Eight Amazing Lines in Movies that Were Unscripted

One of our favorite sites Listal did a great piece on a list of unscripted scenes in movies.    That list contained around 25 items.   We however, wanted to slim it down to only include those scenes we thought were particularly amazing and highly impacting on the films that took place in.  Also we felt appropriate just to mention the movie lines themselves.

Sometimes it takes a funny mistake to make a scene great, and sometimes it takes the awesome creativity or humorous side of an actor to make something happen that the director couldn’t possibly plan.

Here are 8 memorable movie lines you might not have known were unscripted….

Caddyshack – “It’s in the Hole!”


Leave it to Bill Murray to say something simple yet remains one of, if not the most popular line in that movie.

Jaws – “You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat”


I had no idea that Roy Scheider was so insightful.   Clearly that line is used today in a myriad of different ways.   Pretty funny it wasn’t even written for the movie.

The Empire Strikes Back – “I Know”


Remember when Leia tells Han that she loves him and he tells her he knows?  Harrison Ford improvised that one.  I guess we has pretty cocky.

The Usual Suspects – “Give me the Keys…..”


Sometimes it’s not the line itself but the way it’s said.  The scene during the lineup at the police station where they all had to say “Give me  the Keys you &*&*&*$#@,” each member was given free reign on how they’d say it.

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18 Comments

  1. R. Lee Ermey was an actual drill instructor in the marine corps for some time. When given the role of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman he looked over his part and told the director that drill instructors don’t talk like that. So they told him to have at it. I also think he assisted as a military reference on a few movies before FMJ.

  2. I’d like to nominate just about anything from Will Ferrell in Anchorman, specifically the things he said while ‘on air’. Step Brothers featured a lot of improv from Ferrell and Reilly as well, specifically the nonsense they spew during their fights.

    The “Singing in the Rain” lines from A Clockwork orange is also pretty awesome

  3. Not a “spoken line” improvise but the scene in Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark where Harrison Ford pulls out his gun and shoots the swordsman after showing off his sword skills, originally Ford was suppossed to have a long drawn out fight with the swordsman but he and the rest of the cast got food poisoning the day shooting began, so he just pulled out his gun and shot the swordsman (not literally) as a joke because he felt so sick and the director thought it was great and left it in the film

  4. It doesn’t surprise me at all that Ermey improvised his lines in Full Metal Jacket. He actually was a drill instructor in the Marine Corps. before becoming an actor.

  5. I just want to say that the drill sergeant scene in Full Metal Jacket is the single most amazing scene in cinema history.
    Not only unscripted scenes, but scripted as well.

  6. Taking the concept from another article and doing outside research and expanding on it in new and interesting ways can be powerful. Summarizing another article and calling it a new article is lazy. Your high school teachers would be dissapointed.

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