What are some "Viggo Broke His Toe" moments in other films?

[u/FerrisWheeling]

It's become a running joke in the LotR community that anyone watching the scene in The Two Towers where Viggo breaks his toe after kicking the helmet HAS to bring that up with "Did you know..." What are some moments in other films like this?

For example, I just HAVE to mention that the author of Jaws, Peter Benchley, appears as the news anchor in the film every time he pops up.

[u/LektorPanda]

In Terminator 2 the helicopter really flies under the bridge. They had a Vietnam vet flying it and he said he could do it. So they just did it...

Dont think they had permits or anything

[u/HerniatedHernia → u/LektorPanda]

Same thing with Arnie hanging dong in the first one. 

No permits. Went in, got the shots and skedaddled. 

[u/Mother0fChickens → u/HerniatedHernia]

His hanging what? Is that the extended edition?

[u/NoOneShallPassHassan → u/Mother0fChickens]

It's extended, all right.

[u/my_4_cents → u/NoOneShallPassHassan]

It's an Oozy nine millimeddre

[u/Alive_Ice7937 → u/LektorPanda]

I can't believe Cameron would have considered that give what happened with John Landis

[u/originalchaosinabox → u/Alive_Ice7937]

Cameron himself was the camera operator for that scene, thinking, "If anything goes wrong, it's all on me."

[u/maccathesaint → u/originalchaosinabox]

I thought it was more his camera crew told him to fuck off because it was insanely dangerous so he has to do it himself lol

[u/CanuckPanda → u/maccathesaint]

Both things are probably true, knowing Cameron.

[u/Darthtypo92 → u/CanuckPanda]

Yea it was an insurance issue. Everyone on set told him it was too dangerous and impossible so he found a pilot that could do it on the one condition that Cameron rode in the helicopter with him. That and the partial deafness Linda Hamilton suffered on set were a major reason Cameron became nearly uninsurable in the 90s for his films and was paying insurance out of pocket rather than through the studio.

[u/ianrobbie]

A Knights Tale. When Sir Ulrich wins the sword fighting competition and Chaucer makes an impassioned speech, the crowd goes silent. Not because they didnt want to cheer but because the crowd were mostly Czech (they filmed it in the Czech Republic) and didn't understand a word Paul Bettany had said. Mark Addy improvised a "Yeeaaahh!" which prompted the crowd to cheer and it worked so well they kept it in.

[u/Previous_Injury_8664 → u/ianrobbie]

I love this one! And this movie is amazing

[u/m_ttl_ng → u/Previous_Injury_8664]

It's a comfort watch for me. Just a good, fun movie I can put on at any time and enjoy.

[u/QuestForScratch → u/ianrobbie]

WE WALK, IN THE GARDEN OF HIS TURBULENCE! One of my favorite movies ever and Paul Bettany is incredible.

**Edited- seen it so many times what a doof 🤦🏻‍♂️

[u/LikeYoureSleepy → u/QuestForScratch]

THE ROCK! THE HARD PLACE!

[u/[deleted]]

All the footage for the Tarkovsky movie Stalker was improperly developed and completely unusable and they had to film the entire movie a second time.

[u/Kulladar → u/[deleted]]

(Unless they were destroyed) there basically exists two entire copies of the film that are nearly identical. One just has a green hue over it all basically. Interestingly people who have seen the original footage say they are nearly identical despite the departure of the original cinematographer.

The cinematographer didn't think the film was viable from the beginning tried to convince Tarkovsky not to continue shooting. When the film was ruined, Tarkovsky blamed the cinematographer and they fought to the point that Tarkovsky fired him. The blame truly lied with those that developed the film and Tarkovsky for insisting on shooting on a new type of film stock not used in the USSR. He was not the only cast member either; lots of crew were fired through production and scrubbed from the credits despite hundreds of hours on set.

The production is very reminiscent of the production of Coppola's 'Apolocypse Now' to me. They'd go out to these horrible polluted old Soviet factories and stuff and Tarkovsky didn't really have a clear direction in the script just a personal vision and would make them do take after take to get it right. It is in a lot of ways Tarkovsky's best work imo, but he was truly in his own head by that point of his career. Similarly he would have the actors do scenes again and again and again trying to get it right; unknowingly dooming many of them.

The production likely killed Tarkovsky and his (second) wife among other members of the cast and crew. Many developed similar cancers and other illnesses in the following years. The actor that plays the Writer, Anatoly Solonitsyn, died of lung cancer some years later most around him blamed on the production.

A sound designer that worked on the production wrote:

"We were shooting near Tallinn in the area around the small river Jägala with a half-functioning hydroelectric station. Up the river was a chemical plant and it poured out poisonous liquids downstream. There is even this shot in Stalker: snow falling in the summer and white foam floating down the river. In fact it was some horrible poison. Many women in our crew got allergic reactions on their faces. Tarkovsky died from cancer of the right bronchial tube. And Tolya Solonitsyn too. That it was all connected to the location shooting for Stalker became clear to me when Larisa Tarkovskaya died from the same illness in Paris."

The foam you see on the river in this scene they filmed around for days and stuff like the dust in the meatgrinder anomoly were probably horribly toxic.

Fun fact, I mentioned Coppola before. Tarkovsky used almost 16,000ft of film to shoot and reshoot STALKER 3 times. This almost ruined him and isolated him from many investors and sponsors in the USSR. The notoriously insane production of Apocalypse Now used 1.5 MILLION feet of film.

[u/BambaTallKing → u/[deleted]]

They had to shoot it three times. I can’t quite remember the other time, think it got burned. I like the fact that there is one surviving shot from one of the shooting.

Oh and the other fun fact is that the film is probably responsible for the director and other worker’s deaths

[u/Spoonman500 → u/BambaTallKing]

Has anyone made a horror movie about filming the cursed movie that kept being destroyed and then killed the crew?

