50 Times Actors Went Totally Off Script And Wound Up Making Movie Magic

In rogue-shark classic Jaws, Roy Scheider’s character Brody sees the massive fish for the first time while aboard the boat hunting for the beast. He tells the skipper, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” Apparently, the line originated as a crew in-joke because the support boat on the movie wasn’t big enough. But Scheider ad-libbed it to exemplary dramatic effect at just the right time.

It was an action by Leonardo DiCaprio rather than a line that stole one particular scene in Django Unchained, despite not being scripted. Playing Calvin Candie, DiCaprio angrily confronts Django, played by Jamie Foxx. Slamming his hand into a table, DiCaprio actually sliced his mitt on broken glass, and the bleeding seen on screen is real. But the imperturbable actor carried on with the scene, which was included in the film.

You’ll remember the scene from Caddyshack, known as the Cinderella Story, when Bill Murray destroys a row of flowers with a golf club. Actually, according to the script, Murray was meant to decapitate the flowers with a grass whip. But he grabbed a golf club instead, making it just much funnier. Murray actually ad-libbed much of his part in the movie, including the Cinderella segment, giving us one of the comic actor’s most accomplished performances.

If ever two sentences summed up a title character and even the whole ethos of a movie they have to be, “My name’s Forrest Gump. People call me Forrest Gump.” Bubba Blue, played by Mykelti Williamson, introduces himself to Gump. The latter responds with his famous lines. And those words weren’t from the script — Tom Hanks improvised them on the spot.

In the strangely disorientating but intriguing movie Being John Malkovich, the title character is taken over by a puppeteer played by John Cusack. At one bizarre moment in the film, a hurled beer can hits Malkovich on the head. You’d suppose that incident was staged. But it wasn’t, and yet Malkovich improvises his way out of the situation masterfully. A crew member had thrown the can as a prank, and director Spike Jonze liked the result so much he kept it in the film.

In the 1953 Hollywood classic Roman Holiday, Gregory Peck confirmed his reputation as an on-set prankster with a trick he played on co-star Audrey Hepburn. Standing before a large and ancient stone face, Peck tells Hepburn about a legend. Apparently, a liar putting a hand in the statue’s gaping mouth will have it bitten off. Peck puts in his hand, yells, and pulls out his arm with his hand tucked in his sleeve. That wasn’t in the script, and Hepburn’s momentary shock was unfeigned.

Stephen Marcus gave an entertaining acting performance as Nick the Greek in Guy Ritchie’s 1998 London gangster romp Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. But there’s one scene in the movie where he’s definitely not acting. Putting his drink down on a table, he smashes its glass top. Not in the script, but Ritchie decided to use it.

In a memorable scene from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Johnny Depp’s character, Captain Jack Sparrow, bursts into song. He’s taunting some rival pirates by brandishing a jar of dirt and singing some doggerel. In fact, Depp’s silly song was ad-libbed, so the astonished reactions of his fellow actors are entirely genuine.

In Scent of a Woman Al Pacino plays a retired military man who is blind. Known for his method acting, Pacino was determined to play the part convincingly. That meant he flitted his eyes around, not focusing properly. At one point, that meant he walked straight into a trash can, completely unintentionally. Perhaps that bit of “acting” helped him to win a Best Actor Oscar for the role.

In teen angst movie Thirteen, innocent young Tracy played by Evan Rachel Wood becomes best buddies with bad-girl Evie portrayed by Nikki Reed. Tracy decides she wants a navel piercing, and Evie agrees to perform the operation with a needle. On set, Reed actually did stab Wood in the stomach — not what was meant to happen. So Wood’s scream in the movie is absolutely genuine.

Playing Roman in Fast and Furious 6, Tyrese Gibson aims a jibe at Hobbs played by Dwayne Johnson, saying they’d better hide the baby oil from him. Hobbs responds with an ad-libbed line, “You better hide that big forehead.” Not the height of wit perhaps, but it made Chris “Ludacris” Bridges spit out his drink with laughter, apparently ruining the barbecue the actors were standing around. You probably had to be there.

