Category: Movies

“You have a part of my attention. You have the minimum amount.”

From: The Social Network

Genre: Movies

Who said it?: Mark Zuckerberg

The story behind the quote: The quote comes from the brilliant film, The Social Network. It is a dramatized version of the story of how Facebook came to be. While a lot of the actual events have been spiced up to make the story much, much, much more interesting, a lot of the story is based on some fact.

The quote comes from when a lawyer questioning Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg) and Zuckerberg casually commenting that it’s raining. The lawyer, apparently annoyed, asked Zuckerberg if he deserves his full attention. The soon-to-be billionaire turns to the lawyer and frankly tells the lawyer that he believes that he doesn’t deserve his full attention. Most of his energies are focused on making sure that Facebook continues to develop and create new and amazing things for the public to use.

Geek wisdom: Sometimes, unimportant things will try to grab our attention to sidetrack us from a goal or a task. These unimportant things will try to do every thing in their power to avert our eyes from the prize. We shouldn’t let them do it.

When we put all of our blood, sweat and tears into something and it may feel impossible to actually accomplish it. At this point, we may actually want the distraction! However, if we do push through the hard times and devote the time to what we want, we can achieve it.

The thrill and feeling of achievement that comes from reaching a goal will definitely feel much better than the temporary relief that a distraction can provide.

“There is no spoon”

From: The Matrix

Genre: Movies

Who said it?: Some kid who can bend a spoon with his mind and Neo

The story behind the quote: We’re already talked about The Matrix before on how it was a groundbreaking film. What we haven’t really discussed is how many memorable quotes there are in the film. So, here’s another one.

Neo (Keanu Reeves) goes to visit the Oracle, a wise person who can see the destinies of people. While waiting for his turn to talk to the Oracle, Neo sees a little boy bend a spoon effortlessly through pure thought alone. The boy, seeing that Neo is astonished by his feat, explains to the hero that there is actually no spoon to bend; it is the person that bends. With this in mind, Neo then proceeds to bend the spoon with his mind as well.

Geek wisdom: A lot of the things we think is impossible is because we doubt ourselves. In the movie, it is easy for the kid to bend the spoon with his mind since he was taught that it is possible to do so. In the same way, Neo finds it incredible that a child can bend the spoon easily with his mind alone since he was taught that it is practically impossible to do it.

The child bending the spoon can refer to the thoughts that our dreams and aspirations are impossible to achieve. What we can learn from the quote is that there are no limits with what we can achieve if we really put our minds to it. In fact, we may find that attaining our “impossible” dreams are effortlessly achievable. We have to think that we can accomplish the impossible and get rid of self-doubt in order to reach for our goals in life.

“I love the Power Glove… it’s so bad.”

From: The Wizard

Genre: Movies, Video Games

Who said it?: Lucas Barton

The story behind the quote: This quote comes from the movie long Nintendo commercial, The Wizard. The story of the film is a “special” kid named Jimmy who wants to travel to California to put pictures of his dead sister in a dinosaur. His half-brother (played by Wonder Years’ star Fred Savage) breaks him out of the institution where he stays to help him get to California. Along the way, they meet a girl named Haley and they find out that Jimmy is a “wizard” in playing video games (get it?) so they enter Jimmy in Video Armageddon, a video game tournament with a prize of $50,000 going to the winner.

The quote comes from one of the “villains” of the film, Lucas Barton. Lucas encounters the trio and exclaims that he is the best NES player ever since he has all of the Nintendo games ever made. To emphasize this even further, he produces the Power Glove and uses it to play Rad Racer. After completing the race in the game, Lucas turns to the audience, delivering the quote and plugging the Power Glove to the young kids who are watching the film.

Geek wisdom: While it may seem like arrogance, it’s actually a good thing to take pride in what you have. Whether it be material things or your personal accomplishments, you have to be proud of it. There’s actually nothing wrong with what Lucas did in scene shown above. He’s just stating that he loves the Power Glove… and he proved why it’s awesome.

“A single idea from the human mind can build cities”

From: Inception

Genre: Movies

Who said it?: “Dom” Cobb

The story behind the quote: This quote comes from the smash-hit Inception. One of the highest grossing films of all time, Inception tells the story of Dominic “Dom” Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who is a professional criminal who enters the minds of his targets to steal their ideas. However, Dom’s team has been hired to do the opposite; instead of stealing ideas, their job in the film is to actually implant an idea in the target’s mind.

