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The MCU has a total runtime of over 40 hours. During that time there have probably been over 5,000 pages of nothing but dialogue. That is undoubtedly long enough for it to contain several iconic and memorable quotes by one of the hundreds of characters that we’ve seen on screen since 2008.
Some quotes are crucial to defining a character, others serve to deliver a message, and there are still those that achieve a level of humor so high they become unforgettable. Between emotional, heartfelt dialogue, fight scene banter, and post-credits stingers, it is particularly difficult to narrow down every spoken line to a list of the most memorable quotes, but without further ado, here it is anyway.
Updated By Amanda Bruce On June 22, 2020: With the Marvel Cinematic Universe encompassing more than 20 movies, it seems a shame to stop at just 10 of the most memorable lines. The characters in the MCU have become iconic for more than just their comic book pages, and these additional lines are just one of the ways they have made their mark on pop culture.
15 “We’re Fighting An Army Of Robots And I Have A Bow And Arrow. None Of This Makes Sense.”
After the first superhero team up, Hawkeye seemed to have something of the short end of the stick. He didn’t have super powers, but he kept finding himself in situations where everyone else did. That’s what makes his Avengers: Age Of Ultron line so perfect.
Clint Barton spends his time as a man out of his element. He’s always recognized that what’s happening is outlandish, but he does the job anyway – just like all the rest of the heroes.
14 “Whatever It Takes…”
There might not always be a consistent leader of the Avengers, but Captain America always manages to inspire them. He does it one more time as his story in the MCU comes to a close.
Endgame offered one last team of the original Avengers as they set out to save everyone. Steve Rogers reminded his team over and over that they would do “whatever it takes” to bring back the people Thanos took from them, and that mantra is part of what made the stakes in the movie so high. Every single one of the heroes was willing to lose their lives to save everyone else.
13 “If You’re Nothing Without The Suit, Then You Shouldn’t Have It.”
Tony Stark became his mentor when Peter Parker joined the MCU, but their relationship definitely wasn’t smooth sailing. Peter wanted badly to prove himself as great of a hero as the rest of the Avengers in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and his repeated attempts put him and Tony at odds.
Though he had been gifted with a technologically advanced suit by Tony, Peter had to figure out just who he was without it. He proved, much like Tony, that all the technology in the world doesn’t make a hero. Instead, it’s the choices they make.
12 “I Have Nothing To Prove To You.”
As the first female solo movie of the MCU, it might have felt like Captain Marvel had a lot to prove to audiences, but she directed this sentiment at Yon-Rogg in their final confrontation.
Yon-Rogg tried to goad “Vers” into fighting against him without her powers, trying to get her to prove herself to the Kree operative who had supposedly invested so much time in her. After his betrayal and the way he held her back from being herself, Carol Danvers finally realized she was free to embrace her full power.
11 “She’s Not Alone.”
When the Avengers take on Thanos’ forces in Wakanda, it’s a staggering fight. They and their allies in Wakanda are quickly overwhelmed. When Scarlet Witch joined the fight, she was taunted about dying alone in battle by Proxima Midnight, which prompted this line courtesy of Black Widow.
It’s a small moment, but a meaningful one. Prior to Wanda joining the team, Natasha was the only female Avenger. She took Wanda under her wing, and the two joined forces with Okoye in battle to push back Thanos’ forces. Their small team up would be echoed later – without Natasha – in Endgame with a whole lot more women and a look at how the MCU had changed in a decade.
10 “I Can Do This All Day.”
This one goes in the “character-defining quote” category. There is no better line to describe Captain Steve Rogers. From being brutally beaten up as a weak kid in alleyways to facing robots and aliens as a national hero, his way of tackling his problems has always remained the same. He is always willing to give his life for the greater good and knows nothing is more important than saving lives.
In other words, no matter how broken, beat up, or tired Captain America is, he’s always ready to fight until the very end. After repeating the same quote in three movies to three different opponents, he’s made it pretty clear that he can do this all day.
9 “That’s My Secret Cap; I’m Always Angry.”
The Avengers was filled with insane, jaw-dropping moments but arguably the best character entrance in the movie came from Bruce Banner’s last-minute 180-degree turn-into-the-Hulk-and-punch-a-giant-alien-to-pieces turn. In a matter of seconds, Banner went from nervous, nerdy scientist to unstoppable, “badass” Avenger.
It’s one of the only times he has managed to remain absolutely calm in the entire MCU. The quote also serves as a crucial part of Hulk’s story. By stating that “he’s always angry” before transforming into the green goliath, it reveals that Bruce Banner now has total control over the Hulk.
8 “Wakanda Forever!”
Following Black Panther‘s unexpectedly huge success, “Wakanda forever” became the newest addition to the American dictionary. It could be heard everywhere. Fans, celebrities, and world-class athletes spread the Black Panther outbreak with their attempts to replicate the crossed-arms Wakandan salute. This war cry/salute became the movie’s unofficial slogan and was loved so much that they included it again in Infinity War.