In his terrifying portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, Anthony Hopkins had one particularly spine-chilling mannerism. That was the bizarre hissing, slurping noise he made when he first met Clarice, played by Jodie Foster. It came after he described eating someone’s liver with “fava beans and a nice bottle of Chianti.” And that horrible noise was all Hopkins’ own work — not in the script at all.

Ben Stiller’s hilarious performance as the title character in Zoolander was actually enhanced at one point simply because he’d genuinely forgotten his lines. Stiller asks why the killer in Zoolander murders male models. A detailed explanation follows. Then Stiller, who couldn’t remember his next line, simply repeated his previous one, “But why male models?” This was actually an excellent gag from the witless Zoolander and was kept in the final cut.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry Potter downs a magic draught called polyjuice potion. It makes him look like Crabbe, and he hopes to extract valuable information from Malfoy while cloaked in the disguise. But Potter forgets to take off his glasses — an accessory Crabbe doesn't wear. Malfoy remarks on the eyewear. Potter claims he — that’s Crabbe — needs them for reading. So far, so scripted. But Tom Felton playing Malfoy had forgotten his next line. So he came up with “I didn't know you could read.” That stayed in.

At one point in Raiders of the Lost Ark, a fly very nearly steals the show. Apart from the pesky fly, two other principals were in the scene, Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones and Paul Freeman playing Rene Belloq. The fly landed on Freeman’s face, but like a true trooper, he acted on without flinching. The fly actually flew off, but clever post-production made it look as though Freeman swallowed the insect.

James Stewart as George Bailey is undoubtedly the star of It’s a Wonderful Life, but bumbling Uncle Billy played by Tommy Mitchell adds a welcome helping of humor. At one point Uncle Billy leaves the Bailey home, and just as he disappears off screen, there’s a huge crash. The noise actually came from a dropped prop, which caused Mitchell to cry out. Quickly improvising the actor came up with “I’m all right! I’m all right!,” and that stayed in the movie.

Judging by one incident during the filming of Pretty Woman, Richard Gere obviously enjoyed the odd on-set joke. So his character Edward presents a box containing a lavish necklace to Vivian played by Julia Roberts. Just as she is about to take the gift, Gere whams the box closed. Neither Roberts nor anyone else on set expected that — it was entirely Gere’s own work. So Roberts’ laughing reaction is completely authentic.

The truth is it wasn’t Leonardo DiCaprio who went off script to deliver the line “I’m king of the world” as he stood on Titanic’s prow playing the part of Jack Dawson. It was the director, James Cameron. Speaking on BBC’s Radio 1 in 2019, Cameron revealed that he’d come up with the line as they were filming. Apparently, DiCaprio was none too keen on it. But he played along with his director, and it became one of the most memorable moments in the movie.

Jim Carrey’s bravura performance in the title role brought The Grinch to glorious life. One of the funniest scenes is the moment he tears a tablecloth from beneath a motley crowd of objects without moving them. But then he violently sweeps everything off the table. Actually, everything was meant to tumble down when he first grabbed the tablecloth. But when that didn’t happen, Carrey improvised by hurling everything to the floor. Definitely funnier than what was scripted.

In Midnight Cowboy there’s a scene where Dustin Hoffman, as Ratso, and Jon Voight, playing Joe Buck, are crossing a busy Manhattan street. A taxi driver sounds his horn and stops inches from Hoffman. The actor reacts angrily, yelling, “Hey, I’m walkin’ here!” In fact, it was a genuine incident. The scene was being filmed without street clearance, and it was a real New York moment. Much too good to leave out of the movie.

When Princess Leia, played by Carrie Fisher, declares her love for Harrison Ford’s character, Han Solo, you might expect a huge response from him. But no, all he offers Leia as Darth Vader’s henchmen haul him off is a rather casual “I know.” Originally, the script gave Ford more to say. But he came up with the two-word line, believing that the minimalism was more in keeping with his character.

The original script of The Godfather contained no mention of a cat. But director Francis Ford Coppola had apparently adopted a stray that he had found wandering around the Paramount lot. He then directed the feline to sit on Marlon Brando’s lap. The cuddly kitty supplied a stark contrast to the gangster supremo’s ruthless rule. In fact, the cat purred so loudly that some of Brando’s lines had to be redubbed later.