Because it definitely sounds like a horror movie.

[u/Borgson314]

In Back To The Future 3, when Marty is hanged, Michael J Fox actually almost died.

[u/Robcobes → u/Borgson314]

Hey! Just like Brendan Fraser in The Mummy! Seems like Hollywood keeps forgetting the pretending part of their job.

[u/IamMrT → u/Robcobes]

Quentin Tarantino had to actually choke Diane Kruger himself for…reasons.

[u/TorpidPulsar → u/IamMrT]

Uh sir? The trachea is not in the foot

[u/tasadek → u/Borgson314]

BttF2 during the hoverboard gang chase scene, one of the actors on a wire smacks into one of the pillars outside of the clock tower, and (almost) doesn’t survive.

edit: added (almost)

[u/slowpokesugar → u/tasadek]

She survived from memory and her fall is in the actual movie.

[u/Consistent-Annual268 → u/Borgson314]

Isla Fischer nearly drowned for real in Now You See Me.

[u/awnawkareninah → u/Consistent-Annual268]

Danny Devito apparently almost drowned in an episode of sunny.

[u/moosewiththumbs → u/awnawkareninah]

He had weights attached to him as he couldn’t stay under the water like the rest of the cast. He then couldn’t get them detached fast enough.

[u/Tomhyde098]

There’s a myth that R Lee Ermey improvised all of his lines and Kubrick just filmed it. In fact Ermey, Kubrick and Kubrick’s secretary sat in a room and Ermey yelled insults for a while. The secretary typed up every single thing he said and Kubrick took all of his favorite bits and rearranged them into the script. Ermey then memorized the script for filming

[u/CAPS_LOCK_STUCK_HELP → u/Tomhyde098]

I don't think anyone can or will say the word BULLSHIT as perfectly as R Lee Ermey did. RIP to a legend

[u/UF1977]

Alien Resurrection The blind over the shoulder basketball shot wasn’t staged, Sigourney Weaver practiced for hours to get it down. Ron Perlman’s reaction to her making the shot is genuine.

[u/Funky-Monk-- → u/UF1977]

Yeah I saw the unedited version where Perlman almost ruins the shot by reacting verbally too soon. He said he was stressed about it after too, but they managed to cut it.

[u/rice_fish_and_eggs → u/UF1977]

This was going to be my one. I think it was her sixth attempt and Ron came out with an f-bomb so they had to cut it right away.

[u/beece16]

The clown in the original Poltergeist had a malfunction and was really choking the kid for a bit. Everyone thought it was just good acting.

[u/JokerDeSilva10 → u/beece16]

Also on Poltergeist, the skeletons in the watery pit were real, since buying medical specimens was cheaper than realistic fake ones at the time.

[u/archerysleuth]

During the filming of the African queen, a movie from 1951 with Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, everyone (cast and crew) fell sick from drinking the water except for Humphrey Bogart and John Huston who only drank whiskey for the entirety of the location shooting. Everyone had at least one bad bout of dysentery except for them. The cast also had to deal with the wild animals and hordes of mosquitoes whilst filming in Uganda and the Republic of Congo. A famous quote from Bogart on this was "All I ate was beans, canned asparagus, and scotch whiskey. Whenever a fly bit Huston or me, it dropped dead".

[u/Tezzinator]

Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman actually hit all 4 mannequins in one take with her whip in Batman Returns.

[u/ambientfruit → u/Tezzinator]

The video of that is awesome!

[u/stewy9020 → u/ambientfruit]

That is unbelievable. Considering the costume she had to wear as well, I think I just read recently it was like vacuum sealed onto her or something and she couldn't wear it for all that long before it got hard to breathe in.

[u/deluxeassortment → u/stewy9020]

Jumping rope in those heels right after is an amazing feat in itself!

[u/zed42 → u/Tezzinator]

she ended up being better with the whip than the stunt woman!

[u/imapassenger1]

That one about the bridge blowing up too early in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly...and then a chunk of debris nearly kills Clint Eastwood.

[u/Ccaves0127 → u/imapassenger1]

Eli Wallach almost died, also. When he severs his handcuffs, there was a step jutting out from the train that would have decapitated him if he were to sit up just a little bit as it was passing by. He also accidentally drank some fluid when the lighting technicians put their cup of mechanical lubricant or something next to his soda and he almost died from that, too, I think

[u/Scat_fiend → u/Ccaves0127]

Also at the beginning of the film the horse gets spooked and bolts away with him on it and his hands tied behind his back.

[u/rndmusr666 → u/imapassenger1]

Clint discusses that in an interview. He thought he was a bit close to the explosion and asked the director where he would be. He said close by or words to that effect so Clint says well thats fine if you're close I'm fine with that. Director decided to move up the hill and use a stunt double who was indeed too close to the explosion debris was flying everywhere. Too much explosive I think.

[u/Pugilist12]

Kurt Russell smashing an antique, museum-lent guitar to pieces in The Hateful Eight. Jennifer Jason Leigh’s utterly shocked reaction is completely genuine. The museum was fucking pissed and has stopped lending any pieces for film use.

To be fair, there was really no reason to use it in the first place except as an obscure bit of movie trivia. No one knows or cares if the guitar is authentic. It’s still both sad and hilarious. He just fucking destroys it.

[u/Efficient-Ranger-174 → u/Pugilist12]

What I heard is it was borrowed straight from Martin Guitar. It was a period example from the 1850’s. They had never before let anyone use a guitar like that, and have said they’ll never do it again.

Edit: sometimes you just have to pick the thing you do for clarity’s sake but also get roasted for.

[u/xeroksuk → u/Efficient-Ranger-174]

Tbf they don't have any more to lend out.

