Watch the video to see the mistakes that make these movies better.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00There are countless stories of mistakes and spontaneous moments that happen on movie shoots.
00:06Sometimes these surprises give a scene a feeling of authenticity or a dose of inspiration.
00:10And if they're in the final cut, they definitely made the movie better.
00:13Here are some of our favorite unplanned essentials.
00:17More than four decades since hitting theaters, the 1976 boxing drama Rocky is a household
00:22name that's grown into a massive billion-dollar franchise.
00:25Like its protagonist, though, the film was a bit of an underdog when it was released.
00:29The budget for the first installment was slim relative to the surrounding industry,
00:32at just above $1 million.
00:34It recouped those expenses 225 times over, but the low-budget production of the first
00:39film is still apparent in various places.
00:42Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay in only three and a half days, and the film was
00:45shot in just four weeks.
00:47He thought that if nothing else, the movie would show that, in his own words,
00:50"...an unknown quantity can produce a diamond in the rough, no matter how the circumstances
00:55of someone's life are stacked against them."
00:57The humble Italian Stallion and his creator aren't the only unknown quantities that made
01:01Rocky a huge hit.
01:03Because of the low budget, there wasn't always enough funding to get extras, additional cameramen,
01:07or even permits.
01:08So when they shot the popular scene of Rocky running through the Italian market, they did
01:12it guerrilla-style from the back of a van.
01:14Because of this setup, the Stall owners didn't even know there was a movie being filmed.
01:18One of them just happened to toss Stallone an orange, and he managed to catch it.
01:22A wholesome, unplanned moment that set the tone and left us rooting for the hero even
01:26harder.
01:28Leonardo DiCaprio has subjected himself to all kinds of physical torment for the sake
01:32of various roles, most notably The Revenant in 2015, finally earning his long-overdue
01:37Oscar.
01:38The masterful performer really proved his mettle, though, when he powered through an
01:42injury where no reasonable person would have expected him to.
01:45As Calvin Candy in 2012's Django Unchained, DiCaprio played a posh and pampered plantation
01:50owner, the total opposite of the rugged trapper he portrayed in The Revenant.
01:54But during an outburst at the dinner table, DiCaprio's character slammed his hand down,
01:57and he actually cut himself on a piece of glass.
02:00Considering that the wound later required medical attention, no one would have blamed
02:04the actor for breaking character, rendering the scene unusable.
02:07But DiCaprio kept acting.
02:09This act represented the perverse, unhinged character so well that it was left in the
02:13final cut of the movie, making for an iconic scene in which DiCaprio not only stayed in
02:17character but arguably elevated the moment.
02:21One transgression that often begs forgiveness on a movie set is forgetfulness.
02:25The job of an actor includes a lot of memorization, and every so often, someone forgets their
02:29lines.
02:30But occasionally, forgetting one's dialogue is the most true-to-character thing an actor
02:34can do.
02:35Of course, this is only the case if you're lucky enough to play a character who's, well,
02:38a bit of an airhead.
02:39Derek Zoolander in 2001's Zoolander is probably the poster child for this kind of role.
02:44In one famous scene, Ben Stiller forgets one of his lines, so he simply repeats something
02:48he said a minute earlier.
02:49At the beginning of the scene, he asks,
02:51So why male models?
02:53Zoolander is wondering why male models are chosen to become assassins.
02:56David Duchovny's character offers him an extensive explanation involving male models' advantageous
03:01physical condition and their ability to penetrate exclusive circles, not to mention their most
03:06important quality — they don't think for themselves.
03:08Stiller forgot what his response was supposed to be, so he improvised the now-classic line.
03:13But why male models?
03:18You serious?
03:19I just… I just told you that.
03:22The image of an intimidating character casually stroking a cat with unnerving tenderness has
03:26become a bit of a trope, but it was completely unplanned when it occurred in 1972's The Godfather.
03:32Not only was it unscripted, it almost ruined the scene in which Marlon Brando, as Don Vito
03:37Corleone, nonchalantly discusses matters of life and death while caressing the feline
03:42in his lap.
03:43The key word, though, is almost.
03:45The feline actually ended up lending some extra life to the scene in a way that movie
03:48buffs love.
03:49The cat had been running around the studio earlier in the day, and when it ended up on
03:53Marlon Brando's lap during the scene, the animal lover just went with it, even though
03:57the sound crew worried that the cat's purring would ruin the Don's now-iconic lines.
04:01Fortunately, the feline and the Oscar-winning actor were a perfect duo and totally stole
04:06the show.
04:08In The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers, the second installment of Peter Jackson's trilogy,
04:12Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn find the slaughtered band of Uruk-hai who captured Merriam-Pippen,
04:17and they assume that the young hobbits have also been killed.
04:20In his grief, Aragorn takes out his anger on a nearby helmet.
04:28More than rage and defeat, though, Aragorn's outburst is one of pain.
04:32What most audience members don't know is that actor Viggo Mortensen actually broke his toe
04:36on the take that made it into the final movie.
04:38Another mistake also inadvertently takes the same movie to another level.
04:42As Eowyn stares off into the distance, the wind rips a flag from its pole, a sad commentary
04:47on the state of Rohan.
04:48Though this was unplanned, according to behind-the-scenes commentary, it augments the brooding nature
04:53of the scene, and a quick-thinking camera operator tracked the movement to heighten
04:56its impact even further.
04:59An upset stomach on the set of 1981's Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark led to a script
05:04change that ended up becoming one of the film's most memorable moments.
05:07Harrison Ford revealed in a Reddit AMA that the script called for him to fight an expert
05:12swordsman, but he was suffering from dysentery, and found it tough to be out of his trailer
05:16for more than a few minutes without having to run back to it.
