Stanley Kowalski's primal scream, as executed by Marlon Brando in "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951), has inspired six decades of parodies — in everything from "Seinfeld" to "The Simpsons" — as well as an annual Stella-shouting contest in New Orleans.
Ben Stein's deadpan delivery made this the most quoted line in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986).
In "Gone With the Wind" (1939), the fiery and impatient Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) dismissed suggestions she didn't like with this archaic expression of scorn.
"I'm funny how? I mean funny like I'm a clown? I amuse you?" — Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) in "Goodfellas" (1990)
He keeps using that word in "The Princess Bride" (1987). But does it mean what Vizzini (Wallace Shawn) thinks it means?
From "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975). Need we say more? Ni!
Jim Stark (James Dean) was only goofing around when he made that cow sound in the planetarium in "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955). It led to a switchblade fight and a deadly "chickie run" straight off a cliff.
You don't have to speak Vietnamese to get the gist of what the guard yells at Nick (Christopher Walken) in the first Russian roulette scene in "The Deer Hunter" (1978).
During a tutorial in "Cabaret" (1972), a proper young lady innocently asks the meaning of the English term "screwing." Sally Bowles (Liza Minelli) reflects for a moment, then helpfully supplies the only German word she's able to pronounce perfectly.
Some say this is Regan (Linda Blair) having a bad day. By now we know it's the devil, taunting a priest by greeting him in French — a language the possessed girl doesn't know — in "The Exorcist" (1973).
With a simple reference to the Attica Prison riot of 1971, Sonny (Al Pacino) turns his inept bank robbery into an impromptu political demonstration in "Dog Day Afternoon" (1975).
Tony Manero (John Travolta) pays homage to his favorite actor, Al Pacino, in "Saturday Night Fever" (1977).
Bluto (John Belushi) makes it clear he's down for a toga party, even at the risk of being put on Double Secret Probation, in the National Lampoon's first movie, "Animal House" (1978).
Diane Keaton had countless great lines in "Annie Hall" (1977). This is the one everybody remembers.
Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) reacts to Mom's handiwork after the shower scene in "Psycho" (1960)
Frau Blucher (Cloris Leachman) tempts the doctor (Gene Wilder) with a warm beverage in Mel Brooks' 1974 comedy, "Young Frankenstein."
Ben Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) receives pithy career advice in "The Graduate" (1967).
Among the completely random words alcoholic attorney George Hanson (Jack Nicholson) blurts out each time he drinks his Jim Beam in "Easy Rider" (1969), this one somehow stands out.
When Bill (Garry Merrill) tenderly says "I love you" in the 1950 talkfest "All About Eve," Margo Channing (Bette Davis) responds with a single syllable.
Wayne and Garth (Mike Myers and Dana Carvey) bestow their highest praise on a Guess ad featuring Claudia Schiffer in "Wayne's World" (1992).
Beatle guitarist George Harrison's reply to a reporter's question — "What would you call that hairstyle you're wearing?" — in "A Hard Day's Night" (1964).
The famous French mime Marcel Marceau says the only word uttered out loud in Mel Brooks' 1976 "Silent Movie."
From the 1947 film noir "Dead Reckoning." When you hear it — the word World War II paratrooper Captain Rip Murdock (Humphrey Bogart) and his missing buddy used to yell just before jumping out of a plane — there's a good chance someone is about to die.
It's the cryptic word Danny (Danny Lloyd) writes in lipstick on the bathroom door — to be read backward in the bedroom mirror — in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 adaptation of "The Shining."
In "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957), Major Clipton (James Donald) reacts to the death of Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guiness), whose final act was to blown up the bridge he had enthusiastically built for the enemy.
"So I got talent? So what beat me?" asks Fast Eddie (Paul Newman). Bert Gordon (George C. Scott) gives him this one-word answer, which sums up the theme of the entire movie — 1961's indelible portrait of a pool shark, "The Hustler."
After going the distance in "Rocky," Sylvester Stallone's 1976 breakout hit, the title character summons his girlfriend.
Scientists have shown subjects of psychology experiments the ending of the 1979 remake of "The Champ" — in which T.J. (Ricky Schroder) calls out to his dead father (Jon Voight) and begs him to wake up — to study how feelings of sadness affect human behavior.
Like Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz," the stranded alien in "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) just wants to get back to where he once belonged.
In "Citizen Kane" (1941), the dying word of Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) — the greatest one-word line in movie history — becomes a linchpin for the story of his life.