Gotham's law-breaking taxi drivers, the Overlook’s reality-bending layout, and Alicia Silverstone’s
hilariously genuine mispronunciation.
Keep watching for some of the best movie mistakes that made it into the final cut.
A good soldier fights through peril and injury, and apparently, so does a good actor.
You've probably heard of a number of performers who do their own stunts, but George MacKay
never expected one particular scene from the 2019 war film "1917" to put him on that list.
While his character's grueling sprint at the end of the film was undoubtedly an intense
climax to his mission, the actor wasn't meant to take any hits as he ran across the battlefield.
He had come out of rehearsal for the scene unscathed, but there are no guarantees of
timing in such a complex scene.
On the actual day of shooting, as MacKay told Jimmy Fallon, he found himself taking multiple
blows from a slew of oncoming soldiers, despite never having rehearsed the shot that way.
“Yeah, well, that’s a mistake that made it in.
That wasn’t meant to happen.”
But an actor keeps going until the director calls for a cut, and for such an important
moment in the film, he knew he couldn't throw in the towel himself.
So he kept moving, and director Sam Mendes never halted the take.
He must've realized that, despite deviating from rehearsal, something even more intense
was happening.
The shot that was never meant to happen ended up being one of the greatest triumphs of MacKay's
performance.
While filming "The Princess Bride," Cary Elwes convinced Christopher Guest to hit him on
the head with the pommel of his sword in a scene.
“I swear it will be done.”
This action was scripted, but the issue arose because they apparently didn't have a rubber
prop sword to do the deed harmlessly.
Elwes thought it would turn out fine if they just used a real one.
Of course, he expected his co-star to give him a gentle tap — certainly not the level
of bludgeoning you'd rather have a stunt man step in for.
But Guest apparently didn't know his own strength!
It's part of the story for Elwes’ character, Westley, to get KO’d, so you might never
have known the actor had really been knocked unconscious if not for an interview Elwes
gave to SundanceTV describing the incident.
He said that the next thing he knew, he was waking up in the hospital.
The blow actually ended up creating a literal slapstick comedy moment that made it into
the film and served its trademark zaniness incredibly well.
Every job has its hazards.
If you work in a kitchen, you run the risk of slipping on spills or burning yourself
with hot cooking oil.
If you work in an office, you might get carpal tunnel syndrome.
And if you're Channing Tatum portraying Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz in Bennett Miller's
2014 film "Foxcatcher," you might break your hand, pop your eardrum, and cut your head
open.
All of these injuries actually befell Channing Tatum during the shooting of "Foxcatcher."
He broke his hand while training for the role, but you can see the other two mishaps during
the film.
When Mark Ruffalo's character roughs up Tatum's and clips him on the ear, you see Tatum wince.
His eardrum actually popped in this moment!
And when Tatum slams his head into a mirror, the cut you see on his head in the film is
real.
The actor went a little too hard in the moment and actually broke through the wall behind
the prop glass.
So when you see the intensity of Channing Tatum's physical reactions in "Foxcatcher,"
you're often seeing something all too real.
Perhaps his most telling line from a Variety interview on the subject?
"Eardrums heal, so I'm fine."
Sometimes you do the spit-take, and sometimes the spit takes you.
Or something like that.
This mistake in "The Martian" is another case in which part of the action was scripted,
but a mishap actually elevated it to the next level.
"The Martian" is directed by Ridley Scott, a sci-fi legend who's apparently known for
getting scenes done in just a few takes.
This is opposed to the dozens of attempts that other directors might often employ to
get things just right.
His films are said to be "full of banana peels."
Because if someone accidentally slips and messes up — or "eats it" as Donald Glover
puts it — the clumsiness just makes it all the more real.
Scott prefers this humanizing element, so he doesn't bother doing the scene over just
because someone tripped, and you'll often see such unscripted stumbles in his films.
In this particular instance, a nervous Glover slips and falls on some spilled coffee that
he himself had spit out earlier into a wastebasket.
He gets up, saying he's fine, and stays in character to complete the scene.
