NEVER MEANT TO BE scene!
The iconic movie moments that weren’t planned… By
When it comes to the big screen, there are some movie moments that are just unforgettable. Whether it was Chief Brody’s“you’re gonna need a bigger boat”in Jaws or Robert Deniro’s talking to his reflection in Taxi Driver; Willy Wonka’s entrance in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory to John Mcclane’s Die Hard catchphrase, they’re some of the scenes that remain etched into our memories. But, in many cases, they weren’t actually in the script at first. This week, we’re taking a look at some of the most memorable movie moments that weren’t actually in the script — or strayed from the original plan…
It’s one of the film’s most iconic moments.
But the scene in Pretty Woman where Richard Gere’s Edward presents Vivian — played by Julia Roberts — with a gorgeous piece of jewellery and jokingly snaps the box shut when she reaches for it wasn’t actually in the script.
In fact, it had originally been intended for the gag reel, according to director Garry Marshall.
He said in an interview with the American Film Institute,“for the gag reel, I shot a piece that ended up in the movie — she was dozing off a little bit, she was 21 years old and had a birthday.
“We had a jewellery scene where she gets a beautiful bracelet. I said, ‘Richie, hit her with the box — bang the box on her fingers’. “And she laughed so honestly that we left it in the picture.”
The jewellery scene isn’t the only Pretty Woman moment that wasn’t originally in the script.
When Vivian walks into the hotel after Rodeo Drive, the hotel manager intercepts her and begins to question her about what she’s doing there — and who she is staying with.
After a few moments,vivian begins to clearly get upset and the manager hands over his handkerchief — which she uses to loudly, and comically, blow her nose.
The moment is said to have not been in the actual script, and rather was improvised by Roberts herself.
She later shared how she wasn’t sure about the scene making it into the final film as she didn’t think it was funny — but it ended up adding a comedic touch to an otherwise heavy scene.
The Princess Bride captured fans’ hearts around the world after its release in 1987. The fairytale follows along as a bedridden boy’s grandfather reads him a story: it’s about Westley, a farmboyturned-pirate as he tries to reunite with Buttercup, his true love.
Along the way, he encounters a number of obstacles, enemies and allies — including Miracle Max, played by Billy Crystal. The healer is tasked with helping the band of heroes after Westley is left“mostly dead”.
Crystal was allowed to ad-lib a lot of his scene — including the line about just how good a MLT, or mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich, is — and had everyone in stitches. Including, as it turns out, director Rob Reiner.
He previously told People,“billy ad-libbed a lot while we were shooting and I started laughing.
“I’d laugh. I ruined five or six takes because you know when he says ‘A mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich?’ I was gone.”
The moment Roy Scheider’s Martin
Brody warns Quint ‘you’re gonna need
“I ran over to David and said, ‘look, this is dull’...”
a bigger boat’ after seeing Jaws emerge from the water for the first time is one of the most iconic scenes in the film — but the line wasn’t actually in the script to begin with.
Scriptwriter Carl Gottlieb previously told how the line began as an inside joke behind the scenes. There was a barge that carried the lights and camera equipment, as well as craft services — and many believed that its support boat, which steadied it, was too small for the job.
He said,“it became a catchphrase for anytime anything went wrong — if lunch was late or the swells were rocking the camera, someone would say, ‘You’re gonna need a bigger boat.’”
Scheider incorporated the line a few times during the filming process — and they ultimately kept the one after Jaws surfaced, with how well it worked in the scene.
The 1980 film The Shining followed a family who head to an isolated hotel for the winter, only yo find a sister presence influencing the father into violence.
His psychic son, meanwhile, sees horrific forebodings from both the past and the future.
Jack Nicholson played Jack Torrance, the patriarch fo the family who begins to descend into madness after his family take care of the Overlook Hotel during the offseason.
And one of the most well-known scenes for the film involves Jack trying to break down a door to get at his family — and, after successfully hacking through the door, says, ‘here’s Johnny!’
The line was ad-libbed by Nicholson, and was a nod to Johnny Carson, the original host of The Tonight Show.
The Wolf of Wall Street’s chest-thumping and chant scene was partially improvised, according to Matthew Mcconaughey.
The actor, who played Mark Hanna in the film, explained on social media that the move wasn’t something that he came up with solely for the film.
