Every last part of a major motion picture is carefully planned for years by a crew that
numbers in the hundreds. The lighting has to be just right, the camera angles precisely
mapped out, and the lines memorized by the actors. But sometimes magic still happens
spontaneously. A last minute or spur-of-the-moment acting choice is so clever that it stays in
the movie. Those moments are often the most memorable parts of a film. We've covered some
of the most amazing unplanned cinematic situations in our video, 10 Spectacular Movie Scenes
That Were Improvised. Now, here are nine more times the actors went off-book.
The Silence of the Lambs
It's already a terrifying moment in a terrifying movie. Hannibal Lecter coldly admits to Clarice
Starling that he killed and ate part of a census taker. He doesn't really need to do
anything demonstrably monstrous, and the script didn't call for it. But actor Anthony Hopkins
reportedly wanted to genuinely spook his co-star, Jodie Foster, not to mention the audience.
So he came up with his little snake-like hiss:
"I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti."
(Hisses)
Raiders of the Lost Ark
All of the fight scenes in the first Indiana Jones movie took weeks to choreograph—including
a lengthy sword vs. whip battle. But when the time came to film it, Harrison Ford backed
out. He’d come down with food poisoning the night before shooting. He simply couldn’t
go through with the elaborate physicality of the scene. So, he ran an idea past director
Steven Spielberg that became one of the Indiana Jones series' most famous moments. Instead
of fighting off a swordsman with his whip in a few minutes, Indy just shoots him.
End of fight. End of scene. And Ford was free to go.
Good Will Hunting
As Robin Williams' character tells a story about his deceased wife waking herself up
with her own sleep farts, Matt Damon can't stop laughing.
"She used to fart in her sleep."
"Sorry I shared that with you. One night it was so loud it woke the dog up."
The laughs are genuine, because Williams, a gifted improviser, made up the whole story.
Both the hilarious bit about the farting—and then the really sad part about how intimate
moments like these are what defined a happy marriage.
"How do you like dem apples?"
Dumb and Dumber
The script for this Farrelly brothers comedy called for Harry and Lloyd to get on a hitman's
nerves by arguing about jelly beans. The comedically agile Jim Carrey and theatrically trained
Jeff Daniels thought the dialogue was weak. So they tried out several ideas, eventually
deciding on...
"Want to hear the most annoying sound in the world?"
(Yells) "Guys! Guys! Guys!"
The Godfather
The scene was supposed to be brutal, but simple. High-ranking mobster Peter Clemenza, played
by Richard Castellano, is on his way to a hit with an underling when his wife asks him
to pick up some cannoli. As scripted, Clemenza and his stooge kill the guy, and Clemenza
utters "leave the gun." But when Castellano filmed the scene, he remembered the other
thing his character was supposed to do. After the hit, he quipped:
"Take the cannoli."
...instructing the underling to grab the box of cannoli on the murdered man's dashboard.
Delicious.
Zoolander
Truly great moments of improv work when they fit in perfectly within the movie's themes.
Case in point: Derek Zoolander asks an important question to David Duchovny’s hand model
character:
"So why male models?"
Duchovny delivers a long monologue about how male models are involved in an assassination
plot. But afterward, Ben Stiller had reportedly forgotten his next line...so he asks the same
question he'd asked moments before, leading to one of the greatest improvised responses
in comedy history:
"But why male models?"
"You serious? I just told you that a moment ago."
"Right."
Pretty Woman
Richard Gere’s character Edward, was supposed to present Vivian, played by Julia Roberts
with a fancy necklace. While filming, Gere decided to prank his co-star, and quickly
shut the box.
(Laughs)
Roberts was taken aback, and her laughter and surprise were so genuine (and charming)
that the take stayed in the movie.
The Warriors
As the Warriors nemesis Luther, actor David Patrick Kelly was only supposed to ominously
bang a bunch of bottles together. Instead, he added a little something extra:
"Warriors...come out to play!"
A schoolyard taunt wasn't in the script, but it so perfectly built up the drama for the
final confrontation that director Walter Hill let it stand. It's now far and away the most
famous line from the 1979 cult film.
Aliens
After a massive attack from the aliens kills a whole bunch of humans, things look pretty
bleak. The line was written as, "That's it. What are we going to do now?" But actor Bill
Paxton was just feeling the vibe of Private Hudson, his mouthy and eccentric character.
As a result, he ad-libbed the lines he'll probably be best remembered for until the
end of time:
"That's it man. Game over, man. Game over!"
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