The story goes deeper into that just that. The director of the film, Christopher Nolan, weaves a brilliant tale regarding Dom’s backstory about his life and why he decides to take the job. Inception is a film that is thought provoking and something that should be seen by geeks and people who love movies in general.

Geek wisdom: It’s hard to underestimate the power of an idea. A lot of our modern culture is actually derived from ideas. The airplane came from the idea that people can fly. Even simple conveniences that we take for granted, such as paper, were derived from the idea that we should be able to write on something light and portable.

We all have ideas. No matter how small they are, we have to nurture these ideas into maturity because we can never know how great the idea actually is until we make the idea into reality.

“Use the Force, Luke!”

From: Star Wars

Genre: Movies

Who said it?: Obi-Wan Kenobi

The story behind the quote: If you haven’t heard this quote before, you may be on the wrong site. Kidding! Anyway, the quote comes from the first Star Wars film (technically called Episode IV: A New Hope) of the original trilogy. While the Force is mentioned several times throughout the film, the most iconic time it was uttered in the movie was during the attack on the Death Star.

Luke Skywalker flies his X-Wing into the trenches of the massive space station to fire a missile into a hole “that’s no bigger than a womp rat” (meaning its pretty small). While there are computers on board his X-Wing to “accurately” fire the shot, an early attempt failed even with the equipment. As Luke approaches the hole, he hears the ghost of Obi-Wan, his mentor, to turn off the targeting computer and let the Force guide the shot. He does follow the advice and manages to score a direct hit, obliterating the Death Star.

Geek wisdom:  All of us have the potential to do great things, but we are sometimes hindered by the thought that we can’t do it. We essentially don’t believe in ourselves anymore. Sometimes, we have to forget modern conveniences and actually perform the things we need to do by ourselves without assistance.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

From: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Genre: Movies

Who said it?: Ferris Bueller

The story behind the quote: One of the most memorable films from John Hughes. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is the story of the titular character, played by Matthew Broderick,  skipping school for one day to enjoy life. Ferris manages to coax his best friend, Cameron (Alan Ruck), and “spring” his girlfriend, Sloan (Mia Sara), from school to take the day off from school.

The quote is actually mentioned twice. The first time is when Ferris a few minutes into the movie, after he convinces his parents that he’s sick so he can stay at home and “recover.” He walks around the house, talking to the audience to deliver that piece of advice.

The second time the quote is delivered is at the end of the movie. Ferris successfully to return home before his parents get home to check up on him. After his parents leave the room, he looks back to the audience and tells the quote to the audience again.

Geek wisdom: In this day of age, we tend to take life too seriously and postpone our happiness. We think that, once we do this or achieve that, then that’s when we’ll be happy. Well, what’s wrong with being happy now? It’s always a good idea to take a break from the hassles of life once in a while. Take the time to appreciate what life can bring us.

Live it up a little. We only have a short time on this Earth. Take the time to revel in all the good things it can offer because we never know when it’ll be over.

“Are you telling me you built a time machine out of a Delorean?”

From: Back to the Future

Genre: Movies

Who said it?: Marty McFly

The story behind the quote: The Back to the Future series of movies was pretty awesome, however, it wouldn’t have been possible if the first film wasn’t so awesome to begin with. It established great characters (Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly and Chrisopher Llyod’s Doc Brown) and even terms from the movie, such as “flux capacitor, ” “1.21 gigawatts” and “88 miles per hour” have been ingrained in geek culture.

The time machine is another reason why the film is so popular. Doc Brown built his time machine from a DeLorean DMC-12, which is pretty odd if you think about it since most time machines before were, well, stationary objects. In fact, after their first test run, Marty also exclaims that he can’t believe that the car was actually a time machine.

Geek wisdom: Sometimes, we gotta go with style over substance. Sure it may seem shallow, but as Doc Brown said, its good to add some flair as well. While it does pay to be practical most of the time, it can be boring. We all want to get things and do stuff that, in the long run, are not really useful. Buying an expensive shirt or eating at a very fancy place may seem useless. However, if you do enjoy it, then there is some use to it.

