While movie scripts may be polished and accurate, allowing actors to go off-script can create more hilarious and impeccable scenes. This article is about some of the memorable movie moments where stars improvised. It may take you by surprise to learn that some lines in your favorite movie were actually never part of the original script!
The Fugitive
Let’s begin with The Fugitive which starred both Tommy Lee Jones and Harrison Ford. During the shoot, Ford’s character was being pursued for a murder he didn’t commit. He was escaping from the authorities and at a standstill with Jones’ character, Ford screamed that he was not responsible for his wife’s murder.
The Fugitive
Jones forgot his original line and instead of saying “I don’t care,” he said, “That isn’t my problem.”
Midnight Cowboy
You may not remember this line in Midnight Cowboy, but you can be sure it was unscripted. During the shoot, a yellow cab missed the warning signs and almost ran over Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman.
Midnight Cowboy
This lead to Hoffman banging on the hood and shouting,” I’m walking here!”
When Harry Met Sally
The director behind the movie When Harry Met Sally, Rob Reiner, admits that he loves the improvised line in this movie.
When Harry Met Sally
You might be surprised to hear that the line, “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible,” was improvised on the spot.
The Dark Knight
You cannot deny the fact that the late Heath Ledger’s intensity made The Dark Knight one of the best comic book movies of all time. Although Ledger did not improvise a line, he was a legend for improvising a moment. As he was quietly sitting in jail, he witnessed Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) being congratulated for his promotion.
The Dark Knight
It is here that he improvised a chilling moment by slowly clapping without changing his facial expression.
A Few Good Men
The film A Few Good Men has more than one amazing unscripted moments! With stars like Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, and Jack Nicholson, one could expect nothing less than a stellar film. One line that caught our attention was from Jack Nicholson.
A Few Good Men
“You can’t handle the truth!” he says. It was completely unscripted, but look at how famous the line is now.
Deliverance
In Deliverance, Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox, and Ned Beatty get attacked by hillbillies while vacationing in Georgia. Do you also remember when Sally Fields and Burt Reynolds were dating? Man, how time flies! That aside, the most unforgettable scene was when they were surrounded by the wild hicks and Bobby was ordered to “squeal like a pig.”
Deliverance
To the surprise of many, Ned Beatty actually obeys. It was not in the script, but a lot of cast members try to take credit for the scene.
Being John Malkovich
Sure, it was not surprising for this off-beat film to have random moments. When shooting the scene, one of the extras was intoxicated and threw a can directly at John Malkovich’s head!
Being John Malkovich
He even yelled, “Hey, Malkovich! Think fast!” Seeing how things unfolded, the director loved the improvisation and decided to keep it.
The Usual Suspects
Unlike other directors who let actors freely improvise, The Usual Suspects director Brian Singer prefers sticking to the script. All the same, he allowed actors to go off script in this iconic scene. Apparently, someone was farting repeatedly while the main characters were being held in a line-up and no one could keep a straight face.
The Usual Suspects
The other amazing part was when the police officer asked actor Benicio to say the line, “in English please.”
Goodfellas
To be honest, apart from The Godfather, the other great classic gangster film is definitely Goodfellas. There were plenty of legends in this film including Roberto De Niro, Lorraine Bracco, Ray Liotta, and Joe Pesci. The most underrated was definitely Pesci as Tommy.
Goodfellas
He actually invented the famous line, “Do I amuse you?”
The Silence of the Lambs
It is hard to forget the chilling performance of Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecture in The Silence of the Lambs. One of his greatest improvised moments was when he was rehearsing with Jodie Foster’s character and joked about eating a human liver with ‘fava beans and a nice Chianti.’
The Silence Of The Lambs
While shooting, he finishes with an incredibly disturbing hissing sound. The director decided to keep it for shock value!
Taxi Driver
The famous “You talkin’ to me?” was improvised by Robert De Niro who played Travis Bickle.
Taxi Driver
While the original script by Paul Schrader stated that Travis should talk to himself in the mirror, he came up with this line on his own! What a legend!
The Warriors
Now, it is not hard to admit that watching David Patrick Kelly as Luther was a highlight for The Warriors. One of his most famous lines in the movie was, “Warriors, come out to play!”.
The Warriors
He invented this line while trying to claw three bottles in his hand through the set. Pleased with the line, the director decided to keep it.
Apocalypse Now
Marlon Brando may be a superb actor but he has a reputation of going off-script. He is also famously known for adopting character traits in his real life. One of the memorable examples of him going off-script was during a scene in Apocalypse Now. While rehearsing for his role of Colonel, Brando was being difficult to work with and even refused to learn the lines in the script.
Apocalypse Now
In fact, he jokingly used the script as a paper hat and by the time the film was over, he had improvised Colonel’s dialogue for a total of 18 minutes.
Blade Runner
This scene in the Blade Runner is considered to be one of the most moving scenes in history.
Blade Runner
This film stars Harrison Ford but the moment was largely improvised by Rutger Hauer.
Jaws
Naturally, there is much to celebrate in this critically-acclaimed film Jaws by Steven Spielberg.
Jaws
However, our focus is on Police Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) who completely went off-script with the line, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
Raiders Of The Lost Ark
Once again, Harrison Ford makes our list. However, we are not going to talk about his happy marriage to Calista FlockHart— let’s focus on his acting in Raiders of The Lost Ark. Remember the iconic fight scene? Well, the scene originally involved intense fight choreography where Indy runs into a bad guy with a large sword.
Raiders Of The Lost Ark
However, due to his stomach illness a few days before the shoot, Ford asked Spielberg to tone it down. He simply used his revolver to put the man down and this was nothing short of memorable!
