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Complete-the-Quote Title

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Literature, music and television are full of quotable quotes, and they are frequently used as titles in other works. In this case, only part of a quote is used, one which really doesn't indicate what it's about, but the other part, the one left unsaid, does. This often gets audiences thinking before they see it, and creates expectations about what it will be about, particularly if it's a very well-known quote that everyone can finish without thinking. Other, more obscure, quotes may count as a Genius Bonus, but will still serve the same function in those familiar with them.

Consider a quote that everyone knows from William Shakespeare, "To be, or not to be," from a scene in which Hamlet contemplates suicide. For this to be in effect, a work in which a character is considering killing himself would be titled, "To Be", while one that focuses on the reasons he has to live would be titled "Or Not To Be".

Sub-Trope of Literary Allusion Title and Foreshadowing. Compare Compound Title and Double-Meaning Title.

If two parts of a quote are used separately for different (but thematically linked) episodes, they're Cross-Referenced Titles.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Comic Books 
  • Batman: Black and White: "The Devil's Children" doesn't involve devils or children; it's a play on the proverb that "idle hands are the devil's children", and it's the bit about idle hands that's relevant to the plot.
  • The EC Comics story "...And All Through The House" note  takes place on the night before Christmas.
  • Used In-Universe in The Sandman (1989)'s "Dream Country" Story Arc. The title of Calliope's capturer's first book is "Here comes a candle" (notable in that there are several actual books called that).
  • Spider-Man (Dan Slott): The title of the storyline about Peter running Parker Industries was Worldwide. It makes sense for a more international Spider-Man, but it makes even more sense that the obvious next word is "Web".
  • Well, not the title but the tagline on every cover. The Thunderbolts had as its tagline, "Justice, Like Lightning..." The first and most obvious clue that our new heroes aren't heroes, but the Avengers foes the Masters of Evil in disguise is that tagline, if you know the full quote: "Justice, like lightning, should ever appear to few men's ruin, but to all men's fear."
  • The Watchmen not only takes its title from the famous quote attributed to the Roman poet Juvenal ("Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"/"Who watches the watchmen?"), but also the name of every single chapter is a piece of song lyrics/other famous quotes. The full quotes are found at the end of each chapter.
    • Chapter I: "At Midnight, All the Agents..." (from the song, "Desolation Row", by Bob Dylan).
    • Chapter II: Absent Friends (from the song, "The Comedians", by Elvis Costello).
    • Chapter III: The Judge of All Earth (from the Book of Genesis).
    • Chapter IV: Watchmaker (from the quote, "The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking... The solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.", by Albert Einstein).
    • Chapter V: Fearful Symmetry (from the poem, "The Tyger", by William Blake).
    • Chapter VI: The Abyss Gazes Also (from the quote, "Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.", by Friedrich Nietzsche).
    • Chapter VII: A Brother to Dragons (from the Book of Job).
    • Chapter VIII: Old Ghosts (from the poem, "Hallowe'en", by Eleanor Farjoen).
    • Chapter IX: The Darkness of Mere Being (from the book, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, by Carl Jung).
    • Chapter X: Two Riders Were Approaching... (from the song, "All Along the Watchtower", by Bob Dylan).
    • Chapter XI: Look on My Works, Ye Mighty... (from the sonnet, "Ozymandias", by Percy Bysshe Shelley).
    • Chapter XII: A Stronger Loving World (from the song, "Sanities", by John Cale).
  • Wolverine vol 2 #8, guest-starring The Incredible Hulk in his mob-enforcer persona of Joe Fixit, is titled "If It Ain't Broke..."

    Fan Works 
  • Both Ask Not the Sparrow and its sequel Love Bites have titles that are one half of a quote, which is then completed in the chapter title: "Ask not the sparrow how the eagle soars" and "love bites, but sometimes it's just a nibble".
  • The Empath: The Luckiest Smurf story "For The Smurf Of Money", to which Tapper completes the full quote, "...is the root of all evil." (1st Timothy 6:10)
  • Foobar137's works:
    • For "And You Don't Know Why But You're Dying To Try", the song continues, "You want to kiss the girl". The story is about Perry trying to convince Phineas to kiss Isabella.
    • "Whither Thou Goest" comes from the Bible, Ruth 1:16: "Whither thou goest, I will go". Pacifica completes the quote in the story when she chooses Mabel over her parents.

