Big No/Film

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Films -- Animation

  • Disney Animated Canon movies, of course, often tend to have these.
    • Basil lets out one in The Great Mouse Detective when he discovers that the bullets don't match, meaning Ratigan has evaded him yet again.
    • The page quote refers to a more parodical approach to this; the bird McLeach was referring to was an eagle Cody befriended that McLeach was trying to capture. McLeach, after the above dialogue, adds "she could have been mine if it weren't for you," implying that the bird's death was Cody's fault for refusing to tell him where the bird was. It turns out that the bird was alive, but McLeach was just telling Cody the bird was dead to get Cody to go to its nest and, in turn, McLeach followed Cody there and waited for the bird's arrival.
    • The Disney English dub of Laputa: Castle in the Sky has one delivered by Mark Hamill: Muska, blinded by the Spell of Destruction, staggers through the now collapsing corridors of Laputa's underground labyrinth. This is the last thing he says.
    • The Lion King has several:
      • Simba screams it as Mufasa falls to his death in a well-done and dramatic way.
      • That Big No was overlapped with a second Big No with Simba's flashback in the same movie, right before adult Simba jumps back onto Pride Rock.
      • And again in the sequel, in which he has a flashback/dream sequence -- two "Big No"s in a span of 11 seconds!
    • Peter Pan. Peter Pan uses the Big No when he yells at Smee, "UNDERSTAND!!!" while he imitates Captain Hook's voice.
    • Mulan. Shan-Yu yells "Nooooooooooooo!" when Mushu fires a big rocket at him.
    • Disney's Aladdin. Jafar, after he betrays Aladdin and realizes he doesn't have the lamp. Also, when he's sucked into a lamp in the ending.
    • In Disney's |Hercules:
      • This is Zeus' reaction to learning his infant son has been kidnapped. Since he's Zeus, the skies erupt with thunderbolts.
      • Hercules himself does a particularly heart-wrenching one when Meg is crushed by a pillar that was about to crush him.
    • Pixar in particular sometimes uses this too.
    • WALL-E
      • Eve does this multiple times, once with her voice when WALL-E fires her laser arm by accident and a few times with a movie scream whenever something bad happens to WALL-E. May be Lampshade Hanging.
      • Auto manages a couple as well, despite being "played" by a voice synthesizer. Seems Macintalk puts a lot of emotion into that one word for some reason.
    • Toy Story 2
      • Parodied during the elevator fight when the Al's Toy Barn Buzz Lightyear gave one after Emperor Zurg told him he's his father.
      • Emperor Zurg does one as he falls down the elevator shaft.
    • Toy Story 3
      • Woody shouts this when he falls into the incinerator.
    • Cars 2: Rod "Torque" Redline shouts this when he is about to be killed by the Lemons' radiation cannon.
  • Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade has one Big No by Fuse in a dream sequence.
  • In Spirited Away, Yubaba says this when she realizes that her baby is gone.
  • In Final Fantasy the Spirits Within, we get to see not one but two characters deliver the "Big No", combined with firing their weapons wildly, in very short succession.
  • Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children gives Kadaj a good one (of the primal scream variety) when he realizes that Jenova's head has been shot. And stabbed. And generally mutilated.
  • Played for laughs in Mirror Mask: "NOOOOO! I DON'T WANT TO BE A WAITER!"
  • In the 2007 TMNT film, Raphael lets out a Big No after the bad guys have kidnapped Leonardo. In the original movie, Donatello, Michaelangelo, and Raphael let one out as the Shredder is about to kill Leonardo.
  • Shrek 2: When Mongo, the giant gingerbread man, falls into the moat during the Storming the Castle sequence, both Shrek and Gingi do a slow-mo Big No.
  • Vakama does this twice in Bionicle: Legends of Metru Nui. First is when he sees Lhikan apprehended by the Dark Hunters, followed by It's All My Fault. Next is a shorter version after he sees a vision of the city being destroyed.
  • Done straight by the villain Zeebad in Doogal as he is pulled back into imprisonment.
  • Chuckie bursts into the chapel with one in Rugrats in Paris. Which just happens to be his first word ever.
  • In Help! I'm a Fish, Chuck lets out one of these when he thinks Fly is dead.
  • In Nine, 9 has a couple, complete with Futile Hand Reach, when 1 dies.
  • Rocky in Chicken Run does one when he thinks Ginger has been killed.
  • In Kung Fu Panda 2, Tigress does this when Po gets shot out of the fireworks factory by Lord Shen's cannon.
  • Mikey does this in Recess: School's Out when T.J. tells him that Benedict is trying to get rid of summer vacation.
    • Then again in the cafeteria later in the movie.
  • Mother Gothel in Tangled. Followed by several Little Nos after Flynn/Eugene cuts Rapunzel's hair.


