Top 22 Movie Monologues of Each Year (2000 - 2021)
2000: Maximus’s Speech
“Gladiator” The conflict between an ancient dictator and a general-turned-fighting slave drives this story. Joaquin Phoenix plays Emperor Commodus, who towards the end creepily debates with himself after his sister betrays him. The actor’s mostly even delivery contrasts with the explosive intensity of his final line, encapsulating the character’s tortured nature. Nonetheless, Russell Crowe’s portrayal of General Maximus steals the show. After earning glory by uniting a ragtag band of gladiators near the move’s midpoint, Maximus must reveal his identity to his family’s murderer. He does that and more, also unleashing a litany of the emperor’s crimes and a vow to hold him responsible. Crowe delivers the lines with restrained intensity, perfectly embodying his part as an aggrieved soldier.
2001: King Kong Speech
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“Training Day” In this gripping crime thriller, Denzel Washington plays Alonzo Harris, an LAPD detective who plots to pay back the Russian mob through a murderous scheme. The mercurial Harris faces off against an honest cop, with their conflict culminating in a gun battle, chase and fistfight. Following this, a group of gangsters and citizens surround the dueling men. Harris attempts to bribe the crowd into killing his rival, but his violent spell over the community is broken. Washington’s performance culminates as the wounded kingpin cop lashes out verbally at everything and everyone around him. This tirade’s raw intensity catapulted the character into pop culture’s pantheon, alongside the great ape he so forcefully evokes.
2002: Tips on Screenwriting
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“Adaptation” A wordsmith adapting a book into a screenplay finds his career threatened by writer’s block. That’s the setup for this film inspired by Charlie Kaufman’s real struggle to adapt “The Orchid Thief.” Kaufman’s movie counterpart gets so desperate he attends a screenwriting seminar. Based on real-life script doctor Robert McKee, the role is played perfectly by Brian Cox. When Kaufman asks for advice, McKee destroys the pretentious artist with a series of truth bombs. There’s nothing subtle about Cox’s performance, but his fiery oration fits the role to a tee. The actor delivers the devastating self-critique with aplomb. The speech is not only a major turning point in the film, but is also a powerful lesson in storytelling and life.
2003: Aragorn’s Address to the Army
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” Near the climax of the third film in this epic trilogy, hobbits Frodo and Sam struggle to destroy the One Ring. They’ve overcome many dangers, including almost losing faith in the prior installment. Sam’s hopeful homily gets them through, but this time they need an assist. Riding to the rescue are Aragorn and an army of other heroes, who attack the Dark Lord’s domain to distract him. As the hideous horde surrounds the good guys, Aragorn issues a gripping appeal to his fellow soldiers. Viggo Mortensen’s roaring delivery infuses the polished prose with force and feeling. This powerful moment kicks off the mad dash to the conclusion while restating the story’s central themes, making it far more than just pretty words.
2004: Who Is Superman Really?
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“Kill Bill: Volume 2” Since Bill wasn’t killed in the first volume, it clearly had to happen in the second. Beatrix Kiddo faces off against Bill’s brother and another of Bill’s assassins before finally tracking down her titular target. However, Beatrix learns her daughter is alive just as she’s about to finish her foe. Our hero plays it cool until the girl falls asleep, but then Bill shoots her with darts laced with truth serum. His interrogation also involves a lengthy sermon about superheroes and secret identities. Whoever Superman really is, there’s no doubt David Carradine performs this rant with superhuman coolness, plus a folksy drawl. His character’s propensity for waxing philosophic while playing cowboy-samurai firmly establishes Bill as one of cinema’s most uniquely magnetic villains.
