Chest-bursting chaos.
A killer's grand entrance.
And some of the most iconic taunts of all time.
Who knew it was all unscripted?
Wes Craven's slice-and-dice game-changer Scream hit theaters in 1996.
Right away, the movie shook up the old slasher movie conventions of the previous decade,
from its non-virginal final girl Sidney Prescott to its hip-to-the-genre teens, who toss around
the barbed insults and sly remarks conceived by screenwriter Kevin Williamson.
'Cos let's face it, baby — these days, you've gotta have a sequel!"
One of the film's funnier moments takes place in the climax.
On the Scream blu-ray commentary, Williamson admits that the character of Stu was a little
underwritten, but it was no problem for Matthew Lillard, who ad-libbed several of Stu's lines throughout filming.
During this particular scene, Stu and Billy have revealed to Sidney that they're behind
the spree of killings, but she slips away, calling to taunt Billy on the phone from elsewhere
in the house.
At this point, Skeet Ulrich was supposed to rage-throw the phone at the nearby kitchen
countertop — but, because of the slippery theatrical blood covering his hands, this happened:
"F–k!"
"You f—ing hit me with the phone, dick!"
It's a great moment of levity in the eye of the movie's storm, sweetened all the more
by the satisfaction of seeing Sidney dispatch these two psychopaths just moments later.
The chestburster sequence in Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi horror masterpiece Alien is one
of the most shocking moments in movie history — and that's in large part because the cast's
reaction to it is totally genuine.
Prior to this scene, John Hurt's character was infected by a face-hugging alien, which
impregnated him with a baby xenomorph.
No one on the ship knows this yet, however, and they're all shocked when he doubles over
during mealtime and then begins to seize up.
As they try to restrain him, the baby alien shoves its head through his ribcage.
The only actor completely in on the whole thing was Hurt, because he had to go through
special effects prep and set-up.
The rest of the cast was kept in the dark, beyond the fact that something would come
out of his chest.
When they arrived on set that day, though, they noticed that the cameras were covered
in plastic and the crew were all wearing raincoats.
Clearly, there was going to be some kind of splash zone — but after a false start with
only a tiny bit of blood and a not-too-threatening burster, the actors let down their guard.
That's when Scott struck, sending real animal organs and gallons of fake blood in the cast's direction.
The screams, gasps, and horrified faces of the cast are all very real, which sells the
shock of the scene in a truly visceral way.
Discussing the reaction of Alien actor Veronica Cartwright, H.R.
Giger later said:
"She was so, so hysteric, she cried so much.
I think it was real."
There are more than a few scary moments in the 1980 Stanley Kubrick movie The Shining,
but the vast majority of them are scripted.
Kubrick was an exacting director who pushed his performers to the limit, so it's surprising
that he even allowed an improvised line in one of his films.
In fact, it was because Kubrick required dozens of takes for every scene that we ended up
with one of the greatest improvised lines in cinematic history.
During the climax of the film, writer-gone-mad Jack Torrance is chasing his wife Wendy around
the empty Overlook Hotel.
Wendy locks herself in a bathroom and Jack hacks his way through the door with a hatchet
before peering in through the hole.
Nicholson plays the part as completely unhinged, and he taunts Wendy as he attacks the door.
When he manages to cut through enough to reveal his face, he sticks his head into the hole
and shouts:
"Here's Johnny!"
This iconic line was improvised, referencing late-night talk show host Johnny Carson, who
would be introduced the same way every night by co-host Ed McMahon.
"Here's Johnny!"
It was an easy-to-catch reference for Americans in 1980 that makes the film feel more lived-in
despite its supernatural story.
The quote has gone on to be referenced far more from The Shining than its original usage
on The Tonight Show, and it's all because of Nicholson's need to change things up after
so many takes.
Sir Anthony Hopkins only spends 24 minutes on screen in Silence of the Lambs, but his
gripping performance as Hannibal Lecter earned him an Academy Award; it has since made him
one of the most recognizable figures in horror history.
Playing a brilliant forensic psychiatrist who also happens to be a murderous cannibal
is enough to creep out audiences, but Hopkins truly made the character his own, providing
multiple unscripted moments that helped make the film so memorable.
Take this, for example:
"I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti"
That noise he makes wasn't in the script.
As Hopkins tells it, it was simply an odd sound he was making on set and figured it
would be a creepy addition to an already unsettling line.
But that's not all.
When Clarice Starling first encounters Dr. Lecter from his cell, Ted Tally's script describes
the moment as:
"Dr. Hannibal Lecter is lounging on his bunk, in white pajamas, reading an Italian Vogue."