Films -- Live Action

  • Star Wars is particularly famous for this. All the movies use the Big No at least once:
  • Virgil Brigman lets out a "NOOOOOOOO!" in The Abyss after Lindsey drowns herself so he can tow her back to the rig.
  • The Alien series:
    • In Aliens, when Ripley is dreaming that she has been impregnated by a facehugger Alien.
    • Alien 3: Bishop's "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!" when Ripley decides to kill herself.
  • Delivered to great comical effect near the end of the Alvinandthe Chipmunks movie.
  • Two in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.
    • Parodied when Austin is driving a steamroller toward a guard. The guard has plenty of time to move out of the way--Powers even beckons him to do so--but just keeps screaming "No!" instead and doesn't move a muscle.
    • Austin does it just before leaping to push the underground drill's abort button.
  • In Back to The Future:
    • Marty does this when seeing Doc get shot by the Libyan terrorists. However, he adds on by saying "NOOOOOOO! BASTARDS!!!!" It then turns out at the end that Doc was wearing a bulletproof vest.
    • He does it again (without the "BASTARDS!!!!") in Part II, when he discovers that Biff Tannen has changed history and married his mother.
  • Mos Def does it in Be Kind Rewind when all of the video cassettes in his store were erased.
  • Ator from Cave Dwellers is mocked on Mystery Science Theater 3000 for shouting "No!" while helplessly tied to a stick.
  • Constantine. After Constantine makes an ash out of Balthazar, the mysterious Big Bad Gabriel appears. After Balthazar asks him to resurrect him, he instead uses a wind to blow him away. He yells "Noooooo!" just before his remains crumble to dust.
  • Said by Ralphie in A Christmas Story when the mall Santa tells Ralphie that he can't give him a Red Ryder BB Gun because "He'll shoot his eye out" and then kicks him down the slide.
  • Harvey Dent yelled it in The Dark Knight Saga.
  • In Dead Poets Society, Neil's father (played by Kurtwood Smith) gives an impressive Big No after finding the dead body of his son.
  • The Devil's Advocate: Al Pacino screams "NOOOOOOOOOO" when Kevin shoots himself. Great because it's delivered in the understated acting style Pacino uses for this type of movie.
  • In the |Dungeons and Dragons movie, Riddley Freeborn's "NOOOOOOOOOO!" when Snails dies. The anguished slow-mo scream of the protagonist in the Dungeons & Dragons movie, upon seeing his Sidekick friend Snails stabbed to death (after heroically attacking a villain all by himself), drew involuntary laughter from a movie-going audience at a cinema in Germany. It didn't help that Snails the thief was clearly supposed to be the Plucky Comic Relief but failed miserably, except at becoming the proof that even in Fantasy, the Black Dude Dies First.
    • In American theaters, Snails' death brought applause, something that The Nostalgia Critic himself noted, wondering if it was appropriate to celebrate at that moment.
  • Used in Evil Dead 2, when Ash finds that the only bridge to escape the haunted forest is totally destroyed. "No... Oh, God no... No... NO! NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Of course, that's not the only example in the film.
    • Parodied in The Musical. Ash receives several bits of bad news, and with each bit he runs to a different part of the stage, drops to his knees and screams. The less "bad" the news gets, the funnier the scene becomes.
  • In many cases, it's the character's final line of the movie (there are even cases where it's the final line of the movie: here, Wesley Snipes' Jungle Fever, the telefilm Christmas Every Day...).
  • Some of the Star Trek movies use the Big No at least once:
    • Star Trek: The Motion Picture: Decker gives a Big No as Captain Kirk gives the order to Chekov to fire phasers at the asteroid when the Enterprise is trapped in the wormhole. This one only sounds like a "Big No", but was really elongated by the time-warping effect of the wormhole.
    • Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan has a famous variant: KHAAAANNN!!! KHAAAANNN!!!
    • Star Trek: First Contact: Captain Picard yells a Big No and smashes the glass cabinet with the models of the past Enterprises with a phaser rifle after Lily tells him to self-destruct the Enterprise after the ship is assimilated by the Borg. Lily makes it effective by a subdued reaction that contrasts his scream.

