Bloopers: Accidental And On Purpose
Making movies is complicated, so mistakes happen—and sometimes actors simply make up lines that the director decides to keep in. Let’s look at some famous moments when things went seriously off-script.
The Godfather (1972)
A cat wandered onto Marlon Brando’s lap, providing a cute furry counterpoint to mob boss Don Vito Corleone’s ruthless directions to his underlings.
The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
Sometimes acting isn’t acting anymore. Steve Carell thought the authentic look would be best in a waxing scene. Carell authentically screamed out in pain, no acting required. "Never again," he’s since said.
Apatow Productions, 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
The Dark Knight (2008)
After Jim Gordon captures the Joker, Gotham’s Mayor promotes him to Police Commissioner. Everyone claps, including the Joker. Heath Ledger’s improvised touch reminds us that sarcasm needs no words.
Warner Bros., The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Rocky (1976)
This famous franchise didn’t start so big. The first film had almost no money for extras, so when Rocky runs through an Italian market, it was just a random guy who decides to throw him an orange, totally unscripted.
Chartoff-Winkler Productions, Rocky (1976)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Eowyn is not having a good day after a nasty chat with Grima Wormtongue. The flag of Eowyn’s village, Rohan, flies away, symbolic of her despair. It was brilliant film-making, and an accident, thanks to a blustery day in New Zealand.
Tom Hall, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Mrs Doubtfire (1993)
Desperate to keep his identity secret, Robin Williams rammed his face into a cake. Under the heat of studio lights, the icing melted and dripped into the tea he was serving. “There you go, you’ve got your cream and your sugar now,” he improvised.
Twentieth Century Mrs. Doubtfire (1993),
Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)
Suffering from food poisoning, Harrison Ford didn’t think he could last through a full-blown sword fight, so the director agreed Ford could just whip out a revolver and shoot the bad guy. Not very sporting, but Ford got the scene done and audiences have been chuckling ever since.
A scen from the movie Raiders Of The Lost Ark
Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014)
Peter Quill drops the orb as he hands it to the Collector, an unscripted surprise apparently due to actor Chris Pratt’s clumsiness. Or maybe not. The actor has since claimed it was all on purpose. Whether he fumbled or improvised, the moment stayed in the film.
Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Thor: The Dark World (2013)
Chris Hemsworth was aiming for a laugh when he hung his mythic hammer on the coat rack. This gag wasn’t in the script, but served as an amusing diversion in the final cut.
Star Wars: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
When Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) tells Han Solo (Harrison Ford) “I love you,” Ford thought Han Solo was the kind of guy who’d say, “I know”. Legend has it that Ford improvised on the spot, though that may not be the full truth.
Forrest Gump (1994)
Just so we’re clear: “My name’s Forrest Gump,” said Tom Hanks, who then added, “People call me Forrest Gump”. The first half was in the script. The second wasn’t.
Paramount, Forrest Gump (1994)
The Avengers (2012)
Robert Downey Jr. likes to hide snacks on set, so whenever he gets the munchies, relief is at hand. It’s no surprise there’s a lot more food in the movie than you might expect.
The Princess Diaries (2001)
Anne Hathaway slipped and fell while walking on some bleachers, but it fit the character of awkward Mia Thermopolis so well that the accident stayed in the movie.
Walt Disney, The Princess Diaries (2001),
Django Unchained (2012)
Leonardo DiCaprio slammed his hand into a glass and blood started gushing out. Only problem: this wasn’t special effects. But injured as he was, he just kept on going with the scene. Now that’s dedication.
The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)
Anthony Hopkins improvised Hannibal Lecter’s hissing at Jodi Foster’s FBI agent. Foster, playing Clarice Starling, was caught by surprise, as you might suspect by her startled reaction.
Orion, The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Titanic (1997)
Leonardo DiCaprio’s famous “I’m the king of the world!” wasn’t in the script, but it wasn’t Leo who improvised the line, it was director James Cameron. Leo didn’t even like what would become the most famous line from the movie, but Cameron insisted he “sell it”.
The Usual Suspects (1995)
In the line-up scene, the, well, usual suspects can’t stop laughing. It was a special kind of improv, as someone farted around 12 takes in a row, and the other actors naturally reacted. Scriptwriter Christopher McQuarrie thinks the laughter improved the scene.
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, The Usual Suspects
Rain Man (1988)
In a similar case, Dustin Hoffman admits he really did release gas in a phone booth with Tom Cruise, prompting some hilarious lines, all improvised. It’s Hoffman’s favorite acting moment, even beating his Shakespeare, he says.
United Artists, Rain Man (1988)
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)
Here’s the gist: Kate Winslet’s character disappears. Jim Carrey’s character looks for her. He gets confused and concerned as he looks for her. No one had told Carrey that Winslet’s character was supposed to disappear, so he was actually doing his best to find her.