It wasn’t a box office hit when it was released in 1993, but Dazed and Confused went on to become a cult movie. Matthew McConaughey played David Woodson in the film and his character utters the immortal words, “All right, all right, all right” as he pulls up outside of a bar. And that was entirely improvised. The seemingly simple words have since become an iconic movie moment.

One scene in The Hobbit shows Vigo Mortensen as Aragorn hearing the tragic news that two of his hobbit buddies, Pippin and Merry, are now ex-hobbits. The script called for Aragorn to express his grief and anger by kicking a battle helmet. But when Mortensen lashed out, he actually fractured his toe. That made him yell and fall to his knees. The reaction was so genuine, it had to stay in the movie.

Tom Cruise, playing Ethan Hunt, was shaping up for a fight scene with a stuntman in Mission: Impossible 2. The stunt guy suggested that during the fight Cruise should really kick him in the face. Cruise and director John Woo weren’t too keen on this idea. But the stuntman was adamant, and the scene went ahead on his terms. The result was a very convincing fight sequence.

Jack Nicholson finally goes completely off the rails as Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, embarking on a murderous rampage. When he does, he has two words. “Heeere’s Johnny!” The phrase, terrifying as Nicholson delivered it, quickly entered the almanac of immortal movie catchphrases. But the words were untouched by the pen of a scriptwriter — Nicholson came up with them himself.

Trigger warning: grotesquerie ahead. John Belushi, Bluto in Animal House, says to his fellow diners, “See if you can guess what I am now.” Then he stuffs an unfeasible amount of mashed potato into his mouth. Next, he thumps both his cheeks with his fists. The mashed mush shoots out of his mouth, spraying everyone. “I’m a zit. Get it!” Chaos erupts. Belushi came up with the gag, and neither cast nor crew knew what was coming.

Robert de Niro’s Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver is remembered as an acting tour de force. One of the most powerful scenes features Bickle, armed with several pistols and clearly with a screw loose, staring into a mirror and repeating “You talkin’ to me?” again and again. But De Niro had been given no lines for the scene and came up with the words himself. It was a gift for Scorsese and millions of movie fans.

Forget about Johnny Depp’s remake — the true Willy Wonka was the late Gene Wilder in the original 1971 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. And Wilder used some nifty improvisation to make the role his own. When we meet Wonka for the first time, he appears as a frail-looking fellow with a pronounced limp. But suddenly he performs an astonishingly accomplished forward roll. And Wilder came up with that striking visual gag all on his own.

Jim Carrey plays the evil Count Olaf in A Series of Unfortunate Events, the man who takes control of the three bereaved children in the tale. There’s a scene where the count is introduced to the children. At that point, Carrey said, “Wait, let me do that one more time,” actually addressing director Brad Silberling. But the cast carried on, repeating the introductions. Silberling loved the result and kept it in the movie.

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, with Will Ferrell in the lead, is a hilarious view of an American TV newsroom. The scene is set for Ferrell’s brilliant improvisation when Burgundy flings a burrito from his car window, inadvertently hitting a motorcyclist. The biker then chucks the newsman’s dog off a bridge. Burgundy, seeking solace, calls a pal from a payphone booth. Describing his misery he says, “I’m in a glass case of emotion.” All Ferrell’s own work.

At the heart of the evergreen Hollywood classic Casablanca is the on-off love affair between Humphrey Bogart’s Rick Blaine and Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa Lund. Ultimately, their romance is doomed to failure. But in a tear-jerking finale, Bogart delivers his immortal line to Bergman, “Here’s looking at you, kid.” Apparently, Bogart originally came up with the phrase while teaching Bergman poker.

When it comes to priceless inanities, the script of This Is Spinal Tap has few equals. The heavy metal band’s everyday conversation is peppered with moronic phrases, many of which were improvised by the actors. It was Michael McKean playing David St. Hubbins who came up with the memorable words, “It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.”