Lily: (quietly) You broke your little ships. See you around, Ahab.

    • Star Trek: Insurrection: Ru'afo shrieks it when the Starfleet Admiral tells him to have a private discussion with Picard. Ru'afo wails it again when Picard threatens to ignite the fumes on the collector.
      • Doesn't he also do it when he realises he's trapped in a holodesk simulation?
    • Star Trek: Nemesis: Counsellor Troi screams a Big No when Shinzon invades her mind, the Reman Viceroy yells it when he falls to his death after being kicked by Commander Riker.
  • The Lord of the Rings films have a whole bunch of them, most of them reasonably done:
    • Gimli has a Big No when he discovers the tomb of Balin, which dissolves into mournful sobbing.
    • Frodo also has one that doubles as a Slow No upon Gandalf's "death".
    • Aragorn's scream upon thinking Merry and Pippin are dead in the second film (when he kicks the helmet) isn't quite distinct, but seems to be a Big No. Interestingly, Viggo Mortensen's tremendous howl of anguish here was actually because when he kicked the helmet, he broke his toe. They kept that take in because it was, as such, his best.
    • Right at the climax of the third film, when Frodo succumbs to the lure of the One Ring while standing on the edge of the Crack of Doom. It's actually two smaller "no"s, then followed by what might be the biggest "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" ever heard as Frodo puts on the Ring, alerting the Big Bad to his presence.
    • Another in the third film is screamed twice by Eomer upon the discovery of his uncle King Theoden dead and his sister Eowyn almost dead on the battlefield. Here it is one of the rare effective moments of Big No.
    • Treebeard yells a forest-shattering one upon the realization that Saruman has burned the forest of Fangorn.
    • Samwise also has one when Frodo gets spotted by Sauron's eye in Mordor.
    • Yet another in the third film is Legolas in the final battle when Aragorn's about to be killed by a troll. It's definitely in the extended cut and the trailers at least.
  • According to this, yelling "NOOOOOOO!" is the distinguishing characteristic of the hero from Battlefield Earth. His first Big No occurs less than two minutes into the movie, after he learns about his father's death.
  • The Mummy Returns:
    • Imhotep, the titular returning mummy, actually slides on his knees into the frame to deliver one (in ancient Egyptian, of course) when the other Big Bad for the film is defeated. To compound it all, he was kinda late, sliding into frame about a second and a half after the stabbing. So blatant, it has to be some self-aware parody.
    • Rick O'Connell delivers a much more believable one earlier in the film when Evy gets stabbed.
    • so does Evelyn when it looks like Rick is going to fall into a bottomless pit after stabbing the Scorpion King.
  • In the 1986 movie No Mercy, Eddie Jilette (played by Richard Gere) threatened to shoot Alan Deveneux's arm off, Alan screamed it at Eddie pleading to not shoot.
    • Michel (played by Kim Basinger) in the end of that same movie, delievers it when Eddie Jilette moves Losado's shotgun fire to the wall behind her.
  • Plays for laughs in The Burbs, in what may be the film's most famous scene when Art and Ray find a femur bone that they believe belongs to their missing neighbor in fact, it belongs to one of their former neighbors.
  • The Spider-Man series:
    • Yelled by Otto Octavius in Spider-Man 2 when he wakes up and finds that his tentacles -- which have a mind of their own -- killed all of the doctors who were about to operate on him while he was unconscious.
    • The third movie has it when Eddie Brock sees Spider-Man is throwing a bomb at the Venom symbiote.
  • Terminator 2 had the best Big No ever, when Sarah Connor sees the good terminator walk out of the elevator. Not knowing he's good, Sarah falls down, but first has a look of disbelief on her face. Then as she runs the other way, her screams build up in volume until she finally lets out her Big No.
  • The Harry Potter movies:
    • Delivered straight in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix when Sirius Black falls through the veil in the Department of Mysteries. Harry screams it. In a twist (one in very good taste), the scream is given silently, with the score playing over it.
    • This after, in the Goblet of Fire movie, Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort delivers a painfully straight (and unfortunately delivered) double threat of Big No and (apparently) Skyward Scream when Harry got away... again.
      • Cedric Diggory's father also does one of these upon realizing what's happened at the end of this film.
    • And he does it again in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 after Harry gets away from him by destroying Lucius Malfoy's wand.
    • Ginny does this twice in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 when she thinks Harry's dead.
  • Parodied in the endings of Scary Movie and Scary Movie 2. In the former, as the Final Girl screams, she is run over by a car. In the latter, the Final Girl meets the psycho again. She does the Big No, he does a Big Yes... and gets run over by a car.
  • Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders features a truly glorious NOOOOOOOOO!", complete with slow-motion running towards the camera.
  • In Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street there is a Big No issued by the title character after he is informed of his wife's rape. Rather effective due to it blending in with his wife's screams at the end of the musical number/flashback, "Poor Thing".
  • The infamous 1983 film The Lonely Lady seems to think this trope automatically equals brilliant writing. Roger Ebert probably said it best:

