Movie: Cool Hand Luke // Said by The Captain (Strother Martin) to the prisoners; said again but ironically by Luke (Paul Newman) towards the end of the movie (clip not shown). Note that this line comes up a lot in pop culture – the speech is even played in the opening of the Guns N’ Roses song, “Civil War.”

WHAT IT MEANS:
This one can be taken literally – the results (in this case, Luke being battered by the prison warden) are due to a failure to communicate. 

IT MAY COME IN HANDY WHEN…

  • Groups or individuals are having trouble communicating effectively/efficiently
  • You want to diffuse a situation by pointing out that it was just a misunderstanding
  • You want to take a pause or hit the reset button in the middle of a disagreement that seems to be a result of miscommunication

MOVIE SUMMARY:
You can see the full Cool Hand Luke summary here.