In A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick’s haunting vision of a future dystopia, Malcolm McDowell starred as ultra-violent Alex. Alex and his gang perpetrate a horrifyingly depraved home invasion. As the brutality builds, McDowell started to sing “Singin’ in the Rain,” an off-the-cuff decision by the actor. The contrast between the light-hearted ditty and the appalling carnage is deeply disturbing.

Playing the demented Colonel Walter E. Kurtz in Francis Ford Coppola’s seminal Apocalypse Now, Marlon Brando is said to have improvised many lines. Certainly one of the best was Kurtz’s response to the arrival at his encampment of Captain Benjamin L. Willard, played by Martin Sheen. Willard had been sent to eliminate the wayward colonel. Kurtz gives him a withering putdown, “You’re an errand boy sent by a grocery clerk.”

In perhaps its most hilarious scene, in the 1989 classic When Harry Met Sally Meg Ryan simulates an orgasm as she sits opposite Billy Crystal in a diner. But it was the killer line that Estelle Reiner, the director’s mom, delivers once Ryan has finished that topped it off, “I’ll have what she’s having.” Cinema audiences around the world roared with laughter. But we bet you don’t know that Crystal came up with the line.

In Mel Brooks’ laugh-a-minute take on the Frankenstein tale, Marty Feldman, playing Igor, gets one of the funniest gags. And he improvised it on set. Gene Wilder’s Dr. Frederick Frankenstein meets Igor for the first time. Noticing Igor’s pronounced hump, the young doctor says he might be able to offer medical help for the prominent deformity. Feldman’s response is absurd in its simplicity. “What hump?”

Sean Connery managed to insert a witty improvised line into the dialogue of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Playing Indiana’s father, Professor Henry Jones, Connery is asked by Harrison Ford how he knows that Dr. Elsa Schneider is a Nazi. “She talks in her sleep,” the professor answers, which implies that Jones senior has been to bed with her. And there has previously been some romance between Elsa and Jones junior. Awkward.

After a brutal gangland slaying carried out in an automobile, Richard Castellano, playing Peter Clemenza, spotted an opportunity for some improvisation. In the scene, Clemenza leaves the car to relieve himself while a sidekick shoots the victim. Returning to the auto, Clemenza casually says to the gunman, “Leave the gun, take the cannoli.” After all, it really wouldn’t do to abandon the toothsome pastries.

As you’ll no doubt remember, the plot of Dumb and Dumber includes a hitman, Joe Mentalino played by Mike Starr. When Jim Carrey’s Lloyd and Jeff Daniels’ Harry pick up a hitchhiker, it is of course the self-same Mentalino. Harry and Lloyd’s bizarre antics begin to infuriate the hitman. Lloyd tops it all with his “most annoying sound in the world.” That was an off-the-cuff bit of business from Carrey.

At a crucial point in the movie, cocky Will Hunting (Matt Damon) returns to Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) for a follow-up therapy session. Maguire tells Hunting a funny story about his wife, who apparently passed wind so loudly in her sleep that she’d wake herself up. Williams actually concocted this story on the spot, and the ensuing laughter between the two is genuine.

Matt Damon took his own shot at improvisation in this powerful World War Two movie. Here, his character Private Ryan tells Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) about how his brother had had a disastrous romp in a barn. In fact, it was a touch of ad-libbed warmth that won Damon many plaudits.

At the movie’s climax a failing Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) tells Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) about the things he’s seen in his violent life. “All those moments will be lost in time,” he manages to say, before going off script and uttering, “Like tears in rain.” It’s a great moment that imbibes the android with a glimmer of humanity.

Steve Carrell having his chest waxed is a prime example of suffering for one’s art – especially when it’s entirely real. So those colorful profanities pouring from Carrell’s mouth as a million hairs are simultaneously torn from his character Andy’s body? Yep, completely unscripted.

Brad Pitt didn’t know what was coming when Ed Norton landed that first punch in Fight Club. Director David Fincher told Norton to hit Pitt for real without his costar knowing, and his awkward swipe resulted in the legendary reaction, “You hit me in the ear!”

The sinister scene where Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) reacts badly to Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) calling him “a funny guy” was heavily improvised. It was inspired by a real-life experience from Pesci’s youth. Indeed, as a young man he praised an apparently connected man’s sense of humor – only to get a threatening reaction.

