2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick & Arthur C Clarke Dr Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, Hal. Hal: I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDrDUmuUBTo Dialogue on Dialogue: Hal's apology adds a sinister quality to his AI programming that makes him seem more manipulative and therefor more human. Trivia: There is no dialogue in the first 25 minutes of the movie, nor in the last 23 minutes. There are around 88 dialogue-free minutes in the movie.

NOTE: This particular scene doesn't seem to available online, so I've substituted a trailer. The Wiz (1978), screenplay by Joel Schumacher, book by William F. Brown, novel by L. Frank Baum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnrP-4LVhgU DOROTHY: Phony! You're nothing but a phony! THE WIZ: I'm out! The Wiz is out! He's not here! DOROTHY: Lies! No more lies. TIN MAN: You charlatan! I've seen men shot for less. SCARECROW: You're a terrible man! THE WIZ: I'm sorry! LION: (Threatening) Sorry? THE WIZ: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! DOROTHY: Phony! THE WIZ: I'm sorry. Everything they say about me's true. I'm a phony! I got no powers. I got no right to be pretending to be the Wiz. I've got nothin'. Hocus-pocus. I'm just plain old Herman Smith from Atlantic City. DOROTHY: Atlantic City? Atlantic City? You mean, you're from New Jersey? THE WIZ: Mm-hmm. I'm just a second-rate politician from District Seven. SCARECROW: "Public office is the last refuge of the incompetent." Penrose! THE WIZ: Incompetent? (Laughs) That's me. I'm incompetent. So much so, I could never get elected to public office. Not because I didn't try. I tried everything. Look, look! I ran for any and everything: alderman, councilman, assembly leader. I became a laughingstock. I couldn't even get on the ticket. Finally, in desperation, I ran for dogcatcher. (Toto barks) I like animals, don't get me wrong, I like animals. I was at the end of my rope. I plunged myself into the campaign. One desperate grandstand play. You know what I did? I rented a hot air balloon. TIN MAN: Hot air---that's a perfect vehicle for you. THE WIZ: No, no, no, no! Oh! It was a beautiful Fourth of July day. I planned to fly over the boardwalk and the beach, and throw my--- (falls into balloon basket)---throw my leaflets to the astonished crowds below. My motto was: "Vote for Smith, your best bet to catch that pet." But just when I got up in the balloon, a terrible storm came up and blew me into the clouds. I got lost. I landed here in Oz. They'd never seen a hot air balloon like mine before. And I know I should have told them the truth, but they proclaimed me the Wizard...and I needed the job. DOROTHY: And you mean you sent us to kill Evillene...knowing...we might never come back? THE WIZ: She would've killed me. She would've found out I had no power, and she'd have took over Oz. DOROTHY: That's no excuse. Come on. THE WIZ: Please, please don't go. I live...I live here all alone...in terror...that someone will find out...that I'm a fraud. Please, just stay with me for a little while and talk. You can talk to me crazy, call me names. Dialogue on Dialogue: Quite different from Frank Morgan's grandfatherly wizard of the 1939 film, Richard Prior's Wiz is cognizant of the scam he's pulled on the people of Oz, and quite shamefaced once he's exposed. The change in the characterization of the role shows the changing attitudes of the times for both writers and the play- and movie-going audiences. Pronouncements of wisdom could no longer come from a weak, cheating character, but this allowed Dorothy and the others to discover for themselves their own hidden strengths once they saw how they had been misled.

Galaxy Quest (1999), screenplay by David Howard and Robert Gordon, story by David Howard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VGajDTNKFU SARRIS: Explain to him who you all really are. (Taking Nesmith) Tell him! Explain! NESMITH: Mathesar, there's no such person as Captain Taggert. My name is Jason Nesmith. I'm a...actor. We're all actors. SARRIS: He doesn't understand. Explain as you would a child. NESMITH: We, uh, we pretended. We lied. SARRIS: Yes, you understand that, don't you Mathesar? NESMITH: Mathesar...I'm not a commander. I...there's no National Space Exploration Administration. We...we don't have a, uh, ship. MATHESAR: But there it is. NESMITH: (Chuckles) That ship is that big. MATHESAR: But inside I've seen many rooms. NESMITH: You've seen plywood sets that look like the inside. Our beryllium sphere is...it's wire with plaster around it. And our...our digital conveyor is a...Christmas tree lights. It's a decoration. It's all fake. Just like me. MATHESAR: But...why? NESMITH: It's difficult to explain. On our planet we, uh, we pretend to, uh, to...to entertain, and, uh... Mathesar, I am so sorry. God, I am so sorry. Dialogue on Dialogue: After successfully gliding through several events almost unscathed thanks mainly to luck, Jason Nesmith's luck finally runs out when alien commander Sarris takes control of the Thermian-constructed replica Protector starship and forces Nesmith to admit his deception to the trusting Thermian leader. A painfully dramatic moment in a sci-fi spoof/adventure story.