Killmonger’s Michael B. Jordan went as far as (jokingly) saying Chadwick Boseman, T’Challa himself, had asked him to tell people to stop pestering his co-star to say the same two words and do the same gesture over and over again.
7 “I Am Iron Man.”
The four words responsible for creating the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it. Up until Iron Man, superheroes always had one necessary trait. They needed secret identities. Peter Parker battled with his identity in three movies, Batman fought to never reveal his true self and Pixar’s Parr family were ever so careful to keep their powers a secret.
Meanwhile, Tony Stark never comes to experience any of those problems and decides to simply tell the entire world his true identity on national television. It was a perfect end to a ground-breaking movie and an ideal way to showcase both Stark’s egotistical and rule-breaking nature and his benevolent, heroic personality.
6 “We Have A Hulk.”
Iron Man first declared the Avengers’ possession of a Hulk to intimidate Loki, Earth’s biggest threat, during the Battle of New York. Bruce Banner then managed to get himself from New York, to Sokovia, to a different planet, and finally to an Asgardian spaceship accompanied by a now heroic Loki. The God of Mischief then said the same quote himself to intimidate Thanos, the universe’s biggest threat.
What was first just a fun, throwaway sentence became something much more significant. It marked Loki’s journey from villainous trickster to unsung hero. As an added bonus, it also introduced us to Infinity War’s first epic fight scene. A Hulk vs Thanos, which unfortunately ends in an embarrassing defeat for the green giant.
5 “There Was An Idea…” – Fury’s Speech
“There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to fight the battles we never could.”
This string of iconic sentences was Nick Fury’s final step to succeed in the carefully planned out Avengers Initiative he had worked on since invading Tony Stark’s house in his first appearance. Years later, the first Infinity War trailer begins with the same speech. This wasn’t just some motivational speech. This is The Avengers. A group of remarkable people, who worked together to become something more and to fight the battles no one else could. It’s exactly what they did throughout two Avengers movies, and what they neglected to do in Civil War, which then literally cost them half the universe.
4 “We Are Groot!”
To an outsider, this quote makes absolutely no sense. For a Marvel fan, this is an extremely rare and cherished occasion. For a character who is only capable of saying the words “‘I’ and ‘am’ and ‘Groot’, exclusively in that order,” as Rocket puts it, hearing him add a new word to his limited vocabulary is incredible. Hearing him replace ‘I’ with ‘we’ is very intriguing.
Hearing him say, “we are Groot” as one final goodbye while he sacrifices his life to save his fellow Guardians is…mind-blowingly heartbreaking. And yes, according to James Gunn, director of Guardians of the Galaxy, Groot did actually die and the baby/teen Groot we’ve seen since GotG 2 is his son.
3 “If We Can’t Protect The Earth, You Can Be Damn Well Sure We’ll Avenge It!”
This famous quote might have been overlooked at the time as a cool way for Tony Stark to intimidate Loki in The Avengers. Then again, this is Marvel Studios we’re talking about. It is basically impossible for something as meaningful as this to not tie into a future movie. As a matter of fact, years later, Infinity War and Endgame gave this line a whole new meaning. Surprisingly, we’ve never actually seen the Avengers… avenge. At best, they avenged the “death” of Phil Coulson in their first movie, which for obvious reasons doesn’t really count (*cough* Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D *cough*).
Endgame will finally see Earth’s Mightiest Heroes earn their name and Iron Man fulfill on his promise. They were unable to protect the Earth so all that’s left now is for them to exact revenge on Thanos and avenge their planet, along with the rest of the universe.
2 “Dormammu, I’ve Come To Bargain.”
This list is full of quotes, crucial to either a character or the MCU as a whole. This one is nothing like that. The sole reason it’s being mentioned is that it became one of the most quoted lines in the MCU. And it became just that in a matter of minutes when Doctor Strange trapped the ruler of the Dark Dimension in a time loop punctuated by an endless wave of repeated words.
But this quote is more than just an annoying joke. This strange (pun intended), yet intelligent tactic led to the only final act of a Marvel movie to not be centered around a fight scene. It also served for a ton of time-loop related fan theories that may become relevant when Endgame finally releases.
1 The Words Of Thanos
Many consider Thanos as the MCU’s greatest villain. One of the contributing factors to that is his memorable dialogue. Infinity War immediately starts with the Mad Titan asserting himself as the ultimate foe. “Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same. And now, it’s here. Or should I say, I am” he says as he shows off the Power Stone on his gauntlet.
Even before IW, Thanos sent shivers down our spine in the Age of Ultron post-credits scene, where he proceeds to put on the Infinity Gauntlet for the first time and menacingly state: “Fine, I’ll do it myself.” During Infinity War, there are countless other examples of both threatening and heartfelt lines, but one quote combines these two in an unforgettable way. Thanos’s quote that killed half the universe. “You should have gone for the head”…