10. American Psycho (1999)

All of Patrick Bateman’s maniacal rants remains pop culture staples, though the one standout that checks out under monologue would have to be his thoughts on Whitney Houston. Bateman, played by Christian Bale, breaks things down further with a wistful reflection on 'The Greatest Love of All', a song he feels to be 'one of the best, most powerful songs ever written'. By tying narcissism into his derived meaning of the track, Bateman only furthers his delusion while striving to appreciate the finer things. But all craziness aside, it’s definitely the best Whitney Houston song.

9. Wall Street (1987)

Like his father before him, Michael Douglas is able to twist the nasty desires of man and present them to the world as inventive, even healthy modes of existence. And nowhere does this ability shine brighter than in Wall Street, the 1987 smash that showed the ugliness of the stock market exchange with salacious intent. Towering above his business minded peers, Gordon Gekko, played by Douglas, goes on a particularly inspired rant about the word 'greed', and how such a trait can improve standards of living. Writer and director Oliver Stone goes all in on this one, and the results are positively marvelous.

8. Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Quentin Tarantino wrote himself into a corner with Hans Landa, the cunning Nazi commander in Inglourious Basterds. Fearing he had crafted 'an unplayable part', it was the rousing performance of Austrian actor Christoph Waltz that gave the movie, as he put it, 'life'. As for anyone scoffing at such high praise, one need only look at the opening scene of Tarantino’s 2009 film for proof. Set amidst the quiet cabin of Jewish sympathizers, Waltz’s myriad of moods is at once charming, whimsical, and coldly calculated. The sense of menace conjured up is otherworldly. As Landa, the Academy Award winner dishes on the ins-and-outs of his profession, right down to what makes him such an effective hunter of the Jews.

7. A Few Good Men (1992)

Fresh off the heels of Rob Reiner’s A Few Good Men, the infamous line was merely the tipping point for an all-time freak out. Thrown on the stand in connection with the murder of a U.S. Marine, Colonel Jessup, played by Jack Nicholson, and lawyer Daniel Kaffee, played by Tom Cruise, hash the details out to the tune of slowly rising tension in the courtroom. Between Cruise’s pestering energy and the Colonel’s steadfast annoyance, things explode into a soliloquy on what it takes to protect the American way. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin weaves a blanket of verbal beauty for Nicholson to cozy up to, and the bravura delivery of such frazzled content makes for an indelible image.

6. Apocalypse Now (1979)

Marlon Brando, an emotionally ambitious performer, was notoriously difficult on the set of Apocalypse Now, bringing weight issues and dialogue debate to an already stressed Francis Ford Coppola. Miraculously, the talent cobbled together worked beautifully, particularly in the five minute monologue that was largely improvised the day of the shoot. Shrouded from the sunlight, Kurtz’s harrowing tale of hacked off arms and the virtues of moral terror hit hard. Awareness of his own insanity, aligned with the inner evils of man, are haunting to absorb, furthered by the knowledge that he “never wants to forget” the horrors witnessed during battle.

5. There Will Be Blood (2007)

There Will Be Blood isn’t easy to watch. Soul-shaking and savagely composed by director Paul Thomas Anderson, it’s a film up to it’s neck in the jet black vices of jealousy, hatred, and greed. As a result, Blood’s climactic jolt of violence releases the resentment of a man housing an empty pit for a heart, and a bowling alley in his basement. Occurring fifteen years after the events of the core narrative, handle-barred hedonist Daniel Plainview, plazed by Daniel Day-Lewis, is paid a visit from the scheming Eli Sunday, only to enable an opportunity to tell the preacher what he really thinks of him. The actor’s baritoned turn as Plainview is terrifying and hilarious in equal measures, made only more memorable by the iconic 'I drink your milkshake!' mantra that guides this verbal dismemberment to a close.

4. True Romance (1993)

Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper appear sparingly in 1993’s True Romance, so it’s a testament to the talent of these charisma kings that they supply the picture with it’s most iconic moment. Held captive by consigliere Walken, Hopper’s former cop plays dumb while Clarence, played by Christian Slater, and Alabama, played by Patricia Arquette, make off with an unhealthy amount of mobster money. Knowing his number is up, Hopper sparks up a few and unspools one hell of a history lesson. Tony Scott is terrific, but it’s Quentin Tarantino’s script that truly shines in this, the greatest going out speech ever committed to celluloid.

3. Network (1976) 

Sidney Lumet’s scathing expose comes to a head with this awe-inspiring indictment of The American Dream. Delivered with the gusto of a man on the brink, this televised rant occurs after news anchor Howard Beale, played by Peter Finch, has been given two weeks notice on the air. Penned by screenwriting savant Paddy Chayefsky, Beale’s tirade on the status quo in America is eerily prophetic given it’s 1976 timestamp. Finch’s kooky delivery is made all the more frightening when realizing the validity in his words, a brainwashed nation content to relax while the powers that be play God.

2. Pulp Fiction (1994)

Multiple monologues come up in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. There’s Samuel L. Jackson’s Big Kahuna opener, or the Christopher Walken speech that’s undoubtedly made it’s way into multiple acting auditions in the decades since. But beyond these stellar spots stands the film’s finale; a snarling nonlinear send off that has Jackson summing up the pithy attitude of Pulp’s living persona. Dressed like a dad at Disneyland and aiming his cannon at an unlucky Tim Roth, the Academy Award nominee lays into a verbal display both revealing and utterly cool in content.

1. The Great Dictator (1940)

Where does one even start with this speech? Charlie Chaplin, a man known for his devotion to silent cinema, wound up bestowing the artform with it’s most powerful deployment of dialogue to date. As the finale to his political opus The Great Dictator, this impassioned broadcast comes from The Barber, a lowly worker mistaken for the Dictator of Tomainia: Adenoid Hynkel. The Hitler parallels are obvious, right down to the sublime naming and stubble moustache that both men happened to share. Though it’s with this thinly veiled portrait that Chaplin tackles the impending horrors of The Third Reich with humanity’s greatest unifier: love.