17 iconic movie lines that were totally improvised

It must be annoying – screenwriters spend years trying to perfect natural-sounding dialogue, only for some movie star to come along and make it all up on the spot.

Worse still, their random inclusion often becomes much more famous than anything else in the movie – and before you know it, people are printing it on the poster, wearing it on a T-shirt, and quoting it at parties.

Judging by this list, if you’re a screenwriter and you want any chance at all of having any of your lines becoming a classic – you’re much better off leaving the page blank.

1. “I’m king of the world” – Titanic (1997)

The most famous bit in James Cameron’s romantic disaster movie wasn’t even in the script. When the then-22-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio first climbed up to the front of the fake ship on set, he apparently threw his arms wide and shouted the line, presumably thinking about how famous he was about to become.

Most of the gaffers probably thought he was a bit of an idiot, but Cameron liked it so much that he wrote it into the film.

2. “Here’s Johnny!” – The Shining (1980)

Making a joke that most people don’t get anymore, Jack Nicholson improvised his now-famous line after director Stanley Kubrick made him do multiple takes with different lines of dialogue.

The line is actually a nod to the popular catchphrase used on the intro to the Johnny Carson Show, but viewers outside of America had no idea that Nicholson was referencing the show. Luckily, Nicholson’s terrifying movie version of the line has now become more famous in its own right.

3. “You talking to me?” – Taxi Driver (1976)

Genius though Paul Schrader is, his original screenplay for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver actually included a scene that just said, “Travis talks to himself in the mirror.”

Giving Robert De Niro free reign to improvise with his character, Scorsese watched as the scene took shape on set – with De Niro doing long takes in front of the mirror, gradually getting more unhinged before he finally got to the version used in the film.

4. “I know” – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Han Solo’s greatest, cockiest, moment was actually Harrison Ford’s. A year before he made up a whole scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark (shooting a goon instead of fighting him, apparently because he had diarrhoea on set), Ford decided that “I know” was way more Han Solo than “I love you too”, which was what was written in the script.

Given the real off-screen fling between Ford and Fisher, it’s a pretty ballsy thing to say.

5. “I am Iron Man” – Iron Man (2008)

Tony Stark’s catchphrase perfectly sums up his swagger – but it was all Robert Downey Jr’s doing.

Going off-script to invent the line, the ad-lib gave Marvel the confidence they needed to think outside the panels. “It inspired us to go further in trusting ourselves to find the balance of staying true to the comics and the spirit of the comics but not being afraid to adapt and evolve and to change things,” said Marvel head Kevin Feige.

In other words, Downey created the MCU.

6. “Mein Fuhrer, I can walk” – Dr Strangelove (1964)

As controlling as Kubrick was, a large part of Dr Strangelove was made up on the spot – mostly anytime Peter Sellers was on camera. Possibly confused by the multiple parts he was playing, possibly not confused at all, Sellers apparently stood up at the during the final scene because he forgot he was supposed to be playing a disabled character.

Thinking quick, he shouted his new line as a joke – which made the final cut, and cinema history.

7. “Thff thff thff thff thff thff” – The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)

In the script, Dr Hannibal Lecter gets his big moment when he tells agent Starling that he ate someone’s liver “with some fava beans and a nice Chianti”. That’s good, but it’s not as good as the weird hissing sound Hopkins follows it up with, turning a chilling moment into a classic.

The sucky lispy noise was actually something Hopkins made up on set to frighten Jodie Foster, and it was kept in the film when it got such a good reaction out of her.

8. “You hear that?” – Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Quentin Tarantino might be known for his dialogue, but one of his film’s most famous scenes was improvised by Michael Madsen.

In the script, Mr Blonde cuts the ear off the cop he’s got tied up in a warehouse, and then immediately starts setting him on fire. Madsen thought it would be funnier to mock his victim a bit first, goading the cop with “Hey what’s going on? You hear that?” before laughing like a psychopath.

Much funnier. Way, way darker.

