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Is there a name for this effect where a character says a sentence at the beginning of a movie and another one repeats the same sentence later.

Here is an example in Batman the Dark Knight with the sentence "you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain" :
- A first time by Harvey Dent
- At the end of the movie by Batman

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2 Answers 2

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Repetition.

Repetition is a literary device that repeats the same words or phrases a few times to make an idea clearer. There are several types of repetitions commonly used in both prose and poetry.

As a rhetorical device, it could be a word, a phrase or a full sentence or a poetical line repeated to emphasize its significance in the entire text. Repetition is not distinguished solely as a figure of speech but more as a rhetorical device.

Specifically Epimone:

Repetition of a phrase (usually a question) to stress a point.

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I believe the common term is simply "repetition".

http://literarydevices.net/repetition/


It's interesting that the term analepsis is broadly defined as a repeated flashback of a scene for emphasis or effect, because flashbacks are a modern device most often utilized in cinema.

However, this site which is focused on rhetorical devices, defines analepsis as "repetition of a word or phrase for emphasis", which is surely an older meaning. (The craft of rhetoric goes back to at least Ancient Greece, long before the modern forms of narrative which use flashbacks.)

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