The spitting-out was scripted, but the slipping was not — so Glover was quite surprised
when after the scene, all Ridley Scott had to say was, "That was great!"
Actors like Channing Tatum and Donald Glover didn't have to go to the hospital for their
injuries and slip-ups, but some performers weren't as lucky.
Brad Pitt's character in David Fincher's "Se7en" actually had to be changed to accommodate
his arm injury, which he sustained during a chase scene.
He accidentally put his arm through a windshield after a scripted fall from a fire escape.
The star even required surgery for this wound.
From that point on in the film, Pitt's character is always wearing a cast, which required Fincher
to alter many other sequences in the movie to accommodate the injury.
These scenes weren't just the ones that, in the film's chronology, came after the chase
scene.
After all, movies don't always shoot their scenes in the same order as they appear in
the story.
So there were a lot of scenes from before the chase that hadn't been shot yet, and Fincher
had to hide Pitt's arm in these moments to disguise the injury, as it hadn't happened
yet in the world of the story.
In film, just because something is unscripted, that doesn't mean that it's a mistake.
Some directors are pretty strict about improvisation, while others encourage it.
On the actors' end, some improvised moments work much better than others, but even the
ones that don't go over well are typically conscious acting choices, not accidents.
In the case of this sequence from "Captain America: The First Avenger," you could say
it was an improvisation, and that'd be partly true.
But it still definitely qualifies as a mistake when you hear Hayley Atwell tell it.
In what Vanity Fair describes as "your favorite scene in 'Captain America," Atwell's Peggy
Carter sees Chris Evans' super-soldier-serum-saturated Steve Rogers with his shirt off for the first
time.
She reaches out in awe, and seemingly involuntarily touches his chest.
But this wasn't only Peggy's first time seeing Steve shirtless, it was also Atwell's first
time seeing Evans shirtless.
The actress said that she was compelled to impulsively touch Chris Evans' chest, and
the director apparently thought it was so organic that you can see it in the film.
By her account, it was less of a choice in character and more a compulsion in the moment
as herself — practically an accident.
But what a happy accident it was.
Atwell, for her part, claimed that it was the highlight of her life.
If you think that being in the background of a film means you're missing out on all
the action, that's not necessarily the case.
Sometimes you get even more action than you bargained for, and it's not always a pleasant
or star-making experience.
But you can rely on the eagle-eyed film enthusiasts of Reddit to eventually get you the recognition
you deserve for taking a background blow like a champ.
Blink and you'll miss it, but when Tom Cruise dismounts his horse in one scene in "The Last
Samurai," the steed kicks an extra in the crotch.
You can tell from his reaction that it wasn't some sort of stunt.
But once you see it, it's all the more impressive that the extra remains standing and, though
he stumbles a bit, takes it like a true warrior.
What's most alarming is that no one around him appears to flinch when it happens or check
to make sure that he's okay.
If you want to believe the best, you could read the lack of response as evidence of the
stoicism of the soldiers.
Either way, the injured soldier is a true champ.
Imagine your first chest-waxing and your first leading role in a film occurring at the very
same time.
It sounds like it'd be a lot of pressure and that things could potentially go really badly.
That's exactly what happened to Steve Carell.
His character in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," Andy, is trying to get into the dating world
for the first time and, as the title of the film suggests, lose his virginity.
He gets a lot of advice from some pretty questionable but well-meaning sources, which ultimately
leads to him booking a waxing appointment.
“Oh, that sounds like it would be nice.”
Normally, a scene like this would be done with makeup and special effects, but Carell
thought it would be better if the waxing was real.
He assumed it wouldn't hurt that badly.
But you can tell in the scene itself how shocked he is at his miscalculation.
The pain is real.
To make matters worse, the actor who played his waxer lied about being experienced in
the procedure and apparently skipped an important protective step.
That is, applying Vaseline to his nipples.
Poor Steve.
The master of physical comedy really went to his limits this time, and thankfully, it's
not completely embarrassing.
Rather, it's a hilarious and memorable scene, and the film wouldn't be the same without
it.