05:19Reviewing the script had made it clear that it could take days to finish shooting the
05:22scene, which did not sound appetizing at all to Ford in his condition.
05:26So how did Ford get out of three days of shooting?
05:28By bringing a gun to a knife fight.
05:31The poor stuntman had practiced his swordsmanship for days, only for his character to be coolly
05:39dispatched by Indy without any of the hand-to-hand, sword-to-whip combat he had been training
05:43for.
05:45A few movies throughout the decades stand out as examples of the quintessential and
05:48quotable New York City.
05:50One of the most famous of these films is Midnight Cowboy, and one line in particular has become
05:54a permanent part of pop culture.
05:57Hey!
05:58What's the matter?
05:59I'm walking here!
06:00I'm walking here!
06:01As for the origins of that famous line, it was improvised out of necessity because, as
06:05star Dustin Hoffman tells it,
06:07"...a cab driver ran a red light and drove right through the set, an occurrence that's
06:11itself quite a characteristic New York event."
06:14However, higher-ups on the film have questioned whether the moment truly was organic or whether
06:18there was an extra in the cab, and the truth is that it was a little of both.
06:22Allegedly, the team was inspired by the initial, truly unplanned scene, and then used an extra,
06:26to recreate more takes like it.
06:28We don't know if the mistake was the original, unscripted scene or if it was one of the recreations,
06:33but we do know that regardless of which version is true, the mistake, directly or indirectly,
06:38helped make the movie unforgettable.
06:40Daniel Craig emerging from the ocean in Casino Royale.
06:43It's an iconic scene that was never meant to happen.
06:46It certainly wasn't the plan to, with one lingering shot, reinvent the classic Bond
06:50character as a beefcake for a new generation of audiences, but that's exactly what it did.
06:54A moment from the scene was featured in the trailer, and a still photo was used as promotional
06:58material.
06:59Fans even assumed the shot was a nod to Ursula Andress emerging from the sea in the original
07:03Bond movie, Dr. No, from 1962.
07:06If only all mistakes turned out this well.
07:08So how does something this great happen by accident?
07:10The original story Craig gave was that he was supposed to be swimming, but the water
07:14there was unexpectedly shallow due to the presence of a sand shelf in the area, so he
07:18stood up and walked off.
07:20In a later interview, he added that it was because he thought that he looked stupid,
07:24quote, pretending to be cool by swimming.
07:26Instead, he just stood up and walked off.
07:28So one of the most memorable shots of Craig's James Bond ended up not only being an accident,
07:32but a result of him throwing in the beach towel on a particular acting choice.
07:37Emilia Rinaldi, also known as Mia, initially has a great deal of trouble believing she's
07:42a princess.
07:43It just doesn't add up.
07:44At school, the protagonist of 2001's The Princess Diaries is clumsy, awkward, and unpopular.
07:49Admiring It Boys from afar, but never really talking to anyone other than her best friend,
07:53who is also on the relative fringes of high school society.
07:56Even after she receives the royal treatment following the revelation of her identity and
08:00her crush begins to give her attention, their kiss is marred by the fact that her foot gets
08:04stuck in a fishing net.
08:06No amount of makeovers or royal shoe fittings can change the fact that Mia has two left
08:11feet.
08:12So when she and her friend Lily are walking on the bleachers in one scene and Mia slips
08:15and takes a dive, audiences are no more likely to bat an eye than Mia herself.
08:19This just seems like something that the often graceless heiress would do.
08:22Anne Hathaway, however, later said that she slipped and fell completely by accident.
08:26But despite bursting out laughing, she kept on acting.
08:29She never expected to see that moment again, much less that millions of people around the
08:33world would witness it.
08:34However, director Gary Marshall decided to use the take of Hathaway slipping above all
08:38the others.
08:39He kept it.
08:40He kept it because it was a charming moment.
08:43A good soldier fights through peril and injury, and apparently, so does a good actor.
08:48You've probably heard of a number of performers who do their own stunts, but George McKay
08:52never expected one particular scene from the 2019 war film, 1917, to put him on that list.
08:58While his character, Schofield's grueling sprint at the end of the film was undoubtedly
09:02an intense climax to his mission, the actor wasn't meant to take any hits as he ran across
09:06the battlefield.
09:07He had come out of rehearsal for the scene unscathed, but there are no guarantees of
09:11timing in such a complex scene.
09:13On the actual day of shooting, he found himself taking multiple blows from a slew of oncoming
09:17soldiers.
09:18But an actor keeps going until the director calls for a cut, and for such an important
09:22moment in the film, he knew he couldn't throw in the towel himself.
09:25So he kept moving, and director Sam Mendes never halted the take.
09:28He must have realized that, despite deviating from rehearsal, something even more intense
09:32was happening.
09:33McKay spoke to Jimmy Fallon about the take.
09:34And again, we'd rehearsed it for weeks, and we'd rehearse that you didn't get knocked
09:38into, and then on the day, you know, you take some hits, but the rule is you don't stop
09:42unless they say stop.
09:43The shot that was never meant to happen ended up being one of the greatest triumphs of McKay's
09:47performance.
09:49There are some moments that have widely been regarded as accidents, even by those who directed
09:53them, only for the actors involved to later allege the bungles were actually intentional
09:57moments of improvisation.
09:58One such moment, featuring Gandalf from the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring, immediately
10:02comes to mind.
10:06Peter Jackson's commentary on the DVD states that this moment was an accident, that Ian
10:10McKellen truly did bonk his head, and that his acting remained so superb that Jackson
10:14decided to use the take anyway.
10:16It works to humanize the Great Wizard, and it cements the genuineness of the friendship
10:20between the mystical being and the Hobbit.
10:22On his website, however, McKellen states that the clumsy move was his idea, and Jackson
10:27simply didn't know.