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
A former real-life Marine drill instructor who’d been hired as a technical advisor, R Lee Ermey was so compelling he was put in front of the camera, where he came up with many of his own lines, a rare feat considering director Stanley Kubrick’s usual tight control.
Warner Bros., Full Metal Jacket,
Dirty Dancing (1987)
Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey crawled toward each other as a way to limber up before filming. The director loved it and put it in the film.
Vestron Pictures, Dirty Dancing
Scent Of A Woman (1992)
Al Pacino got so much into his blind character that he stopped focusing on objects around him. When he falls over a trash can, that isn’t him acting. He just didn’t see it.
Universal, Scent of a Woman (1992)
Zoolander (2001)
David Duchovny improvised an indignant reaction when Ben Stiller repeated a line. Duchovny’s hand model J.P. Prewitt had just finished explaining why male models were perfect hired killers when Stiller blanked and repeated the question. Duchovny ad-libbed, “Seriously? I just told you!”
Village Roadshow Pictures, Zoolander (2001)
Blade Runner (1982)
Darryl Hannah, playing a cyborg on the run, slams into a van and shatters a window. It fits the character of the panicked robotic fugitive, but it was all an accident, with Hannah ending up in the hospital with a broken elbow.
The Wolf Of Main Street (2013)
Matthew McConaughey would bang his chest to relax himself before a take in this high-stakes movie, but Leonardo DiCaprio thought it would be great to put the chest-thumping right in the film.
Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Nick the Greek accidentally broke a glass table when he let go of a juice glass from too far up. Actor Stephen Marcus’s surprise is very genuine.
Summit Entertainment, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Scream (1996)
Matthew Lillard improvised the line “Houston, we have a problem” when his character Stu Macher realizes a gun is missing.
Dimension Films, Scream (1996)
The ’Burbs (1989)
Tom Hanks, playing nosy neighbor Ray Peterson, lifts up a gurney and tosses it into an ambulance in a spontaneous—and very energetic—moment.
Imagine Entertainment, The 'Burbs (1989)
The Other Guys (2010)
Mark Wahlberg, playing Detective Terry Hoitz, says if he were a lion he’d swim in and devour Will Ferrell’s Detective Allen Gamble, who’s a tuna in this scenario. With Ferrell’s character having a nickname of “Gator,” it’s perhaps no surprise he ignored the script and explained why swimming lions made absolutely no sense at all.
Columbia, The Other Guys (2010)
American Beauty (1999)
Kevin Spacey improvised by throwing a plate of asparagus against a wall rather than the floor as scripted, ruining dinnertime and eliciting very real reactions from Annette Bening and Thora Birch.
Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope (1977)
In the first movie of the Star Wars franchise (in order of filming) a stormtrooper hits his helmeted head on a doorway. You can even hear the bonk. Various actors have claimed credit (or discredit) for this mishap.
Twentieth Century, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Even the good tall guys have it tough. Ian McKellen’s Gandalf towers over the hobbits he visits at the diminutive residence of Bilbo Baggins, and promptly hits his head. McKellen said it was improv, not an accident. He just didn’t tell director Peter Jackson.
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), New Line Cinema
The Martian (2015)
Donald Glover, playing scientist Rich Purnell, gets out of bed and plummets out of sight of the camera. This was all accidental, and the actor playing a coworker actually is concerned about how Glover is doing. Director Ridley Scott decided the take made Purnell more likable, so he kept it in.
Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
Tom Cruise loves doing his own stunts, but had a look of horror when he kicked Dougray Scott in the jaw, prompting Scott to stagger backward. Fortunately, that was the only mishap in a fight that also included a knife swing close to Cruise’s eyes.
Paramount, Mission: Impossible II
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
There’s some controversy, but according to Dustin Hoffman he improvised “I’m walkin’ here!” as he slapped a taxi that came too close to him and Jon Voight. The New York City street wasn’t closed off, so anything could happen. However, another version says director John Schlesinger hired an extra to drive a cab, though not as close to the actors as it turned out.
United Artists, Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Oppenheimer (2023)
And then there are continuity, plausibility, and historical errors. In this case, Cillian Murphy’s J. Robert Oppenheimer walks by 50-star flags in 1945, even though there were only 48 states of the union at the time.
American Sniper (2014)
The fake baby in this movie produced a fair amount of derision, no matter how much Bradley Cooper distracted from the prop. Scriptwriter Jason Hall claims that the first baby had a fever, the second baby didn’t show up, so director Clint Eastwood said to just use the doll.
The Last Samurai (2003)
Set in Japan during an 1877 rebellion, the film has Tom Cruise playing a US Civil War veteran, even though none made it to Japan. Also, ninjas had long disappeared, and in reality sword fights were being mightily helped along by imported guns and rifles.
Warner Bros., The Last Samurai (2003)
The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
Continuity problems in this much-beloved Judy Garland classic include Dorothy’s fluctuating pigtails and her famous ruby slippers briefly turning black. But in the end, despite—or because of—bloopers like this, the magic of movies keeps on sparkling.
