What is the original origin of the phrase "Falling in love with you wasn't part of the plan?"

August 19, 2006 1:05 PM

What is the original origin of the phrase "Falling in love with you wasn't part of the plan?" Movie quote? Book? Anyone?
posted by John Kenneth Fisher to society & culture (8 comments total)

How about Hitchcock's Vertigo, where Kim Novak says to James Stewart: "I made a mistake. I fell in love. That wasn't part of the plan. I'm still in love with you. And I want you so to love me."
posted by bigmuffindaddy at 1:19 PM on August 19, 2006 [1 favorite]

This is not a common phrase. It may have occured in Vertigo, but it hasn't been widely quoted. (Hitchcock movies don't generally get widely quoted anyway.) My guess is, if you see this phrase more than once, it's coincidence. People are often saying "it wasn't part of the plan" because late-20th-century humans are business-oriented and obsessed with plans; likewise, they are often speaking of falling in love because love is the popular religion nowadays.
posted by koeselitz at 1:56 PM on August 19, 2006

Not common doesn't mean it's not a quote. I remember hearing this before, at least once and probably more than that. But I don't know where.
posted by limeonaire at 2:50 PM on August 19, 2006

It's also in the lyrics (or a slight variation thereof, I think) of the Royksopp track "Only This Moment," which was the most popular hit from their 2005 album The Understanding. Not that it was really a chart-topper in the US, though.
posted by tumult at 3:04 PM on August 19, 2006

Also (nearly) the opening line in The Babys' "Isn't it Time"

Falling in love was the last thing I had on my mind...
posted by OneOliveShort at 3:13 PM on August 19, 2006

Rick Cook's protagonist in Mall Purchase Night notes, to an enchanted women he's fallen in love with because of a geas, that "falling in love with you wasn't something I'd bargained for".
posted by baylink at 5:00 PM on August 19, 2006

Interesting...I watched my very episode of "Diagnosis Murder" this afternoon and the "guest villain" said that phrase to the good guy.
posted by davidmsc at 10:16 PM on August 19, 2006

Tumult, glad you mentioned Royksopp otherwise I would have been wondering all night why that sounded like a song lyric!
posted by radioamy at 10:16 PM on August 19, 2006