The 50 best quotes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Sure, it’s the last line from “Iron Man,” the first MCU film, but where else would we start? If Robert Downey Jr.’s turn as Tony Stark hadn’t worked out, we may not be here right now with over 30 Marvel movies to pull quotes from. Having Stark officially declare himself as Iron Man was a major moment that the rest of the franchise built off of.

Superheroes need villains, and the first one we got was Obadiah Stane. Having Jeff Bridges in the role helped, and this is the line of his we remember. Sure, having Bridges yell it with all his acting intensity played a role, but line delivery is key to helping it be remembered.

Hey, remember “The Incredible Hulk?” You know, the movie with Edward Norton? Yeah, it happened, but the recasting of Bruce Banner has pushed it to the wayside. At least Norton got a chance to deliver this funny line during his one turn in the role.

“Iron Man 2” didn’t quite recapture the energy of the first film. We did get more Nick Fury, though, and Samuel L. Jackson’s character would become a key tie that binds in the MCU. This moment at least clicked, and even got replicated in the “What If…?” series on Disney+.

The first Thor movie, the one directed by Kenneth Branagh, is quite Shakespearean. As such, why not go with a Shakespearean line? Odin, played by Anthony Hopkins between Oscar wins, casts his son Thor out of Midgard, setting the table for the rest of the film.

It’s the quintessential Captain America line. Or, rather, the quintessential Steve Rogers line in this case. Before he was given the serum that turned him into Cap, Rogers was still scrappy, and willing to fight for what he believed was right. In this case, the line is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, as Rogers is taking a licking in a fight, though he keeps on ticking, of course.

The road from “The First Avenger” to getting Captain America into the timeline of the MCU took a bit of maneuvering. Steve Rogers ends up frozen under the ocean, and then finds himself brought into modern times. Upon realizing what has happened, Cap has a lot to process. That includes losing out on his time with Peggy Carter.

Tony Stark already had his personality in place from “Iron Man,” but as the Avengers were brought together, the juxtaposition of their personalities had to be further heightened. In “The Avengers,” a key battle emerges between the ethos of Stark and Rogers. Captain America asks Stark what he would be without his Iron Man suit, and this is his typically pithy response.

Stark is never above being antagonistic, and he is of course the one who will engage in a verbal tete-a-tete with a villain. In “The Avengers” that villain is Loki. Sure, Loki has a lot of power at his disposal, but he doesn’t have a Hulk. That memorably comes into play later.

“Iron Man 3” is a Shane Black movie within the parameters of the MCU. He is one of only a couple directors who has gotten to do their thing within the machine of Marvel. Downey’s signing off on Black helped, of course. It’s a polarizing film, but it includes this line. It comes in response to Stark being asked if all he has is “A cheap trick and a cheesy one-liner.”

“Thor: The Dark World” is considered a low point in the MCU by many, and it is kind of at sea, falling between Branagh’s Shakespearean take on Thor and company and the rebooting done by Taika Waititi. At least the complicated relationship between Thor and Loki is fleshed out some, with this line being Loki needling Thor, which begins to really shape their relationship.

It’s a repeated line, but it is sort of at the crux of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” This conspiracy-minded action flick reveals that Hydra, Red Skull’s organization from the first Captain America movie, is still around, and has infiltrated the United States government. This, Hydra’s slogan, is said by members several times.

The show piece of the action in “Winter Soldier” comes in fairly cramped confines. Rogers finds himself in an elevator, surrounded by Hydra goons. Undeterred, Captain America delivers this line. Nobody takes him up on his offer, which doesn’t turn out well.

Three words that can mean so much. “Guardians of the Galaxy” brought oddballs to the forefront in the MCU. Among the burgeoning crew is Groot, a tree alien who 99 percent of the time only says these three words. Now, they mean different things each and every time, but still, it’s the most-repeated line in Marvel movies.

This line, in addition to being a funny quote, sums up the vibe of the Guardians well, especially the first film. Gamora, a serious-minded and multi-faceted criminal, certainly isn’t as up for shenanigans as Peter Quill or Rocket. This lamentation sums that up well.

Hawkeye never got his own movie, though he did get a limited series on Disney+, and his fit within the Avengers was always a little iffy. Here, Jeremy Renner gets a chance to be meta, but also to give a somewhat-encouraging speech in the process as well.

Nobody rallies the troops and speechifies quite like Captain America. “Age of Ultron” disappointed many, but it further solidified Cap as the leader of the Avengers. This pre-battle speech allows Captain America to set the tone for a battle that, well, was maybe not totally fulfilling, but don’t blame the speech for that.

The “Ant-Man” movies, at least the first two, are effectively comedies. Getting the first film to the screen took time, but when it happened, it landed quite well. Having Michael Pena around to play Luis helped, to be sure. This is a line from Scott Lang, though, which he says after Luis — who first says “Daddy don’t get scared” — does, indeed, get scared.

