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Like Tears In The Rain: The 25 Greatest Unscripted Movie Moments

By Joanna Robinson | Posted Under Videos | Comments (46)

Tears In The Rain.gif

As I asked earlier today whether or not you cared if our beautiful celebrities are smart, it occurred to me, this video right here is one of the reasons I care. Because acting is an art and not a brainless one and these 25 Unscripted Moments include some of my favorite scenes in all of film history. Many you know, some might be a surprise. Enjoy the video but beware, here be some volatile Drill Sergeant *%$##@ #$@!&*s .

Listen, I’m not saying acting is rocket science, but you should be at least clever in order to pull off a great performance, not to mention a great improvisation. (Always excepting our dear Penny Lane.) Because, forgive me some petty Pretty People Bashing, if a taxi careened into Megan Fox’s shot, I feel like she would either be pancaked or frozen in a Super Pretty Deer In The Headlights sort of way. It’s rather telling, though, isn’t it, that some of the best improvisers in that video (Hoffman, Murray, Rogen, Ermey) are, shall we say, more talented than beautiful? So what’s the point? The point, Hollywood, is I wish you would praise brains over beauty a bit more often. Look at the movie magic that can happen when you do.

Video courtesy of Mewlists and, jinkies, it’s a month old, so you may have already seen it. I also watched their 50 Trippiest Drug Hallucinations video this morning and the Pink Elephants are still with me.









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Comments

+5 to Hufflepuff for the Scooby Doo reference....dunno why, you just strike me as a Hufflepuff kinda gal. :-)

Posted by: NateS1973 at August 15, 2011 4:06 PM

The line-up from The Usual Suspects is one of my all time favorite scenes from a movie. Great compilation.

Posted by: beckster at August 15, 2011 4:31 PM

Moving gifs? Mighty fancy, 'jiba.

Posted by: twig at August 15, 2011 4:44 PM

Funny thing: there are only two movies in which I can stomach Robin Williams, Good Will Hunting is one of them. And that scene is one that I always felt didn't belong in GWH. Now I learn Williams couldn't resist doing his usual spontaneous crap. Some people really shouldn't be allowed to ad lib.

Posted by: PaddyDog at August 15, 2011 5:05 PM

Jaws is one of my favorite films of all time. I love the scene in the movie where Richard Dreyfuss's character comes over to Chief Brody's house and they are having dinner, it is so organic and well done.

Posted by: daria at August 15, 2011 5:31 PM

I had forgotten how funny that scene was in The Usual Suspects.

And back in the 80s, I would have paid Rutger Hauer to have sex with me. Rowrrr!

Posted by: snapnhiss at August 15, 2011 5:38 PM

If Ermey really did ad-lib all of his dialog, I'm going to name my first born son after him.

Posted by: admin at August 15, 2011 5:39 PM

Hell to the yeah

Posted by: Protoguy at August 15, 2011 5:40 PM

While I do think it's a great piece of improv, Ermeys performance in Full Metal Jacket likely wasn't much of a stretch for him, as he was in the Marines for 11 years and rose to Staff Sergeant before becoming an actor.

Posted by: Groundloop at August 15, 2011 5:54 PM

I can't stop staring at that GIF. Very nice.

Posted by: John G. at August 15, 2011 6:00 PM

I'd like to nominate:

1. Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart in the drunk scene from The Philadephia Story.

2. Every movie Christopher Guest has ever made.

Posted by: BWeaves at August 15, 2011 6:16 PM

I nominate the "Mouth of Truth" scene from Roman Holiday. Gregory Peck told the director he was going to act like his hand had really been taken off, but Audrey Hepburn had no idea, hence he very convincing reaction to his screams.

Posted by: Remus at August 15, 2011 7:00 PM

Yeesh... normally I'm SUCH a lurker but I must say that this is missing the all-time greatest improvised line in film during Spencer Tracy's speech in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?: "If it’s half of what we felt, that’s everything."

Those tears on Katherine Hepburn's face are genuine. Sigh. That's beautiful, folks.

The GIF is pretty cool though.

Posted by: sweetfrancaise at August 15, 2011 7:09 PM

Uhmm, Wheres Indy and the swordsman?

Posted by: Tom at August 15, 2011 8:41 PM

B Weaves I started to mention Cookie Googleman, then I went to Jane Lynch, and I realized all Christopher Guests stuff needs to be on this list.

Also, speaking of Jane Lynch, much of her in the electronics store stuff was improvised (beautifully) in 40 Year Old Virgin. Amazing.

Posted by: klingonfree at August 15, 2011 9:01 PM

Is this shit even in English? Proofread yo.

Posted by: chuck at August 15, 2011 9:53 PM

"Warrrrriorrrrrs, come out and play-yay!!!" clink clink clink.

