101 Funniest Screenplays

The premise, Nora Ephron told Written By, felt believable and bigger than itself as soon as director Rob Reiner described it to her: A man and a woman, both coming out of relationships, meet. They decide not to have sex because it will ruin the friendship. Then they have sex, which kills the friendship. But When Harry Met Sally, Ephron emphasized, is not about whether or not friends can have sex, but rather an exploration of the different worldviews of men and women. “In the taxi going home from the meeting,” Ephron recalled of her discussion with Reiner, “I knew that it started a few years before it actually started, that it was a couple who kept bumping into each other and not particularly liking each other. Way before I started working on it, I had ideas about it.” The film’s most beloved line: “I’ll have what she’s having.”