9. “I’m walkin’ here!” – Midnight Cowboy (1969)

This one might be an ad-lib, but it also might not be. According to Dustin Hoffman, a real yellow cab almost ran him over during one New York street scene and he stayed in character, yelling “I’m walkin’ here!” as he banged on the hood.

According to director John Schlesinger though, the line was already in the script. Since Hoffman was method enough to stick a load of pebbles in his shoes to make sure he had a convincing limp, he probably deserves the credit anyway.

10. “Alright, alright, alright” – Dazed And Confused (1993)

Matthew McConaughey wasn’t even supposed to be in the scene that coined his catchphrase, but Richard Linklater put him in anyway without any notice – and without any lines.

Making stuff up as he went, McConaughey stole the line from something he once heard The Doors frontman, Jim Morrison, say. The scene was actually the first thing McConaughey ever filmed, so he didn’t do too badly for a newbie.

11. “Warriors, come out to play” – The Warriors (1979)

This one is only half an ad-lib. Legend has it that David Patrick Kelly picked up a few old glass bottles on set, stuck them on his fingers, and started randomly chanting the line that eventually became the film’s tagline.

“Walter [Hill] gives me credit for that. I found the bottles, but he says I did it all,” Kelly said recently. “I’ll take credit for the bottles and how I said it. But I remember him kicking in the lines.”

So it wasn’t in the script, it was made up on the spot, but it was actually the (very humble) Walter Hill who did the ad-libbing.

12. “Leave the gun, take the cannoli” – The Godfather (1972)

The line that introduced lardy Italian pastries to the rest of the world was actually improvised by actor Richard S Castellano. Playing mafia goon Clemenza alongside Tom Rosqui’s Rocco, Castellano remembered that the scene (shot separately) started with his on-screen wife shouting, “Don’t forget the cannoli”.

Adding the extra line as a joke, Francis Ford Coppola kept the whole thing in and laid the groundwork for every mob comedy that followed.

13. “I don’t want to go” – Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Possibly the most emotional moment in the MCU to date, Peter Parker’s lip-quivering coda in the arms of Tony Stark sold the whole horrific ending of Infinity War. Apparently just told to “act like you don’t want to go”, Tom Holland improvised the scene and made up his terrified last line.

14. “You’re going to need a bigger boat” – Jaws (1975)

The most famous Jaws line (that really should have been the tagline for The Meg) was originally an on-set in-joke about how tiny the production boat was.

Making fun of Steven Spielberg’s tiny budget, Roy Scheider had a running joke with the crew about how they couldn’t all fit in the little boat that ran alongside the one the actors were using. Throwing it out a few times in different scenes, just to make the cameraman laugh, one of the times he said it the line actually made a lot of sense, so Spielberg left it in.

15. “Here’s looking at you, kid” – Casablanca (1942)

Humphrey Bogart’s most famous line only really makes sense if you’re the kind of person who makes a lot of toasts. Thankfully, Bogart most definitely was, and he threw the line in at random after he practised it on Bergman off-camera (whilst teaching her to play poker).

In fact, quite a lot of Casablanca was cobbled together outside the script – with the film’s famous last line, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” dubbed in by Bogart after shooting had already wrapped.

16. “I’m funny how?” – Goodfellas (1990)

Joe Pesci’s infamous rant was actually based on something that really happened to him. Working as a waiter in a New York restaurant as a kid, Pesci once made the mistake of telling a notorious mobster that his joke was ‘funny’.

The scene in the movie, that Pesci improvised entirely with Ray Liotta, was apparently exactly how it went down in real life. Scary stuff.

17. “You can’t handle the truth!” – A Few Good Men (1992)

Another Jack Nicholson classic that wasn’t in the script, the line originally read, “You already have the truth!” which sounds boring even if you shout it in Nicholson’s gravelly tones.

Tweaking the line on the fly, Nicholson made it angrier, more pointed, and eminently more quotable, going on to become the best bit in Rob Reiner’s ’90s courtroom drama.

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