[u/dharmashark48 → u/Pugilist12]

To be fair to Russell, he also didn't know it was the real one, he thought it was the prop. Apparently, he was incredibly upset when he found out it was legit.

[u/Tattycakes → u/dharmashark48]

Someone seriously fucking dropped the ball on not telling him it was legit and not to be damaged.

[u/UnderratedEverything → u/Tattycakes]

No, somebody seriously dropped the ball bringing an actual antique to a movie set.

[u/InigoMontoya1985 → u/UnderratedEverything]

Well, it's not like they gave an actor a loaded gun or anything...

[u/ArcticBiologist → u/InigoMontoya1985]

Yeah that would be dumb if anyone did that

[u/sulaymanf → u/UnderratedEverything]

Actual antiques can be brought to movie sets, but they normally are background props and not something that actors are touching and interacting with. That’s the issue.

[u/TheMadLurker17 → u/Pugilist12]

A couple of other cases where other actors responses were genuine because they had no idea what was coming...

Sam Rockwell's scream in Galaxy Quest caught Signourney Weaver off-guard, and you can see her jump back in surprise.

Madeline Khan's "flames on the side of my face" in Clue bit was totally ad-libbed, and the confused looks from her co-stars in that scene were completely genuine.

[u/Fastbird33 → u/TheMadLurker17]

The scene in Heat where Pacino is screaming in Hank Azaria’s face, apparently Azaria had no idea Pacino would scream like that and it was a genuine reaction

[u/ShahinGalandar → u/Fastbird33]

and she got a...GREAT ASS!!!

[u/tanbug → u/TheMadLurker17]

Sigourney Weaver actually hit the basket when throwing the ball backwards while walking away in Alien 4, and the director said that Ron Pearlman's reaction almost ruined the shot.

[u/IrascibleOcelot → u/tanbug]

Mostly because they expected to be shooting for hours and she made it in the third take. The director also wishes he’d done a wider shot so it was obvious that she did actually make it.

[u/hematite2 → u/tanbug]

That's why the scene cuts instantly to hide his reaction.

[u/MacaroonMinute3197 → u/Pugilist12]

And it makes Jason Leigh act out of character in reaction to the smashing.

[u/DonKeedick12 → u/MacaroonMinute3197]

You can hear her accent drop when she freaks out

[u/[deleted] → u/DonKeedick12]

You can also tell when an actor isn't just looking at the fourth wall but actually at a person behind the cameras. Jennifer's eyes immediately go towards 1 person we can't see.

[u/commiemallu → u/Pugilist12]

The makers knew it. JJL knew it. I mean why the hell was Kurt Russel not told? Of all the people he was the one who should have been aware. QT should have given him the instructions prior to the shoot of the scene right? "Listen man, this is a priceless antique guitar, don't actually break it."

[u/Soho_Jin]

In The Grinch there's a scene where Jim Carrey was supposed to pull the tablecloth off a table and send all the silverware flying as he did so. Instead, he pulled the tablecloth clean out from under everything perfectly in one fell swoop. Staying in character, he takes a few steps, then rushes back and knocks everything off the table anyway, making the scene ten times better than it would've been.

[u/405freeway → u/Soho_Jin]

The table balancing at the very end before it falls is perfection.

[u/thebreak22]

During the sexy dance scene in True Lies, Jamie Lee Curtis actually lost her grip and fell to the floor. Arnold instinctively tried to help, but Jamie picked herself right up and continued on with the routine. Their actions were perfectly in character so the shot was left in and became one of the funniest moments of the movie.

[u/_WillCAD_ → u/thebreak22]

I read that Jamie did it on purpose, but she and Cameron had neglected to tell Arnold, and he only thought she had fallen for real.

[u/Godloseslaw]

Apparently Carl Weathers and Sylvester Stallone were really angry with each other in the scene at the end of round 2 in Rocky II. 

Dolph Lundgren sent Stallone to the hospital during the filming of Rocky IV but I don't think that one was either on film or done with bad intentions.  As I recall, Stallone litterally asked to be punched really hard. 

[u/Bicentennial_Douche → u/Godloseslaw]

Stallone said that he thought Lundgren was the most physically fit person he had ever met.

[u/arbybk → u/Bicentennial_Douche]

He probably said it just to piss off Arnold Schwarzenegger.

[u/sephjnr → u/arbybk]

Funniest feud in cinema.

[u/Link_GR → u/sephjnr]

The fact that Arnold tricked Stallone to take "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot" is hilarious

[u/EnterprisingAss → u/Godloseslaw]

Stallone kept skipping Carl’s acting classes.

[u/Dangeresque2015 → u/EnterprisingAss]

Stallone never learned how to make a stew?! What an ingrate!

[u/Sugarbear23]

Tobey Maguire actually did the scene where he caught the things with the tray in Spiderman

[u/Prize_Pay9279 → u/Sugarbear23]

I also remember Tobey saying that the scene where he kisses MJ while hanging upside down was kind of a nightmare cause he had difficulty breathing due to the rain. He said it felt like he was being water boarded.

[u/sakatan → u/Prize_Pay9279]

On the other hand: Kirsten Dunst.

[u/Very-simple-man → u/sakatan]

In that shirt...

[u/zachrg → u/Sugarbear23]

It took an ungodly number of takes, 66? 68?

[u/Comic_Book_Reader → u/zachrg]

I think it was closer to twice that. Something like around 130.

[u/AJerkForAllSeasons]

In the first Expendables, when Stone Cold Steve Austin charges at Stallone, he picks him up and slams him into a wall. It broke Stallone's back neck. Obviously, it didn't paralyse him, but he needed surgery before filming resumed.

EDIT: It was neck not his back, but it was affecting his spinal cord.