    Film 
  • The title of the Arnold Schwarzenegger film The 6th Day is part of, "God created man in His own image. And behold it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." (Genesis 1:27, 31).
  • American Animals: The title comes from a quote from On the Origin of the Species, an abbreviated version of which appears as a title card: "American animals slowly migrated by successive generations from the outer world into the deeper and deeper recesses of the Kentucky caves." All words fade but "Kentucky" to present the setting of the film. The plot includes the theft of a rare version of On the Origin of the Species.
  • The film Come and See is about a boy's experiences during the Nazi invasion of Soviet Russia. Its title alludes to Revelation 6, where John is told to "come and see", and then writes "and I looked, and behold, a pale horse whose rider's name was Death."
  • Cry 'Havoc', about Army nurses on the Bataan Peninsula as it's overrun by the Japanese in 1942, takes its title from a line in Julius Caesar: "Cry 'Havoc', and let slip the dogs of war."
  • The short Deadpool: No Good Deed indicates that Deadpool's attempt to be a hero is going to go wrong, as No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.
  • In The Day After Tomorrow, two library-bound survivors ask whether they should burn the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, whose "The Antichrist" states in its preface: "Only the day after tomorrow belongs to me. Some are born posthumously." Part of this line provided this movie's title.
  • Fools Rush In is a bit ambiguous. The original is a quote from Alexander Pope: "fools rush in where angels fear to tread". This quote was then referenced in the lyrics to "Can't Help Falling in Love", made famous by Elvis Presley: "Wise men say only fools rush in, but I can't help falling in love with you". The title is likely taken from the song, which is now more famous than the original quote, and which is actually featured in the film.
  • The Harder They Fall (1956) references the well-known adage "The bigger they come, the harder they fall".
  • Love Actually, truncated from the line "Love actually is all around."
  • Now You See Me, but the film's really about what you don't see until the very end..."now you don't."
  • Once Bitten, about a teenager who discovers the older woman who seduced him is a vampire. It comes from the adage "Once bitten, twice shy".
  • Road to Perdition "is paved with good intentions". The usual quote is "hell", but "perdition" hides the intent of the quote as to make it obvious, and is a less inflaming word to more pious moviegoers.
  • Stranger Than Fiction: From a quote often attributed to Mark Twain – "Truth is stranger than fiction."
  • Through a Glass Darkly: It's from the well-known 12th chapter of I Corinthians, in which Paul describes the limit of human understanding as "we see through a glass, darkly.". Appropriate for a film in which Karin is a schizophrenic suffering from hallucinations, and her father, brother, and husband wonder what to do and what to believe in.
  • To Catch a Thief takes its title from the second half of the idiom "It takes a thief to catch a thief", which holds that the best person to get inside a criminal's mind is another criminal. The plot of the film is about a reformed thief playing detective to entrap another thief who has been using his MO.
  • The rather non-descriptive title of What Dreams May Come is part of a line from the "To be or not to be" soliloquy from Hamlet. The full line reads: "For in that sleep of death what dreams may come", which reveals the premise of the dying dream plot.
  • Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises takes its title from the poem, "Le Cimetiere marin" ("The Graveyard By The Sea"), by Paul Valery. The full quote is: "Le vent se leve!... Il faut tenter de vivre!" ("The Wind Rises!... We must try to live!") This is presented at the start of the film, as well as quoted several times during it, so the viewer doesn't actually need to know the poem.