The movie's whole plot hinges on Pia's ability to rewrite a scene better than her jealous writer-husband. When the star of her husband's movie weeps that she can't play a certain graveyard scene, Pia whips out the portable typewriter and writes brilliant new dialogue for the star. What, you may ask, does Pia write? Here's what: She has the grieving widow kneel by the side of the open grave and cry out (are you ready for this?) "Why? Why!!!" That's it. That's the brilliant dialogue. And it can be used for more than death scene, let me tell you. In fact, I walked out of this movie saying to myself, "Why? Why!!!"

  • The Kentucky Fried Movie has a random CIA mook shout this when the villain has him banished to... Detroit. '"NO! NO, NOT DETROIT! NO! NO, PLEASE! ANYTHING BUT THAT!! NO! NO!!"'
  • Raiders of the Lost Ark. While the Nazis are sliding the stone block to seal off the Well of Souls (with Indy and Marion inside), Marion yells "Noooo!" The sound is abruptly cut off when the block slides into place.
  • Played straight with the end of Heavenly Creatures.
  • In Tropic Thunder Tugg Speedman lets out one of these after killing a panda in self defense, and it's hilarious.
  • In Se7en David Mills build up to one of these after being informed that it was his wife's head in the box. "What was in the boooox? You're a liar! No! NO!"
  • The Abbé Coulmier in Quills achieves a massive Big No, bordering perhaps on Huge status, upon the Marquis de Sade's suicide. The Abbé's No is so big that it in fact incites a chorus of Big Nos from the asylum's inmates, which echoes off the mildewed walls and bathes the watcher in the uncensored vocal epitaph of the Abbé's bitter moral defeat.
  • In Superman, Superman lets out a few quiet little nos, followed by a big scream of anguish, when Lois Lane dies in the earthquake. Toy Fare magazine's Geek 100 rated this #6, as "the most agonized scream ever recorded on film."
  • In The Godfather, Part 3 Al Pacino gives a huge "NO", complete with faded soundtrack when his daughter is shot.
  • When Art Lean is killed by Goro in the Mortal Kombat, the Big No is screamed by Sonya immediately upon his death, and then issued by Johnny Cage when Shang Tsung proceeds to consume the guy's soul.
  • Said by Dr. Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show as he flees from a laser-wielding Riff Raff.
  • Parodied by William Shatner in Invasion Iowa, writing 13 O's on his cue card.
  • In the Watchmen movie Nite Owl lets out a classic Big No complete with falling to his knees upon seeing the disintegration of Rorschach.
  • In Zoolander, Derek Zoolander has one of these when he sees his (even more Too Dumb to Live than he is) friends die in a tragic gasoline fight accident, not very far into the movie. (The "no" starts a bit earlier, when he sees a cigarette arcing towards his friends in Slo Mo.)
  • Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers has several, all said in a row when Loomis realizes Laurie's daughter (whom he's been trying to protect) has been corrupted by Michael and has murdered her foster mother with a pair of scissors at the end of the film.
  • Legend (1985). Darkness yells "Nooooooo!" when he's blasted out into space by the sunlight.
  • Used twice in the X Men Origins Wolverine, both times by Logan; first time after he kills his father and the second time when he finds the dead body of his girlfriend. In the regular X-Men trilogy, Wolverine does it after killing Jean Grey, and when Iceman freezes the hallway between Logan and William Stryker.
  • X Men First Class, young Eric Lehnsherr (Magneto), just after his mother is killed. In his anguished cry, he's actually screaming: "NEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIN", the German version of this trope.
  • Played for laughs by Will Arnett in Hot Rod. Must be seen to be believed.
  • Several characters in The Fall scream "NOOOOOOOOOO!" at one point -- sometimes it's played for humor, sometimes it's played very, very straight.
  • Queen Penelope has one in the film The Oddyssey.
  • Lust in the Dust, after Abel Wood kills Bernardo's henchmen.

