It was the late 1800s when humans first started to experiment with the science of moving pictures. That makes it about 150 years since the first movie, which isn't a very long time in the course of human history, but it feels like it's been here for much longer given the profound and lasting impact of the medium itself.
It's the lure of Hollywood and the glamour of the silver screen that draws a lot of fans to movies, and then there are the viewers that like it for the visual thrills, compelling stories, or the artistic merit when it comes to design and writing. There's even a whole section of the Academy of Arts and Sciences that hands out awards for this.
The writers of movie scripts hardly ever get the attention they deserve, even though they've created some of the best plot and dialogue twists in storytelling history. The art of the chilling one-liner is but one of their gifts, and here are a few examples.
7 "Let Me Show You What I Am Used To." Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981
Spoken by the Nazi enforcer Toht, this line is a signal that a friendly conversation is about to turn into a certain kind of interrogation, the kind that he knows all too well and Marion Ravenwood isn't willing to take seriously. At least, not until he says this chilling one-liner.
The situation escalates to involve a hot poker and another equally chilling one-liner, "Yes, I know you will." The tension of which is cracked by a notorious whip and a badass action scene that results in our heroes making good their escape and a few bad guys getting burned or buried.
6 "Make Him An Offer He Can't Refuse." The Godfather, 1972
This line first appears as part of a conversation between Michael Corleone and his still oblivious girlfriend, Kay Adams, and it sounds like a benign or even generous expression related to business. The viewer sees the family through Kay's eyes at this point and is unfamiliar with their criminal ways.
By the time this one-liner is used by the Don himself in a later scene, the audience understands its chilling implications. The Godfather is famous for a lot of reasons, and this line is one of them. It's probably one of the most popular movie quotes of all time, never mind one of the most chilling that was ever written.
5 "I'll Be Back." The Terminator, 1984
This is one of those situations where the audience knows some important information that characters on-screen don't. The cops at the station think nothing of the hulking muscleman when he delivers this line after confirming Sarah Connor's location, assuming he's just another unsavory character looking for a friend, and that he'll come back at a better time.
The audience, however, has already heard Kyle Reese explain exactly what this thing is, so for them, this line has terrifying yet unknown implications. What follows is a massacre so shocking that Sarah Connor is still being interrogated for it more than ten years later in a scene in the first half of Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
4 "Are You Aware Of My Existence?" Inglorious Basterds, 2009
It sounds friendly, but there's something creepy and sinister about the way this on-liner is inserted into the conversation that makes the viewer's hair stand on end. It's the perfect way to introduce the vicious Colonel Hans Landa, who can vacillate so easily between a cheerful house guest and a cold-blooded Nazi sociopath.
Language plays an interesting role in this scene. Landa speaks impeccable French but insists he doesn't, which is weird, and asks if they can switch to another language. This is the first line he speaks in English.
The scene is tense already, with an SS officer and his soldiers searching the farm for a missing Jewish family. Landa plays nicely at first, but as the interrogation intensifies it becomes clear he already knows the missing family is hiding literally under their feet. He insisted on switching to English so the hidden family he was pretending to look for wouldn't understand that part of the conversation.
3 "Witness Me." Mad Max: Fury Road, 2016
It's always a chilling line when it's used, as it portends a dramatic and often violent death, but the award for best delivery goes to Nux at the end. His delivery is equally heart-wrenching, as he could be the only person who ever said this line and actually gave their lives for a good reason instead of dying for the cult of Immortan Joe.
It's not just a chilling line for Nux. This line is only spoken by male characters in the film, and there's a bigger message here about how violent rhetoric affects young men and determines their future, or sometimes the lack of one.
2 "You Fly Back To School Now, Little Starling." The Silence Of The Lambs, 1991
In a movie that's stacked to the brim with chilling one-liners, it's hard to choose only one, but this has so many hair-raising implications that it takes the cake, so to speak. Hannibal Lector closes his first conversation with Clarice by making this patronizing comment with the pun on her last name.
The whole conversation is a tense battle of wits, and it's creepy how much Hannibal Lector can find out about Agent Starling just by looking at her identification and listening to her voice. He identifies her background by her accent and calls her out for the temporary ID. He seems amazed, and also quite pleased, that his old acquaintance Jack Crawford has sent him a mere trainee.
1 "What's The Most You've Ever Lost On A Coin Toss?" No Country For Old Men, 2007
One of the best thrillers ever made, it's amazing how much suspense and tension this movie carries with relatively little blood and gore. It sure does happen, though, right up to the very last scene, and when it does it's unexpected and horrific.
Two million dollars disappear after a drug deal goes wrong, and it's up to assassin Anton Chigurh to find it. The stakes get higher, as does the body count, and by the time Chigurh delivers this line to an unsuspecting store clerk the audience understands exactly what he's capable of. Spoiler alert: the store clerk is one of the few characters who survives the encounter with this methodical, cold-blooded killer.