On-screen, however, Hannibal Lecter is standing in the middle of the cell, staring directly
at her with a curious expression on his face.
In an interview between Hopkins and Foster as part of Variety's "Actors on Actors" series,
Hopkins shared that he told director Jonathan Demme he'd like to be standing.
"He said, 'standing, okay, why'"
"I said, 'I can smell her coming down the corridor.'"
"He says…"
Silence of the Lambs would have been a controversial success no matter what, but it's clear that
Hopkins' unpredictable performance helped write the movie into the history books.
One of cinema's most famous lines was actually a cheeky in-joke among its film crew.
Steven Spielberg's 1975 adaptation of Peter Benchley's novel Jaws sees three men pursue
a great white shark responsible for several attacks in their seaside town: Amityville
police chief Martin Brody, oceanographer Matt Hooper, and seasoned shark hunter Quint.
Having found the shark, a huge beast that later takes the pithy fishing vessel down
with ease, Brody delivers a simple line with gravity to the ship's captain:
"You're gonna need a bigger boat."
This wasn't exactly an ad-lib, though.
Carl Gottlieb, both a co-writer of the adapted screenplay and bit actor in the film, later
told The Hollywood Reporter that production on the set of Jaws was notoriously stingy.
In particular, producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown overloaded the boat to such an
extent that the words "you're gonna need a bigger boat" later became a go-to catchphrase
behind the scenes.
It was used by the movie's crew for everything from a delayed lunch to technical issues — basically
any situation that meant those crewmembers were poorly equipped for the job.
So, during this scene, Roy Scheider infused the movie crew's frustration into the story,
sprinkling the phrase into his dialogue on various occasions during filming.
The one that stuck is the one that lives on the big screen today — and in the mouths
of anyone woefully unprepared for the task before them.
"Rowdy" Roddy Piper was, without a doubt, one of the greatest professional wrestlers
in history.
Fellow WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair once described Piper as "the most gifted entertainer in the
history of professional wrestling" upon his induction to the Hall in 2005.
Before John Cena and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson proved that wrestlers could be bonafide Hollywood
superstars, wrestlers weren't often known for their acting chops.
The biggest exception, however, was Roddy Piper.
He had a recurring role as a dangerous wrestler named "The Maniac" on It's Always Sunny in
Philadelphia, and starred as Sam Hell in the cult hit Hell Comes to Frogtown.
His biggest cinematic claim to fame, however, is starring as Nada in John Carpenter's masterpiece,
As Nada realizes that Earth has been taken over by aliens that are hiding in plain sight
to manipulate the masses, he embarks on a crusade to free humanity and defeat its captors.
Nada is the ultimate everyman in this movie — if the ultimate everyman was also a talented
professional wrestler who could dish out witty insults to aliens and easily fight Keith David
for nearly six minutes straight.
In the film's most memorable moment, Nada enters a bank with a gun and delivers the
now-famous line:
"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass.
And I'm all out of bubblegum."
This line has since become a pop culture staple, with people who've never even seen They Live
at least having heard of the reference.
Notably, it was later famously referenced in the video game Duke Nukem, and became a
popular meme among younger generations as a result.
Incredibly, the line was improvised by Roddy Piper, having not been a part of John Carpenter's
original script.
In space, no one can hear you rage-quit.
When people quote James Cameron's 1986 sci-fi action classic Aliens, the line that comes
up the most often is a desperate one indeed.
The movie finds a team of aliens stranded on a desolate, hostile moon teeming with acid-blooded
xenomorphs who mean to cocoon, impregnate, and otherwise slaughter the lot of them.
It's during this mission that Colonial Marine and fan favorite character Private Hudson
surveys the situation and utters the iconic line:
"That's it, man.
Game over, man!
Game over!"
Cameron, who had previously helmed The Terminator and therefore knew a thing or two about memorable
but doomed characters, encouraged the sizable cast of Aliens to develop backstories for
the characters they played.
Some actors had enough experience to handle that kind of personal worldbuilding, but for
Bill Paxton, who only had a few film credits to his name at the time, the task proved daunting.
That said, Paxton noticed his character's jumpy, immature demeanor and decided that
Hudson was, like many service members, an avid gamer.
This meant that he was prone to hysterics when he failed to overcome the combat simulators
on which he and his fellow Marines would train.
So what better syntax to capture utter defeat than the near-universal words "Game over?"
The phrase was a pop culture grenade and has since been repeated in a wide variety of movies,
TV shows, albums, and comic books over the years — as well as video games, obviously.
For his performance, Paxton earned a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor… and the
undying devotion of horror fans worldwide.