    Literature 
  • Liane Moriarty's novel (and later streaming TV miniseries) Apples Never Fall ("far from the tree"). It's about family secrets, and the full phrase is a way to say that children aren't so different from their parents
  • Brave New World comes from The Tempest and Miranda's exclamation "O brave new world/ That has such people in't!"
  • The Wilfred Owen poem "Dulce Et Decorum Est" ("it is sweet and fitting") is a cross-language example - the full quote being "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" (it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country), which is much more appropriate to the poem's War Is Hell subject matter (though it is still an ironic usage).
  • The Fault in Our Stars is quote mined from Shakespeare's "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves." Quoth John Green, "Which is an easy thing to say if you're, like, you know, Shakespeare or a Roman nobleman, but in the broad sense, I don't know that I agree with Shakespeare a hundred percent." Diseases, especially diseases like cancer, rarely come to affect people who "deserve" it. It's really very random. And cancer is what really serves as the most negative influence on the characters' lives, so the fault did indeed lie in their stars. Never mind that Shakespeare's characters were speaking of the rise of a tyrant in their country, something that is the responsibility of the citizens to stop, regardless of "stars". They'd probably agree that diseases and politics are very different.
  • Ben Elton's World War I novel The First Casualty is named for a quotation attributed to US Senator Hiram Warren Johnson: "The first casualty when war comes is truth."
  • Some of the titles in the The First Law are this coupled with Literary Allusion Title, and are taken from a quote which is (one of the) work's epigraph(s):
    • The first novel, The Blade Itself comes from a quotation from Homer that "The blade itself incites to deeds of violence'' (as discussed here, it is a loose translation).
    • The second novel is titled Before They Are Hanged, and derives from a Henrich Heine quote, "We should forgive our enemies, but not before they are hanged."
    • The third novel's title, The Last Argument of Kings, refers to the words Louis XIV had inscribed on his cannons: "Ultima Ratio Regum," which is Latin for "the last argument of kings."
    • A standalone novel Best Served Cold derives from the proverb that "Revenge is a dish best served cold", which fits the novel being about the heroine's Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
    • Another standalone novel, The Heroes alludes to a quote by Bertolt Brecht that "Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes" (incidentally, the same quote is used as the series title of another grimdark fantasy, A Land Fit for Heroes).
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls is part of a line from a devotional writing by John Donne. In this case, it's the previous line that is most thematically appropriate: "Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind" (the novel is largely an exploration of the nature of companionship in a time of war and death). However, completing the line that the title is taken from also makes it into a Spoiler Title: "And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
  • The sequel to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes.
  • One of the stories in Ghosts Of The Shadowmarket is called Cast Long Shadows. As in "old sins cast long shadows". It alludes to the fact that in the story Matthew Fairchild commits the greatest sin of his life, something that will haunt him for a long time. He gave his mother a truth serum that turned out to be poison, which caused her to have a miscarriage.
  • The Gods Themselves refers to a longer quote from Friedrich Schiller, which makes up the titles of its three acts: "Against Stupidity ... The Gods Themselves ... Contend in Vain." Fitting, since the willful stupidity of certain characters literally threatens to destroy the world.
  • Heinlein's I Will Fear No Evil. Even though there is plenty of evil in the world of this story, it (and lack of fear thereof) isn't really important to the plot. However, the other part of the quote "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death", is a perfect title for the story.
  • The title of the novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side by Agatha Christie comes from a quote from the poem "The Lady of Shalott" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. There's no mirror in the novel, but there is a woman under a kind of curse.
    Out flew the web and floated wide-
    The mirror crack'd from side to side;
    "The curse is come upon me," cried
    The Lady of Shalott
  • The title of Monstrous Regiment would be a Spoiler Title if its source, a sixteenth-century political work titled "The first blast of the trumpet against the monstrous regiment of women", wasn't so obscure. In-universe, the title refers to the regiment the main character joins, which has a troll, a vampire, and an Igor in it.