2005: V’s Revolutionary Declaration
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“V for Vendetta” In a comic book movie unlike any other, a masked vigilante fights a tyrannical, dystopian government by means both vocal and violent. Early in the film, the hero V rescues a woman named Evey from the secret police. For a first date, he invites her to a concert, which turns out to actually be an attack. For an encore, V hijacks the public broadcasting system and gives a dramatic incitement to revolution. Hugo Weaving’s Shakespearean delivery elevates what could have been corny into something truly rousing. Cutting between V, the panicking authorities and the general public, this scene represents a crucial turning point. This speech sets in motion Evey’s rescue of her rescuer, V’s anti-fascist guerilla war and the rest of the film’s plot.
2006: Rocky’s Exhortation to His Son
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“Rocky Balboa” When Rocky comes out of retirement for an exhibition match with the current champion, the old fighter’s son Robert isn’t happy, trying to convince his father not to go through with it. Robert also complains about the difficulty of living up to his legendary fighter’s legacy. However, here pops hits back with some words of wisdom as devastating as any right hook. Sylvester Stallone delivers as a writer, actor and director for this outing, clearly digging deep into his own life for inspiration. In this emotional exhortation, he not only restates the franchise’s central theme, but also reconnects with his son. Rocky’s monologue stands out as one of the long-running franchise’s best moments.
2007: “I Drink Your Milkshake”
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“There Will Be Blood” Daniel Plainview’s ascent from a silver-tongued prospector conning communities to an overbearing oil magnate is only part of this story. As Plainview rises, so does his contempt for humanity. By the final scene, the tycoon is roused from a drunken stupor by a self-proclaimed prophet who once humiliated him. After getting the charlatan to admit his lies, a cruelly exuberant Plainview explains why the preacher’s last hope is lost. Daniel Day-Lewis stomps around like a hunchbacked madman, his jerky physicality embodying the character’s degenerated physical and mental state. Day-Lewis exercises his considerable range as an actor throughout the movie, but there’s no doubt this explosive diatribe is his performance’s unforgettable climax.
2008: Tonight’s Entertainment
“The Dark Knight” Every scene with Heath Ledger’s Clown Prince of Crime includes indelible moments. When Joker pitches the mob his solution to the anti-crime wave, his cryptic crackle precedes him. Ledger’s twisted voice and demented glee brim over as he enacts violent magic and psychoanalyses a city. Batman interrogating Joker leads to another incredible diatribe. Ledger’s uncanny charisma steals the show from a laconic Christian Bale. However, the anarchist prankster crashing Bruce Wayne’s party and facing off with his love interest is our pick. The Joker claims to have carved his bloody grin for the sake of love, though it’s likely just another of his twisted mind games. Ledger chews the scene with a pit bull’s bite force, dominating a room packed with the one percent.
2009: Landa’s Rat Speech
“Inglourious Basterds” Quentin Tarantino’s World War II alternate history film opens with an SS officer interrogating a French farmer hiding Jews beneath his floorboards. Cold and sadistic as his logic may be, Hans Landa isn’t your ordinary Nazi. At first, Christoph Waltz makes the character seem as smooth and sweet as milk. However, the deceptively pleasant fascist soon reveals he’s good at his genocidal job because of his empathetic capacity, not despite it. To play someone so simultaneously repugnant yet fascinating is no mean feat for an actor. Adding to the virtuosity of Waltz’s performance is the fact he so effortlessly switches between languages while doing it. This role and monologue helped raise Waltz’s profile in Hollywood significantly, and it’s not hard to see why.
2010: “How Could You Understand?”
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“Inception” Marion Cotillard plays Mal Cobb, or rather, a man’s idea of Mal Cobb. The man in question is her husband Dom, who accidentally drove her to take her own life. Now, she haunts his subconscious like a femme fatal figment. The malicious memory first appears when Dom infiltrates a man’s dream. She messes up all her husband’s plans, and later attacks the architect Ariadne. Mal finally gets to share her side of the story when Ariadne sneaks into Dom’s deepest darkest memory. The dream girl gives a speech reflecting on her own strange existence and even poses an existential riddle. Cotillard gets to really flex her dramatic range in this role, switching between sweet, seductive and violently psychotic with the fluidity of a prima ballerina.
