You!
"That is all I get? One pronoun?"—The Sorrow, The Last Days of Foxhound
This is the classic expression of surprise and/or anger upon sighting another character, usually a nemesis.
As several of these examples are clearly aware, this is kind of pointless for any reason besides the fact that the extreme emotion the sight evokes needs some word to give it form, and as it is directed towards that character, the second-person pronoun is the only obvious choice.
Sometimes, the person being addressed will respond with "Yes, me," or some variation.
A typical use of this exclamation is to demonstrate that the two characters know and don't like each other, but the audience doesn't yet know why. Sometimes the audience doesn't find out who the "You!" is until later.
In Anime, it can get more complicated: many words directly translate to "you," and depending on the word used, "you!" can connote anything from "hey, there" to "You Killed My Father, Prepare to Die," to anything in between. Pragmatic dubbers tend to use the connotation instead of the literal translation.
When both parties have this reaction to seeing each other, it's "You?" Squared. Also compare Say My Name. See also No, You.
Comic Books
- At the end of Preacher (Comic Book), God says this upon seeing the Saint of Killers waiting for him at home. His response is typically understated.
Saint Of Killers: "Me."
- Also, in Scott Pilgrim when Ramona comes back to life, Gideon exclaims this.
Film
- In Clue, Yvette spots her former boss or former lover's wife or someone else and exclaims "It's you!" just before being murdered.
- Played with in The Matrix Reloaded.
Agent: You!
Smith: Yes, me.
[jabs his hand into the agent and starts turning him into another Smith]
Smith: Me, me, me...
[The agent is now another Smith]
Other Smith: Me too.
[they exchange ghastly little smiles]
- Biff in Back to the Future Part II, upon seeing Marty - after being punched out by George.
- In Xanadu, the lead character has been painting an album cover featuring Olivia Newton-John's character. Later, when he sees her on the street, he yells out "You!" (and she answers "Me!")
- In Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, accompanied by a whopping Scare Chord, when Sweeney Todd suddenly reappears in his shop to confront the Beggar Woman for the last time.
- The beginning of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves has Robin's father ride out of his castle to confront a gang of bad guys in masks. The leader takes his mask off, and Lord Loxley delivers the line. Later it's revealed that the leader is the Sheriff of Nottingham.
- At the end of Rent, Roger and Mimi have this exchange: "You!" "Me." "Mimi..."
- Probably an echo of that bit in-between La Vie Boheme A and I Should Tell You. "You [have HIV]?" "Me. You [too]?" "Mimi..."
- In HomeAlone4TakingBackTheHouse, Marv slides downstairs soaked with water right to Kevin's feet, stares for a minute while attempting to regain his vision, and, seeing Kevin, shouts, "YOU!"
- In A Nightmare On Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors, Freddy and Nancy come face to face for the first time since she defeated him, and all he says is an angry "you".
- Ghost Rider uses this quite a bit.
- Pale Rider. When killer-for-hire Stockburn is first told of The Nameless preacher played by Clint Eastwood, it reminds him of someone "but that man is now dead." Earlier we saw the Preacher taking a bath, revealing multiple bullet scars. When Stockburn finally comes face to face with the Preacher, he just emits a shocked "You!" before drawing his gun, whereupon the Preacher kills him.
- In the first Conan the Barbarian movie, one of Thulsa Doom's henchmen exclaims that after seeing that Conan is Not Quite Dead.
- In The Mummy 1999, there's a You! when Rick and Evy go to the library to find out what to do about Imhotep and find Ardeth Bey there.
- In The Mummy Returns, this is Imhotep's reaction to Rick after Rick confronts him with guns blazing, just after his re-awakening.
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Brad does one of these when Frank seduces him.
- In The Road Warrior, Wez does this at one point with Max: "YOU! You can run, but you can't hide!" ..although it's a more a parting shot than a greeting.
