Doctor Strange: The 5 Best, Funniest, and Most Meaningful Lines

Doctor Strange is in theaters now, and looks like it’ll be a hit, if the weekend box office projections and certified fresh rating are any indication. The magical mind trip brings the Mystic Arts into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a major way, with multi-dimensional travel, world-bending madness, and ancient incantations. Meanwhile, it also ties directly into the rest of the MCU, with nods to the past and future of the film series.

But the coolest visual effects strung together without dialogue that makes you laugh, contemplate life, and maybe even shed a tear or two doesn’t add up to much. Luckily, Doctor Strange delivered there, as well. Read on for our favorite lines in the film (narrowing it down to five was difficult), and share yours in the comments! SPOILERS Ahead, obviously.

“Useless? The man charted a top 10 hit with a flugelhorn!”

This was the first taste of Strange’s humor, his relatively dry wit and the way he actually has some fun despite some of his… more stubborn qualities.

It sets the tone for the film, whigh has a good smattering of jokes throughout (some that land, some that go up in a poof of smoke), but it also speaks to the Marvel method of movie making.

Besides, who doesn’t love a good Chuck Mangione “Feels So Good” reference?

“Spells – but if that offends your sensibilities, you can call them programs.”

This line was very interesting to hear, and was one of a few times that the Ancient One made magic easier for Doctor Strange (and the audience) to grasp.

It built directly upon a line from Thor, “Your ancestors called it magic, but you call it science.”

These things aren’t a perversion of science, they’re an extension of it. Many were unsure whether Strange would embrace that explanation.

“I control it by surrendering control? That doesn’t make sense.”

As the good doctor was first really learning about how to use magic, he uttered this line, and no one line in the entire movie so gloriously encapsulates the film as this one does.

The line is very zen, borrows greatly from Eastern philosophies and has a lot in common with the way the Force is described in Star Wars films.

With magic, it’s not about controlling the spells, it’s about allowing your body to be a conduit for their power. On a greater scale, Doctor Strange needs to let go of his need to control, and instead embrace the way his desires can reach out and be extended through this extra-dimensional energy, through an unending need to “First, do no harm.” It’s a beautiful, multilayered line, as multiversal as the trippy visuals.

“I’ve prevented countless, terrible futures.”

Some of the best lines of dialogue in film, novels, any kind of creative writing are those that tell an entire story in one sentence. “The man in black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed.” “No, there is another.”

Add this line of the Ancient One’s to that last: “I’ve prevented countless, terrible futures.”

In her dying soliloquy, the Ancient One was full of great one-liners, but none opened up the universe of magic quite like this one.

When she said this, she instantly built a massive backstory for herself and the other Masters. They’ve been doing this for ages, and Doctor Strange is just another cog in the wheel. It’s up to him, now, and he has to do things his way. His job is no longer saving a life, it’s saving all of time and space. Bit of an upgrade on the pressure scale.

“It’s not wise to walk the streets with an Infinity Stone.”

The last line of the film finally confirmed on-screen what we already knew: the Eye of Agamotto houses an Infinity Stone (obviously, due to its use in the film, it’s the Time Stone, but you figured that out already, right?).

When Wong utters this line, it was hard not to do a little bounce in the chair – Infinity War is coming, and every step towards it just feels like something insane is about to happen. After having that feeling for most of Doctor Strange, getting to end on that same kind of high was outstanding.