Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride wasn’t a box-office success when it first hit theaters in 1987, but thanks to home video and TV airings, it went on to have a real impact. For example, Reiner once had a chilling run-in with a henchman of John Gotti’s, who quoted the famous “Prepare to die!” line from the movie to him outside of a restaurant.
And then there’s that video of Ted Cruz reenacting a Princess Bride scene during his 2016 presidential campaign:
According to Reiner, the film may also have saved a few lives. As the director told Variety in 2017, he was out to lunch with his co-producer, Andrew Scheinman, and a friend who’d worked on Fletch when he found out.
“We were talking about people quoting The Princess Bride all the time, and it was just going into profits after all those years,” Reiner recalled. “You know, I produced this movie Fletch, and people tell me in colleges that they quote it all the time,” said his friend at one point.
A Skier Survived an Avalanche—and Told Rob Reiner His Movie Helped Save Her
When the friend left, a young woman who’d overheard the conversation approached Reiner and Scheinman with an interesting story. “I am an extreme skier,” she told them, “and The Princess Bride saved my life.” From there, the girl recounted how an avalanche trapped her and a few other skiers she was with years earlier. As a huge fan of Reiner’s film, she’d memorized it and decided to act it out to survive.
“When we were freezing, I did the entire movie to keep everybody occupied and to keep everybody up, happy and listening,” the woman continued. “I am not exaggerating,” Reiner insisted. “Then she said, ‘You know, because Fletch just wouldn’t do.’” The filmmaker went on to say, “That was the best line I ever got: ‘The Princess Bride saved my life.’”
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