title going to drop on you

March 4, 2024 7:41 AM

Full Of Themselves A title drop is when a character in a movie says the title of the movie they're in. Here's a large-scale analysis of 73,921 movies from the last 80 years on how often, when and maybe even why that happens.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs (77 comments total)

"Gosh, Michael; it's like you've changed now that you're the Godfather Part II."
posted by grubi at 7:54 AM on March 4 [23 favorites]

Ah boy, I'm just so tired of all these Star Wars.
posted by gc at 7:55 AM on March 4 [36 favorites]

IMO, the most cringeworthy title drop comes from Star Trek: First Contact: “And you people, you’re all astronauts on some kind of Star Trek.”
posted by zooropa at 8:03 AM on March 4 [12 favorites]

My favorite variation on this is the implied title drop, which I've only seen once, in You Can Count On Me. The phrase never occurs in the movie. But there's a moment where the characters implicitly refer to it, and because it's the title of the movie, you know exactly what they mean. It creates an incredible feeling of intimacy between the characters and the viewer.
posted by yankeefog at 8:03 AM on March 4 [5 favorites]

I've had it with these monkey-fighting articles that don't even mention Snakes on a Plane.
posted by madcaptenor at 8:16 AM on March 4 [17 favorites]

If the name of your movie is also the name of a character in said movie, it should be disqualified from this analysis. Barbie? Fucking It??? Come on.
posted by rhymedirective at 8:17 AM on March 4 [17 favorites]

The best title drop is in Robocop 2 where the evil OCP is striving to build a second Robocop, which they explicitly refer to as Robocop 2.
posted by AndrewStephens at 8:18 AM on March 4 [10 favorites]

Forget it Jake, it's Space Jam.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 8:24 AM on March 4 [17 favorites]

"After 15 years of imprisonment, you're not as young as you used to be... In fact, you're old, boy."
posted by glonous keming at 8:24 AM on March 4 [4 favorites]

That's Metafilter!
posted by fairmettle at 8:28 AM on March 4 [2 favorites]

The Aristocrats!
posted by AJaffe at 8:29 AM on March 4 [7 favorites]

The first time I noticed this was the (from memory) gratuitous and nonsensical "from a view...to a kill" line that Walken says to Grace Jones in a helicopter; I remember being in the theater and just not impressed with that part of an otherwise also not good movie.
posted by stevil at 8:30 AM on March 4 [5 favorites]

Nice Toots & The Maytals reference in the post title!
posted by stevil at 8:31 AM on March 4 [7 favorites]

“Do you want to go to the casino? Roy? Al?”
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:32 AM on March 4 [6 favorites]

If the name of your movie is also the name of a character in said movie, it should be disqualified from this analysis. Barbie? Fucking It??? Come on.

True, but the list of movies where the name of the title character is only said once throughout the whole film is fascinating.
posted by May Kasahara at 8:34 AM on March 4 [3 favorites]

"I would've gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for the cook, the thief, his wife, and her lover!"
posted by moonmilk at 8:36 AM on March 4 [24 favorites]

Yeah well, didja know I had the title line in Koyaanisqatsi?
posted by aubilenon at 8:36 AM on March 4 [4 favorites]

"Frankly, my dear, I'm GONE WITH THE WIND."
posted by capricorn at 8:37 AM on March 4 [3 favorites]

Okay the hands down best title drop, in my opinion, happens as a PARTIAL title drop in a dream production (literal, not figurative) of Death of a Salesman on Buffy The Vampire Slayer - season 4 finale 'Restless'.

"I've come looking for a man. A sales man."

"Men! With your... sales!"

You can't top that. You just can't.
posted by MiraK at 8:38 AM on March 4 [4 favorites]

It's less irksome/twee/self-satisfied if said title is a proper name or other concrete referent. Like Dead Poets Society: an organization in that movie's world! Or Chinatown, the location of important action. Or The Third Man, where people spend considerable time trying to figure out the identity of the "third man," and then what to do about him. It'd be a little weird if these kinds of titles didn't appear in the script.
posted by praemunire at 8:40 AM on March 4 [2 favorites]

"Men! With your... sales!"

