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The best movie taglines of all time

There's magic in those lines.

The best movie taglines of all time
Marc Chacksfield
08 April 2022

If we had to sell ourselves in just one sentence, well, we'd probably struggle to come up with something snappy enough to make you remember us - unlike these best movie taglines.

That's the problem which faces movie marketers on a daily basis. Aside from creating a visually compelling poster, they also need to attach a tagline that'll stick in the memories of the notoriously forgetful general public.

So we're clapping our real (and digital) hands at these 40 movies which managed to spin some smart words out of thin air and impress us hard-to-impress film buffs.

The best movie taglines

The best movie taglines

1. Alien

"In space no one can hear you scream"

189
22
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The best movie taglines

2. The Shawshank Redemption

"Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free"

101
32
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The best movie taglines

3. Jaws 2

"Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water"

95
31
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The best movie taglines

4. Platoon

"The first casualty of war is innocence"

59
16
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The best movie taglines

5. The Social Network

"You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies"

58
18
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The best movie taglines

6. The 40-Year-Old Virgin

"The longer you wait, the harder it gets"

67
30
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The best movie taglines

7. Taxi Driver

"On every street in every city, there's a nobody who dreams of being a somebody"

55
18
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The best movie taglines

8. The Truman Show

"On the air. Unaware"

42
14
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The best movie taglines

9. Tommy Boy

"If at first you don't succeed, lower your standards"

47
22
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The best movie taglines

10. The Fly

"Be afraid. Be very afraid"

52
28
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The best movie taglines

11. A Nightmare On Elm Street

"If Nancy doesn't wake up screaming, she won't wake up at all"

40
16
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The best movie taglines

12. Chicken Run

"Escape or die frying"

37
14
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The best movie taglines

13. The Thing

"Man is the warmest place to hide"

38
17
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The best movie taglines

14. 12 Monkeys

"The future is history"

35
14
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The best movie taglines

15. Ferris Bueller's Day Off

"One man's struggle to take it easy"

35
17
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The best movie taglines

16. Alien Vs Predator

"Whoever wins...we lose"

33
16
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The best movie taglines

17. Psycho

"Check in. Unpack. Relax. Take A Shower"

33
18
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The best movie taglines

18. Napoleon Dynamite

"He's out to prove he's got nothing to prove"

30
15
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The best movie taglines

19. I Am Legend

"The last man on earth is not alone"

30
16
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The best movie taglines

20. Superman

"You'll believe a man can fly"

35
22
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The best movie taglines

21. Quiz Show

"Fifty million people watching and no one saw a thing"

25
12
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The best movie taglines

22. Contagion

"Nothing spreads like fear"

25
12
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The best movie taglines

23. Predator 2

"He's in town with a few days to kill"

38
25
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The best movie taglines

24. Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

"An epic of epic epicness"

33
24
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The best movie taglines

25. The Royal Tenenbaums

"Family isn't a word. It's a sentence"

27
20
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The best movie taglines

26. Bonnie & Clyde

"They're young...they're in love...and they kill people"

20
13
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The best movie taglines

27. Lost In Translation

"Everyone wants to be found"

20
14
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The best movie taglines

28. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

"Who will survive and what will be left of them?"

24
18
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The best movie taglines

29. True Lies

"When he said I do, he never said what he did"

25
21
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The best movie taglines

30. Greedy

"Where there's a will, there's a relative"

22
18
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The best movie taglines

31. The Graduate

"This is Benjamin. He's a little worried about his future"

12
14
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The best movie taglines

32. Deliverance

"This is the weekend they didn't play golf"

16
19
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The best movie taglines

33. Bram Stoker's Dracula

"Love never dies"

15
18
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The best movie taglines

34. The Godfather Part III

"All the power on earth can't change destiny"

11
14
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The best movie taglines

35. High Noon

"The story of a man who was too proud to run"

11
15
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The best movie taglines

36. American Beauty

"...look closer"

14
18
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The best movie taglines

37. Swingers

"Cocktails first. Questions later"

13
17
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The best movie taglines

38. Brokeback Mountain

"Love is a force of nature"

13
18
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The best movie taglines

39. Gattaca

"There is no gene for the human spirit"

12
17
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The best movie taglines

40. Zodiac

"There's more than one way to lose your life to a killer"

66
125
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The best final lines in movies, ranked.

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