50 Fun Facts About Movie Taglines

Which 1979 Ridley Scott film's posters warned that in space nobody would be able to hear you scream?

Alien put a hen's egg on its poster rather than the creature's egg seen in the film, and that image became the emblem of the whole franchise.

Which 1978 Roy Scheider film's posters teased swimmers who had only just decided the water was safe again?

Jaws 2 owes the line to trailer maker Andrew J. Kuehn, and it became one of the most famous in film history. The 1996 film Flipper parodied it by promising the water was finally safe.

Which blockbuster, backed by licensing deals with over 100 companies, joked that it had taken 65 million years to make?

Jurassic Park matched the number on its posters with a $65 million marketing campaign, which Universal had spent the film's long pre-production planning.

Which David Fincher film's poster claimed nobody reaches 500 million friends without making a few enemies?

The Social Network's poster designer, Neil Kellerhouse, first wrote the line with 300 million friends. He raised the figure because Facebook was expected to pass 500 million users by release.

Which 1995 Ron Howard film took its poster line from an astronaut's report of a problem to Houston?

Apollo 13 changed the tense of the real transmission: mission recordings have Jack Swigert reporting the trouble as already past, before Jim Lovell repeats it.

Which James Cameron film was sold with the boast that no force on Earth could separate its two young lovers?

Titanic was due on July 2, 1997, to reach the summer crowds, but Paramount postponed it to December. It went on to win 11 Academy Awards.

Which 1990 John Hughes production was cheekily advertised as a family comedy that comes without the family?

Home Alone was the highest-grossing live-action comedy for two decades, a Guinness record, and it made Macaulay Culkin a child star.

Which animated film, based on a William Steig picture book, was billed as the greatest fairy tale nobody ever told?

Shrek makes the ogre the hero and aims most of its jokes at Disney's animated fairy tales. It won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Which 2008 sequel's viral campaign slipped fans defaced dollar bills asking why they were so serious?

The Dark Knight campaign altered 11,000 one-dollar bills with the Joker's image for San Diego Comic-Con. A plan to throw them from a balcony was dropped as unsafe, so they were handed out covertly.

Which 1982 horror film was sold on a little girl's two-word announcement that unseen visitors had arrived?

Poltergeist gives the line to young Carol Anne as an earthquake shakes her family awake. It ranks 69th on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest movie quotes.

Which Steven Spielberg film's poster described its hero as afraid and three million light years from home?

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was also pitched at Christian audiences, with a poster that echoed the touching fingers of Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam.

Which Jim Carrey film's rhyming poster line said its hero was on the air yet unaware of it?

The Truman Show meant a pay cut for its star: then normally paid $20 million a film, Carrey agreed to play the unwitting reality-TV subject for $12 million.

Which 2003 animated film's poster counted 3.7 trillion fish in the sea, all of them looking for just one?

Finding Nemo became the best-selling DVD of all time, with over 40 million copies sold. Some 15 million of them went within two weeks of its release.

Which 1993 comedy, an Oscar winner for its makeup, listed a housekeeper's chores and called her a blessing in disguise?

Mrs. Doubtfire took its premise from Anne Fine's novel Madame Doubtfire: a father hires himself out as the family housekeeper without his former wife knowing.

Which 1994 Farrelly brothers comedy joked that for its two heroes every day is a no-brainer?

Dumb and Dumber turned a $17 million budget into $247.3 million at the box office with the tale of a road trip to Aspen to return a briefcase abandoned at an airport.

Which 1987 Paul Verhoeven film described its hero as part man, part machine and entirely police officer?

RoboCop came to its co-writer while he hung around the set of Blade Runner, picturing a mechanical officer slowly gaining real human intelligence.

Which Christopher Nolan thriller's poster declared the human mind to be the scene of the crime?

Inception began as an 80-page treatment about dream stealers that Nolan first took to Warner Bros. in 2002, when he pictured it as a horror film.

Which 1978 film, featuring a highly paid Marlon Brando, promised audiences they would believe a man can fly?

Superman paid Brando $3.7 million plus a share of the gross to play Jor-El, while its lead Christopher Reeve earned only $250,000 for two films.

Which 2004 Edgar Wright film was billed, in two blunt sentences, as a romantic comedy with zombies?

Shaun of the Dead grew out of an episode of the sitcom Spaced, in which Simon Pegg's character hallucinates a zombie invasion.

Which 1998 Roland Emmerich monster movie was sold on a three-word boast insisting that size matters?

Godzilla kept its star out of the adverts: the director insisted that no full-body or head shots of the monster appear, to the surprise of the studio's marketing chief.

Which 1996 blockbuster's posters said humanity had always suspected it had company and would soon wish otherwise?

Independence Day opened its campaign with a $1.3 million commercial during Super Bowl XXX. The film's success made the big game the stage for unveiling would-be blockbusters.

Which 2009 Todd Phillips comedy's poster observed that some guys simply cannot handle Las Vegas?

The Hangover needed no effects for Stu's missing tooth: Ed Helms never grew an adult incisor, so he had his dental implant taken out for filming.

Which 2017 Jordan Peele horror film warned that being invited does not mean you are welcome?

Get Out was made for $4.5 million and grossed over $250 million. Its original ending was bleaker, with the hero Chris arrested by the police.

Which 2018 John Krasinski horror film's poster warned that being heard by its creatures means being hunted?

A Quiet Place cast deaf actress Millicent Simmonds as the family's daughter, and its characters survive by talking in American Sign Language.

Which film, whose script studios rejected some forty times, joked that a teenager had got home 30 years early?

Back to the Future began filming with Eric Stoltz as Marty before the director decided he was wrong for the part and reshot his scenes with Michael J. Fox, at a cost of up to $4 million.