The actors in this iconic police lineup were only scripted to say, “Give me the keys,” followed by a couple of expletives. Not only was the eccentric delivery of the lines improvised, but the actors’ sniggering fit was down to Benicio Del Toro incessantly breaking wind while the cameras were rolling.

In a particularly memorable scene, Lieutenant Gordon is promoted to commissioner while the Joker looks on from his cell. All the cops clap to congratulate Gordon, but when they see the Joker is unsettlingly clapping along – something that was improvised by Heath Ledger – they stop.

The dark campiness of this dystopian classic is captured in the scene where Luther (David Patrick Kelly) tries to goad the good-guy Warriors into battle. Clinking three bottles together, he chants, “Warriors, come out to play” in an increasingly high-pitched tone. Few people know, however, that this was Kelly’s own creative touch.

When Alvy (Woody Allen) sneezed while sniffing – not snorting – cocaine in Annie Hall, the pricey powder pretty much went over everyone. However, the sneeze was entirely genuine, which explains why the other cast members laughed so much. Furthermore, preview audiences loved it, so the sneeze made the final cut. While these improvised scenes went down in history for all the right reasons, there are some sequences producers really wish they could go back and do again.

Food and drink are notoriously tricky to deal with when it comes to film continuity. This explains why a full wine glass will often turn into a near-empty one on screen, or why a half-eaten sandwich will return to its original state in the blink of an eye. But it’s rare for a foodstuff to change completely. That’s what happens in Pretty Woman when Julia Roberts is seen enjoying a croissant that somehow becomes a pancake in a matter of seconds.

The early 2000s Ocean’s Eleven remake sees the gang pull off one of Hollywood’s most entertaining heists. But just as impressive is the crockery-based magic trick that Brad Pitt’s Rusty conjures up. At first, the character is seen tucking into one of the Bellagio’s shrimp cocktails from a glass. When the angle changes, however, Rusty’s picking up his shrimps from a plate instead. Nice sleight of hand!

Seems like The Gotham Times is in serious need of a new copy editor. In the final part of Christopher Nolan’s Caped Crusader trilogy The Dark Knight Rises, Batman reads a newspaper with a front-page story about a havoc-wreaking cat burglar. But the accompanying headline somehow misspells the word “heist.” We like to think that the superhero powered up the Batmobile and traveled to the newspaper’s offices to have a stern word.

You’d have to be a bit of a petrolhead to recognize this anachronistic error from Oscar favorite Dallas Buyers Club. Behind Ron Woodroof’s desk, there’s a poster of a Lamborghini Aventador – a supercar that only went into production in 2011. The hard-hitting AIDS drama is, of course, set in the 1980s.

The extra responsible for this movie mishap probably shouldn’t include sweeping on his list of talents. In the offending Quantum of Solace footage, Daniel Craig’s James Bond sits on a motorcycle in front of some maintenance workers brushing the dockyard. But one of these orange-panted men never actually touches the ground with his bristles. Perhaps he’s just pretending to look busy in front of his boss.

Forrest Gump does everything from inspiring Elvis Presley to exposing the scandal known as Watergate in Robert Zemeckis’ crowd-pleaser. But the lovable hero’s most spectacular feat is undoubtedly investing in a company that didn’t even exist. In one particular scene set in 1975, Forrest gets a letter about his shares in Apple. The tech giant was only founded a year later, however, and it didn’t even float on the stock exchange until 1980.

Remember Tim and Lex being chased through the kitchen by velociraptors in Jurassic Park? We didn’t fancy their chances to begin with... And as if the kids aren’t already on the back foot, the dinosaurs have a little human help. One of the prehistoric creatures is seen being propped up by a crew member’s hand as it bursts through the entrance.

The history of the iPhone doesn’t appear to be a specialist subject for director Richard Linklater. Or maybe he just doesn’t care about being period-accurate. In any case, in Linklater’s 2007 black comedy Bernie, several characters are spotted using iPhones. What’s the problem with that? Well, the film is set in the mid-1990s – so, a full decade before Steve Jobs unleashed Apple’s masterpiece on an unsuspecting world.

