You are now free to move about the country.

The line is best known as a stock announcement made by U.S. flight attendants at the end of a commercial airline flight, delivered after the aircraft has reached the gate and the seatbelt sign is turned off. It functions as a ritualized cue in the choreography of deplaning—often paired with reminders to check overhead bins and to use caution when opening compartments. Because it is part of standardized cabin-crew patter rather than a literary utterance, it circulates widely as an “anonymous” quote and is frequently referenced in popular culture as a familiar, sometimes humorous, marker of arrival and release from confinement.

The line reads like an official pronouncement granting permission after a period of restriction—most familiarly, the formula used by flight attendants after landing (“You are now free to move about the cabin”). Recast with “country,” it can suggest release from confinement (legal, political, or social), or a wry comment on the limits of “freedom” when it is framed as something granted by authority. As an anonymous quotation, it is often treated as a deadpan, bureaucratic-sounding statement whose humor comes from applying a routine permission phrase to a much larger space, implying that movement and liberty can be conditional and regulated.

1) "You are now free to move about the cabin."
2) "You are now free to move about the aircraft."
3) "You are now free to move about the country." (often cited as a humorous misstatement of the usual cabin announcement)