Top Ten Movie Taglines: C.C.C Issue #52

Top Ten Movie Taglines

I was looking at the poster for Captain America: Civil War, and as I read the three words at the top of the poster, above Tony Stark’s and Steve Rogers’ heads, “Divided we Fall”, I realized something. The art of the movie tagline has been lost in more recent years. When’s the last time you saw a truly great tagline on a movie poster? If there are examples, please tell me, because I must have missed them.

I’m counting down the ten best movie taglines I’ve come across. There are, in fact, a huge number of great ones out there, but these ten are my personal faves.

10. The 40 Year-Old Virgin: “The longer you wait the harder it gets.”

A good tagline should complement the title and give you an impression of what the movie will be like, and The 40 Year-Old Virgin tagline does both of these things. On a poster that, at first glance, is sort of simple, with then-largely-unknown actor Steve Carrel’s face smack dab in the center, the title is definitely what stood out to people who went to see it in 2005 and made Carrel a star, but the teaser poster, which features Carrel sitting at a bar, alone, surrounded by people making out, is the one with the great tagline. It’s a sample-size of the kind of humour at work in the movie, and for me, is actually a stronger selling point than the title, which does summarize the movie extremely well, but doesn’t make me laugh the same.   

9. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: “Who will survive, and what will be left of them?”

A tagline can be like a second title, in a sense, or a subtitle, and sum up what the movie is about, if the title hasn’t done so already. Often (but not always) you’ll read the title, and if it catches your eye, you’ll proceed to reading the tagline, but in this case, the tagline actually catches your eye first, and goes perfectly with the title. You know from the title alone that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is going to be a brutal and horrific movie, but I just love the question the tagline poses. It hints at the cannibalistic nature of the antagonists, and is something horror fans often ask themselves at the beginning of the movie: which one of these characters is actually going to make it through this? 

8. Jurassic Park: “An adventure 65 million years in the making.”

The reason this tagline works is because it sets up huge expectations, and the movie actually fulfills them. Steven Spielberg brought dinosaurs to life on the big-screen in a bigger and better way than anyone had before, but the poster and trailers kept the dinosaurs mostly hidden. The poster was how most people first glimpsed the now-famous logo, with the silhouette of the Tyrannosaurus skeleton and distinct font, and Spielberg cleverly placed the logo all throughout the movie, helping make it as iconic as it’s become, but aside from the logo, the poster is just black, with the tagline at the bottom, so you’re instantly drawn to it. It just makes the movie sound so good, and thankfully, it was.

7. The Shawshank Redemption: “Fear can hold you prisoner, hope can set you free.” 

A big theme in The Shawshank Redemption, largely recognized as one of the best movies ever made, is that of hope. Andy Dufresne, a man wrongfully imprisoned after his wife is found murdered, is the physical embodiment of hope. We’re talking about a guy who spends over two decades concocting a prison escape, and (spoiler alert) he actually does it. This tagline, while it probably contributed to drawing in viewers, is even more powerful after you’ve seen the movie, but it really is a perfect encapsulation of what the movie is about, unlike the title (which director Frank Darabont later admitted is probably part of the reason it didn’t do as well initially at the box office). 

6. Apollo 13: “Houston, we have a problem.”

This famous line uttered in the film by Tom Hanks has become something of a household phrase, and referenced endlessly in other movies and TV shows. Chronicling NASA’s third lunar mission, the problems that occur, and its eventual need to abort, the tagline is perfect because it pushes the selling point of the movie, which is the dramatization of this real-life event, and what exactly happened that forced them to abort. It’s not only a phrase commonly said when facing imminent problems in day-to-day life, it’s impossible not to think of space exploration when you hear or say it. 

5. The Big Lebowski: “Her life was in their hands. Now her toe is in the mail.”

I wasn’t actually aware this was the tagline until I put together this list, but the second I heard it, I knew I had to include it. The Big Lebowski is not a movie for everyone (and that can be said of just about all of Joel and Ethan Cohen’s movies) but if you’re into the type of humour it features, there’s tons to love. This tagline, like the one for 40 Year-Old Virgin, sums up the movie and gives a taste of the type of humour. It’s definitely a black comedy, and if you’ve seen the movie, you know what particular element of the story it refers to (a hilarious one, I’ll add). The second part of the two-part line is unexpected, and also hints at what the main characters are like. There’s a lot going on in these measly thirteen words.   

4. The Thing: “Man is the warmest place to hide.”

John Carpenter’s The Thing is a truly horrific and nerve-racking sci-fi-horror-thriller. The title is more than a little vague, and the tagline on most of the posters, “The Ultimate in Alien Terror”, is not that great of a tagline (and not a true statement, as you’ll see by the number one spot on this list), but this alternate tagline brings up the disturbing concept behind the alien: it kills and replicates a person down to the microcell, so no one can tell who the thing is at any given moment. It also relates to the setting of the movie, the claustrophobic research center in the Antarctic tundra. It’s creepy, subtle, and hints at the terror to come.

3. Superman: “You’ll believe a man can fly.”

Though dated in many aspects by today’s standards, Superman was a monumental movie achievement, and the first serious big-budget take on a superhero. Back in the late seventies, people were curious how exactly they would portray the super-powered Kryptonian on the big-screen. How many special effects would they need? Did such effects even exist? Nowadays we’re so accustomed to cgi we take superheroes flying around for granted, but back then, no one had seen something like it in a convincing manner, and that’s why the tagline is so brilliant. People must’ve seen the poster, seen the Superman logo, then that tagline, and flipped out. Like Jurassic Park’s tagline, it sets huge expectations, and much the same way, it blew audiences away. 

 

2. Ghostbusters: “Who ya gonna call?” 

I know exactly what you said in your head after reading this tagline. Don’t worry, it’s inevitable. This is definitely the best example of a line from the movie becoming a famous tagline. More than that, Ghostbusters is a cultural icon, and the theme song in the movie is actually where the line comes from, none of the characters speak it. Even the Ghostbusters remake coming out this year is using the tagline, and those posters don’t even have the title Ghostbusters on them! Now that’s selling power: a tagline that poses a question so many people know the answer to, they don’t even need to put the answer/title on the poster. So what tagline could be better than that?

1. Alien: “In space, no one can hear you scream.” 

When I originally thought to do this list of great movie taglines, the first one I thought of was from Alien. It tops most of the best movie tagline lists, and for good reason. Let’s start with the title. It’s deceptively unassuming. Alien? What kind of alien? Like the friendly ones in Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind? Hell no. This is a horror movie through and through, it just happens to take place in space. And the worst thing about space? In this case, it’s summed up with the tagline. It’s a horrifying concept, but so enticing. What kind of space alien would make you wish people could hear you scream in space? Once you see it, you get it. The alternate tagline, the significantly lesser-used “Just One Can Kill Seven”, doesn’t hold a candle to the one nearly everyone knows today. Alien has the quintessential movie tagline, and all other movie marketers can only hope of coming up with something as clever and original as that.