Have you ever noticed that in many scenes in the MCU movies, Tony Stark is munching
on some sort of snack?
It's easy to believe that it's just a part of his character.
He's quirky in many other ways and always does whatever he wants.
So, why should the end of the world keep him from snacking?
Well, apparently this habit was never part of Stark's character in the beginning.
Robert Downey, Jr. would just hide snacks all over the set and randomly start munching
out during takes without telling anyone he was going to.
There was nothing anyone could do about it since they never knew when it was going to
happen.
So the production just made constantly eating and drinking a comedic part of Iron Man's
cavalier character.
And honestly, it fits just fine.
Is it a mistake?
It would have been for a lesser actor, as it likely would've gotten them fired or at
least heavily reprimanded.
But RDJ took his snacking and made a meal out of it.
A series of mistakes in "Titanic" turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
Believe it or not, Jack's now-famous exclamation at the tip of the ship wasn't originally in
the script.
In fact, he and director James Cameron had tried a bunch of different lines in its place,
and they all fell flat.
Time was running out, and the production was losing light.
But finally, after a bunch of "mistake" lines, an exasperated Cameron told DiCaprio to just
say,
"I'm king of the world!"
And apparently DiCaprio really didn't want to at the time, responding to Cameron's direction
with an unconvinced "what?" and repeating the question when Cameron reiterated his instructions.
To the second objection, Cameron simply replied with, quote, "Just f---ing sell it."
“I’m the king of the world!
Wooo!
Wooo!”
We're eternally grateful that the previous scripted attempts turned out to be mistakes
— mistakes that, in their wake, made room for one of the most recognizable lines in
one of cinema's most revered films.
We'd love to know what some of those failed lines were, though.
When the futuristic Bat-vehicles dominate the screen in "The Dark Knight" trilogy, most
people really aren't paying attention to much else.
But if you check the traffic in the background, there are quite a few scenes in which Gotham
citizens don't appear to be obeying traffic rules.
These sequences usually occur in high-speed, quickly cut chase scenes, so they're easy
to miss and, if we're being honest, a little nitpicky to point out even if you do catch
them.
Still, the other drivers on the road as the Caped Crusader rides his BatPod after the
Joker are blatantly ignoring street lights.
Of course, the taxi drivers who nearly crash into the BatPod and honk as he whizzes through
them are most likely stunt drivers, given how close they come to colliding with him.
Not to mention that these near encounters work great to emphasize the peril of the chase.
But if you look closely, the lights facing left and right — where the vehicles come
from — are red.
These collisions should’ve never happened.
You could nitpick and say it ruins the realism, but we disagree.
The whole premise of Nolan's trilogy is that Gotham is a city of debauchery, mayhem, and
moral bankruptcy — there's often explicit debate as to whether it can be saved.
We naturally conceive of that in epic cinematic terms: grand-scale sociopaths like the Joker,
corrupt officials at the highest levels, and sky-high crime rates.
But if Gotham truly is a lawless city, wouldn't that extend to every area of life?
If people aren't going to follow the law when it comes to fraud, murder, and greed, why
would they when it comes to traffic?
Many injuries are the result of talented, invested actors taking their scripted scenes
a little too far.
It's a testament to their acting that they're willing to risk bodily injury in order to
fully inhabit a scene, but we hope they don't make a tradition out of needing stitches.
In "Nightcrawler," Jake Gyllenhaal plays a freelance photojournalist named Lou who enters
the competitive business of covering violent incidents, like crashes and crimes, and selling
the footage to news stations.
Naturally, he develops an unsettling obsession with his work and uses increasingly questionable
means to obtain the most compelling footage before any of his competitors.
This means going so far as to tamper with crime scenes and manipulate police, journalists,
and criminals.
It goes without saying that the guy is intense.
At one point, he punches a mirror, which was part of the script.
Jake Gyllenhaal needing stitches in his hand afterward, though, that was not part of the
plan.
Even still, it all fits incredibly well with a seedy character who'll go to any lengths
to get what he wants.
