08 June 2026

Ending a movie with a preposition


Last evening while trying to avoid doomscrolling I browsed some movies recorded on my DVR.  I noticed that the dialogue in The Maltese Falcon ends with a preposition.

I found some commentary on the phrase at Blog of the Darned:
To be fair, the quote is based on a quote from Shakespeare:

Prospero:
   ...
   Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
   As dreams are made on; and our little life
   Is rounded with a sleep.
The Tempest Act 4, scene 1, 156–158

Also "The stuff that dreams are made of" did not appear in Dashiell Hammett novel. Humphrey Bogart reportedly suggested the line to John Huston, and they went with it. Bogart was a stage actor on Broadway before turning to film, so I presumably he was familiar with The Tempest.
I'm not a rigid prescriptivist regarding usage of the English language, but last night I wondered whether any other major motion pictures end the dialogue on a preposition.  A quick search of "last lines" mentions "And then I woke up" from No Country for Old Men, but in that case it would be an adverb (it's also not a preposition in "I'm ready for my close up."

There are probably many such examples.  If there are movies with Minnesota characters, they might end a scene asking "are you coming with?"

I offer the challenge to the readers here.  Not sentences ending with prepositions, but final words spoken in a movie.

4 comments:

  1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: "Something worth fighting for."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tootsie (1983): "What are you gonna use it for?"

    ReplyDelete