diff --git a/lib/linguist/strategy/modeline.rb b/lib/linguist/strategy/modeline.rb
index 96a73ff8..b23fe08e 100644
--- a/lib/linguist/strategy/modeline.rb
+++ b/lib/linguist/strategy/modeline.rb
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ module Linguist
       #
       # Returns a String or nil
       def self.modeline(data)
-        data.lines.first(5).any? { |l| l.match(Regex) }
+        data.match(Regex)
         lang = $3
       end
     end