18 Years Ago, Tim Curry Delivered The Single-Greatest Line In Video Game History

Published Aug 26, 2026, 12:27 PM EDT Ewan is Deputy Editor for ScreenRant's gaming section. He still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase, and knows more about The Legend of Zelda and Doctor Who than is probably healthy. Ewan oversees the content operation of ScreenRant's gaming output, working with a talented team of writers and editors to cover everything from the latest GTA 6 news to the indie games you need on your radar. Former Editor of GAMINGbible, Ewan also has words at Kotaku, Den of Geek, NME, and UNILAD. He's appeared on various podcasts, including VGC's and BBC's Let's Talk About Tech. In yet another tragic loss this week, the universally adored star of stage and screen Tim Curry has died at the age of 80. The beloved actor is perhaps best known as the pansexual, cross-dressing mad scientist Dr. Frank-N-Furter, while others will remember him as the original Pennywise the Dancing Clown, terrifying a generation of children. However, gamers will know and love him for his incredible performance in a 2008 video game that has become the stuff of legend. I should say that Tim Curry had actually appeared in a few video games over the years, lending his considerable vocal talents to titles like Brutal Legend and Dragon Age: Origins. But it was his unhinged performance as Soviet Premier Anatoly Cherdenko during the live-action cutscenes of 2008's Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 that will live longest in the memory. Tim Curry Gave Us Gaming's Most Brilliant Delivery Of All-Time Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 is utterly bonkers. It's a real-time strategy game in which a failing Soviet Union travels back in time to kill Albert Einstein, accidentally creating an alternate timeline. Curry plays the General Secretary and Premier of the Soviet Union, and one of the men who decides to use the secret time machine to assassinate Einstein. It does not end well. "The desperate leadership of a doomed Soviet Union travels back in time to change history and restore the glory of Mother Russia," reads the game's official description. "The time travel mission goes awry, creating an alternate timeline where technology has followed an entirely different evolution, a new superpower has been thrust on to the world stage, and World War III is raging. The Empire of the Rising Sun has risen in the East, making World War III a three-way struggle between the Soviets, the Allies, and the Empire with armies fielding wacky and wonderful weapons and technologies like Tesla coils, heavily armed War Blimps, teleportation, armored bears, intelligent dolphins, floating island fortresses, and transforming tanks." The live-action cutscenes featuring Curry are a consistent highlight of the game, but it reaches a delightful peak during the final moments of the Soviet campaign. As the player finally gets the best of Cherdenko, we're treated to a wide-eyed monologue that's so absurd you can literally see Curry struggling not to break character. He says: "Commander! You've rained on my glorious parade! For this, I'm sending everything I got at you, but I won't let you have the satisfaction of catching me. I'm escaping to the one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism... space!" Honestly, just seeing it written down doesn't do it justice, and you should definitely watch the clip itself. "Literally the first place I came," one YouTube viewer wrote under the comments of the video minutes after the news of Curry's death broke. "What a legend to take a part like this and ham it up so much that it became unforgettable." "RIP comrade. May you keep the fight alive beyond space," another added. "Glad to see everyone else here remembering this legendary moment from a legendary man," a third wrote. There's a reason this has become regarded as one of the greatest lines in video game history, and it's entirely down to the way Curry gives it both barrels. Nobody else could have rolled their eyes, took a deep breath, and shrieked the word "space" the way he did. Not Brian Cox, not Meryll Streep, nobody. To me, this one throwaway performance in a perfectly fine video game typifies everything great about Tim Curry: he was deeply silly, wonderfully weird, and willing to throw everything he had into every single role he played. What a genuine loss for the world.