- During the climax of X-Men 1, when Magneto traps the heroes in the Statue Of Liberty, he greets them with "ah, my brothers!"... then casts a glare at Wolverine and snarls "...and you."
Literature
- The Duumvirate says this near the end.
- One of the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books has Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect bump into each other unexpectedly after a long separation. Arthur says "You!" Ford just sighs and prepares to assume his usual role. "What do you need to have explained this time?"
- Harry Potter exclaims this upon seeing that the character after the Philosopher's Stone is not at all whom he expected.
- He also does it upon meeting Andromeda Tonks, mistaking her for her sister, Bellatrix Lestrange.
- Asmodean's last words, apart from "No!" The identity of his killer was not revealed for eight further books (it was Graendal).
- Near the end of the third book of The Dark Tower by Stephen King, bad guy Gasher does it to Roland when the Gunslinger comes to rescue Jake.
Gasher looked up. "You," he snarled.
"Me," Roland agreed. He fired once, and the left side of Gasher's head disintegrated.
Live Action TV
- In one episode of Star Trek: Deep Space 9, Worf yells "You!" at Quark to complain about tampering with the Defiant's replicator.
- Rexor says this upon seeing the title character in the big fight in the orgy chamber in Conan the Barbarian.
- Jack says this upon finding Desmond inside the hatch on Lost.
- As does Richard when he realizes the true identity of the impostor Locke.
- From Heroes:
Future Hiro: "You."
Hiro: "Me?"
- The X-Files ("Triangle"). Mulder says this when it turns out the leader of the Nazis is the Cigarette Smoking Man. Of course the CSM doesn't know who Mulder is as it's All Just a Dream. Or Was It a Dream?
- Allan A Dale's last word (onscreen, at least) in Robin Hood as he recognises the commander of the army who has just shot him down.
Miscellaneous
- The finale of Bizet's opera Carmen begins with Carmen's shocked exclamation "C'est toi!" as she notices Don José (who replies "C'est moi").
Music
Professional Wrestling
- Part of wrestler Hulk Hogan's "hulking up" comeback involves pointing at his opponent (with the crowd going "YOU!" as he does) after shaking in rage and shrugging off his opponent's attacks.
Toys
- Helryx to Tuyet in Bionicle. Designated Girl Fight ensues.
Video Games
- "It's you!!" "How are you gentlemen?" You should know how this one ends.
- What you say?
- In Starfox Adventures, when Krystal turns around after releasing the spirit, we see her in a tinted enemy POV shot looking at the viewer and yelling "Ak'j oei!" ("It's you!" in the game's substitution cypher language) just before she backs into a beam which pushes her into her namesake for the rest of the game.
- This is roughly how a few fans reacted to her continuing to appear outside of SFA.
- Sirius performs a pretty epic one to Regulus, just before the final final battle in Bomberman 64.
- Fallen Aribeth in Neverwinter Nights doesn't have an exclamation...it's simply a low, menacing "You."
- Guy in Fire Emblem greets Matthew with this, just before Matthew cashes in a favor Guy owed him from some time back to pull Guy out of a job and into your army
- The above-mentioned Zero Wing is not the only case of this trope intersecting with a Blind Idiot Translation. The arcade game Battle Rangers gives us "You! Invaders! Get you the hot bullets of shotgun to die!"
- One of Luigi's lines in Hotel Mario is "And YOU gotta help us!" (pointing finger included), causing YouTube Poop to exploit the "YOU" to no end.
- Baldur's Gate II:"You? You live yet? You have less than a fraction of your soul, and still you continue to oppose me?"
- Happens in Kingdom Hearts II on both sides when Pete meets Donald and Goofy again.
- In Special Episode 5 of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, Dusknoir gives one of these to Grovyle upon waking up in the Bad Future.
- Given he only speaks in Zero Wing quotes, it should surprise nobody that Baron Vladmu says this as well.
- Deionarra uses this in Planescape: Torment when encountering The Nameless One in the Mortuary.