You could be forgiven for thinking that you’d briefly blacked out while watching The Goonies. That’d explain the adventure classic’s puzzling closing scene, anyway. When asked by a journalist about the scariest part of the boys’ treasure hunt, Data replies, “The octopus.” What octopus? Not one that appears in the final movie – only in a few moments that didn’t make the final cut.

The golden rule for film crew members is to remain out of shot at all times. Unfortunately, the folks working on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest didn’t appear to be particularly good at hiding. In the basketball scene where Martini and McMurphy trade verbal insults, you can quite clearly see several behind-the-scenes men standing on the other side of the court’s fence.

After discovering that he has superpowers early on in Spider-Man, Peter Parker begins testing these bizarre new abilities out in his bedroom. And, apparently, fixing lamps now appears to be in his wheelhouse. After the fledgling superhero breaks a light, Peter’s aunt comes to see what caused such a racket. By the time she opens the door, though, the lamp is miraculously fully intact.

Quentin Tarantino made a catalog of period mistakes with his unashamed love letter to Tinseltown. You see, while Once Upon a Time in Hollywood takes place at the end of the 1960s, it still features a Starbucks – which didn’t get its start until the 1970s. Even more unforgivable is the sight of a numbered exit ramp that didn’t exist until 2002.

Arnold Schwarzenegger action flick Commando isn’t set in the future. But you could be forgiven for believing otherwise, as self-repairing cars appear to be a thing in its macho world. Having been severely damaged after a particularly thrilling car chase, Arnie’s yellow Porsche is shown in the following scene looking as good as new. Where do we get one!?

While ranting about the state of the planet in apocalyptic blockbuster Independence Day, Jeff Goldblum’s character David knocks a trash can over in a drunken stupor. Not unrealistic in itself – a lot of us have been there – but in doing so, David accidentally breaks the fourth wall. How? Well, eagle-eyed viewers may well have spotted that the trash can in question is stamped with the term ‘Art Dept.’

Either Clarence is wrong in It’s A Wonderful Life, or the film’s props team can’t quite add up. In the festive classic, Henry Travers’ character tells George that his sibling, Harry, tragically passed away aged just nine. On Harry’s gravestone, though, we see that the boy was born in 1911 and died in 1919 – making him eight at the oldest. Oh dear.

It’s unlikely that one extra’s thirst was quenched during her scene in Legally Blonde. While the woman in question can be seen “drinking” from the water fountain in front of Reese Witherspoon’s character Elle, nothing is actually coming out of the nozzle. She’s essentially just breathing with her mouth open, which is not a good look.

They say it’s easy to play dead on camera, but tell that to the poor man used as a makeshift human shield by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall. Every time a pretend round of ammunition hits the supposed corpse to simulate a bullet strike, the unfortunate extra can’t help but grimace in pain.

We’d quite like to buy the kind of popcorn that Damian and Janis snack on in classic teen comedy Mean Girls. Although the pair end up spilling their corn all over the place when they are accidentally spooked by Cady, their bowl is once again full in the very next shot. Bottomless snacks? Sign us up!

Jennifer Lopez has referred to Anaconda as “sooo campy” – but others have called it simply, well, bad. (And that’s putting it nicely!) But however you feel about the movie, you can’t deny that J.Lo’s tank top is something special. Take a closer look at the scene where Lopez’s character tries to save a guy from a snake attack. Even though J.Lo has just got out of the ocean, her tank top is only wet on the front. Pretty incredible, right?

The Hurt Locker may have broken ground as the first Best Picture Oscar winner to be directed by a woman, but it certainly isn’t without its glaring errors. In one particular scene, for example, two soldiers mention the video clip that an Iraqi is about to upload to YouTube. Impressive, as the video-sharing platform was only created in 2005 – a year after the war drama takes place.

The old saying goes that you should never work with animals or children, and Alfred Hitchcock discovered that to his cost while filming 1959’s North by Northwest. Just before a gunshot is fired in the cafeteria scene at Mount Rushmore, a young extra can be seen holding his hands over his ears. The theory is that the boy did so after having suffered through the loud sound in previous takes. In the film, though, it just looks as if he can somehow predict the future.

