Yippee Ki Yay: The most memorable action movie one-liners of all time

This first one-liner comes from the evergreen classic "RoboCop." During one of Alex Murphy's takedowns of some no-good fellas, one of them dares to reach for a shotgun after Murphy obliterates his pal. At this, Murphy nonchalantly says "Go ahead and do it. Dead or alive, you're coming with me." It's epic. In the words of the equally awesome 2014 "RoboCop" remake, this ain't good cop bad cop, this is "bad cop RoboCop." 

At a point in the movie "300," King Leonidas rejects a peace offering by the Persians by kicking their messenger down a well while yelling "This is Sparta!" in the most testosterone-fueled, over-the-top shouting voice of all-time. As far as historically cool one-liners go, this is the "for the bros" entry on our list. 

The context for this line is as straightforward as it gets: someone takes Liam Neeson's daughter, and he gives them a stern talking-to over the phone. However, Neeson's delivery and the line's sheer "cool dad" factor have helped this moment transcend the B-rate action movie it hails from ("Taken") to become one of the most respected and well-known action quotes of post-2000s action cinema. Even comedians such as Seth MacFarlane have spent copious amounts of time demonstrating their love for this line and its respective monologue.

When Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator is rejected entry into a police station, he responds with three words: "I'll be back." This simple statement has since become synonymous with the phrase "look out," 'cause it means bad news for anyone on the other end — just as it did for the police on the wrong side of Schwarzenegger's cast-iron determination. To this day, "I'll be back" remains one of the most elegant threats in the English language courtesy of "The Terminator."

If there's one "Bond" movie that introduces 007 like no other, it's "Dr. No," wherein, after a lengthy buildup, the debonair man of the hour reveals himself with only three words: "Bond. James Bond." And from that moment onward, everyone knows what kind of suave super-spy they're dealing with — audience included. This line has gone on to be ranked No. 22 in AFI's best film quotes of all-time list, as well as British moviegoers' #1 most-loved movie line.

In the film "Lethal Weapon," 50-year-old Homicide Sergeant Roger Murtaugh constantly reminds us that he's getting "too old for this s—" whenever he's faced with a threat or circumstance that he's just not in the mood for. Given its immense relatability to (ironically) people of all ages, this line has entered the mainstream. You can hear it on many college campuses when the professor gives out homework on a Friday.

There's nothing fancy about the quote, but Al Pacino's delivery of "Say hello to my little friend!" single-handedly earns it a spot on this list. All while coked out of his mind and packing some serious heat, Pacino's decimation of his drug empire's enemies wouldn't be complete without this off-the-rails finale-kickstarting line. When it comes to the most memorable, macho one-liners in cinema, "Scarface" has the competition beat with this iconic bit of dialogue. It's been quoted to death and back and will persist well into the future because it's just that good.

Early on in "Captain Phillips," the gripping true story about an American ship captain who was taken hostage by Somali pirates, the lead pirate, Muse, captures Phillips' ship. During this sequence, he tells Phillips "I'm the captain now." It remains one of the best moments of a "villain" (though in reality he's just an impoverished, desperate guy making bad decisions) asserting dominance over a hero in film, thanks to Barkhad Abdi's haunting delivery of the line and the genuinely fearful reception by his scene partner (Tom Hanks/Captain Phillips). 

This line is an A-grade demonstration in how to make ultra-cheesy dialogue look effortlessly cool. After gunning down an assassin whose identity was concealed by a donut costume, Gloria asks Black Dynamite how he knew the man was the right target. He cooly responds with "donuts don't wear alligator shoes." Take that sentence out of context, it's asinine. Have Black Dynamite say it after gunning down a bad fella, and it's the talk of a guy who walks the walk. For this reason, "Black Dynamite" makes the list.

New classic lines are in the making every day, and one of "Avengers: Infinity War"s opening dialogue sequences gifts us with yet another for the annals of film history. While in the process of dominating Thor, Loki and Hulk, Thanos says "Dread it, run from it, destiny arrives all the same." It's the ultimate bad guy line. After all, how does one escape destiny? The answer: they don't.

"Hello there" has become one of the most quotable lines in all of Star Wars since it's the verbalization of a perfect moment: the cocky, wise and ever fearless jedi decides to single-handedly challenge a four-armed spider-cyborg and his entire army of droids, all while saying snarky one-liners. It's about as Star Wars-y as Star Wars gets. Plus, the line cemented Ewan McGregor as not only the definitive young Obi-Wan Kenobi, but also as a highlight of the entire film series (a sentiment that can be evidenced by the numerous "hello there" memes made in his honor). It's one of the many great moments in "Revenge of the Sith." Fun fact: "hello there" is also Alec Guinness' old Obi-Wan Kenobi's first two words in "A New Hope."

This isn't just the most memorable Vader quote, or even the most memorable Star Wars quote. "No, I am your father" is (arguably) the most memorable quote in sci-fi movie history, and for good reason: it was, at the time, the biggest sci-fi plot twist ever and remains a historic cinematic shocker to this day. This one-liner from "The Empire Strikes Back" is a core pillar of western pop culture references. 