  • Of Mice and Men is taken from a line in the Robert Burns poem "To A Mouse". The full line goes "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley" ("The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry"), foreshadowing how the plans of the main characters will go unfullfilled due to tragic circumstances.
  • The short story Of the Artist in Pareidolia and the Gilded Scar is based on an Oscar Wilde quote "every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist note "
  • Agatha Christie's novel The Pale Horse has a Double-Meaning Title. Most obviously, "The Pale Horse" is the name of an old inn that is central to the plot. But, also, it is an allusion to the Book of Revelations: "I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death." In the book, three old women claim to be able to kill people using magic, and they have the body count to back up their claim.
  • "...That Thou Art Mindful of Him" takes its title from a Biblical psalm which asks "What is Man that thou art mindful of Him?". The question "What is Man?" (or as we'd more likely say now, "What is the definition of a human being?") is central to the story because it affects how robots interpret the Three Laws.
  • These Old Shades, from the poem "Epilogue to Eighteenth Century Vignettes" by Austin Dobson: "Whereas with these old Shades of mine,/Their ways and dress delight me;/And should I trip by word or line,/They cannot well indict me."
  • Theirs Not to Reason Why, from Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade" ("...Theirs but to do and die")
  • Too Like the Lightning, the first book of the Terra Ignota series, derives its title from a passage in Romeo and Juliet: "It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,/Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be/Ere one can say "It lightens." While in the original context, Juliet is expressing doubt about Romeo's constancy, in the context of the novel, it serves to raise questions about the novel's utopian setting and/or shocking events which threaten its continued utopianism.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The 100 is rather fond of this:
    • "I Am Become Death". The quote itself is dropped after the characters blow up a bridge (making a mushroom cloud), holding off a Grounder attack in the process.
      Clarke: "I am become death, destroyer of worlds". It's Oppenheimer, the man who built the first...
      Bellamy: I know who Oppenheimer is.
    • "Long into an Abyss", an episode about the consequences of leadership, fittingly gets its title from Friedrich Nietzsche.
      "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."
    • "Ye Who Enter Here", from Inferno's infamous "Abandon hope...".
    • The episode "Nevermore" gets its title from The Raven, in which a raven drives a man to insanity ("Quoth the raven..."). In this episode, Raven is possessed and deals out Breaking Speeches to the other characters.
    • "Red Sky At Morning", from an oft-quoted mariner rhyme: "Red sky at night, sailors' delight. / Red sky at morning, sailors take warning." Fittingly, in this episode, Clarke and company visit Luna's sea-dwelling people, and the trip goes awry.
  • Alfred Hitchcock Presents:
    • De Mortuis: De mortuis nil nisi bonum decendem est. 'Of the dead say nothing but good.' Thinking a man has killed his wife, two of his friends badmouth her, and that turns out badly.
    • None So Blind... '...as he who will not see.' Things turn out badly for the main character because he willfully ignores something.
  • In The Addams Family, Wednesday Addams has a complete-the-quote name. Her name comes from the popular folk poem that starts "Monday's child is fair of face" and gives similar descriptions for the other days of the week. The line for Wednesday is "Wednesday's child is full of woe", which perfectly describes the solemn Wednesday.
  • The title of Andor episode 5, "The Axe Forgets", is half of the proverb "the axe forgets but the tree remembers". It is about how individual resentments about the Empire's torrential exploitation and abuse will eventually give rise of the Rebellion.
  • The first episode of Angel is titled "City of...", apparently referring to Los Angeles (where the series is set), the "city of angels".
  • Babylon 5:
    • The episode "And the Sky, Full of Stars" plays with this; it's a slight misquote of... not a literary quote, but a line that Sinclair actually used in the pilot episode, referring to the Battle of the Line (which "And the Sky" centers on):
      "We never had a chance. The sky was full of stars, and every star an exploding ship — one of ours."
    • Another episode is titled "And Now for a Word", which in the old days was usually finished with "from our sponsors". This episode is shown as an ISN documentary on the station, and includes a commercial for the Psi Corps, which has a single frame with the words, "The Psi Corps is your friend. Trust the Corps." The implication is that Psi Corps was the sponsor and that they got their word in.
  • Better Call Saul: "Fun and Games" is a really somber episode, since the full quote is "It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt" and it shows how Jimmy and Kim's fun have been sucked out by their part in Howard's death.