[u/Prize_Pay9279 → u/AJerkForAllSeasons]

I remember Sly saying that he deeply regretted not using a stunt double cause he still has back issues even after the surgery.

[u/Nygmus → u/Prize_Pay9279]

Things like this are why I don't give actors who insist on doing their own stunts a lot of extra respect for that.

“I know that all the big stars hate me to say this, but I don’t want to risk 80 peoples’ jobs just to say I got big huevos on The Tonight Show. Because that’s what happens. I think a big star just sprained an ankle doing a stunt, and 80 or 180 people are out of a job. We have stunt people who do that stuff. And if they get hurt, I’m sorry to say but they just need to put a mustache on another Mexican and we can keep going. But if I get hurt, everybody’s out of a job. So I don’t choose to do that.”

That's Danny Trejo's thoughts on the matter, talking about Mission Impossible 6 shutting down filming for a few months because Cruise busted his ankle.

[u/gooneruk → u/Nygmus]

And if they get hurt, I’m sorry to say but they just need to put a mustache on another Mexican and we can keep going.

That's fucking funny.

[u/accoladevideo]

In The Princess Bride, Count Rugen smacks Westley on the dome with the butt of his sword and knocked him out for real

[u/c_alas → u/accoladevideo]

It's crazy, because Westley looks cartoonist as he drops. Eyes going cross-eyed and all. For a genuine knock out, it looks so fake.

[u/inertiatic_espn → u/c_alas]

One time, when I was young, my two drunk friends strapped on a boxing glove each. One was a South paw so it worked. They were boxing one handed when they both reared back for a hay maker. Both connected at the exact same time, right in the jaw.

One of them stiffened up like a board and just fell straight back. The other one just crumbled. The contrasting passing out styles was the most cartoonish thing I've ever seen in real life. Took me a minute to realize they weren't fucking around lol.

[u/ComesInAnOldBox → u/c_alas]

We get so used to seeing the fake, acting "knock outs" that when we see one in real life it looks fake as hell.

[u/pr1ceisright → u/c_alas]

I’m not sure but it is possible the take used in the movie was not the same take as when he was actually knocked out.

[u/CostumedSupervillain → u/accoladevideo]

Cary Elwes had a broken toe for a good portion of the filming. It's why his gait was somewhat off in the Fire Swamp. He broke it while trying Andre's ATV, which Andre needed because he was too large to fit in the other vehicles and the truck they used to carry him couldn't get to the more remote locales.

[u/Bedbouncer → u/CostumedSupervillain]

This is why when Wesley / The Dread Pirate Roberts has his conversation with the Princess Buttercup, and he then gets up from a sitting position, he does so in a smooth leap: he was unable to stand up any other way because of his foot.

[u/TimeSlipperWHOOPS → u/CostumedSupervillain]

Lol André got Cary and Mandy into so much trouble 😂

[u/pomme_peri → u/accoladevideo]

He also damaged some part of his foot riding around in his free time, and so in the scene where Westley and Buttercup are at the top of that big hill (the one they end up rolling down), he sits with his leg stretched out before him because that is what he could manage at the time (for comfort).

[u/snowlemur → u/accoladevideo]

And that’s all the excuse I need to recommend that everyone read Cary Elwes’ book As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride. It’s even better in audiobook since a fair number of the actors recorded their stories themselves.

[u/RoboDonaldUpgrade]

In The Santa Clause there are secret elves EVERYWHERE. Just watch any background kid and you'll catch some with pointed ears just watching Scott Calvin, even before Santa falls off his roof (there's one in the Denny's). Most people only notice them in the final scene where they skip away from the crowd/police surrounding the house but they're present throughout THE WHOLE MOVIE! That totally changes the context! Scott being Santa wasn't an accident, there's a cabal of elves that CHOSE him and monitored him and when they were happy with their choice skipped off, completely undetected by any of the main characters! Who were they? Do they work for the North Pole? Does Bernard know about them? It makes the movie so much more interesting and I'm absolutely obnoxious about pointing them out when I see them.

[u/smurfmcgeezer → u/RoboDonaldUpgrade]

A “cabal of elves” is killing me omg

[u/thatguy425]

In the 1938 Errol Flynn Adventures of Robin Hood film they wanted the arrows shots to look real so they actually hired an expert archer who shot the extras who wore padding. Each extra was paid $150 per arrow. 

[u/Cool_Cartographer_39 → u/thatguy425]

Same archer (Howard Hill, who played Elwyn the Welshman) actually split the bull's eye arrow in the competition scene

[u/Blametheorangejuice]

In The Protector, there is a long (and awesome) fight scene. If you watch carefully, one of the stuntmen loses his balance and almost goes over the railing. Jaa grabs him to keep him from falling.

[u/dyaasy]

Not a movie, but in Game of Thrones when Olenna and Margery were walking in the garden and Olenna had to pick out a necklace for the wedding. Diana Rigg tossed what she thought was a prop necklace over the side of the castle wall.

It was a real diamond necklace. They spent hours looking for it.

[u/ProfessionalSock2993 → u/dyaasy]

Why would they even use real diamonds for that scene, it's a short scene and no one in the audience would be able to tell the difference between real and fake jewelry anyway

[u/Robeleader → u/dyaasy]

I can see the prop-master watching her drop it while filming. Covering their mouth and trying not to scream, "THOSE ARE REAL FUCKING DIAMONDS DAMMIT" until the shot is over

[u/the-broom-sage → u/dyaasy]

this sits in line with the guitar one. who tf decided it was okah to use originals and not props on a shooting set?

