Six movie quotes that are victims of the ‘Mandela Effect’

We often find ourselves quoting famous lines from movies. From The Godfather’s “an offer he can’t refuse” to The Terminator’s “I’ll be back!” films have provided dozens of memorable lines.

But you might be surprised how often almost everybody gets these movie quote wrong. These common misquotations are examples of what’s become known as the 'Mandela Effect’.

This is a phenomenon where a large group of people collectively misremember a fact. It gets its name from an incident in 2010, when many people on the internet said they clearly remembered Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s. In fact, Mandela was released in 1990 and died in 2013.

Here are six movie lines that are often victims of the Mandela Effect.

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Ask any Star Wars fan what the most memorable line from any of the films is, and they’ll likely say it’s when Darth Vader reveals the shocking fact that he and Luke Skywalker are connected by more than just The Force. “Luke, I am your father,” Vader is supposed to have said to the young Jedi.

Only in reality Darth Vader doesn’t ever say that. What he actually says is: “No, I am your father” after Luke accuses Vader of killing his dad.

But over the years the quote has been tidied up (probably so that it makes sense when removed from the context of the rest of the speech) and repeated so often that now the false line is the one that most people use when they want to quote the movie.

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937)

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” Everybody knows that that’s what the Evil Queen in Walt Disney’s classic 1937 Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs says when she’s fishing for compliments from the furniture, right?

But, you might have wondered, why does the vain sorceress feel the need to say the word ‘mirror’ twice?

The answer is that, actually, she doesn’t. In the film what she really says is: “Magic mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” Almost everybody has been getting it wrong for over 80 years.

Well, not quite. The original story by the Brothers Grimm includes the phrase: "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who in this land is fairest of all?" - perhaps some people are remembering the book, rather than the film?

The Wizard Of Oz (1939)

When people find themselves in an unfamiliar situation they often quote a line from the classic 1939 movie The Wizard Of Oz. “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore,” Judy Garland is supposed to have said to her dog, Toto, after they find themselves transported to the magical land of Oz.

But in fact the correct line is: “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” The misquotation is so common it even happens in other movies, including 1989’s Honey I Shrunk The Kids. You’d think they’d have taken the time to check!

Jaws (1975)

Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic suspense thriller about a killer shark terrorising the inhabitants of a small seaside town features one of the most consistently misquoted lines in movie history.

People often say “We’re gonna need a bigger boat” when they want to point out that something is entirely inadequate for a demanding task. The line is supposedly delivered by Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) to shark hunter Quint (Robert Shaw) when he finally catches sight of the giant shark.

But most people get the quote wrong. In reality it’s: “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

Star Trek

Star Trek is one of the most successful science fiction franchises in entertainment history. Seven live-action television series (comprising hundreds of episodes), comics, novelisations and 13 feature films have been made under the Star Trek banner.

And its most famous line is surely delivered when Captain Kirk (William Shatner) flips open his communicator and orders: “Beam me up, Scotty.”

The problem is Kirk never actually says that in any of the TV series or movies. The nearest he gets is “Scotty, beam us up” in the fourth Star Trek movie, Star Trek: The Voyage Home (1986).

Field Of Dreams (1989)

In Field Of Dreams, Kevin Costner plays an Iowa corn farmer who one day hears a mysterious voice which seems to instruct him to build a baseball diamond in his cornfields.

The line, usually quoted as “if you build it they will come”, has come to be used as encouragement to begin a big task.

But in fact that’s not what the ghostly voice says in the film. It actually says: “If you build it he will come” referring, apparently, to famous baseball player ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson, whose ghost does indeed later appear, along with a host of other, dead, baseball stars.

This article was updated in November 2022.