  • CSI: NY: What goes around "...Comes Around" has Mac threatening to use the same kind of politics/making-them-look-bad-in-the-media tricks against his superiors as they've been doing to him for three episodes in a row.
  • Game of Thrones:
    • S2-3: "What Is Dead May Never Die", but rises again, harder and stronger.
    • S5-5: "Kill the Boy", and let the man be born.
  • The Good Place: "...Someone Like Me As a Member" deals with Eleanor's dislike of social groups and her overcoming this over the course of the episode. The title is taken from a Groucho Marx quote: "I would not join any club that would have someone like me for a member."
  • Gotham: "All Happy Families Are Alike" takes its title from the opening line of Anna Karenina: "All happy families are alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." No points for guessing what the episode is about.
  • "It Takes a Thief... to catch a thief." The 1968-70 adventure series focuses on a cat burglar employed as a thief by the government in exchange for commuting his prison sentence, while the 2005 reality series involves helping homeowners patch up holes in their security systems by staging a burglary (with the homeowners' knowledge and consent) that exploits those holes.
  • Once Upon a Time: Season 2 ends with the episodes "Second Star to the Right" and "And Straight On 'Til Morning".
  • Once Upon a Time in Wonderland: The finale is titled after the traditional fairy tale ending line: "And They Lived..." (happily ever after).
  • Only Fools and Horses takes its title from a saying popular among 19th century Vaudeville performers: "Only fools and horses work for a living."
  • The final episode of Red Dwarf Series VIII is titled "Only the Good...". Unsurprisingly, the phrase "Only the good die young" gets quoted during the episode.
  • SeaQuest DSV:
    • "The Sincerest Form of Flattery'': The episode deals with an AI-controlled attack sub that goes rogue, but which was programmed using Bridger's personality, and using tactics he developed. Imitation, after all...
    • "By Any Other Name" deals with an underwater horticultural colony being overrun by an unknown force, a plant that mutated and became intelligent and aggressive. And immune to lasers. A rose (or crazy B-movie inspired monster plant) by any other name.
    • "And Everything Nice" has Lucas falling for a girl on shore but this turns out to be a subversion as sugar and spice she is not. She's actually part of a terrorist cell using Lucas to gain access to UEO facilities.
  • "Show Me a Hero ... and I'll write you a tragedy." A quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
    • "If Wishes Were Horses", beggars would ride.
    • "Nor the Battle to the Strong" also draws its name from a biblical quote: "I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all." It's the last bit that really captures what the episode is about.
    • "Let He Who Is Without Sin...", half of the famous Biblical quote, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
    • "In the Pale Moonlight", referencing the Joker's line in Batman (1989): Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?''
  • Star Trek: Enterprise: The final episode of the series, "These Are the Voyages..." of the starship Enterprise.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation:
    • An episode regarding an infertile species is titled "When the Bough Breaks" (the cradle will fall).
    • The episode "The Measure of a Man" takes its title from a quote by Martin Luther King Jr.:
      The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
    • The episode "The Most Toys" is taken from the quote "He who dies with the most toys wins", a sentiment shared by the antagonist, as he is willing to threaten and risk lives for the purpose of increasing his collection. The ending reinforces it, as he is defeated not by being killed but by living long enough to see his collection confiscated.
    • The episode "Thine Own Self" comes from a quote from Hamlet: "This above all, to thine own self be true."
    • The Grand Finale is titled "All Good Things..." (must come to an end.)
  • The Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Whom Gods Destroy", which actually isn't about people being destroyed, by gods or otherwise. However, if you know the entire quote ("Whom gods destroy, they first drive mad"), you'll see it's a perfect title for an episode about an insane asylum.
  • "Stranger Things have happened...", and they always seem to happen in Hawkins, Indiana.
  • The Twilight Zone (1959):
    • The episode "I Shot an Arrow into the Air" qualifies. The next line of Longfellow's poem is "It fell to earth, I know not where", foreshadowing that the astronauts have not landed on a desert planet, but in a desert on Earth.
    • The title of the episode "A Nice Place to Visit" comes from the saying "It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there." The Ironic Hell seen in this episode is a casino where you always win: indeed a nice place to visit, but one that drives you crazy with boredom if you're stuck there for all eternity.
  • The US TV sitcom 'Til Death implies the rest of "do us part."