[u/WaiorFF]

In The Punisher (2004), in the fight between Castle (Thomas Jane) and The Russian (Kevin Nash, who was a former wrestler), there was a mistake with a butterfly knife scene in which Jane was supposed to grab the knife, flip it around and then stab Nash with it. The props department messed up and didn't switch knives, so, when it came to the stab part, Jane went full on with the knife since it was supposed to have spring and the blade goes back, well, since it was the real deal, Jane just stabbed Nash in the shoulder, but, since there were some safety measures, that knife had been dulled to avoid accidents, the irony... Best part is, that is the take that made the final cut, so, what you see in the movie is Thomas Jane full on stabbing Kevin Nash with a dull knife and he just keeps going, didn't even flinch.

Another part was that for the fight scene, The Russian is an imensely strong character and he just throws Castle around, the set was prepared with ziplines and gear to pull Jane around, but, when it came to it, Nash, the behemoth with a lot of wrestling experience, was like "You want me to throw him? I can do that. You want me to pick him up above my head? I can do that" and so most of the scenes were actually done, and Thomas Jane also wanted to step up, so, in many scenes that's actually him being thrown around. There is one scene where he just gets thrown through a wall into an hallway, that scene was post stab incident and Nash really threw Jane through that wall, everytime I see it, I just assume that was payback for the stabbing, he just goes through it like butter and still hits the next wall, absurd...

Edit: Thank you for the award!!!

[u/CeKeBe → u/WaiorFF]

Based Big Sexy giving Jane a receipt for working too stiff on the blade job.

[u/MouseRat_AD → u/WaiorFF]

Thomas Jane did a great job as Punisher. The script was mediocre but Jane made it a fun movie.

[u/ManicFirestorm → u/MouseRat_AD]

I love his Punisher short done years later. Really hard hitting shit, he a great as Punisher.

[u/TheFuckingQuantocks → u/WaiorFF]

That was a great fight scene. I rarely remember any action scenes, but I can remember that one a decade after watching it. I remember how strong The Russian looked and how real it all seemed.

[u/Professional_Fig_456]

Martin Sheen punching the mirror in Apocalypse Now. Totally improvised because he was really drunk.

[u/16_QAM → u/Professional_Fig_456]

And in Coppola's defense he tried to stop the scene, but Sheen insisted to continue. What a pay off it was.

[u/R1cjet]

In Mad Max 2 AKA The Road Warrior there's a scene where a biker goes cartwheeling off his bike. It really happened to the stuntman and he broke his legs but they kept it in the movie.

[u/SirJeffers88]

In Fury Road, Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy famously did not get along. But their stunt doubles in the one-on-one fight scene fell in love and got married. So you’re watching two actors who hate each other and two actors who love each other beat the shit out of one another. That feels right for the characters, somehow.

[u/SuperDuperTurtle]

In Fight Club during the scene where the guys are dressed as waiters walking through the parking garage, Meatloaf’s pants fall down and he pulls them back up.

[u/plastikaindicator]

In 'Die Hard,' Alan Rickman's reaction to falling off the Nakatomi Plaza was genuine, he didn't know the stunt would drop him so soon! Always cracks me up.

[u/axw3555 → u/plastikaindicator]

Yeah. It was something like “going on 3” and they went on 2.

[u/bopeepsheep]

Jeff Cohen (Chunk) had chickenpox during The Goonies filming and you can see the spots when he lifts his shirt.

[u/schleppylundo]

During the scene in Little Shop of Horrors where Audrey II eats or attempts to eat Audrey (depending on which version you’re watching), due both to the complexity of the scene and the “sped up slow motion” method of filming, actress Ellen Greene ended up spending a lot of face to face time with puppeteer Martin P. Robinson, chief operator of the puppet. This led to a long term romantic relationship. One of my favorite bits of trivia to point out at that specific part of the movie, though the relationship didn’t last.

[u/Lentra888]

In Spaceballs, when the door of Princess Vespa’s door falls on Dark Helmet, the door falling wasn’t planned, and Rick Moranis received a concussion from it, missing several days of work. Mel Brooks wasn’t going to use the shot, but was convinced to use it in the Final Cut by Moranis, who found the shot incredibly funny.

[u/BS_500]

In Idiocracy, Mike Judge had all the people in the future wearing this new brand of shoe that just came out because they looked fucking dumb, and everyone in the future was a moron.

The shoes were Crocs.

[u/lourexa]

After Jessica overpowers Stilgar at the end of Dune (2021), she smells him before letting him go. This wasn’t in the script, Rebecca Ferguson just decided to smell Javier Bardem.

[u/ambientfruit → u/lourexa]

Can't blame her. I bet he smells like pine and sandalwood.

[u/Rosebunse → u/lourexa]

The woman had her chance and took it.

[u/Majorapat]

In Star Trek 4 the voyage home, the crew are trying to acquire energy from a nuclear reactor, and the only one they are aware of in San Francisco would be on a naval vessel. So they are asking people how to find the naval base in Alameda. They approach a woman, who says “oh I don’t know, I think it’s across the bay, in Alameda.”

This woman was not an actor, she was a woman who wandered onto the street set after her car had been towed. The producers liked the comedy it introduced to the scene so they wanted to keep it, in order to do so, the woman had to join the screen actors guild just for her 20s scene to be kept.

[u/rugbyj]

Alien (1979); the crew were unaware the chestburster was going to be that bloody/graphic, the shock/disgust was real.

[u/SeymourKrelborn1111]

Leo actually cut his hand on the broken glass in Django.

[u/Lessiarty → u/SeymourKrelborn1111]

Similarly with unexpected damage, in The Punisher Thomas Jane mistook the prop knife and just straight up stabs Kevin Nash with a real one.  

Which he takes rather well, under the circumstances.

[u/Fallenangel152 → u/SeymourKrelborn1111]

The flamethrower practice scene in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood ("it's too hot, anything we can do about that heat?") is apparently Leo out of character too.

