserted New York City sidewalk, while the tagline reads: "On every street in every city in this country, there’s a nobody who dreams of being a somebody."

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We can guarantee that this tagline has been ringing in your head ever since you read the name Ghostbusters on this list. You might even be humming this movie’s unforgettable theme track: After all, Ghostbuster’s iconic "Who ya gonna call?" tagline is on the centerstage of Ray Parker Jr.’s song.

What’s interesting is that, while this tagline closed the film’s trailer, it is curiously absent from the original 1984 poster, being instead replaced with a much more generic: "They are here to save the world." Nevertheless, "Who ya gonna call?" became an integral part of the Ghostbuster’s mythos, and is still constantly quoted almost 40 years after the film’s release.

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Leslie Nielsen’s 1988 "The Naked Gun" is not only remembered as a hilarious satire of police movies but also as a groundbreaking comedy film that paved the way for future parodies. The movie perfectly mixes slapstick gags with an amazing self-awareness of the ridiculousness the crime genre has to offer.

Appropriately, the movie’s tagline mocked the film industry's tired, old tropes and cliches: "If you only see one movie this year... you need to get out more often."

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The most recent movie on this list, David Fincher’s 2010 "The Social Network" delved deeply into the humble (and tumultuous) early years of Facebook. This biographical drama examines Mark Zuckerberg’s founding of the social media site from his Harvard dorm room and his legal battle with friend and co-founder Eduardo Saverin.

The movie’s tagline perfectly summarizes these internal struggles into a single line: "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies." Actor Jessee Eisenberg's iconic portrayal of Zuckerberg was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.

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Much like "Alien", the 1977 "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" portrayed UFO encounters in a new, more unnerving light. Steven Spielberg’s science-fiction drama chronicles the life of an Indiana electrician who sees his life change after an otherworldly encounter.

The film’s poster shows a dark, deserted highway lit by the blue light emanating from an undisclosed energy sphere half hidden behind the horizon. The movie’s tagline is located in the middle of the frame, a short but extremely effective reminder of the uneasiness this movie brings: "We are not alone."

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David Cronenberg’s remake of the 1958 science fiction horror film "The Fly" was both an homage and a sharp turn from the original: Jeff Goldblum’s spine-chilling fly hybrid is still regarded as one of the most terrifying monsters in film history.

In that regard, the movie’s tagline highlights the primal fear that the monster produces in a simple but unnerving phrase: "Be afraid. Be very afraid." Right next to the tagline, The poster shows the now-iconic "telepod" lit by a blinding light, from which only a human hand and insect leg can be seen.

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This movie is the only one in this list that features a real-life quote as its tagline. "Houston, we have a problem", the now-iconic distress call spoken by astronaut Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks) offered audiences a direct connection to the real Apollo 13 mission.

Ron Howard’s 1995 drama echoed through the American public and is now considered one of the best films of all time. In 2023, it was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress.

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We decided to include two amazing taglines in this entry because we couldn’t possibly decide between them. The first Jaws film had an unforgettable poster that showed Bruce the shark (yeah, his name is Bruce) looming underwater, complemented by the now-legendary tagline: "You’ll never go in the water again!"

By the time the second Jaws film was released, the first film had already cemented itself as a smashing hit. Logically, the executives behind the sequel decided to directly reference its predecessor: The movie’s tagline cleverly states: Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...

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We end this list with another classic Spielberg film. The first Jurassic Park film took audiences on a thrilling, unprecedented ride, revered to this day as a timeless masterpiece.

In 1993, the advertising campaign for the movie both made groundbreaking promises and played with people's expectations. The movie posters show the classic Jurassic Park logo over a black background, alongside the enigmatic tagline "An adventure 65 million years in the making."

UNWONTED TERMS FOR UNCOMMON SITUATIONS

Even Oddities Can be Described: 12 Words for the Unusual.

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Everything that exists, even if only in our minds, can be named. Such is the beauty of words, and the English language is especially rich and ingenious in this regard. Its lexicon not only embraces the conventional but also celebrates the delightfully odd.

Within its linguistic treasure lie peculiar words like "kerfuffle," "bumfuzzle," and "collywobbles" that dance on the tongue and paint vivid portraits of unusual situations. Take a moment and read about twelve seldomly heard terms that almost seem unreal.