I still bust out this line from time to time, when discussing irritating dudes.
posted by praemunire at 8:41 AM on March 4 [2 favorites]

I’m surprised Jaws didn’t have any. I thought surely at some point they mentioned the mandibular apparatus of the fish at the center of the story.
posted by TedW at 8:43 AM on March 4 [1 favorite]

I guess I trained my kid since they were small because every time this happens in a movie both of us say “TITULAR” simultaneously.
posted by chococat at 8:53 AM on March 4 [12 favorites]

This reminds me of watching Coco for the first time, when the main character, Miguel, called his great grandmother "Coco." I nearly jumped out of my seat and shouted "oh FUCK YOU, Pixar!" because by god did they telegraph where exactly in the gut they were going to punch you.
posted by gc at 8:57 AM on March 4 [1 favorite]

The movie that immediately came to mind for me is Ghostbusters, but I truly wonder how many times, besides the song, it's actually said.
posted by OHenryPacey at 8:58 AM on March 4

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.
By this we know you were not bored,
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
posted by quintessence at 8:59 AM on March 4 [22 favorites]

However you feel about it in movies, I think we can all be happy it doesn't happen on message boards. A discussion on Metafilter is the one place you know: no title going to drop on you.
posted by yankeefog at 9:01 AM on March 4 [3 favorites]

OHenryPacey: The movie that immediately came to mind for me is Ghostbusters, but I truly wonder how many times, besides the song, it's actually said.

The only times I can recall are when Annie Potts answers the phone.
posted by indexy at 9:02 AM on March 4 [5 favorites]

Having just rewatched all of the ghostbusters movies, I can tell you that it's said /a lot/ outside of the song, because it's also the name of their ghost-busting business. So you get iconic lines like "Ghostbusters, whaddya want?"
posted by kaibutsu at 9:06 AM on March 4 [5 favorites]

OHenryPacey: The movie that immediately came to mind for me is Ghostbusters, but I truly wonder how many times, besides the song, it's actually said.

The only times I can recall are when Annie Potts answers the phone.

I had failed to see the search feature at the bottom of the article. It says Ghostbusters has 28 drops, and the timeline gives the quote, and counts the times it's said in the song.
posted by OHenryPacey at 9:06 AM on March 4 [1 favorite]

I came here to say "Hot Tub Time Machine" but I see it's mentioned in the main link, and as "self-aware". Apparently there's a youtube channel for Title Drops too, Spoken Titles.

Hot Tub Time Machine title drop.
posted by Schmucko at 9:10 AM on March 4 [1 favorite]

"I'll have my revenge!"
posted by RobotHero at 9:11 AM on March 4 [3 favorites]

"Someday we'll find it, the Shawshank Redemption, the lovers, the dreamers, and me."
posted by AndrewInDC at 9:20 AM on March 4 [22 favorites]

There was a really good anime a few years ago called Odd Taxi that had fun with this. At one point a character is describing a plan of action to another and at the end says, "I call it Operation Odd Taxi." There's a pause as they look at each other, then the other character says, "Is that supposed to sound cool or something? What does that even mean?"
posted by star gentle uterus at 9:29 AM on March 4 [1 favorite]

"Turns out the real Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo was the friends we made along the way!"
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 9:31 AM on March 4 [2 favorites]

"Look, the King is back!"
"Yes...it's the Return Of The King."
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:33 AM on March 4

If the name of your movie is also the name of a character in said movie, it should be disqualified from this analysis. Barbie? Fucking It??? Come on.

And even those pale in comparison to the Mickey Mouse movie.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 9:37 AM on March 4

I was bothered how over 10% of the movies could have a title character and not say the character's name in dialog. Can you only figure it out from credits? But it turns out they are including descriptions like "The Princess Bride," so it makes more sense.

For example, Kevin Costner's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves has multiple title drops that cover both part of the name, but Prince of Thieves (1948) has zero: It just figures you know who they're talking about.

"Look, the King is back!"
"Yes...it's the Return Of The King."

"There's no way Aragorn can defeat Sauron on the tennis court! Sauron has a serve to rule them all!"
"You say that, but you have yet to see the Return of the King!"
posted by mark k at 9:43 AM on March 4 [4 favorites]

Ideally a book or screenplay gets written first and then the most appropriate title is chosen, often quoting a line from the script, so this doesn't really seem very interesting unless it's documenting times the title seems unnaturally inserted into the dialog in a funny or cringey way.

the list of movies where the name of the title character is only said once throughout the whole film is fascinating.

