“You Just Don’t Get It, Do You?” – Watch This Classic Screenwriting Cliche in Montage

There’s about a million lines in cinema that could be considered classic cliches, like someone shielding behind a bulkhead from gunfire yelling out “we’ve got company!,” or the ever-popular “If I wanted to kill you, you’d be dead already.” One that might not come to mind is “You just don’t get it, do you?”, which is one of those lines that is so ubiquitous that it has apparently crossed over from cliche to everyday colloquialism. At least, that’s pretty much what you have to conclude after seeing the ridiculously detailed montage below, which compiles more than 8 minutes of film characters all mockingly, exasperatedly or angrily asking each other “You just don’t get it, do you?”

The montage was conceived and cut together by YouTubers Jeff Smith and Josh Eckert, and gathers material from an impressively wide array of films. In particular, it highlights the way this phrase has been used in several different tones over the years. There’s the cruel, mocking delivery used by cinematic antagonists to rattle the hero, delivered as part of an Incredibles-style villain monologue as they unveil their master plan. Then there’s the version of the line that happens as part of a dramatic argument between lovers, as one of them gets ready to unsheathe their big, devastating admission. And then there’s the comic version of “You just don’t get it, do you?”, which has a significantly more lighthearted flair.

How Smith and Eckert managed to track down so many instances of this one line, we have no idea. But please enjoy the fruits of their labor below.