They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but how much is a movie worth? A lot of films can't be boiled down to just one or two sentences of dialogue or narration, but every so often a movie comes along that just takes the world by storm and implants undeniable new quotes and words into our vocabulary. Iconic movie quotes normally come from, well, iconic movies, whether it be The Godfather or The Hunger Games, and most of the time, for a quote to truly come to represent a movie, it will be recognizable to people regardless of whether or not they've seen the actual film. These quotes come to represent not only the films from which they are from, but also the years in which they are released. Thus, here are the defining movie quotes of the 2000s.
Now, I've seen a lot of movies, and I quote movies all the time, but I also know plenty of quotes from films I have never seen and have no intention of ever seeing. Some of the quotes below might not seem particularly important or meaningful, but they are ones that everybody — and I mean everybody — will recognize. (Unless you were born after 2009, in which case, bless you.)
2000: "Wilson!" — Cast Away
"WILSOOOOOOON!" — The one quote Tom Hanks will never, ever be able to escape — and neither will the rest of us.
2001: "Exercise Gives You Endorphins. Endorphins Make You Happy. Happy People Just Don't Shoot Their Husbands. They Just Don't"— Legally Blonde
An Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) classic. I say this to my friends at least once a week, usually to distract them when they ask me if I want to go to the gym.
2002: "My Precious" — The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Sounds creepy now, doesn't it?
2003: "Just Keep Swimming" — Finding Nemo
If Dory has taught you anything, it's that you can't let anything keep you down, not even short term memory loss.
2004: "So Fetch!" — Mean Girls
There are just so many quotes to choose from this movie, from "You go, Glenn Coco!" to "On Wednesdays we wear pink," but the most iconic Mean Girls quote is probably "So fetch!" Despite what Regina said, "Fetch" definitely happened.
2005: "I Wish I Knew How To Quit You" — Brokeback Mountain
Sorry, that's just the sound of my heart breaking.
2006: "This is Sparta!" — 300
OK, this one is not quite as iconic as the others, but anyone who was in high school when 300 came out in theaters knows that this quote was everyone's favorite thing to yell down the halls.
2007: "I Drink Your Milkshake!" — There Will Be Blood
I still do not know what this quote from There Will Be Blood means, but I know that it needs to be said with passion.
2008: "I Am Iron Man" — Iron Man
The line that started the Marvel movie craze.
2009: "I See You" — Avatar
Avatar will be remembered as a technological feat in filmmaking, not as a poetic treasure. That said, this line was about all anybody could say following Avatar's release.
And, there you have it, one comprehensive timeline of the '00s in movie quotes. What a weird and magical decade it was.
Images: Paramount Pictures; Giphy (10)