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
Director of the Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Mel Stuart choose Wilder for the role of Willy Wonka even before Wilder had read the script. Gene Wilder accepted the role with the condition that he could change his character’s entrance. In the film, Willy limps to the entrance with a cane and then does a beautiful forward somersault.
Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
Wilder explains that he wanted the audience to distrust his character from the very beginning.
RoboCop
Kurtwood Smith told the director Paul about a line he came up with. The director loved it and purposely neglected to inform other cast members in order to capture their reactions. This happened when Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) was taken to the police station after being bitten by Robocop.
RoboCop
It is here that Boddicker spits at the paperwork and yells, “Give me my f***in’ phone call.” The look of shock on everyone’s faces reflected how bewildered they were in real life.
A Clockwork Orange
At times, even directors face challenges when filming and things do not go as swiftly as expected. This was no different for Stanley Kubrick in the film A Clockwork Orange. In the particular scene, Alex (Malcolm McDowell) and his other friends attacked a woman in her home.
A Clockwork Orange
Filming this rape scene proved to be difficult and a frustrated Kubrick ended up telling McDowell, “Just do whatever you want.” That is when Malcolm added a little dance and did the famous “Singing in the Rain” bit!
Full Metal Jacket
Once again, Stanley Kubrick wrote the screenplay for the legendary film Full Metal Jacket. During filming, things took a different turn when R. Lee Ermey who played as the drill sergeant improvised about half of his lines.
Full Metal Jacket
From the beginning, Stanley knew that Ermey was perfect for the role— he was a drill instructor in real life, after all.
Saving Private Ryan
Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan will always have a spot on lists of the best World War II films. When shooting the film, Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) talks to Private Ryan (Matt Damon).
Saving Private Ryan
During their conversation about the things they left behind, Matt Damon invented the story about seeing his brother making out with a girl. Amazing!
This is Spinal Tap
This is one of the funniest films of all time. Shockingly, most of the stuff in This is Spinal Tap was invented by the cast members!
This Is Spinal Tap
So even the line, “It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever,” was actually improvised.
The Shining
The Shining is another one of Kubrick’s classic films. Jack Nicholson plays Jack Torrance who works as winter caretaker in a hotel. However, the most memorable part was when Jack tries to get to his wife and son when the pair locked themselves in the room.
The Shining
Jack began chopping the door with an ax and then peered in the small hotel bathroom hole before screaming, “Here’s Jonny!” Jack admits to borrowing the improvised line from The Tonight Show with Jonny Carson.
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
In Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, we see Han and Leia saying goodbye to each other. The princess even told him, “I love you.” However, the director Irvin felt that something was missing and asked Ford to reply to how he felt.
Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back
Ford also thought that his character’s response was not authentic and opted to reply, “I know.”
Young Frankenstein
Yet again, we have Gene Wilder in the hysterical movie Young Frankenstein by Mel Brooks. No, we are not going to talk about Gene this time. Let’s take a look at his co-star Marty Feldman in the role of Igor. Luckily enough, Mel allowed Feldman and other actors in the film to improvise.
Young Frankenstein
This is when Marty came up with the line, “What hump?” This was a great addition to the scene and Brooks decided to keep it in the final cut!
Animal House
It probably won’t surprise anyone to find out that the talented cast of Animal House excelled in improv theatre. As a demonstration of his skills, actor John Belushi went completely off-script when filming the cafeteria scene!
Animal House
Yup, all of it, even when Belushi ate food and then pressed his cheeks to squeeze it out before saying, “I’m a zit— get it?”
Dumb and Dumber
Naturally, we loved watching Harry (Jeff Daniels) and Lloyd (Jim Carrey) in Dumb and Dumber. It is hard to forget the part where the two play tag while driving to Aspen, annoying the hitchhiker they picked up.
Dumb And Dumber
Apparently, Carrey went off-script when he made ‘the most annoying sound in the world’!
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
There is no denying that The Lord of the Rings tops almost every movie franchise that has ever existed. In The Fellowship of the Ring, we see Aragorn grieving for his friends Merry and Pippin.
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
This is when he kicks a helmet out of frustration just before letting out an authentic roar. This is because Aragorn actually broke his toe with the stunt. Ouch.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
In this movie Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, we see the boys taking a joy ride in the enchanted car. This results to Molly and Arthur Weasley arguing about how to discipline them.
Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets
One of the improvised lines that made it to the final cut came from Mark Williams. It was the question, “What exactly is the function of a rubber duck?”
Ghostbusters
Rick Moranis, who began his career at the popular improve group, made up a lot of lines for his role in Ghostbuster which was directed by Ivan Reitman.
Ghostbusters
The director told Rolling Stone that Rick was a natural since he came up with a lot of ideas, including the speech at the party. “Rick just made all of it up as he was doing it,” he remarked.
Caddyshack
Leaving SNL was not the end of acting for Bill Murray. The star featured in hit movies like the Caddyshack, where will be forever remembered for the amazing speech about the Dalai Lama. The entire scene, together with the Cinderella story, was invented by Murray on the spot!
Caddyshack
In the Cinderella story, the script read “Carl cuts off the top of the flowers with a grass whip.” However, Murray said, “Get me some flowers.”
Game Of Thrones
Do you know what’s really cool? The season finale of Game of Thrones! Do you know what’s really not cool? Watching season four and noticing that a Starbucks coffee cup was left in one of the shots. The truth is that it was dark in there, so it could have happened to anyone. Was this a publicity stunt? Some people think so, but the director was not having any of it. His claim is that it was an honest, albeit silly mistake.
Game Of Thrones