The imposing hedge maze that proves to be Jack’s downfall is an all-too-important part of The Shining. And as we see in several scenes throughout the movie, that maze should be found only a few footsteps away from the entrance of the spooky Overlook Hotel. Well, maybe it magically appeared out of the blue. During the swooping exterior shots at the start of Stanley Kubrick’s classic, those hedges are initially nowhere to be seen.

The whole point of the bad guys in The Mummy is that they’ve come back from the dead, right? And when you’re dead, it’s not very likely you’d have a pulse. Yet when Imhotep tries to resurrect his dead love, viewers can clearly see that Patricia Velasquez’s Anck-Su-Namun has a strong pulse in her neck. Perhaps she’s been faking for 2,000 years?

The poor extra who quite visibly hits his head while dressed up as a stormtrooper in A New Hope has gone down in Star Wars infamy. In fact, the incident is even referenced in a later chapter of the franchise when Jango Fett does the same in 2002’s Attack of the Clones. And George Lucas has suggested that this particular type of clumsiness is a natural stormtrooper trait. Even so, we’re not sure we’d like our very visible mishap to be remembered more than 40 years on...

Historical movies probably give continuity workers more headaches than any other genre. Get just one prop a year out of date, and Twitter will come out in force to tell you. But there are some anachronistic items you would think would be easy to spot – like a gas canister, for example. Well, the folks behind the scenes on Gladiator – which, remember, is set in 180 A.D. – didn’t see that very modern item toppling out of a fallen chariot. And, naturally, the internet is here to let them know about their mistake.

The 2004 epic Troy is set even further back in time than Gladiator – in the late 12th century B.C., to be precise. And its anachronistic error is even more glaring. During one particular shot with Brad Pitt’s leading man, an entirely out-of-place object can be seen hovering above in the clear blue sky behind him. Is it a bird? No. Is it a plane? Much to the embarrassment of the movie’s makers, yes.

It’s not quite clear why a cowboy hat can be seen in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl’s closing scene. Not only does the headwear seem hopelessly out of place in such a seafaring adventure, but it also seems an odd choice of attire for the crew member who presumably walked into the shot by mistake. Sadly, the blooper has yet to inspire a Pirates vs. Cowboys spin-off, although we’d definitely give that a watch.

Not to be confused with the Will Smith/Martin Lawrence vehicle from the mid-1990s, Bad Boys is only really notable for two things. One is the first leading role for future Oscar winner Sean Penn. The second is perhaps one of cinema’s all-time greatest blunders. During one particular fight scene in the 1983 coming-of-age flick, the camera pans round to the baying audience. Unfortunately, this crowd just happens to include another guy filming from the other side – and he’s pretty visible, too, as he’s right in the front row.

The harsher critics among us may argue that some of Robert De Niro’s latter-day performances could just as well have come from a mannequin. But in Martin Scorsese’s Casino, viewers see the star literally replaced by one of those dummies. Although we witness De Niro’s character Ace get into a car, it’s crystal clear that the figure sitting in the driving seat just a second before it explodes isn’t of the human variety.

“It looked like something from Alien,” Sienna Miller once joked about the plastic baby that briefly turns American Sniper into an unintentional comedy. According to screenwriter Jason Hall, the cast and crew were forced to improvise the offending scene with a doll when the intended real human baby came down with a fever. But neither Bradley Cooper, who was holding the toy, nor the camera crew could hide this fact, and it raises a chuckle in a movie that’s understandably lacking in laughs.

Grease may be best known for its impossibly infectious songs, leather jackets and blatantly adult cast posing as high-school teens. But it’s also responsible for a blooper that suggests the local soda shop waitress possesses magic powers. As the lady in question walks down the stairs with her hands full, she attempts to switch off the lights with her elbow. And despite missing her target by a good six inches, she’s still miraculously able to dim the room. That’s even better than installing a Clapper.