Marguerita: Accident?
Abel: They moved.
Bernardo: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Marguerita: Shut up, Bernardo.

  • Judge Dredd
    • The title character does this when former Chief Justice Fargo is mortally wounded by Junior.
    • Judge Griffin does it just before the ABC robot rips his arms and legs off.
  • A rare example of this being done well comes from The Elephant Man:

"NO! I am NOT an ELEPHANT! I am NOT an ANIMAL! I am a human BEING! I am... a man."

  • In The Wicker Man (1973), this, along with a Big OMG, is Sgt. Howie's first reaction to seeing the titular edifice. The camera-work, buildup, and above all, Edward Woodward's believable delivery of the line removed any potential narm.
  • In The Matrix, Agent Smith gives a brief one after Neo dives into his body and before he explodes.
  • In Bridge to Silence, Marlee Matlin's character both screams and signs her Big No when told that her husband is dead. How to do a Big No in AMSLAN: Using your right hand, make a "bird's bill" with your thumb and pointer and middle fingers. Clap them together rapidly for as long as you want your Big No to last.
  • Horror movie Skinned Deep has an example, with the Final Girl screaming "NOOOOOOOO!" repeatedly throughout the entire end credits.
  • Freddy Krueger does a hilarious version of this in Freddy vs. Jason when he finds himself caught on a piece of construction equipment and being dragged straight into a thoroughly pissed-off Jason.
  • A Big No occurs from Brian when both Bull and Axe fell in the firefighting movie Backdraft.
  • One comes from Howard Payne when he finds out he was tricked by the relooping security camera set up by Jack Traven in the movie Speed.
  • Deep Blue Sea has one Big No from Susan McCalister (played by Saffron Burrows).
  • The movie Ricochet has several Big No's from Earl Talbot Blake (Played by John Lithgow) when Nick Styles (Played by Denzel Washington) goes crazy.
  • Point Break has this trope by Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) when he sees Pappas (Gary Busey) gets shot in the back by a shotgun.
  • Shutter Island features one from the protagonist in a flashback near the end of the film, complete with overhead camera shot.
  • A Big No occurs from Duke (Apollo's trainer) in Rocky III, in which, near the end of the rematch, Balboa is making Clubber Lang angry enough to KO him; there's another Big No from Duke (in slow motion) in Rocky IV after Apollo Creed was KO'ed (killed) by Ivan Drago in an exhibition match.
  • Soapdish. Montana Moorehead's reaction to her high school yearbook showing that she was once Milton Moorehead, of Syosset, NJ.
  • Fatal Instinct. Ned Ravine after he thinks his skunk has been killed.
  • Diavolo in Corpo a.k.a. Devil in the flesh: Giulia (played by Maruschka Detmers) says this trope after a diary is read to her by someone.
  • Tombstone: Recently pointed out by The Nostalgia Critic, Kurt Russell's Big No is so Narmy it has to be seen to be believed. It comes with a cluster of Little Nos too.
    • Of note: According to witnesses, this actually happened, and this example is more out of defiance than anguish or despair. It's not "No, you killed my [insert relative/acquaintance]!" it's "No, you bastards ain't killing me!"
  • Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy: Ron Burgundy does this when a certain man punts Ron's dog Baxter over the bridge.
