Well, There Goes That Dream
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About
Well, There Goes That Dream is a memorable line said by The Banshees of Inisherin character Dominic after getting rejected by his love interest. Online, a screencap from the scene has been used as a reaction image and a caption meme, used to comment on one failing to achieve his dreams or goals, often humorously.
Origin
On October 21st, 2022, black tragicomedy film The Banshees of Inisherin premiered.[1] In one scene of the film, character Dominic, portrayed by Barry Keoghan, confesses his romantic feelings to character Siobhán, who rejects his advances in a kind manner. Disheartened, Dominic mutters, "Well, there goes that dream", and walks away (full scene shown below).
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bq – Well, there goes that dream. Well, I'd best go over there and do whatever that thing over there I was going to do was.
On December 19th, 2022, X[2] user @christiansbale posted a clip from the scene to X, where it received over 8.1 million views, 6,700 reposts and 36,000 likes in two years.
On March 9th, 2023, X[3] user @TheCinesthetic posted quoted an X post "what feelings do men experience" with an uncaptioned screencap from the scene. The post (shown below) garnered over 3,200 reposts and 31,000 likes in two years.
Spread
A caption meme format based on the scene achieved initial popularity on X / Twitter and Reddit in mid-March 2023. For example, on March 13th, 2023, Redditor TennisADHD posted an image caption meme based on the format that gained over 23,000 upvotes in the /r/dankmemes[3] subreddit in two years (shown below).
The caption format saw continued use on social media in 2024 and 2025. For example, on January 8th, 2024, X[4] user @alexkealy posted a meme about the movie Saltburn based on a recaptioned version of the meme. The post (shown below) received over 1,000 reposts and 31,000 likes in one year.
On October 20th, 2024, Facebook[5] page A Shot II. posted a two-panel screencap of the scene that garnered over 12,000 reactions and 2,500 shares and has also been used as a caption format.
Various Examples
Template
Search Interest
External References
[1] IMDb – The Banshees of Inisherin
[2] X – @christiansbale
[3] Reddit – In this economy?
[4] X – @alexkealy
[5] Facebook – A Shot II.