There are also some magical goings-on in one of the most famous scenes from the much-loved Clueless. During Cher’s disastrous driving test, the high school socialite sends her side-view mirror flying off when she bumps into a stationary vehicle. When we see her still causing chaos on the roads in the next scene, though, said mirror has miraculously reappeared.

Either Kirk Baltz’s Marvin Nash is some kind of aspiring escapologist, or Quentin Tarantino failed to spot this glaring error in his directorial debut. In one particular Reservoir Dogs scene, the kidnapped policeman lies on the ground after having been handcuffed from the back. But when Mr. Blonde gets Nash ready for the film’s famously gruesome torture scene by moving him onto a chair, those handcuffs are mysteriously to the cop’s front.

Quentin Tarantino’s iconic follow-up to Reservoir Dogs also features a famous blooper during one of its most violent scenes. After delivering his biblical speech in Pulp Fiction, Samuel L. Jackson’s Jules is shot at along with his partner-in-crime, John Travolta’s Vincent. And, miraculously, the surprise assailant misses his targets, leaving the two hitmen to gun the guy down. Jules then talks of “divine intervention” as he inspects the wall that the bullets flew through. But those holes were already in place before any shots were fired. Perhaps the dead dude just got super lucky?

Drew Barrymore obviously found it difficult to separate character from actor while filming 2000 box office hit Charlie’s Angels. In one of the film’s more action-packed sequences, Barrymore’s Dylan and Lucy Liu’s Alex go up against Crispin Glover’s creepy villain. But when the former child actress attempts to swing her co-star around to pull off a cool move, she is obviously shouting “Lucy” rather than “Alex.”

Turns out that Johnny Castle’s skills extend beyond performing in the 1980s classic Dirty Dancing. As well as sweeping Jennifer Grey’s Baby off her feet in the retro romance, Patrick Swayze’s leading man can also defy the mechanics of driving. Yes, in one particular scene, Johnny can be seen hitting the road in his 1957 Chevy even though the vehicle’s gearshift is clearly in the park position. And we thought that we couldn’t possibly love him any more...

The Ace Ventura sequel was rush-released into theaters just a year after the original, and that perhaps explains one particular bit of sloppy continuity. The terrible blooper occurs in the scene where Jim Carrey’s pet detective begins exposing the man who hired him. At that moment, Simon Callow’s villainous Vincent Cadby sits in front of a fully equipped chessboard. But the chess pieces go on to disappear completely and return just as quickly from one cut to the next. What a blunder.

Taylor Vaughan appears to have been conned by her tattoo artist in She’s All That. Jodi Lyn O’Keefe’s narcissistic high schooler, who dumps Freddie Prinze Jr.’s jock in the popular teen movie, can clearly be seen getting a heart inked on her shoulder in one scene. But when she attends the prom in her backless dress, the tattoo is nowhere to be found. Maybe it was just a super-quick laser removal job?

She’s All That isn’t the only 1999 teen movie to feature a very basic continuity mistake. In 10 Things I Hate About You, a student is seen running in the background to get help when the school’s gym teacher accidentally gets shot by an arrow. But she doesn’t make it very far. Once the extra thinks she’s out of shot, she simply stops dead in her tracks and looks directly toward the lens.

It’s cruel to laugh at a child getting accidentally hit in the face – in theory, anyway. But it’s hard not to raise at least a smile after watching a poor little girl bravely take a blow in Willy Wonka. The youngster is struck during the “Candy Man” song when sweet shop owner Bill lifts the counter. Ever the pro, though, the girl barely flinches and continues with the scene.

The red van being driven by Bill Paxton’s storm chaser in Twister proves to be far more hurricane-proof than anyone could imagine. At one moment, the vehicle’s windshield is quite clearly smashed by some flying debris. Yet in the next shot, it’s somehow in one piece. If only this happened in real life...

Hitch’s almighty allergic reaction to seafood is one of the moments you’ll most certainly remember from the 2005 rom-com. If you’ve never seen the flick, all you need to know is that the main character sees the entire right side of his face dramatically swell up during a date with Eva Mendes’ gossip columnist. But as it turns out, this is no ordinary medical condition. You see, later on that same night, the puffiness has magically switched to the opposite side. Can any doctors in the house explain this?