The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences sent out a call for five-word movie summaries on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon. And thousands of people responded — including “Terminator” star and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Share the plot of your favorite movie in five words.
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) July 31, 2018
It’s a refreshingly off-brand idea from the Academy, being a hell of a lot more succinct than the typical Oscar acceptance speech, and the responses have been pretty fun and often very clever. For instance, Schwarzenegger, who not surprisingly picked the plot of his career-defining hits “The Terminator” and “Terminator 2.”
Machine sent back to save.
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) July 31, 2018
CNN anchor Bill Weir picked Roman Polanski’s 1974 neo-noir “Chinatown,” though his contribution is less a summary of the plot and more just a recitation of the film’s second most famous line.
Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown
— Bill Weir (@BillWeirCNN) July 31, 2018
Our personal favorite comes from Twitter user John Bousfield, who offered up this perfect summary of the plot of Christopher Nolan’s 2001 film debut “Memento”:
Wife my killed who discovering.
— John Bousfield (@Abusefield) July 31, 2018
(For those of you who might have forgotten, Memento plays out in reverse chronological order to simulate the experience of the main character, played by Guy Pearce, who is unable to form short-term memories.)
User Alex Benjamin had this pithy take on 2004’s Tina Fey-written dramedy “Mean Girls”:
There’s four girls. They’re mean. pic.twitter.com/2ADwPKRlUh
— alex (@alexkbenjamin) July 31, 2018
Jessie McFadden meanwhile had this to say about John Hughes’ 1985 coming-of-age classic “The Breakfast Club”:
https://twitter.com/JessTheBud/status/1024396023647502336
Christopher Buehlman got a Matt Damon threefer with this sum up of the plots of “Interstellar” (where Damon plays an astronaut who must be rescued in space), “Saving Private Ryan” (where Damon plays a soldier who must be extricated from World War II France), and “The Martian” (where Damon plays an astronaut stranded on Mars):
Massive Matt Damon rescue mission.#TheMartian#SavingPrivateRyan#Interstellar
— Christopher Buehlman 🇺🇦 🌻 (@Buehlmeister) July 31, 2018
Here’s Pixar’s “Up”:
The saddest opening montage ever pic.twitter.com/vPo96AtmaG
— kim powrie (@radgirl08) July 31, 2018
“Mulan”:
Brave girl soldier saves China pic.twitter.com/lpdZHRfCWM
— Maritza Moulite (@MaritzaMoulite) July 31, 2018
A certain 1994 British romantic comedy:
Four weddings and a funeral.
— Andrea Mann (@AndreaMann) July 31, 2018
Re-litigating the final scene of that one Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet movie:
Rich woman lets man die pic.twitter.com/TEEbw05Za1
— Oli Pettigrew (@Oli_Pettigrew) July 31, 2018
Steven Spielberg’s 1982 classic “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial”:
Alien charms kids, phones home
— Marc Duvoisin (@MarcDuvoisin) July 31, 2018
And speaking of Spielberg, people have opinions about how best to sum up “Jurassic Park.”
https://twitter.com/cltnbutcher/status/1024350312612724736
Shouldn’t have brought back dinosaurs.
— Ryan (@ryandisaacs) July 31, 2018
People fuck with dinosaurs. Again. pic.twitter.com/INfVo8U6hw
— Robert Wuhl (@RobertWuhl) July 31, 2018
And quite a few “The Big Lebowski” stans showed up.
Yeah, well – the Dude abides.
— Seankdla (@SeanKDLA) July 31, 2018
https://twitter.com/joshscampbell/status/1024382660033105920
https://twitter.com/justreadingdon1/status/1024419985848860672