2011: The Usual Pitch
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“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” Near the midpoint of this labyrinthian Cold War thriller, Gary Oldman’s George Smiley reminisces about trying to convince Karla, a Soviet spymaster, to switch sides. Unfortunately for Smiley’s nation and marriage, he inadvertently exposed his rocky relationship with his wife to the cunning commie. Karla ruthlessly exploits his adversary’s weakness by having a Soviet mole seduce her. Oldman fittingly plays the scene with sedate sadness. As he pantomimes offering Karla a cigarette, the actor succeeds in painting two scenes simultaneously. One is of an old spook finally able to see his own blind spots, while the other is a ghostly impression of a younger man betrayed by his own heart.
2012: Calvin Candie’s Lecture
“Django Unchained” In this intense post-dinner scene, plantation owner Calvin Candie, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, has just learned that his guest and potential customer, Dr. Schultz, has an ulterior motive. While feigning interest in purchasing a fighter, the doctor’s really helping the former slave Django rescue his wife. Before Candie reveals he knows this, the psychotic southerner gives a lesson in phrenology. DiCaprio oscillates between a silky-smooth drawl and histrionic hooting, truly embodying his character’s juvenile madness. What makes this monologue even more impressive is that DiCaprio actually cut his hand when slamming his fist on the table, meaning it’s real blood pulsing through his hand. This adds even more dramatic flair to this engrossing speech by one of cinema’s most twisted antagonists.
2013: Belfort’s Battle Plan
“The Wolf of Wall Street” Leonardo DiCaprio continues his winning streak by starring as Jordan Belfort in this ostensible ode to capitalist excess. Belfort is a stockbroker who turns a humble call center into a fraudulent financial empire. His drug-fueled fervor turns phone pitches into a spectator sport and his company meetings into fiery battle hymns. While DiCaprio delivers many memorable speeches, his farewell address is the most dazzling. Belfort plans to leave the firm to avoid prison, but ends up talking himself into doubling down on the shady company. It begins with the leading man almost whispering, but ends with a screeching war cry and room full of chest-thumping stockbrokers.
2014: The Critic
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“Birdman” As fading Hollywood star Riggan Thomson mounts an ambitious play, he battles critics internal and external. Thomson’s career shares many similarities with the man who plays him, Michael Keaton. Both depicted superheroes named after flying animals, adding more meta to the already self-referential script. Perhaps no scene embodies this as much as Thomson’s takedown of a snotty theatre critic. Having been chewed out by his daughter and forced to walk through Times Square in his skivvies, Thomson unloads his pent-up frustration on a temperamental tastemaker. Keaton deftly wields a flower like a cudgel, while delivering cutting lines like existential dagger strikes. His bristling indignation elevates this single scene into a stunning rebuke of all hating backseat drivers.
2015: Immortan Joe’s Speech
“Mad Max: Fury Road” The fourth installment in the “Mad Max” saga sees a new actor don the road warrior mantle, as well as the return of an old one. Hugh Keays-Byrne portrayed the big bad in the first “Mad Max” film back in 1979. In “Fury Road,” he plays Immortan Joe, the mightiest sickly warlord in post-apocalyptic Australia. After Max’s capture, the dystopian despot gives a self-aggrandizing panegyric to his own godhood. Then, he literally makes it rain on his wretched subjects, showing exactly how power flows in this dystopian society. The fact Keays-Byrne establishes such gravitas and pathos despite wearing a respirator and plastic armor speaks to his acting acumen. Great heroes need great villains, and this speech establishes Joe as a memorable mutant monocrat.