Holy crap, I still hear that line in my sleep - that was improvised?! That actor can die knowing he's a hero.

~~~

Posted by: Meander at August 15, 2011 10:21 PM

This list was great, but what about the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indiana shoots the dude with the giant sword??? Harrson Ford had dysentery and didn't want to bother with the whole fight. That will always be my #1 favorite improvised scene of all time.

Posted by: JeromeEugeneMorrow at August 15, 2011 11:34 PM

One of my favorite examples of this comes from the distinctly average The Patriot - seen here - where Jason Isaacs' British colonel confronts Mel Gibson when Gibson comes to exchange prisoners. Isaacs taunts Gibson, having killed Gibson's younger son earlier in the film, and Gibson comes over and quietly says "Before this war is over, I'm going to kill you."

Now, what was in the script was that Isaacs was supposed to cower like a chicken-villain type. But Isaacs went to Roland Emmerich and said "look, my character thinks he's going to win. He wouldn't act like a coward just because Mel Gibson says boo." And Emmerich agreed, so they did the line change - without telling Gibson in advance. Gibson's reaction to the line is entirely improvised, and it's really something.

Short short version: Jason Isaacs is a badass.

Posted by: mightygodking at August 15, 2011 11:34 PM

I don't think Christopher Guest movies are eligible, since they're unscripted to begin with.

And I would have it known that I have the common courtesy...

Posted by: Jerry at August 15, 2011 11:35 PM

Rutger Hauer made that up on the spot?

Jesus.

Posted by: , at August 15, 2011 11:42 PM

Admin, I know Gunney made up the entire drill sergeant speech as he was a Marine Corp Drill Sergeant. I think all of his lines in the movie were improvised as he wasn't an actor and was hired on the film as a military consultant. He was hired to replace the original actor on the spot.

Posted by: Melody at August 16, 2011 12:08 AM

'not in the script' doesn't necessarily mean the actor made it up as the camera was rolling. Plenty of people could have said' Hey, you know what would be a good line here?' during filming.

And Ermey was just reciting a couple of fairly common Boot Camp 'make 'em feel like shit' lines.

Posted by: Wembley at August 16, 2011 12:24 AM

The whole lifting the boom box over his head in the rain was John Cusack's improvisation on the spot. Or so I hear.

Posted by: Lindsey with an 'e' at August 16, 2011 12:31 AM

Damn, that made me want to watch "The Godfather" all over again.

Posted by: Tecuya at August 16, 2011 12:52 AM

I dunno if it's actually true that Rutger Hauer improvised "like tears in the rain", even if it wasn't scripted. This book says "Rutger Hauer was happy to be allowed to improve some of his dialogue, a privilege that resulted in his wonderful closing line about memories and their being 'lost in time, like tears in the rain.'" I think they may have talked about this on one of the special features of the DVD, though I'm not sure.

Posted by: Jesse M. at August 16, 2011 1:14 AM

heehee...he said "reach around." Brilliant.

Posted by: wsapnin at August 16, 2011 1:38 AM

Robert De Niro and Juliette Lewis in Cape Fear please!

Posted by: E at August 16, 2011 2:19 AM

Dog Day Afternoon- John Cazale

"So what country you want to go to?"
"Wyoming"

Posted by: Mish Mumkin at August 16, 2011 3:15 AM

"Those tears on Katherine Hepburn's face are genuine. Sigh. That's beautiful, folks."

According to the list provided, pretty much only dudes can improvise well.

Posted by: samantha t at August 16, 2011 10:02 AM

Should have had Mr. Jones saying "I don't care" why you killed you wife, to Mr. Ford in "The Fugitive". That bit of unscript was so good that they added it to the script in a later scene.

Posted by: FillOaks at August 16, 2011 11:30 AM

I think Ermey also improvised his line in Se7en when he picked up the ringing phone and said, "This is not even my desk." and hung up.

Posted by: Paultera at August 16, 2011 11:47 AM

It's "tears in rain". No "the". Now stop before I thwack you all.

Posted by: Jay at August 16, 2011 11:50 AM

Great list. Want more.

Posted by: Odnon. at August 16, 2011 2:18 PM

Jay, it's hard to tell, look at the clip here, it definitely sounds like there's some kind of syllable between "in" and "rain", even if it could be just like his tongue clicking against the roof of his mouth accidentally or something. But I interpret it as "in the rain".

Posted by: Jesse M. at August 16, 2011 3:50 PM

It's "tears in rain". With a full, audible, glottal stop.

Posted by: Young_Grandma_Ben at August 16, 2011 5:00 PM

But in ordinary speech people often replace short words like "the" and "to" with little sounds that aren't that close to the actual word...I don't know why he'd have put a glottal stop there if it wasn't an under-pronounced "the", though of course it's possible he just had to swallow a little or something.

Posted by: Jesse M. at August 16, 2011 6:04 PM

Monty Python: Meaning of Life

"I didn't even eat the mousse."

Michael Palin's adlib.

Posted by: bacchic_frenzy at August 16, 2011 9:15 PM

Jesse, you make an excellent point. Maybe he had a mouthful of water from the rain machine?

What trips my trigger is that we're even discussing it. Fuck me, but I do love being a geek!

Posted by: Young_Grandma_Ben at August 16, 2011 9:57 PM

Say what you want, JRob, I'm giving myself credit for this article because I posted this, according to Facebook at the time of this posting, 18 hours ago. *preens* (Yes, I'm totally ignoring the possible fact that we may follow the same people on Tumblr. TOTALLY IGNORING THIS POSSIBLE FACT.)

Posted by: duckandcover at August 17, 2011 1:39 AM

That scene from Full Metal Jacket has got to be one of the greatest ever. Right next to the opening scene of The Godfather and the "how the F*** am I funny" scene from Goodfellas.

Posted by: John W at August 17, 2011 1:04 PM

Yeah those scenes from Full Metal Jacket and Knocked Up would be great improvisational moment if they weren't homophobic rants. As a gay person the first time I saw that scene in Full Metal Jacket I wanted to throw up. It was also a blast to be sliding down deeper and deeper into my chair during Knocked up as I heard hundreds of people laughing their asses off at the idea that the lamer the action the more gay that makes the dude who does it -- awesome concept, yep, hilarious genius.

Posted by: anonymous at August 21, 2011 9:46 PM

Do you want to know how I know you're gay? Because you just told us.

Anyways, those scenes are great so please shut the fuck up.

Posted by: A Guy. at August 21, 2011 10:59 PM

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Posted by: paleo diet at August 24, 2011 5:05 PM

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Posted by: Antigua Resort at August 24, 2011 5:22 PM

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Posted by: align rc at September 28, 2011 8:48 PM