There’s one big science ficiont movie from 1993 that Gen X Kids, and basically any other fan from across demographics, can quote even if the movie itself isn’t on. Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park not only has thrilling moments that fully changed cinema for the better, but specific lines of dialogue that became the linchpin for the sequels and even defined fans’ favorite characters.
Though that movie came to define the genre for that entire year, and arguably most of the decade, sci-fi fans in their formative years at the time still spent their time with a few other less noteworthy movies. The result is movies that have been almost forgotten by anyone who wasn’t there to experience them in their nascent days, but which imprinted on our minds so hard that the quotes are second nature to the movies themselves.
Marco Brambilla’s sci-fi action epic may have been something of a return to form for star Sylvester Stallone, but it’s worth noting that the movie did this not by relying solely on the action-heavy machismo of its star. One of the key ingredients that made Demolition Man become a fan-favorite at the time and maintain a cult status for decades is its sense of humor. Stallone as a performer takes himself entirely too seriously on the whole, so a film that not only proves he’s got some comedic chops but can balance that with the action moments we expect from him is what makes this one still have fans after thirty years.
A major component of Demolition Man‘s comedy is in the writing, the fish-out-of-water story that it has when Stallone’s ’90s era cop is thrust into the far future. The result is not only the bizarre details that inspire perhaps its most noteworthy quote (“He doesn’t know how to use the three seashells!”) but the misunderstandings that happen between Stallone and Sandra Bullock’s characters (“Let’s go blow this guy,” “Away. Blow this guy away.”)
Over a decade after their SNL premiere, these alien characters made the leap to the big screen in one of the many bizarre Dan Aykroyd creations from the 1990s. Not satisfied with the simple framing of aliens going totally unnoticed by ignorant Earthlings, the Coneheads movie combined all that alongside some hard sci-fi concepts about their home planet Remulak, including a stop-motion giant monster, The Garthok.
All of this made for a box office bomb, but one that has found its tribe over the years thanks to the undercurrent that actually defines hte movie. At its core, Coneheads is really a movie about simply being understood on a personal level despite the weirdness that is the fiber of your being, in fact that can even be seen in how its written and one of its best quotes: “Your positive perception of me is vital to my existence.” That said, aliens blending in with humans is still the funniest thing about the entire concept, so lines like “Consume mass quantities” is something only Gen X kids will throw out into the world.
Though TMNT at its core is pretty sci-fi (it’s in the name with Mutant Turtles after all) the third movie in the series takes it in a surprising direction by adding time travel into the mix. The result is a movie that’s the red-headed step child of the original films, but one that still has its fans despite a lower budget. There are things to like about TMNT III, with the banter between the brothers being the most noteworthy element. People who saw the movie at the time it was released may very well be the only ones who call themselves “fans.”
That in mind, there’s something to be said for a film that uses pop culture references as a crutch for much of its jokes, though it does give the film some of its most memorable lines (“You were expecting maybe the Addams Family?”). It gets no points for simply ripping off “Schwing!” from Wayne’s World, though. All that to say, maybe the best line in the movie shows the fine balance of humor and humanity at the core of the Turtles, when Mikey laments: “My legs hurt. My arms hurt. My spots hurt. Even my bandana hurts.”
Though completely dumped by the studio upon release, Freaked has found its fan base in the decades since thank to its non-stop commitment to multiple jokes per minute but also a commitment to practical effects that is pretty unrivaled even for the time. The sense of humor and emotional depth found in this raunchy film, co-directed and co-written by Alex Winter of Bill & Ted fame, is just part of its enduring legacy, all of which means that its difficult to figure out a best quote that fans find themselves repeating.
It could be the moment when Winter’s Ricky Coogin watches a plane explode and laments, “Sure glad that wasn’t our plane!” or the toilet-fueled exchange of “I just laid a turd that’s the spitting image of Kim Basinger!” followed by “Boy if I had a dime for every time I heard that.” There’s also moments that prove Freaked was ahead of its time, even if the anti-coprorate and anti-pollution sentiment feels prescient at any moment, but when Mr. T as the Bearded Lady says “But now I know who I am. I can say to the world, ‘Hey, this is me. I am woman, and I like me,’” we still feel that.
