Top 5 last lines in a movie as decided by yours truly.
Number 5:
Celine: “Baby, you’re gonna miss that plane.”
Jesse: “I know.”
Starting this one on a romantic note for all you lovers out there. This one comes from “Before Sunset” (Hot take: this is a far superior romance movie than “The Notebook”) and not only is it a great finish in and of itself, it also redeems the ending of the first movie (“Before Sunrise”) which was a bit frustrating.
Number 4:
Truman: “And if I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening and good night.”
The Truman Show is one of my favorite movies of all time. And the decision to end it by calling back this bit of dialogue not only perfectly encapsulates Truman’s new found growth and awareness, it also has you crying and cheering in your seat.
Number 3:
Dr. Sean Maguire: “Son of a bitch stole my line.”
Apparently this bit of dialogue was ad-libbed by Robin Williams at the end of “Good Will Hunting” which takes it from great to God-tier. The tone and the sentiment perfectly encapsulate the entire movie in one sentence.
Number 2:
Ellis Boyd “Red’ Redding: “I hope I can make it across the border.I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope…”
It’s easy to argue that “hope” is a great theme in any piece of art and Shawshank builds a masterful script around that idea. The fact that it culminates in this monologue while Andy and Red reunite on a beautiful beach just puts it over the top. Absolutely lovely.
The pressure is on.
Not only to deliver the greatest last line in the history of modern cinema, but the pressure is on this entire blog.
You see, this is hitting your inbox on the first Monday after the New Year. And, in the fitness business, the new year is essentially the Super Bowl.
So like a rabbi delivering the sermon on Yom Kippur (the most well-attended synagogue day of the year for those of you not familiar with Judaism) or the groundhog deciding whether or not he saw his shadow on one early February morning, this is the time when I’ll have the most attention.
Which is great, but also leaves me with the important decision of what to create with these 800 words that I deliver to your inbox every Monday morning.
Should I play the hits? Something motivational perhaps.
Or do I take a controversial stance in order to get your attention?
Maybe I go after other fitness brands. Or share a client story. Or, God forbid, another tale from my childhood.
I only get this shot once every 52 weeks.
I asked my therapist what to do and she once again told me that we should really be focusing on the myriad of actual problems I have. So no help there.
Typically, I would zag here. Most people are discussing “x” so I’m gonna talk about “y”. But after much soul searching I decided that I was going to zag from my zag and talk about the one thing that everyone talks about this week, resolutions.
The good news for you is, I don’t have too much to say about them. But in recent years, resolutions have been the subject of much abuse. They have been battered in the storm of hardcore gym culture and people who believe they are only for the weak-minded, non-committed masses who clog the squat racks and treadmills for the first three to six weeks of every year.
Just last year a major fitness brand that I won’t name directly but rhymes with “Equinox” launched a campaign targeted against the resolutioners, vowing not to sign up any new members on New Year’s Day.
A publicity stunt for sure but one that I hope blew up in their faces.
Cause, the truth is, there is never a bad time to work on improving yourself and set out to achieve your fitness and health goals. In fact, this might be the best time.
Unlike every other time of the year where there’s Spring Break and summer travel and seemingly endless weeks of Jewish holidays and wedding season and spooky season and holiday season and mental health days and whatever else keeps us from getting in a rhythm, the stretch between now and Memorial Day is fairly clear of the detours that would keep you out of the gym.
Plus, after countless slices of pecan pie and sitting in traffic or in airports or on smelly, uncomfortable bus seats, your body, mind and soul are probably primed for a change.
So if you find yourself resolving to commit to a gym routine or a nutrition plan or a yoga practice or whatever, don’t let the haters get you down.
And if you are a hater (yup, I’m looking at you “gym that is definitely not named Equinox”) lighten the fuck up. We’ve all done the popular thing at the popular time in our past. It was called high school.
I still owe you the number one last line in a movie and for me it comes at the end of “Rocky II”. For those of you unfamiliar with the plot, Rocky, after losing the first fight to Apollo in a split decision (a detail many people seem to forget and think that Rocky won) decides that he is going to quit fighting for other opportunities.
But there are no other opportunities so he decides he wants a rematch with Apollo which a now pregnant Adrian (his wife) is squarely against. Rocky struggles to train for the fight without Adrian’s support and when she falls into a coma after childbirth he abandons training to be by her side.
When she finally awakens he tells her that if she doesn’t want him to fight anymore he won’t. But Adrian has a change of heart and tells him that the only thing she wants him to do is win.
Cut to one of the greatest training montages of all time and a fight that goes the full 15 rounds with Rocky coming out on top at the last second.
As he holds up the championship belt, his face bruised and bloodied as he talks to the ring announcer post-fight over the PA, he talks about how hard of a fight it was and how after the birth of his son, this is the greatest day in the history of his life.
Then he says he has one last thing to say to his wife who is at home. He lifts up the belt and yells into the microphone, “Yo Adrian. I did it!”
And this can be you. You may not be standing in the Philadelphia Spectrum at the end of a staged fight. There may not even be much support or applause.
But you can be the outlier who pursues their resolution for weeks or months or years until you finally reach your goals.
And you may not have a moment to shout it into a microphone but you can proudly and perhaps emotionally look at yourself in the mirror and say “I did it”.