While the film — which follows McAdams and Jason Bateman as a couple whose weekly game night is turned upside down when real danger enters the picture — is packed with uproarious scenes and quotable lines, there’s one line reading in particular that still delights fans, four words that continue to pop up in online spaces as a perpetual fave. “Oh, no, he died!” McAdams’ Annie utters the line toward the end of the film, when one of many bad dudes who have been pursuing the game night pals is, well, no other way to put this, sucked into a jet engine. Annie, exhausted and surprised, offers up a deadpan delivery, simply stating the obvious. He’s dead. Sad!
But while the line in question has inspired lots of affection in the four years since the film was released, McAdams had no idea just four little words had become so beloved. During a recent interview for “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” IndieWire asked McAdams if she knew about the continuing affection for the line reading. She had no idea. (No, really, when McAdams was asked if this journalist was telling her something she didn’t know, she responded with a laugh and a firm “you are!”)
McAdams’ performance in “Game Night” yielded plenty of acclaim at the time the film hit theaters, but there was always the sense that its appeal would only grow. At the end of 2018, it was repeatedly singled out in an IndieWire critics’ survey of the year’s best movie moments, while the AV Club later stumped for her work to be recognized for awards almost a year after the film had been released. And it’s done very well on social media, spawning some delightful GIFs, quick video cuts, and a frequently passed-around tweet from writer Todd Vaziri. “Wow, thank you!,” McAdams said once she was assured of the enduring charm of the performance. “Tell my agent. I’m just kidding. That’s so funny, but wait, just that line or the whole scene?” (Well, yes, the whole scene, but really that line in particular.) McAdams chuckled and tried to think back to the conditions that had spawned her take on the material. “We were on a tarmac in the middle of Georgia and it was probably about 4:00 in the morning, so that may have added to the feeling,” McAdams said. “I don’t know, but that’s very funny. Well, thank you for telling me. That’s nice to know!” Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