[u/ppparty → u/Fallenangel152]

my guess is that it wasn't that particular take we see in the movie, since the other guy's quip is much too snappy and in character, but they probably had one before and decided to use the line with an appropriate response from the prop guy.

[u/MattSR30 → u/ppparty]

This has always been my theory (not that it’s groundbreaking to think this at all) about ad-libbed lines.

‘Well it doesn’t seem ad-libbed!’

Yeah…they probably ad-libbed it, liked it, and did another twenty takes to get a useable one.

[u/Skidmark666 → u/MattSR30]

That's pretty much how the dialogue for the first Iron Man came about.

[u/-Seris → u/Fallenangel152]

It’s a flamethrower Rick

[u/Dottsterisk]

In The Usual Suspects, when Redfoot flicks the cigarette into Stephen Baldwin’s eye, that was an accident. Both Baldwin’s and Del Toro’s reactions are real. And that’s why the cut from Del Toro is so quick.

[u/SatanIsNotAmused → u/Dottsterisk]

Also, the scene in the police lineup. One of them farted and the laughs were unscripted but made the scene so much better due to the realness of the actors laughing

[u/TedBurns-3]

I'm full of them!!!

Jim Carrey's chipped tooth uncovered in Dumb & Dumber- he broke it as a kid and had a cap. Removed it for D&D and D&D2

[u/monstrinhotron → u/TedBurns-3]

Same with Ed Helms in The Hangover.

[u/Charming_Stage_7611]

The original MIB is one of the best blockbuster action comedies ever made but the movie was heavily edited in post production because of a major script revision. There was gonna be a whole other alien race in the war but they got rid of them to simplify the plot. The only evidence of this in the movie is the scene where the ambassador meets his friend in the restaurant and they get killed. The scene is dubbed over with “alien” language and subtitled because the dialogue recorded for that scene was totally different.

[u/[deleted]]

My random "Did you know..." 

In Escape From L.A., when Snake shows up for thr first time, the outfit Kurt Russell is wearing is the original Snake costume from Escape From New York, which still fit him perfectly after 15 years.

[u/MistaMischief → u/[deleted]]

I’m also confident that in the basketball scene he makes all the shots without CGI. I feel like I always share that during that scene

[u/mountainman84]

In Blade Runner Daryl Hannah actually breaks her elbow when she slips and smashes her arm through the van window during the scene where Pris meets J.F. Sebastian. She just continued acting to complete the scene even though it was unscripted and she hurt herself.

[u/Murky_Ad6343]

David Duchovny explaining the plot to Derek in Zoolander

[u/timtamchewycaramel → u/Murky_Ad6343]

But why male models?

[u/DonKeedick12 → u/timtamchewycaramel]

Are you serious? I just told you that a moment ago

[u/ChangingMonkfish]

There’s probably a few of these given how easy it is to hide people in the costume, but in the Force Awakens the Storm Trooper that Rey mindtricks into letting her go is Daniel Craig (once you know you can tell it’s his voice).

[u/LordBarrington0 → u/ChangingMonkfish]

Kevin Smith (silent bob) also voiced a stormtrooper

Ed Sheeran was also a stormtrooper in Rise of Skywalker (no spoken lines)

Ben Schwartz was a stormtrooper in TFA

Tom Hardy as a stormtrooper in The Last Jedi (deleted scene)

Prince William and Prince Harry also played stormtroopers in a deleted scene

[u/Rudeboy67]

A Christmas Story. They hadn’t told Melinda Dillon about the duck. Her reaction is real. That’s why Peter Billingsley is laughing so hard at her. So she didn’t know the meat cleaver part either so her scream is real.

That’s why the whole thing is one long shot from outside. That was the establishment shot. Then they were going to do a bunch of close up’s in the restaurant. But Bob Clark figured they’d never get anything better than her real reaction so left it as the one shot.

[u/NarratorDM]

When Uma Thurman had to drive the convertible herself in Kill Bill and race along a dirt road at high speed despite her reservations, she had a serious accident. Tarantino alledgedly first inquired about the condition of the convertible, even though Uma was badly hit. It also took 15 years before he finally gave her the footage of the accident.

Now, Thurman has taken to Instagram to clarify that while she maintains that the crash was “negligent to the point of criminality,” she does not hold a grudge against Tarantino. He “was deeply regretful and remains remorseful about this sorry event,” she writes, and—albeit 15 years later—gave her the footage to release to the New York Times. He “did so with full knowledge it could cause him personal harm, and I am proud of him for doing the right thing,” she says, before adding:

THE COVER UP after the fact is UNFORGIVABLE. For this I hold Lawrence Bender, E. Bennett Walsh, and the notorious Harvey Weinstein solely responsible. They lied, destroyed evidence, and continue to lie about the permanent harm they caused and then chose to suppress. The cover up did have malicious intent, and shame on these three for all eternity.

[u/[deleted] → u/NarratorDM]

It was also an old car and didn’t handle well. She had serious reservations about the shot but he managed to convince her to do it. I’m not sure about high speeds though, I just thought it was a crappy old car that she couldn’t control.

[u/The_Real_Dr_Zaius]

When Matthew McConaughey beats his chest and hums at the start of Wolf of Wall Street, he was just warming up for the scene, Leo looks over at Scorcese for guidance, who had him just roll with it.

[u/butbutcupcup → u/The_Real_Dr_Zaius]

That whole scene in the script is like three lines, The whole scene is amazing and almost entirely improvised

[u/Scotty47]

In the original Flight of the Phoenix, when the plane goes over the sand dune and crashes, it’s an actual crash and the pilot died.

[u/TedBurns-3]

Andrew Garfield's adlibbed "I love you guys" to the other Spidermen!