    Music 
  • Origami Angel: The first track of Somewhere City "Welcome to..." The album cover has the sign for Somewhere City, featuring the tagline "Welcome to Somewhere City: The city never lets me down!", suggesting that it's meant to be "Welcome to Somewhere City".

    Theatre 
  • Abandon All Hope by Peter Fenton is a dark comedy set in Hell, referencing the line from The Divine Comedy “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!”
  • Both Your Houses is a play about an idealistic young congressman who sets out to defeat a corrupt appropriations bill, fails, and then vows to bring down the whole corrupt system. The quote is from Romeo and Juliet: "A plague o' both your houses!"
  • Inherit the Wind has nothing to do with inheritance or wind, but a great deal to do with the idea of a community tearing itself apart. The complete quotation, which comes from the Book of Proverbs, is recited by Brady when Reverend Brown turns on his own daughter:
    "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind:
    and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart."

    TV Tropes 

    Video Games 
  • Another Crab's Treasure features a Funny Animal hermit crab trying to get his shell back, and using pieces of junk to protect himself in the meantime. After all, one crab's trash is...
  • Batman: The Telltale Series: Season 2's second-to-last and last episodes have the titles (A cure for) "What Ails You" and (Two threads in the) "Same Stitch", the latter of which can also be Title Dropped by John Doe/Joker in the episode.
    "We're two threads in the same stitch, bound together... even under strain."
  • Borderlands 2 has a mission called "Where Angels Fear to Tread" which should begin with "Fools Rush in..." Considering what happens during the mission this is very appropriate.
  • The original Deus Ex is largely about machines (whether human or AI), though some of them do have a god complex.
  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion plays with this in the quest "Whom Gods Annoy". The quest's name is a reference to the quote "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad", and the quest itself involves a Cursed Item that the Daedric Prince of Madness Sheogorath created for the purpose of Trolling mortal.
  • Happens thrice in Final Fantasy XIV
    • Halfway through the main storyline is a quest titled "All Good Things", referencing the saying "All good things must come to an end." Having just triumphed over Titan, you return to the Scions' safehouse to report in person. And you find the aftermath of a brutal Garlean attack, with only one survivor who hangs on just long enough to tell you what happened and where to go. Worse, the Garleans were there specifically looking for you.
    • The last quest of the 2.5 storyline (and, by extension, of A Realm Reborn) is titled "Before the Dawn". Given all the horrible things that have happened by the time you get there (extremely short version: the Ul'dahn Syndicate launches a coup, with the aid of the traitorous Ilberd and several of his fellow Crystal Braves, the sultana is poisoned, you and your fellow Scions are framed for the crime, and most of them stay behind to buy you time to escape and clear your name) it's easily the Darkest Hour of the story.
    • Late in 3.1's story, you engage in a quest called "Against the Dying of the Light" part of a line from Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night (the same source as Do Not Go Gentle. The full line is "Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night. Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light."), Which has the Warrior of Light, along with Thancred, Y'sholta, Alphinaud, Aymeric and Artoiel going into the Vault to rescue hostages from fundamentalist extremists, and ends with one of the hostages being saved by a dragon. Note that Aymeric is also injured during this. The missing part of the line could reference that the antagonists of the quests are not willing to see their way of of life go so quickly, in other words, they rage against the dying of their light. It could also reference how Aymeric is willing to fight despite his injuries.
    • And on a lighter note, there's the achievements for completing high-end raids as a tank which, when taken together, make a whole quote: "A Tankless Job", "But Somebody's Gotta Do It".
  • One sublevel of Halo: Combat Evolved is titled "It's Quiet..." complete with ellipsis. It is impossible to not immediately say to yourself "...TOO quiet."
  • Kane & Lynch has one Achievement "Damned If You Do..." Guess what the other one is called? Both achievements refer to how both endings do not end well for Kane. You can either return for your allies in crime which causes your daughter who Kane did all of this for to get shot and die, or you can abandon them to die and take your daughter and the money and run, but your daughter will despise you for it.
  • LEGO The Lord of the Rings has an Achievement/Trophy called "One Does Not Simply...". Completing the quote tells you how to unlock it: Walk into Mordor. Of course, when looking through lists of achievements, the title and requirement are written together, forming the whole quote.
  • In Mass Effect 2, a number of missions and achievements are partial references to quotes or songs, for instance the mission "A House Divided", a reference to an Abraham Lincoln quote ending in "... against itself cannot stand." The original speech was given during his campaign to be elected to the US Senate in 1858, and was primarily concerned with the question of slavery, while predicting that the US would fall apart on itself if the question wasn't resolved soon. Naturally, The American Civil War broke out a few years later due in large part to that exact issue, and the mission in-game centers on The Geth being divided on how to deal with the Reapers and a faction hoping to force the rest into obeying the Reapers.
  • Red Dead Redemption has a mission close to the end of the game, "The Last Enemy That Shall Be Destroyed", in which John Marston must protect his family when their farmstead is attacked by the US Cavalry. If you're familiar with the original quote, a passage from Corinthians, you know there are two words missing from the end, "... is Death", which makes it pretty easy to guess that John is killed at the end of the mission.
  • One feat in Shovel Knight that involves putting out a campfire is named after a famous Public Service Announcement tagline: "Only You...".
  • "Better to let Sleeping Dogs (2012) lie." Basically "Don't kick the hornet's nest."
  • Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is largely about honor.
  • In the Warframe quest "Rising Tide", the player scours the Solar System for the wrecked Railjack parts, which are then repaired and assembled into a fully functioning spaceship which will let the Tenno take on the enemies' space fleets. "A rising tide lifts all the boats", after all.
  • World of Warcraft:
    • There's a quest in the Mt. Hyjal region that's a play on the phrase, "If you're not with us, you're against us", but switches it around a bit. The actual title is, "If You're Not Against Us...", and the point is to convince a demonic satyr to help repel the invading Twilight's Hammer, which he does, though he arranges it so that in the process he can escape the chains imprisoning him there.
    • One of the Halfhill daily quests is called "Water, Water Everywhere", which comes from Rime Of The Ancient Mariner and is about watering Farmer Fung's drying out crops, "nor any drop to drink."