Scott is a reluctant hero at first. Hey, when “Ant-Man” begins, he’s just getting out of prison, and then finds himself swiftly back behind bars. Then, Hank Pym and his daughter Hope Van Dyne break him out so he can become the new Ant-Man. First, though, Scott needs to have some questions answered.

“Civil War” is overstuffed, but it did give us the most-momentous fight scene in the MCU. It also gave us Tom Holland as Spider-Man before the new Spidey ever got his own movie. Captain America says this to Spider-Man, to which Spidey replies that he is from Queens. In a bit of borough pride, Cap replies by saying he’s from Brooklyn.

It’s a really well-crafted line here that was handed to Tony Stark during that same fight scene. It could have been verbalized in other ways, but instead they landed on a top-notch turn of phrase. Iron Man says this after Scott, for the first time, uses the Ant-Man suit to get gigantic.

The trippiness of “Doctor Strange” comes into play big time in the conclusion. With the ability to turn back time, Doctor Strange sacrifices himself to save the universe by trapping himself and the villainous Dormammu in a perpetual time loop. Each time, it begins with Strange saying this. Eventually, Dormammu is willing to relent, and the universe is saved.

At first, Peter is happy to find his father. The fact he is a living plant with incredible power that Peter turns out to have as well certainly helps. Then, Peter finds out Ego is deranged, evil, and also killed his mother. If that wasn’t enough, Quill really liked that Walkman.

Casting Kurt Russell as Ego in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” was an excellent choice. In the end, the Guardians are primed to blow up Ego’s brain with a bomb, but that would cost Peter all his powers. Ego’s pleas don’t land with Peter, though, who replies, “What’s so wrong with that?”

The essence of Spider-Man as a character is that Peter Parker is always put upon, always frazzled, but he comes through in the end. This line is a shining example of that. Peter’s homecoming night takes a turn with he, as Spider-Man, having to fight the Vulture who, indeed, is the father of Peter’s date.

Speaking of Vulture, the MCU got a coup in casting Michael Keaton to play Adrian Toomes. He’s a guy who sees himself as a blue-collar guy in a world that doesn’t care about him. His job cleaning up after fights between superheroes and supervillains offers him access to technology that makes him one of those superheroes, and turns him into a wealthy man.

Waititi changed Thor with gusto with “Thor: Ragnarok.” This is many people’s choice for the best MCU film, or at least the funniest MCU film. Chris Hemsworth excels as a funnier version of Thor. This line does work really well, because Thor referring to Hulk as a “friend from work” is certainly true, but also kind of absurd.

Jeff Goldblum as a villainous alien who is also very Jeff Goldblum-y? Of course that works. The Grandmaster gets his comeuppance at the end of “Ragnarok,” though of course Cate Blanchett’s Hela is the main villain, but he does his best to try and spin things, and also to get out of the situation with it being considered a draw.

“Black Panther” was a true phenomenon. It made a ton of money, and helped establish Wakanda as a key location in the MCU. After T’Challa truly grabs the throne as both the Black Panther and the ruler of Wakanda, he also ends the isolationist policies of the country in a speech that includes this line.

The introduction of magic into the MCU certainly changed things, as that is a long way from Tony Stark being a guy in a technologically-advanced suit. Eventually, Stark starts interacting with guys like Doctor Strange and Wong, with “Avengers: Infinity War” being a key moment of that. As a motley collection of MCU superheroes face down the Children of Thanos for the first time, Stark says this to Bruce Banner as he struggles to Hulk out.

Thanos emerged as the ultimate antagonist of the first era of the MCU. “Infinity War” sees him on his quest to collect all the Infinity Stones in his mad desire to eliminate half the life in the universe. He’s a complex villain, though, and he truly seems distraught at having to sacrifice his daughter Gamora to get the Soul Stone. Later, a vision of a young Gamora visits Thanos and asks him this question. Thanos, seemingly genuinely, answers, “Everything.”

“Ant-Man and the Wasp” one-ups “Ant-Man” as a movie, in part because it is funnier. They lean into Luis as a fountain of comedy, but without overdoing it. When some baddie businessmen looking for info inject Luis and his crew with a drug, he is insistent it is truth serum even against the protestations of the guy who administered the drug. Although, in the end, even he comes around to the idea that it is truth serum.

“Ant-Man and the Wasp” gets a chance to be meta here. In the MCU, it had become standard operating procedure for people trying to disguise themselves to just put on a hat and sunglasses to hide and to blend in. Hank tries that as well, but Scott isn’t having it, delivering this bit of insight.

“Captain Marvel” disappointed some, but if you have an affinity for ‘90s stuff, it delivered that with gusto. Could Nick Fury deliver a more ‘90s-infused line than this? Perhaps if he mentioned Surge, or the Spice Girls.