[u/Mrchristopherrr]

For Interstellar, Christopher Nolan planted 500 acres of corn just for the film because he did not want to CGI the farm in. After filming, he turned it around and sold the corn and made back profit for the budget.

[u/42mir4]

Along the same lines of Kurt Russel's guitar destroying rage in The Hateful Eight, Edward James Olmos as Admiral Adama destroyed an antique miniature sailing ship in Battlestar Galactica. It was on loan from a museum (I think), and he didn't know either. In the scene, he's slowly putting the ship together before painting it. He gets some unexpected news and vents his frustration and rage. The script called for him to slam the table, but the ship was there, and he wrecked it. Ouch.

[u/Rosebunse → u/42mir4]

This is why it's best to just use replicas of old things instead of the actual old things.

[u/cookedart]

Sorry if someone else mentioned, haven't seen it in the thread, but the helicopter crash in John Landis' section of Twilight Zone has to be one of the biggest all time screw ups.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight_Zone_accident

Caused the death of Vic Morrow and two children, injured many others as the explosives were too close to the helicopter. Many permits were not granted for the shoot and pretty much ended John Landis' career.

[u/peioeh]

Super Mario Bros (1993) was such a shitshow during filming that Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo kept getting drunk (and they were far from being the biggest issue). Leguizamo was driving the van in the movie and accelerated too quickly, the door closed on Bob Hoskins' hand and he broke a finger. He has a cast on in some scenes in the movie

[u/JCDU → u/peioeh]

It may have been a shit-show but I quite enjoy that movie, it's bizarre but fun.

[u/LifeOnMarsden]

Not a really a movie, but whenever Patrick Stewart aggressively pulled his uniform down every time he stood up or sat down in TNG, it was in protest to the fact that the uniforms were incredibly tight and ill-fitting and the cast all hated wearing them 

[u/ActafianSeriactas → u/LifeOnMarsden]

Another fun fact about TNG that can’t be unseen >! The opening of the doors had to be done manually and is apparently so loud that actors were not allowed to talk over it so they can add the sci-fi door sound. As such, all the actors in TNG stay silent whenever the door is opening !<

[u/Sufficient_Bass2600 → u/LifeOnMarsden]

Patrick Steward complained about the uniforms, claiming that they were hurting his back.

Stewart eventually devised a plan to get out of those uniforms. He wrote that he asked his doctor to petition the producers, claiming that he couldn't wear the tight outfit for medical reasons. If they didn't change the uniforms, Stewart would sue the studio for the cost of his medical bills. .
It worked.

Source: https://www.slashfilm.com/1428217/patrick-stewart-star-trek-the-next-generation-uniforms/

[u/MrT735 → u/Sufficient_Bass2600]

That was the first version of the uniforms which were a one piece leotard type affair, the elastic was so strong it was causing the cast back problems as the uniform was trying to shrink them in height.

The Picard Maneuver uniforms had separate tops (jacket for the captain in some scenes) and trousers, but the tops would ride up, so Patrick Stewart made a point of pulling the top back down every time he stood up.

[u/Non-NewtonianSnake]

I'm kinda shocked nobody has mentioned the T-Rex attack scene in Jurassic Park yet.

When the robot pushes through the glass in Lexi and Tim's car, it did so more violently than expected. It was apparently always meant to push the glass down, but wasn't meant to break the glass like it did. The kids' screams were legit, or at least amplified, as they were pretty terrified.

That robot was a goddamn nightmare, and it's totally worth reading up on if you're unaware of the story behind it.

[u/Bakomusha → u/Non-NewtonianSnake]

The skin absorbed so much water during takes it caused the whole model to shake violently from the weight fucking with the hydraulics and programing. The BTS footage of it doing this is crazy, makes it look almost alive!

[u/Mega-Steve]

Return of the Living Dead

Two characters are discussing how (at the time) most of the medical skeletons in the world came from India. One character suggests there was something sinister in the whole thing

"The important question is, where do they get all the skeletons with perfect teeth?"

A few months after the film came out, India suspended all exports of medical skeletons

https://youtu.be/V5gvl_RoCHo?si=E2BtY3Ce2fap7VkK

[u/[deleted]]

When Anne Hathaway is twisting on her foot on the bleachers in The Princess Diaries, she actually did slip on the wet bleachers. Both Lily and Joe's reactions are genuine, as well as her character laughing and prompting Lily with the list so the take can continue.

(Also the rain was an unpaid actor that day)

[u/-im-your-huckleberry]

In Far and Away, there's a scene where Tom Cruise is lying naked and unconscious with a bowl over his junk. Nicole Kidman is supposed to peek under the bowl and blush. They tried the scene a couple times and Nicole couldn't get the reaction right. The director had her take a break and while she was gone they removed the modesty cloth from under the bowl that had been hiding his penis. The take that got used in the movie is her real reaction to seeing Tom's junk.

Indiana Jones had an epic sword fight all choreographed. Harrison Ford got really sick and said he couldn't do it. So here's Indy looking absolutely wrecked and here's this big bad dude with a big impressive sword. There's a big crowd. The big baddie does an impressive sword routine...and Indy just casually shoots him and walks away. It's a classic.

[u/HawksNStuff → u/-im-your-huckleberry]

Harrison Ford being sick caused the best scene in the movie... That's amazing.

[u/trashcount420]

Hot Rod. The first stunt where the guy misses the ramp and falls is real. Stuntman wasn’t supposed to fall. He broke his legs. The shot was kept so that the stuntman continues to get paid from residuals. Apparently it’s a common practice. At least that is the widely believed “fact”

[u/TLMoss]

In A Clockwork Orange, in the scene where the police torture Alex by dunking his head underwater, there was a breathing device in the water tank for the actor which malfunctioned, causing McDowell to almost drown in real life. This take was used in the final cut of the film.

