Classic movie moments that were not in the script

Scriptwriting isn’t easy. Some people spend months trying to perfect a specific scene, trying to write that perfect line that sticks in the mind of those who hear it. Then these guys come along and do it off the top of their heads.  Here are a couple of examples:

The Shining

This line will always be linked to its movie in the cultural unconscious. It’s on the AFI’s best quotes list. It was totally improvised. All Jack Nicholson was supposed to do was break the door down, but he figured that wasn’t quite pants-crappingly insane enough, so he screamed the then-famous intro to The Tonight Show. It didn’t even make sense in context, since his character’s name was Jack Torrance. But holy hell was it effective.

Raiders of the Lost Ark

The entire portion of the film that took place in Egypt was absolute hell to shoot, with cast and crew frequently becoming ill and injured. At one point Harrison Ford tore a cruciate ligament and John Rhys-Davis actually crapped his pants during filming. Much of it was pushed through and indeed the entire scene with Marion and Belloq getting drunk in a tent was also completely improvised.

The sequence with the swordsman was originally meant to involve Indy running around with the swordsman in pursuit, but Ford had come down with dysentery and wasn’t in the mood to do much running when his bowels were doing enough of that for the both of them. So he suggested they just shoot the bastard and be done with it, resulting in one of the most entertaining scenes in the entire film.

A few more of these improvised moments

Thanks DJ

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