    Webcomics 
  • The Housepets! story arc in which King is told that dog heaven is easier to get into than human heaven, but if he dies before he accepts or rejects being a dog, he qualifies for neither, is called "Not All Dogs", riffing on All Dogs Go to Heaven.
  • One The Order of the Stick strip has Roy bemoaning that he wasted so much time trying to unlock his sword's "legacy weapon" powers to fight undead, only to drop it off an airship. As he screams in frustration, it appears in his hand: not the power he was expecting but certainly one he can use. The title is "But If You Try Sometimes", referencing The Rolling Stones (Band) lyric "You can't always get what you want/But if you try sometimes/You just might find/You get what you need".
  • All the storylines in Skin Horse have Children's Literary Allusion Titles, and usually the reference is right there in the title ("I Can Fly" introduces Nick the helicopter; "Big Bad Wolves" is about werewolves). There have been some exceptions:
    • "Yes, Virginia" is about Virginia Lee joining the team's Secret Santa ("... there really is a Santa Claus")
    • "Sure as You're Born", from the Shel Silverstein poem "The Unicorn", is about the Weirdness Censor mysteriously spreading from about 20% of the US population to nearly everyone. You're never going to see a unicorn.
    • "Unsinkable" is from Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent, and does indeed involve a sea serpent.
    • "The Lee of the Stone" is about Artie being targeted by A-Sig and having to abandon his comfortable life. The quote is from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, but the full context is the owl telling Mrs Frisby "You must move your house to the lee of the stone" to be safe.

    Western Animation 
...Topic Here.

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