Towards the end of "Sicario," the movie's pseudo main character, Alejandro, goes on a solo revenge mission to hunt down the man who killed his wife and daughter. When he arrives at his target's house, the man is having dinner with his family. Alejandro goes to the family's dinner table, sits down, pulls out a gun and says (in Spanish) "Time to meet God," before killing the man's wife and two children right in front of him. Of all the epic one-liners on this list, this one is easily the most dark and hardcore. It perfectly sums up its movie's steadfast commitment to moral turpitude, all inside of four words.

This one's an obvious choice for the list. It's so perfectly self-aware: in a movie called "Snakes on a Plane," Sam Jackson gets annoyed at having to hunt down snakes on a plane. "I've had it with these motherf—— snakes on this motherf—— plane" has become a phrase of meme legend, and you've likely seen it crop up in at least a dozen different ways on the internet and in real life. Albeit with the words "snakes" and "plane" swapped out for whatever's topical at the time.

Though the line itself is only ever roared by one of the movie's villains, Koba (during the events of "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"), its words carry a sentiment that informs the whole franchise. "Apes, together, strong!" remains the epic chant that we all associate with one of the most legendary trilogies of all-time, thanks to the themes and marketing of the aforementioned three movies. If you shout this, people know you're not monkeying around. 

At the end of "Batman Begins," the Dark Knight is faced with a dilemma: how does he rid the world of Ra's al Ghul without killing him? Trapping him on a one-way subway train to hell ends up being Batman's answer, wherein he tells Ghul, seconds before the train's explosion, "I won't kill you… but I don't have to save you." It's as metal as one-liners get, even by the caped crusader's standards.

In "Cobra," Sylvester Stallone spares no time in outlining his dynamic with the opposition. "You're a disease, and I'm the cure," says Stallone. It's simple, effective and just cool enough to not be cheesy. This one-liner has had a far-reaching impact in Hollywood, infiltrating the industry's most unlikely nooks and crannies — including the "Deadpool" test footage.

For obvious reasons, this line from "Guardians of the Galaxy" had to make it onto the list — after all, no matter how you apply it, it just works. For this specific entry, though, we're taking the "I am Groot" from Groot's Kyln prison escape, wherein he roars his famous words before smashing some security drones to high heaven. It's a battle cry that everyone has, can and will quote for years to come.

The setup: Roddy Piper has to kill some aliens in a bank. The execution: he waltzes in there with a shotgun and declares "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass… and I'm all out of bubblegum." This line from "They Live" is so timeless that it has traveled across decades and through mediums — being directly quoted in video games like "Duke Nukem" and online entertainment publications (such as ours).

In "Predator," Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) hits his squad with a valuable life tip: "If it bleeds, we can kill it." If you ever find yourself up against an insurmountable foe, just see if a papercut has any effect on him/her/it — if so, no excuses! This line's impact on pop culture can be evidenced in movies such as "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," wherein Bruce Wayne asks Superman if he can bleed — a direct reference to Dutch's line of thought in "Predator."

In "Tropic Thunder," when Robert Downey Jr.'s troubled actor character (how meta) Kirk Lazarus goes on a mission to save Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) from Southeast Asian drug lords, he gets caught lying about being a farmer. Trapped between a rock and a hard place, Kirk Lazarus betrays his disguise, peeks out from beneath his Asian rice hat, unleashes two assault rifles and goes to town on the drug lords, shouting "I'm a lead farmer, motherf——!" It's hard not to call this line one of the most outrageous bits of dialogue in all of western cinema, especially when you factor in the equally absurd context surrounding it.

In "Dirty Harry," there comes a point where Harry's got a criminal at gunpoint. Unsure if he has one bullet left in his six-shooter, he asks the criminal: "You have to ask yourself one question: do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" Once again, Eastwood utterly decimates with this epic quote. This one-liner has stood the test of time so well that it's even infiltrated modern blockbusters such as "Transformers," wherein Ironhide's first words to Shia LaBeouf are "You feeling lucky, punk?"

Stone-cold machismo performances have always been Clint Eastwood's specialty, and his infamous "Go ahead, make my day" line in "Sudden Impact" stands as a testament to that theory. It's so perfectly crass yet calculated, exuding Eastwood's casual alpha male aura while also sounding plain-old cool in the process. We don't blame the crook in the movie for caving to Eastwood's demands immediately after hearing that line. We'd back down, too. 

If you thought telling those darn whippersnappers to get off your lawn was something only an old geezer would say, think again: when Clint Eastwood said it to a bunch of young ruffians in "Gran Torino," it wasn't a cranky old man's complaint; it was a stone-cold motherhugger's death threat. Thanks to Eastwood, this phrase is now one of the cool entries in the official elderly peoples' lexicon for chastisement of unruly youth.

There's nothing quite like Bruce Willis giving Hans Gruber the business, and no line does it better than "Die Hard"s historic quote "Yippee Ki Yay, motherf——." It's delivered by Willis with a childish irreverence that has yet to resurface on the big screen — making it a once-in-a-lifetime cinematic scene stealer. Among virtually all film buffs, this line, its context and its delivery are known by heart. We'd be silly not to argue this might just be the best one-liner in action movie history.