25 Classic Movie Lines That Weren’t In The Script

Believe it or not, some of the all-time most memorable lines of movie dialogue were completely unscripted. In fact, they often just randomly came to the actor or actress in question. And producers thought the ad-libs were so good that they ended up keeping it.

In all of the cases we present here, keeping the unscripted dialogue was a smart choice. All of these improvised movie lines became iconic, and made their films truly epic.

We’re Filming Here

During “Midnight Cowboy,” 1969, the film crew didn’t get a permit to close the street while filming. So, when a real cab driver pulled up next to Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight while filming, Hoffman screams “I’m walking here!” Which producers decided to keep.

Late Night Inspiration

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“Here’s Johnny!” was never in the script for the film “The Shining,” 1980. It was actually a genius improv by Jack Nicholson who was inspired by Ed McMahon’s introduction of Johnny Carson on the late night talk show.

Singing In The Rape

In “A Clockwork Orange,” 1971, Alex, played by Malcolm McDowell, starts singing “Singing in the Rain” during a horrible rape scene, which just popped into McDowell’s head, and was eventually kept so that the character Alexander could identify Alex at the end of movie.

Give Arnie A Break

The beat up T-800 protecting John and Sarah Connor in “Terminator 2 Judgment Day,” 1991, spat out the all too human line, “I need a vacation.” Actually, Arnold Schwarzenegger came up with that line based on the description of how his character looked in the scene.