He said, ”The actual [chant], that is something that I'll do not only in this film, I'll do it before scenes in a lot of films.
"I'll come up with a different tune and it's a relaxation tool for me. It's musical, so it gets me out of my head because I don't want to be thinking as an actor, I want to be doing.”
He noted that the exercise "keeps my voice low and keeps my instrument loose” — and after a few takes, Dicaprio quizzed him about what it was.
Mcconaughey continued,“as we're packing up to move onto another setup for another scene, Leonardo goes, 'What's that thing you're doing before the scene? What if you put that in the scene?’”
They decided to do it again, but this time with the move included — and it all worked out for the best.
1979’s The Warriors followed a fictional gang in Newyork City who have to make their way from the Bronx to Coney Island after they are wrongly accused of assassinating another gang leader. And with other gangs hot on their heels, it proves to be a lot more difficult than they thought it’d be.
According to director Walter Hill, the moment that the villainous Luther — played by David Patrick Kelly — called out in search of The Warriors to ‘come out and plaaaay’ wasn’t actually in the script originally.
He recalled to the Hollywood Reporter,
“I ran over to David and said, 'Look, this is dull. Think of something here. I don’t care if you sing to him, yell at him.you’re trying to pull him out’.
“I went off to set the cameras and I could see him out of the corner of my eye. He ran under the boardwalk and came out with all these empty beer bottles.
“So I ran back to the car and I said, ‘We got anything?’ And he went: clink clink clink. He said, ‘Warriors … come out and plaaaay’. This is what a good director I am. I said, ‘Go with that. Don’t change it. Let’s shoot’.”
Bruce Willis has told how he didn’t think that Die Hard’s iconic catchphrase would actually stay in the movie — and that he’d originally said it just to make the people on set laugh. He told Ryan Seacrest in 2013 how the ‘yippee ki-ye motherf ***** s’ was originally a“throwaway”.
He added, "I was just trying to crack up the crew. I never thought it was going to be allowed to stay in the film.”
Viggo Mortensen famously broke two toes while filming The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers after he kicked an Orc helmet on-camera.
Mistakenly convinced that Merry and Pippin had been killed after coming across a burning pile of Orcs, Aragorn — played by Mortensen — kicked a helmet in frustration, before letting out an anguished scream.
Peter Jackson recalled in a behind-thescenes featurette how they had done a few takes before that one — and that they were amazed by his level of emotion in that scene. However, it turns out there was a little more to the emotion than they realised. Mortensen had broken two toes when he kicked the helmet, and so Aragorn’s anguish over their apparent deaths was actually a cry of pain.
The 1976 film Taxi Driver saw Robert De Niro play Travis Bickle, an ex-marine and Vietnam veteran, who works as a taxi driver in Newyork
City — and grows increasingly detached from reality, and dreams of cleaning up the city.
But one of its most iconic moments — the classic ‘you talkin’ to me?’ — wasn’t actually in the script to begin with.
Director Martin Scorsese recalled in
2016 how the movie moment came to be.
He told the TODAY Show, "There was no dialogue, I believe, in the scene, and I remember saying, 'Can you say something to yourself? In the mirror?’
"It was the last week of shooting... it was very difficult, and we said, 'OK, we're just going to shoot this scene.’”
The director recalled how they let De Niro work through the scene in a locked studio — and the kept saying“‘you talkin’ to me?’”
He continued,“he just kept repeating it, kept repeating it ... and the (assistant director) was banging on the door saying, 'Come on, we got to get out of here.’
"And I said, 'No, this is good, this is good. Give me another minute.’”
Gene Wilder is said to have tapped into his improvisation skills when he took on Roald Dahl’s eccentric candymaker in 1971’s Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.
The actor, who was nominated for a
Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globe Awards for his portrayal of the candy man, is said to have surprised many of the cast members during his entrance — and famous Willy Wonka flip.
Denise Nickerson, who played Violet Beauregarde, told People about the filming experience — and how there was another moment that was improvised by Wilder.
She said in 2016 that the psychedelic boat scene, which sees Wonka begin to belt out a cheerful song for the kids and their parents before it turns into something much darker, had her“completely speechless”.
She said,“i was quite surprised with that, there was no acting involved.
“My chin dropped, hit the ground and never came back up. I had not anticipated that, it was not in the script that he was going to go off on that tangent.
“I was completely speechless.”