- Catalina in Grand Theft Auto III does this when she notices Claude survived the shooting in a late-game mission.
Web Comics
- The Last Days of Foxhound #244, with Big Boss (in Liquid's body) encountering the Sorrow.
- Subverted in Starslip Crisis. Upon being confronted with his future self, Vanderbeam exclaims "You--ME!"
- Red's reappearance in Gunnerkrigg Court is marked by her pointing at Antimony and shouting, "It's you!"
- Skin Horse: Unity upon encountering Dr. Lee, because Lee created her. Promptly followed by strangling.
- Digger exclaims this on meeting up with the oracular slug again, who responds, "In the slime!"
- Shortpacked: Robin's response to seeing someone who oh geez who could that mysterious shadowy figure be!?
- This strip from The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob. Jean and Bob got off to a rocky start.
- Here's a lengthy sequence of pronounless addressing in Dominic Deegan. For a more standard use, see this strip.
Western Animation
- In the Chaotic episode where Kaz and Peyton try to prove that he is the best chaotic player to the other one. There is a scene where Kaz goes into Ulmar's lab to scan a weapon for their battle. He bumps a cart with the door causing Ulmar to say this befor throwing a fireball in Kaz's direction.
- Spoofed in the Garfield and Friends episode "Video Airlines", in a scene from Kung Fu Creatures on the Rampage 2 that Jon and Garfield keep coming across:
You! You're not Sylvia! You're one of the Kung Fu creatures on the Rampage! Two!
- In Animaniacs, when the Warners try to sell Albert Einstein cookies, he kicks them out because he's busy. When they return again, Einstein says "You!" and Yakko promptly pulls out a ewe and says "No, this is a ewe."
- SpongeBob SquarePants has a short called "The Reefblower" in which this is the sole line of dialogue, spoken by SpongeBob, and even then it's not audible; it's subtitled.
- In Aladdin, when he finally realizes Aladdin is back in the palace, Jafar addresses him with a You!, then follows up with "How many times do I have to kill you, boy?!"
- In the third movie, the head guard does this when Aladdin helps his father escape from prison.
- The titular Corpse Bride gives two of these to Lord Barkis after he crashes the wedding. Well, more like a "You?" and then a "You!", but it's the same thing.
- In Toy Story, after he and Buzz are accidentally left at a petrol-station by Andy, Woody briefly rushes at Buzz with a You!. In this case, its not a sign of recognition - rather Woody finally being pushed over the edge by all the trouble Buzz has inadvertently caused him.
- In An American Tail Warren says this when he notices Fievel spying on him through his mirror.
- In the last part of the Five Episode Pilot of Pirates of Dark Water, after Ioz pins Bloth down with arrows:
Bloth: You!
Ioz: Yes, me. But enough small talk. Hand the Compass over or you're Dagron bait.
- In The Little Mermaid II Louis the chef runs across Sebastian (who caused him a lot of trouble in the first film) and screams "You!!", causing a terrified Sebastion to squeak out "you!". Hilarity Ensues.
- In the episode "Accomplices" of The Spectacular Spider-Man, Rhino delivers one to Spidey after he tosses a traffic cone onto his horn.
Spider-Man: Whoa, I got the thing on the thing! What do I win?
Rhino: YOU!
Spider-Man: I win me?! That makes no sense.
- Done twice in My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic. Fluttershy starts off her tirade against the cockatrice in "Stare Master" with "You! Who do you think you are, going around turning others into stone?!" Rainbow Dash and Little Strongheart also exclaim this at each other after Spike introduces everyone in "Over A Barrel".
- "...Gypsy girl! Get down from there at once!"
- A few times on Ren and Stimpy, Ren responded to Stimpy's hijinks with an irritated "You....". More often, "You" would be followed by "Eediot!" or "Sick little monkey!"
- When Bambi tires of Faline's pranks he gives out a "You!" and chases her.
- In Adventure Time, when the Flame Princess regains consciousness after getting wet, she sees Finn and says this.