Life isn’t just about surviving. Life is also enjoying living. We all have to balance our “fun” and “survival” in the right amounts.

“You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”

From: The Matrix

Genre: Movies

Who said it?: Morpheus

The story behind the quote: Released in 1999, The Matrix was a groundbreaking film that was unlike any other. First, the trailer did not reveal a single thing about the plot. It only asked “What is the Matrix?” Because of this, people were hooked! They just had to see it!  Before I go into the plot, people that haven’t watched it yet should go watch it first… this will get kinda spoiler-y. Don’t worry. I’ll wait.

Watched it already? Good!

So the plot of the movie is that machines have actually taken over the world and the world that human think they’re living in is just a computer simulation called The Matrix. All of humanity are plugged into machines where our bio-chemistry gives energy to the machines. Essentially, we’re all just giant living batteries. Only a small segment of humanity know about this and are trying to fight the machines.

The hero, Neo (played by Keanu Reeves) gets an audience with Morpheus (portrayed by Lawrence Fishburne). Morpheus gives Neo a chance to take a blue pill (which will just knock him out but he will never learn that we’re just giant batteries) or a red pill (which will make him wake up from The Matrix).

Geek wisdom: Throughout life, we are given the choice of taking the blue pill or ignorance or the red pill of knowledge. While there is a saying that ignorance is bliss, having knowledge is always going to be better. Now, the thing is, every thing that we learn is actually through our own choice.

All of us have a great capacity to learn new things on a daily basis. However, a lot of us don’t even try. Even reading a geeky site about wisdom you can find in pop culture (ahem!) adds to one’s knowledge about life. What we become educated on is wholly dependent on our own choice to educate ourselves with what is available in the world.

“Get up, you sonoabitch! ‘Cuz Mickey loves you!”

From: Rocky Balboa

Genre: Movies

Who said it?: Michael “Mickey” Goldmill

The story behind the quote: Ahh, the Rocky films. The quintessential story of an underdog trying to make himself better. Each of the six movies in the series tells the story of Robert “Rocky” Balboa (played by Sylvester Stallone), a down on his luck boxer who eventually becomes the World Heavyweight Champion of the world. This is thanks to no small part of his trainer and mentor, Micheal Goldmill… Mickey for short (portrayed by Burgess Meredith).

The quote comes from a flashback scene in the last film in the series, appropriately titled Rocky Balboa. Rocky, who now owns a respectable restaurant in Philadelphia, visits his old gym. Here, he remembers one of Mickey speeches. The speech is about how Mickey trained him and that he loved him like his own flesh and blood. He also tells Rocky that he’s proud with all of his accomplishments. Finally, Rocky remembers that whenever he feels that he’s in trouble and needs help, Mickey always believed in him, so he should never give up on himself.

Geek wisdom: Sometimes, we feel like giving up. It could be a dream or just life in general. However, we have to remember that there are always going to be people to help you when you’re down… there are people that believe in you. We can forget that, especially when we feel that we are in the lowest point of our lives.

So, when you feel that you can’t go on anymore, remember… there are always people there to help you out when you’re in trouble.

“Rule # 4: Double Tap”

From: Zomebieland

Genre: Movies

Who said it?: Columbus

The story behind the quote: Zombieland is a 2009 film about, well, zombies. However, unlike previous films of the genre, it is not a horror movie. It’s more of an action-comedy movie about a group of people trying to survive after the zombie apocalypse. Another thing that makes it different from other zombie films out there is that the survivors are actually pretty good at going about living in the world. One of the reasons why they are so successful is because of the rules Columbus (played by Jesse Eisenberg) created. He created a whole list of them and they all proved pretty effective in ensuring that he lives.

The quote comes from the 4th rule, which is “Double Tap.” In most zombie movies, the survivors shoot at zombies and, when it falls down, they do the stupid action of getting close to check on the supposedly dead body. Columbus suggests that people shouldn’t be stingy with their bullets at a time when survival is the main goal. Shooting the zombie once more make sure that they’re downed.

Geek wisdom: Like in real life, people should always make sure about stuff. There’s  no harm in checking and re-checking if what you did is correct. For students, it could be the answers for a test. For people at their jobs, it could be the work you’re gonna submit to your boss.

“Double tapping” just takes a few minutes of your time and it’ll give you peace of mind that you did your job right.