I'm much more likely to get bothered if it seems like dialogue is unnaturally avoiding the name of the movie or the name of the main character, or saving it for a special moment. The whole point of the title "Suicide Squad" is that this is definitely what the characters would call themselves, so it seems much more cringe not to let anyone say it or to just allude to it in a cheeky way.

It does seem to most often get bad when a movie is about a team with a name. The 2015 Fantastic Four movie spent a subjective fifteen cringey minutes setting up not saying the name of the team / title of the movie and flashing the title card instead.
posted by straight at 10:28 AM on March 4

Gene: "You say, 'Oh, we're just a bunch of swim instructors.' That's the title! They can't cut that!"
posted by downtohisturtles at 10:31 AM on March 4 [2 favorites]

Ages ago, my film nerd friends and I would have the in-joke of saying “hence the title!” out loud whenever this happened in a movie. It’s still a little funny.
posted by transient at 10:53 AM on March 4 [4 favorites]

Friend of mine's company made the Hot Tub Time Machine hot tubs. He got to fly down to LA to build the one they had at the HTTM2 premiere/party/whatever that is called...
posted by Windopaene at 11:04 AM on March 4

Possibly the most tasteful title drop is in the lyrics to Nobody Does It Better which just casually slips in the title of the film "The Spy who Loved Me" in the middle of a sentence during one of the verses.
posted by AndrewStephens at 11:10 AM on March 4 [5 favorites]

I've had it with these monkey-fighting articles that don't even mention Snakes on a Plane.

or Cocaine Bear

WARNING: somewhat graphic
posted by philip-random at 11:13 AM on March 4

It's not a movie, but the best title drop I've seen recently was in the game Evil Within 2.
posted by neckro23 at 11:16 AM on March 4 [1 favorite]

Can I just say this is a really great site, an extraordinary presentation of a metric fuckton of data.
posted by chavenet at 11:21 AM on March 4 [3 favorites]

I'll always remember Entrapment (which was terrible) in which Catherine Zeta-Jones screaming, "THIS IS ENTRAPMENT!" and I was all, "I KNOW LADY, IT'S ON THE POSTER!!!!"
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:26 AM on March 4 [1 favorite]

Clue (1985): 0
Clueless (1995): 4
posted by bgrebs at 11:36 AM on March 4 [7 favorites]

Captain Ramius: "Once more, we play our dangerous game, a game of chess against our old adversary - The American Navy. For forty years, your fathers before you and your older brothers played this game and played it well. But today the game is different. We have the advantage. The Hunt for Red October is on!"
posted by AndrewInDC at 11:51 AM on March 4 [1 favorite]

I have to sing Title of the Song every time.
posted by lokta at 12:04 PM on March 4 [1 favorite]

The listings may not be all that accurate. It shows The Color Purple (1985) as having no name drops, when I guarantee you the title is said once by Shug when she and Celie are walking in a field of flowers.
posted by grubi at 12:11 PM on March 4 [1 favorite]

ROLL CREDITS!
posted by loquacious at 12:13 PM on March 4

Who does it better than Back to the Future? Nobody, that's who.
posted by gottabefunky at 12:31 PM on March 4 [3 favorites]

The whole point of the title "Suicide Squad" is that this is definitely what the characters would call themselves

Excuse me, they find that term degrading.
posted by praemunire at 1:06 PM on March 4 [1 favorite]

RobotHero, That's *exactly* the clip I immediately thought of when the article stated "We also run into problems with every movie that is a sequel (Rocky III, Hot Tub Time Machine 2) since none of the characters will add the sequel number to character names..." and I'm glad I'm not the only one.
posted by Roommate at 1:25 PM on March 4

i like how other people in this thread also remark on the title when it comes up in the movie. my partner and I still race to be the first to say the equivalent of the “that’s chappie” tweet every time we watch something.

hitchcock films were particularly good for this. “that’s the man who knew too much” “that’s the rope” “that’s the strangers on a train”.

we’re watching a bunch of bergman stuff lately. sometimes neither of us win.
posted by crime online at 1:42 PM on March 4 [1 favorite]

[whispering to date while watching Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans when Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans first appears on the screen] That's the Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
posted by oulipian at 1:48 PM on March 4 [10 favorites]

"So as through a glass, and darkly
The age long strife I see
Where I fought in many guises,
Many names, but always me.

And I see not in my blindness
What the objects were I wrought,
But as God rules o’er our bickerings
It was through His will I fought.