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Have you ever heard the word "kerfuffle"? It is a delightful linguistic oddity that describes a state of mild chaos or disorder.

This peculiar term originated from Scottish dialects in the late 18th century, derived from the Gaelic cur, meaning to twist or bend, combined with fuffle, suggesting disorderly movement or commotion. As quite a few examples on this list, the very sound of the word itself evokes its meaning.

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Another word that rarely gets thrown around, "discombobulate" aptly describes a state of confusion, disorientation, or bewilderment.

The prefix dis- means negation or reversal, while combobulate is an invention that might have been influenced by similar-sounding words like "discompose" or "discomfit." Together, they form a word that evokes the sensation of being mentally perplexed.

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Another word that describes a state of confusion, "bumfuzzle" originated in the Southern United States in the mid-19th century with an uncertain etymology, possibly arising from a blend of "bamboozle" and "fuddle."

This term embodies the linguistic treasure found in regional dialects, showcasing English's ability to develop expressive terms to portray the complexity of human emotions.

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A word that closes this trilogy of confusion terms, "flummox" also describes a state of bewilderment, perplexity, or confusion.

Making its first appearance in 19th-century England, its exact etymology remains uncertain, possibly derived from combining flummock, a word meaning to bewilder or confuse, with the suffix "-ox," adding emphasis or exaggeration.

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"Flibbertigibbet" is a term that can be used to describe someone who is frivolous or overly talkative. Its origins can be traced back to Old English, where flibbert denoted a frivolous person and gibbet referred to an inconsistent and unstable individual.

The word, as hard to pronounce as it is, serves as an apt definition for a lively yet disorganized individual. Think of someone who, when exposing his thoughts, is enthusiastic yet all over the place.

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We all know a "whippersnapper," even if we probably don't call them that way. The term is used to describe a young and inexperienced person, often with an air of arrogance or impudence.

The word dates back to the 17th century, blending "whip," meaning something small or insignificant, with "snapper," suggesting someone who talks back or is impertinent. It was initially used to mock young men who cracked whips while herding cattle, and it evolved into a light-hearted term teasingly aimed at youthful individuals displaying an excess of self-assurance.

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If you ever heard someone eating, sipping, slurping, or drinking noisily, then you have heard someone "bibble." As with many cases in the English language, the origin of the word is very possibly rooted in onomatopoeia: a written emulation of the very sound that it aims to describe. The word is not to be confused with "nibble", which means "to take small bites" of something.

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One –even less used– cousin of the term "gibberish," "gobbledygook" is an endearing linguistic oddity used to describe incomprehensible or jumbled language, often mixed with obscure slang or meaningless words.

Coined in the 1940s by Texas Congressman Maury Maverick, this term blends "gobble," reminiscent of turkeys' sounds, with "gook," signifying muddled, unclear speech. Initially aimed at criticizing bureaucratic language, it was eventually used to describe similar discourse in every other sphere as well.

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The kind of phobia that will turn anybody´s home into a library, "abibliophopia" is a charmingly peculiar term that describes the fear of running out of reading material or being without books.

While not officially recognized in psychological dictionaries, its origins can be traced to the Greek roots a-, meaning without, biblio-, referring to books, and -phobia, denoting fear. This word defines the anxiety book lovers might experience at the thought of an empty shelf or an absence of new reading material.

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A regional dialect, "cattywampus" is a term that describes either something positioned diagonally or something that is going the wrong way.

In either case, the word evokes a sense of playful disorder or misalignment and is an example of the English language's knack for inventing expressions that illustrate situations that aren't quite straight or are plain wrong but in a lighter sense.

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A funny word to describe a not-so-funny sensation, "collywobbles" refers to a feeling of nervousness, unease, or fluttering in the stomach.

Its origins trace back to the 19th century, merging "colly," an old English term for coal dust or darkness, with "wobbles," implying an unsettled or wobbly sensation. Initially describing a feeling of stomach discomfort or anxiety, it evolved to signify a broader sense of nervousness or apprehension.

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The most fitting word on this list was left for the last. "Unwonted" is a very rarely used term that describes something uncommon, unusual, or not customary.

Coming from Old English, it combines "un-" as a prefix denoting negation or reversal and "wonted," which is derived from wont, meaning accustomed or habitual. An unwonted word in itself, this was a much more used term in the days of Charles Dickens and Henry James, when prose and spoken language were more adorned.