Which 1986 Tony Scott film's poster placed its fighter pilots up there among the best of the best?

Top Gun doubled as a recruiting tool: the US Navy set up recruitment booths in some of the cinemas screening it.

Which 1995 Best Picture winner's poster observed that every man dies but not every man really lives?

Braveheart was credited with a tourism boom worth £7 million to £15 million to Scotland, and a statue of Mel Gibson as William Wallace later stood by the Wallace Monument.

Which 1978 John Carpenter slasher was sold as the night its masked killer came home?

Halloween cost just $300,000 and grossed $70 million, making it one of the most profitable independent films ever. Carpenter was paid $10,000 to write, direct and score it.

Which comedy filmmaker's company produced The Fly, the 1986 horror whose posters urged audiences to be very afraid?

Mel Brooks produced The Fly through his company Brooksfilms. Its warning spread so widely that many people who repeat it have no idea which film it came from.

Which 1985 John Hughes film's poster said its characters met only once but were changed forever?

The Breakfast Club strands five students in Saturday detention, and the press soon lumped its young cast together under the nickname the Brat Pack.

Which 1986 fantasy film, with songs by Queen, was sold on the rule that only one immortal can remain?

Highlander shares its music with Queen's A Kind of Magic: several songs recorded for the film's duelling immortals reappear on that 1986 album, some in new arrangements.

Which 1974 Tobe Hooper film's poster asked who would survive and what would remain of the survivors?

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was marketed as based on true events to draw a wider audience, though only Leatherface and minor details were inspired by murderer Ed Gein.

Which 1986 Oliver Stone war film's poster named innocence as the first casualty of war?

Platoon draws on Stone's own service as an infantryman in Vietnam, and he sent the cast on a training course of foxhole digging, forced marches and night ambushes.

Which 1996 Coen brothers crime film's poster remarked that plenty can happen in the middle of nowhere?

Fargo opens by claiming to be a true story. The Coens later said they wrote a fictional tale around a real crime, and Snopes judged the claim one of their pranks.

Which 1990 Tim Burton film's poster promised that its hero's story would touch you, though the hero cannot?

Edward Scissorhands grew from a drawing Burton made as a teenager, expressing how isolated and unable to communicate he felt in suburban Burbank.

Which 2002 Steven Spielberg film about a con artist billed itself as a true story about a genuine fake?

Catch Me If You Can gives the real Frank Abagnale a cameo as the French policeman who arrests his screen self. Many of his claims were later reported to be exaggerated.

Which 1997 John Woo thriller's poster said the hero must become the villain in order to capture the villain?

Face/Off weighed several star pairings before John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, among them Sylvester Stallone with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Michael Douglas with Harrison Ford.

Which prequel, whose teaser debuted before Meet Joe Black, reminded audiences that every saga must begin somewhere?

The Phantom Menace drew fans who paid full admission just to watch its teaser in November 1998. Many did the same for the second trailer the following March.

Which 1999 horror film's poster reported three student filmmakers vanishing in Maryland and footage found a year later?

The Blair Witch Project kept up the pretence at its Sundance premiere, where the promotional campaign listed its three actors as missing or deceased.

Which 1960 thriller was sold in America on a then-novel rule that nobody be admitted once it had begun?

Psycho was promoted mostly by Alfred Hitchcock himself, who barred his stars from the usual interviews in case they gave away the plot. Even critics had to watch it with the public.

Which 1982 horror film, set at an Antarctic base, claimed the warmest hiding place of all is man?

The Thing has an all-male cast: its only female presence is the voice of a chess computer, played by director John Carpenter's wife, Adrienne Barbeau.

Which Wes Craven shocker told audiences to avoid fainting by repeating that it was only a movie?

The Last House on the Left owes even its title to a marketing man, and Craven first thought the name terrible. Its distributor reused the fainting line on later releases.

Which 1930 drama, Greta Garbo's first sound film, was sold with a two-word slogan announcing that its star talks?

Anna Christie set up a sequel of sorts: nine years later MGM sold Ninotchka, Garbo's first comedy role, with a matching two-word line announcing that she laughs.

Which 1972 John Boorman thriller was advertised as the weekend its four city men didn't play golf?

Deliverance had its budget cut by a nervous studio, so the four leads did their own stunts without insurance, and Jon Voight climbed the cliff himself.

Which Sam Raimi film described its hero as stuck in the past, surrounded by evil and low on gas?

Army of Darkness went by the working title Medieval Dead before taking its name from an idea raised during the previous film's production.

Which 1976 Richard Donner horror film's poster wished readers good morning, one day closer to the end of the world?

The Omen staged its baboon scene for real: when food failed to rile the animals, a zoo official put the troop's alpha male in the car to provoke them.

Which 1971 Stanley Kubrick film's poster listed ultra-violence and Beethoven among its young hero's main interests?

A Clockwork Orange was pulled from British cinemas in 1973 at Kubrick's own request, after it was blamed for inspiring copycat violence.

Which 1979 science fiction film's posters promised that humanity's adventure had only just begun?

Star Trek: The Motion Picture was itself a rescue job: after Star Wars hit big, Paramount scrapped a planned series called Phase II and turned its pilot script into a film.

Which 1920 German Expressionist film was teased with posters ordering the public to become its sinister doctor?

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was advertised before it was even finished, and the cryptic command on its posters echoes a line the asylum director screams in the film.

Which 1987 Joel Schumacher film's poster listed sleeping all day and partying all night as perks of being a vampire?

The Lost Boys takes its title from Peter Pan's companions in Neverland, who, like vampires, never grow old.