  • Spaceballs. Princess Vespa, when she's threatened with being given her old ugly nose back.
  • The Happening gives us a Big No courtesy of Mark Wahlberg, who screams it when someone he's known for an hour and a half gets shot.
  • In The Boondock Saints, Connor McManus gets one after Rocco gets shot and dies.
  • The Jensen Ackles flick Devour has got one in the end.
  • Scott in Eurotrip when he finds out that Mieke is a girl.
  • Potentially one of the more ridiculous examples occurs in the horrible Sleep Stalker, where the goatee-sporting lead character utters one with an ape-like inflection as he does it. It's worth seeing.
  • In the Atlas Shrugged movie, Dagny gives a reverberating one when she reaches the fire at the Wyatt oil fields.
  • Dr. Weir of Event Horizon gets one when Captain Miller activates the explosives of the bridge connecting the gravity chamber to the rest of the ship as it's about to go into the Cosmic Horror dimension that killed its last crew, sacrificing himself to save what's left of his own crew.
  • Undercover Brother. A Mook does this as Undercover Brother is about to stamp down on him. It then turns out that UB smashed a bag of potato chips instead.
  • Kei does this at the end of Moon Child, when Sho is dying in his arms.
  • Done hilariously in Silent Movie. Mel Funn, making the first silent movie in forty years, has the brainstorm of inviting reknowned mime Marcel Marceau. Calling France, he asks Marcel if he would to star in the picture. Marcel's response is the only audible line in the entire film; "NON!"
    • When Mel Brooks called Marcel Marceau to ask him to say the line, he originally pitched it as just "NO!" Marceau replied that he would only do it if it was "NON!" instead. Why? Because it would make more sense for him to say it in French.
  • Caesar gives a big one in Rise of the Planet of the Apes; also counts as a Wham! Line. Why? It was his first word.
  • In the beginning of Muppets from Space, Gonzo does this when he's excluded from Noah's Ark because he's the only one of his kind. Combines this with a Skyward Scream as the Great Flood begins.

Gonzo: Nooo! Noooo! I don't want to be alone! Nooo!

  • Romeo in Romeo + Juliet, upon Mercutio's death.
  • Ever After (film): Danielle does one when Marguerite throws a book into the fire that was the last gift she ever got from her dead father.
  • A Dutch version of the trope occurs in De hel van '63, when Melle accidentally skates into a hole in the ice. He can't find back the hole and his girlfriend Annemiek can do nothing but watch him drown underneath her. She screams "NEE!" when he stops moving.
  • Subverted in Daredevil after Elektra dies. It looks like Matt Murdock is winding up for a NOOOOO! but doesn't do it.
  • In The Neverending Story, when Atreyu screams "ARTAX!!!"
  • In The Contender, Jeff Bridges as President Jackson Evans yells one in frustration.
  • In the remake of The Haunting, Eleanor shouts "NO! I will not let you hurt the children!" at a ghost.
  • In The Avengers, Thor shouts this when Loki mortally wounds Agent Coulson aboard the SHIELD Helicarrier.
  • Luther screams a classic "Nooooooooo" in the climactic scene of "The Warriors" as badass gang The Riffs close in to (presumably) hack him and his gang to pieces.
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