So forever in the future,
Shall I battle as of yore,
Dying to be born a fighter,
But to die again, once more."

-Patton.
posted by clavdivs at 2:06 PM on March 4 [2 favorites]

Several years ago Paul Thomas Anderson did an interview on NPR. One detail I remember was that a friend of his would, when watching a movie at the theater, squawk like a chicken whenever a character said the title of a movie. So if you hear that, it's probably PTA's friend.
posted by zardoz at 4:18 PM on March 4

I remember reading in some Penn and Teller book about a movie club they had. They'd meet in Times Square (weekly? monthly?) and go to whatever movie was starting next, and sit in the front row. If the movie title got said during the movie, they all clapped.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:28 PM on March 4 [2 favorites]

The listings may not be all that accurate.

Yeah, I happened to watch Sunset Boulevard last night, and it has at least 2 verbal uses of the title (one in the first sentence of the film!), as well as a visual shot of a the curb with the street name on it. Those are in the opensub files, so who knows how those got missed.
posted by god hates math at 4:32 PM on March 4

If only we could stop being John Malkovich!
posted by swift at 4:48 PM on March 4 [8 favorites]

The funniest joke in An American in Paris is the very first line, which is "This is Paris, and I'm an American who lives here."
posted by oulipian at 5:21 PM on March 4 [1 favorite]

This is such a fun little research project, and an excellent example of how hard it is to categorize qualitative data. May all of you bringing up excellent critiques of the chosen operational definitions store this knowledge for the next time you read an article in my field. 🙏

My most recent watch, Renfield, was in the category of name title drops, which occurred exactly 40 times. This information serves absolutely no one but will lodge in my brain forever. Thank you Ten Cold Hot Dogs.
posted by brook horse at 6:56 PM on March 4 [5 favorites]

IMO, the most cringeworthy title drop comes from Star Trek: First Contact: “And you people, you’re all astronauts on some kind of Star Trek.”

Unlike some other examples, it was delivered with full self-awareness of how dorkily awkward it was to say like that, so I liked it, in a dad-joke kind of way.
posted by Pryde at 8:00 PM on March 4 [3 favorites]

I still remember that line from On Golden Pond: “I’m Batman”
posted by credulous at 10:13 PM on March 4 [4 favorites]

METAFILTER: This information serves absolutely no one but will lodge in my brain forever.
posted by philip-random at 12:00 AM on March 5 [2 favorites]

we’re watching a bunch of bergman stuff lately. sometimes neither of us win.

The phrase 'The Seventh Seal' is uttered twice in the movie. At the very beginning and then again at the very end. It gives the movie a cyclical feel.
posted by vacapinta at 2:13 AM on March 5 [1 favorite]

Obligatory reference to Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer.
posted by automatronic at 4:04 AM on March 5

i’m mostly thinking of The Silence. we had a lot of back and forth with that one. “no, THAT’s The Silence”
posted by crime online at 6:46 AM on March 5

It truly was a Shawshank redemption.
posted by mhum at 2:39 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]

Oh lol, they have two title drops for No Time To Die but upon closer inspection, it turns out that these are coming from the opening theme song so probably shouldn't be counted. I checked this one because they actually had the chance to do a proper title drop, except split across two actors, but for some reason decided not to:

Nomi: Do you know what time it is?
Obruchev: What?
Nomi: Time to die [kicks him off of a platform]

They just needed that guy to say "No?" instead of "What?" Such wasted potential.
posted by mhum at 5:43 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]

Has Dune II been out long enough that we can now talk about how stupid the title drop is in Dune II?
posted by capricorn at 5:18 AM on March 6

"Would that this desk were a Time Desk!"
posted by Dez at 2:18 PM on March 6

My human and I always initiate a slow clap when this happens (when the movie's not, like, named after someone). At home, we go all out. If we're in the theater, the slow clap is silent but still lengthy. My favorite one so far is when the shot scrolled past the Three Billboards.
posted by lauranesson at 4:01 PM on March 6 [1 favorite]

> Has Dune II been out long enough that we can now talk about how stupid the title drop is in Dune II?

for personal reasons i would prefer if you were to wait until late evening on friday (eastern standard time) to have this discussion.
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 12:28 AM on March 7

Has Dune II been out long enough that we can now talk about how stupid the title drop is in Dune II?

"You see there: that's a dune. And over there? That's a dune, too."
posted by grubi at 5:23 AM on March 7 [6 favorites]