2016: What About My Life
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“Fences” 2016 featured multiple powerful monologues from captivating actresses. “Hidden Figures” chronicles the story of black women employed by NASA in the 1960s. When Taraji P. Henson’s character gets chewed out for disappearing during work, she blasts back at her boss and reveals what she goes through just to use the bathroom. However, Viola Davis’s turn as Rose Lee Maxson in “Fences” is unparalleled. While Denzel Washington’s character Troy Maxson dominates many scenes, Rose steals the limelight following her husband’s revelation that he’s having a child with another woman. As Davis raises her voice, reddens her eyes and pours out tears, the visceral emotionality is as undeniable to viewers as it was to the Academy.
2017: A Father Talks to His Son
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“Call Me by Your Name” In this coming-of-age story about a brief but impactful relationship, Michael Stuhlbarg plays the protagonist’s father. Though his son Elio was underage during his liaison, the elder Perlman sees the nuances in it. After the romance proves fleeting and ends in heartbreak, Mr. Perlman comforts his son in a touching talk near the film’s conclusion. The father shows he supports Elio without judgment, but then goes one step further by confessing to having had a similar relationship in his own youth. Stuhlbarg effortlessly exudes gentle strength and wistful regret. Though only a supporting role, the veteran actor delivers this tender moment with such tonal precision and understated power that it stands out as a truly unforgettable cinematic moment.
2018: Kwame Ture’s Speech
“BlacKkKlansman” When we first meet Ron Stallworth in this Spike Lee joint, he’s interviewing to become the first Black police officer in Colorado Springs. Initially assigned to the records room, the rookie clamors to go undercover. Soon, Stallworth is assigned to attend a speech by civil rights activist Kwame Ture. Corey Hawkins portrays Ture and delivers an electrifying performance. The actor oozes infectious energy and puckish charm. His discussion of institutional racism and internalized self-hate inspires Stallworth to initiate his investigation into the Ku Klux Klan, setting in motion the film’s main plot. The exhortation speaks not only to Stallworth’s external and internal struggles, but also to a country still reckoning with issues of racial justice and police violence.
2019: “Hark, Triton!”
“The Lighthouse” Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson team up for a brilliantly stripped-down motion picture about two men operating a lighthouse on a remote island. Pattinson plays a young newcomer to the sea signaling trade, while Dafoe portrays the brutish veteran lighthouse keeper. They lock horns in a struggle that grows progressively more violent and unhinged. Dafoe delivers many spine-tingling monologues, but our pick is his malevolent cursing of his subordinate following an argument over food early in the film’s second half. Dafoe turns his face into a fearsome mask as he verbally abuses his cringing co-star with a stream of invective that could make Poseidon himself seasick. It’s a gripping yet repugnant performance that calls to mind mad mariners like Captain Ahab.
2020: Sonnet 18
“Nomadland” Frances McDormand plays the widow Fern living in her van following her community’s economic collapse. In Act One, Fern struggles to adapt, but also makes connections with other wayfarers. As the second act opens, Fern gives a young traveler a cigarette. A little later, she again encounters the young traveler and learns he’s having trouble writing to his girlfriend. Fern suggests poetry and ends up reciting Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18. McDormand breathes new life into this old poem with a stirring but understated recitation. Her steady delivery falters for only the faintest moment as images from her past flash by on screen. The reading propels the story towards the Act Two break while providing insight into the protagonist in a true moment of cinematic transcendence.
2021: Why Is He Green?
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“The Green Knight” Alicia Vikander plays more than one character in this fascinating reimagining of the classic Arthurian legend. She portrays Gawain’s commoner girlfriend and the lady of the castle Gawain visits before meeting his fate. While the lady, her lordly husband and the knight converse, she poses a question: why is the warrior who challenged Arthur’s Round Table green? After pitiful answers from her dining companions, Vikander’s character provides her own interpretation. She launches into an epic discussion of the color green and the fecund life forces it represents. This poetic monologue touches on all the film’s themes. Vikander’s silky-smooth delivery eventually yields to a furious invocation at the end, propelling the film towards its final sequence.