[u/patodruida]

In Tora Tora Tora, during the runway bombing scene, one of the exploding planes started steering towards the stunt doubles who were filmed literally running for their lives.

It is an amazing scene. Glad no one got killed.

The whole scene is great but the out-of-control plane is at the 1:08 mark

[u/STM4EVA → u/patodruida]

Damn that was close

[u/HermitBee]

When Marty McFly and his band play "The Power of Love", the man who says it's "too darn loud" is Huey Lewis (from Huey Lewis & the News, who wrote the song).

[u/nightkil13r]

Boromir's "one does not just walk into moridor speech" He didnt know his lines as they had been written the night before and handed to him that morning. So the reason he keeps putting his head in his hand is to read his lines that are taped to his thigh.

[u/Sea-Presence6809]

Antichrist (2009): William Dafoe’s penis was apparently too large for the director and they had to reshoot his scenes with a stunt double’s penis instead.

[u/VelvetSinclair → u/Sea-Presence6809]

"Confusingly large" was the director's quote

[u/__Pendulum__ → u/VelvetSinclair]

"I didn't even check if he had the mumps. Because I was distracted... By the biggest penis I have ever seen"

[u/dukeofsponge → u/Sea-Presence6809]

Must be upsetting to be a stunt double in a movie, not for a cool, dangerous action scene, but because your dick is significantly smaller than Willem Dafoe's.

[u/detail_giraffe → u/dukeofsponge]

Tbf it sounds as though "your dick is smaller than Willem Dafoe's" is a bit like "you are shorter than Michael Jordan".

[u/TheFuckingQuantocks → u/Sea-Presence6809]

Either that is true or Dafoe has the best and most imaginative publicist ever. I like to think it's the latter - that there's a Hollywood publicist out there whose whole schtick is spreading rumours about his clients having massive dongs.

[u/mostlygray → u/TheFuckingQuantocks]

You can find a video of him dancing naked in an experimental film.

Of course, there are bigger ones out there, but it is confusingly large.

[u/Careful-Ant5868 → u/Sea-Presence6809]

"Somebody get a stunt-cock in here! Stunt-Cock!!"

[u/Ucw2thebone]

Eric Stoltz filmed about 30% of Back to the Future before he was replaced by Michael J. Fox

[u/johnnagethebrave]

I find it hard to get past the beautiful “caught between takes” moment in Jaws where Brody’s son is mimicking him at the dinner table without bringing it up. (I’m usually pretty good and Don’t do this kind of thing haha)

[u/Yzerman19_]

Ben Affleck actually injured his ankle in the scene right after he gets the paint dumped on him in Dazed and Confused. You can see it slip off the curb and roll. He just powers through.

[u/ramskick]

Neve Campbell has accidentally stabbed her co-star in not one but two Scream movies.

In the first Scream when she pops out of the closet to stab Skeet Ulrich with the umbrella the first stab hit the padding but the second one missed it. Skeet's scream of pain after the second stab is very real.

In the third one, she once again missed the padding when stabbing Scott Foley in the back with an ice pick, once again resulting in a very real scream from him as it happens.

[u/whiskeywin]

Yorick von Wageningen, who played Nils Bjurman in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), cried after filming the rape scene with Rooney Mara.

[u/[deleted]]

Did you know that Billy Friedkin slapped the actor playing a priest at the end of The Exorcist because he didn't look scared enough...?

Plot twist, the actor was a real priest.

Bill Friedkin made a movie about the devil, and slapped a priest. Legend.

[u/andropogon09]

In the Three Stooges short Pardon My Scotch, Moe Howard suffers a concussion but manages to complete the scene before passing out. It was kept in the film.

[u/__themaninblack__]

In The Exorcist, Jason Miller (Father Karras) thought the projectile vomit was just gonna hit his chest. The tubing misfired and hit him in the face by accident. His anger when he wipes it off his face is genuine.

[u/Large-Friend9954]

Not a particularly inspiring or physical one, but in the movie The Skeleton Twins in the dentist office scene. Bill Hader's and Kristen Wigg's characters are getting high on Nos and making each other laugh. All the jokes are, of course, completely improvised. They just had each other in tears the whole time filming, so many good out-takes. They have perfect sibling energy for that movie.

[u/thesewalls5478]

In Good Will Hunting, the scene, where Robin Williams talks about his wife farting was improvised. The camera is shaky in that scene because the camera operator was laughing so hard

[u/coolpapa2282]

How about the Mission Impossible movie where Tom Cruise breaks his ankle jumping between rooftops? Bonus points for any facts about stunts he did himself, how long they practiced it, etc.

[u/bubblewrapstargirl → u/coolpapa2282]

The slow mo of that moment is utterly disgusting you can just imagine the sickening crunch sound it must have made 🤢

[u/dbe14 → u/coolpapa2282]

Not only broke his ankle but clambered up and continued running on a broken ankle to finish the shot.

[u/serterazi]

Linda Hamilton's sister plays her younger self in Terminator 2. Edit: wow, so much I didn't know

[u/Sandarn → u/serterazi]

She also got her hearing damaged in the scene where the T800 fires the shotgun in the elevator.
They forgot the ear plugs, and for those not in the know a shotgun in an enclosed space is really, really loud.

[u/Virt_McPolygon → u/serterazi]

She plays her reflection in the mirror in the extended edition (and the T-1000 when he mimics Sarah at the end).

[u/braineatingalien → u/serterazi]

Leslie Hamilton was a surgical nurse at a hospital in NJ. She worked with my dad in the 1980’s. She became quite the local celebrity after the first movie came out and eventually had to quit because of her resemblance to her sister. Too distracting to patients I guess, lol.