You might've been told as a kid that sugar can make your teeth fall out.
But for one young extra in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," this threat became
all too real in an unexpected way.
When confectionery magnate Willy Wonka announces his Golden Ticket sweepstakes, it inspires
a frenzy as people everywhere flock to candy stores in hopes of finding a ticket.
In one scene, a crowd of children clamor at the counter of a sweet shop.
The proprietor, while singing the now-famous "The Candy Man" tune, graciously invites the
children behind the counter to select their treats.
But if you watch closely, he almost knocks one little girl's teeth out!
This moment hasn't been spoken about in interviews, likely in part because the film vastly predated
internet discourse on such subjects.
But it's a very small chance the sequence was scripted or directed this way.
You can see from the clip that the little girl actually gets clocked by the fold-up
counter!
It's pretty safe to assume that they didn't plan for this and then bring a 6-year-old
stunt girl on set to get nailed in the face.
What makes this goof so perfect, though, is how the little girl doesn't seem fazed at
all!
She still rushes past the counter to get at the candy.
It makes her seem so hilariously invested in the treats that she doesn't notice getting
hit on the chin.
And she won't be the last child in the film whose dogged pursuit of sweets gets her into
trouble!
While it's also full of all the sweetest things in life, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"
has more than one mistake hidden under the wrapper.
And one continuity error in this film accidentally makes a pretty powerful statement.
When the malnourished Charlie eats what's probably his first-ever Wonka bar, we see
him take a bite in one shot while his mouth is already stuffed.
But in the next shot — just a couple of seconds later — his mouth is totally empty.
You can't swallow almost an entire chocolate bar in a matter of seconds.
It definitely can't be done without making a mess or at least needing to catch one's
breath afterwards.
At first glance, this is an extremely minor continuity error.
And again, since this is a viewer-caught slip-up in an old film, it hasn't been addressed as
a mistake by anyone connected with the feature.
We're just deferring to the laws of physics here.
But on that note, this mistake can totally be spun as the whimsical film's magical-realist
take on just how ravenous Charlie is for the first-ever taste of Wonka chocolate in his
impoverished life.
The layout of the Overlook Hotel in "The Shining," Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of Stephen
King's disquieting horror novel, is spatially impossible.
If you try to match what you see inside the hotel with what you see on the exterior, there's
simply no way to make it work.
But when you think about the story itself, everything about the sinister, seemingly sentient
hotel defies logic and is meant to confuse the viewer and occupants and drive them slowly
mad.
So, why not the architecture itself?
Some people staunchly argue that "The Shining" set features many impossibilities — from
windows that shouldn't exist to doors that lead nowhere to entire rooms that couldn't
possibly fit inside the hotel.
Others, however, say it's all part of Kubrick's genius, and that the hotel itself is clearly
a supernatural, disorienting force, an illusion in and of itself in many ways.
It would certainly lend new and unsettling meaning to the now-famous sequences of Danny
riding his tricycle through the byzantine twists and turns of the hotel's hallways.
He may be wheeling in and out of reality.
Self-absorbed Cher, living up to the title of the film "Clueless," mispronounces words
throughout the movie.
But what you might not know is that actress Alicia Silverstone herself is making these
errors.
Whenever you hear her articulate a word slightly wrong, there's a good chance that the mistake
is genuine.
Apparently, after Silverstone had made a few mistakes in the debate scene, members of the
"Clueless" cast and crew attempted to help her out by correcting her.
However, director Amy Heckerling called for everyone to stand down.
She felt that mispronouncing Haitians as "Hate-i-ans" is something Cher's ditzy and self-absorbed
character would totally do.
“So, if the government could just get to the kitchen, rearrange some things, we could
certainly party with the ‘Hate-i-ans’”
And she was absolutely right.
Cher's mispronunciations serve as foreshadowing for the growth she will experience over the
course of the movie.
That is, from the selfish, ignorant girl she once was to the conscientious, caring person
she always had the potential to be.
And these competing elements wouldn't have been expressed as well without those delightful
mispronunciations.
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