It became something of the takeaway quote from “Avengers: Endgame.” That’s saying something since, you know, this was for a time the highest-grossing movie ever. Tony Stark rebuilt his life after “The Snap,” even having a kid with Pepper Potts. This, inflation on “I love you a ton,” becomes the affectionate go-to for Tony and his daughter.

It’s the defining phrase from the Avengers as a comic-book concept. They assemble. It’s what they do. Leading up to the turning point in the final fight with Thanos and company, Captain America, the leader of the Avengers, gets a chance to say this.

It’s a joke within the Holland “Spider-Man” movies that Flash Thompson thinks Spider-Man is cool, but despises Peter Parker. When MJ asks Flash why he likes Spidey so much, and he says this. Then, of course, Peter walks into the room and Flash says, “What’s up, d*ckwad? I thought you drowned.”

Peter is a kid. It’s key to his character, especially in the Holland version of the character. This is a literal statement from Peter in “Far From Home.” Nick Fury has indeed hijacked the summer vacation of Peter, and in turn Ned. Ned is enthused about it, but Peter really just wanted to hang with MJ.

Finally, Black Widow got her own movie. Then, it had to drop in the midst of the pandemic, and also Natasha Romanoff was overshadowed by two supporting characters in her own film. In addition to David Harbour as Alexei, there’s Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova. In another meta moment, Yelena asked Natasha why she always strikes a certain action-hero pose during fights.

“Shang-Chi” devolves into a monsters and people throwing magic at each other at the ending, but it’s a lot of fun until then. Awkwafina’s character delivers this line to Sima Liu, who plays Shang-Chi, after this does indeed happen out of nowhere. It’s a good fight, and a good followup to said fight to get some exposition in.

Look, we’re covering every MCU movie, so “Eternals” is in the mix. Chloe Zhao did get to do her thing, but “her thing” evidently didn’t work within the MCU. To be fair, the script, and the very nature of the Eternals as characters, didn’t help. This line is repeated, at least, and it sort of speaks to the ethos of the film.

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” was a momentous event. We got not only villains from past, non-MCU Spider-Man movies, but the two previous Peter Parkers, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, show up as well. The three Spideys team up, but they are different guys in different stages of their life. In a nice moment of recognition, Maguire’s Spider-Man says this as they gear up for a fight.

It’s the iconic line associated with Spider-Man. The line is from the comics, and it was said by Uncle Ben in the very first “Spider-Man” movie. We were in the third film in the new “Spider-Man” chronology, a universe where Uncle Ben was never around, and we had not heard the line. Then, it gets spoken by a dying Aunt May, and somehow a well-worn line was able to pop once again.

Sam Raimi’s return to directing brought some extra energy and fun to the MCU, and made the second Doctor Strange movie intriguing. It feels fitting for a Raimi movie that a zombie Doctor Strange plays a key role in the climax of “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” Zombie Strange gets to deliver this quip, and Benedict Cumberbatch even gets to be in prosthetics and makeup instead of pure CGI too!

Wanda Maximoff had become the Scarlet Witch in “WandaVision,” and that led the way to her appearing in “Multiverse of Madness.” Not only that, but Scarlet Witch gets to be the villain of the film. While villains had previously joined the good guys in the MCU, this time things went in the other direction, which was cool. Wanda delivers this line in the process.

“Thor: Love and Thunder” is essentially a comedy sequel, as Waititi returned to direct. Like many comedy sequels, it isn’t as funny, and feels a bit warmed over. Perhaps that’s why Jane Foster, returning after not being in “Ragnarok,” felt the freshest. Now wielding Mjolnir as Thor, she struggles to find a superhero catchphrase, but amusingly lands on “Eat my hammer!” when called upon.

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” was dealt a rough hand, as Chadwick Boseman tragically died while the film was in production. Now, the film was without the presumed lead, and it had to deal with the death of T’Challa. Angela Bassett did return as the Queen, mother of T’Challa, and this line probably played a big part in her getting an Oscar nomination.

“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” still has some good jokes, but it is also awash in Quantum Realm, for better or worse (like, 75 percent for worse). It also brought Kang from the TV realm to the film realm as the (planned) Big Bad to replace Thanos. Kang, who has experienced hundreds of multiverses, delivers this line to Scott, which speaks to his lack of fear of the Avengers.

James Gunn was able to return to the MCU to cap his planned “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy, which was met with great enthusiasm. We got the usual fun from the crew, including this delightful Drax line. This is Drax’s attempt to negotiate with Peter, who doesn’t want the Guardians to kill anybody on their mission.

The heart of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3?” That would be Rocket. We get his backstory, a grim one to be sure, but also a moment of triumph as Rocket is revived after facing death and gets to confront the High Evolutionary, the genocidal maniac who had brought Rocket into existence. Being addressed by his lab number, Rocket says this, which also involves him calling himself a raccoon for the first time.