Top Movie Quotes and Software Management
So many top movie quotes, I wish I could remember them all and reference them at the right moment. Many of these quotes are easily relatable to situations in software management, and not only in movies about software like Office Space from 1999.
Top Movie Quotes
“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.” -The Godfather, 1972
Asking a team member if they agree to take a management role with more responsibility, more working hours and the same pay
“May the Force be with you.” -Star Wars, 1977
Transitioned into management without any training
“I’m the king of the world!” -Titanic, 1997
First-time manager, thinking you can tell people what to do
“You talking to me?” -Taxi Driver, 1976
Practicing your first speech as a manager
“The stuff that dreams are made of.” -The Maltese Falcon, 1941
When you have psychological safety
“First rule of leadership: everything is your fault” -A Bug’s Life, 1998
Self-explanatory
“I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” -A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951
Realizing what stakeholder management involves
“I’ll have what she’s having.” -When Harry Met Sally, 1989
Realizing you don’t know anything about management, trying to mimic your previous manager
“Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” -Casablanca, 1942
Realizing your calendar is your best friend as a manager
“Show me the money!” -Jerry Maguire, 1996
Asking team member to explain the business case of her suggested refactoring
“After all, tomorrow is another day!” -Gone with the Wind, 1939
Realizing you haven’t given feedback to anyone today
“There’s no place like home.” -The Wizard of Oz, 1939
Pair-programming with team members
“My mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” -Forrest Gump, 1994
Being notified of an upcoming re-org and management changes
“Elementary, my dear Watson.” -The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1939
When a team member asks why you insist on having 1:1s
“Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me. Aren’t you?” -The Graduate, 1967
A team member trying to persuade you to rewrite the app in Vue.js
“If you build it, he will come.” -Field of Dreams, 1989
Product manager asking to build a full-fledged-feature without any indication it would work
“Well, nobody’s perfect.” -Some Like it Hot, 1959
The VP says our company only hires the world’s top 1% talent
“They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!” -Braveheart, 1995
Receiving top-down OKRs, telling your team you have autonomy to choose the initiatives
“Open the pod bay doors, HAL.” -2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968
Your first big demo to customers, you’ve been practicing for weeks, but doesn’t work
“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” -The Wizard of Oz, 1939
Realizing how many meetings you need to attend as a manager
“Just keep swimming.” -Finding Nemo, 2003
Coaching your direct report
“Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.” -All About Eve, 1950
Delegating for the first time
“Shane. Shane. Come back!” -Shane 1953
The talented senior engineer is leaving for a double pay
“Big mistake. Big. Huge!” -Pretty Woman, 1990
Didn’t keep in touch with the candidate who accepted your offer and he didn’t show up on the first day
“No one expects the Spanish inquisition” -Monty Python’s Flying Circus, 1970
Failed SOC-2 audit
“That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.” -Babe, 1995
Receiving praise for turning the performance of the team around
“Yeah, well, that’s just, like, your opinion, man” -The Big Lebowski, 1998
When the Director of Product states that you should remove a step from the registration process because it just makes sense
“Do You Feel Lucky Punk?” -Dirty Harry, 1971
A direct report showing you an offer they got, expecting a counter-offer
“I’ll be back.” -The Terminator 1984
Being demoted after down-sizing
“Nobody puts Baby in a corner.” -Dirty Dancing, 1987
The introvert team member speaks up in a meeting
“It’s alive! It’s alive!” -Frankenstein, 1931
Successfully leading a change
“When you need to shoot, shoot, don’t talk” -The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 1966
Asking a team member to take a task after they said it’s easy and they don’t understand why someone else is struggling with it
“Houston, we have a problem.” -Apollo 13, 1995
Metrics show we’re heading toward a severe incident
“You can’t handle the truth!” -A Few Good Men, 1992
When your manager is asking for honest feedback
“You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” -Jaws, 1975
Management announcing the 12 strategic priorities and 5 engineering initiatives for the quarter
“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.” -Cool Hand Luke, 1967
Learning DiSC, realizing all communication breakdowns
“Snap out of it!” -Moonstruck, 1987
A team member talking 5 minutes about technical details in the daily standup
“Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By.’” Casablanca, 1942
When you disagree and commit
“Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” -The Godfather Part II, 1974
Organizing weekly sync meetings with stakeholders
“You had me at ‘hello.’” -Jerry Maguire, 1996
Going to a meeting titled “No estimations”
“Hasta la vista, baby.” -Terminator 2: Judgment Day, 1991
The toxic director has finally been fired
“E.T. phone home.” -E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, 1982
Calling your mentor for advice
“Say hello to my little friend!” -Scarface, 1983
When you present the ways of working of your previous company, convinced everyone will realize the brilliance
“Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.” The Princess Bride, 1987
The 2-hour managers training didn’t change anything
“I’m just here for the gasoline.” -Mad Max, 1979
A team member shares his only motivation is the salary
“I love the smell of Napalm in the morning.” — Apocalypse Now, 1979
When you delete your entire backlog
“It’s just a flesh wound” -Monty Python & The Holy Grail, 1975
Achieving only 7% of the quarter’s OKRs
“Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine” -Casablanca, 1942
When the perfect candidate accepts an offer from your tiny startup
“Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.” -Back to the Future, 1985
Management decides to drop OKRs because they don’t work, reverting to executive initiatives
“Here’s Johnny!” -The Shining, 1980
Technical debt
“Rosebud.” -Citizen Kane, 1941
Having a junior engineer on the team again, after 30 years of career
“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means!” -The Princess Bride, 1987
When the CTO says we “do agile” because we use Jira and do estimations, even though we never talk to customers and deploy once per quarter
“Hope is a dangerous thing it can drive a man insane” -The Shawshank Redemption, 1994
The project planned for 6 months is only 15% completed after 3 months, and management hopes you’d catch up
“Do you know what this is? It’s the world’s smallest violin” -Reservoir Dogs, 1992
When your direct report says they don’t have time for weekly 1:1
“Always look at the bright side of life” -Life of Brian, 1979
The only company that ever let you keep your virtual options has shut down
“Au revoir Shoshanna!” -Inglorious Basterds, 2009
When you successfully handled another Black Friday and Cyber Monday
“I’m too old for this shit” -Lethal Weapon, 1987
When the team event is 6 hours of rowing a canoe
“Ignorance is bliss” -The Matrix, 1999
When you accidentally find out your direct reports earn more than you
“Yippee Ki‐Yay, motherf****r” -Die Hard, 1988
When you’re second level on-call, paged at 3:00 AM and resolved an incident
“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” -Gone with the Wind, 1939
When a new AI tool for improving code reviews is announced, but you’re using trunk-based development and pair-programming
“I am the law” -Judge Dredd, 1995
Realizing the limitations of HR policies and labor law and admin work
“That escalated quickly” -The Legend of Ron Burgundy, 2004
When your peer is asking your team to do something and you tell them you can look into it tomorrow, and they go to the director to make you do it now
