In the scene where Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones was chasing Marion Ravenwood and runs into a bad guy, he was supposed to take him down in a long drawn-out fight. However, Ford had a cold and didn’t want a long fight scene. So, he pulled out his gun and took him down in one shot, becoming a very memorable scene in the film.
The film was the first film in the Indiana Jones film franchise. Harrison Ford plays archaeologist Indiana Jones, who fights a group of Nazis searching for the Ark of the Covenant. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards in 1982.
Blade Runner
One of the most iconic scenes in movie history ironically didn't involve the star of this film, Harrison Ford. Actually, Rutger Hauer who played Roy Batty, the enemy of the film, performed a monologue known as the “Tears of Rain” speech, which he largely improvised.
The monologue was improvised by Hauer the night before filming and is frequently quoted. The film has since influenced many other science fiction films, video games, anime, and television series and has made Philip K. Dick’s work famous.
Jaws
In this Steven Spielberg classic, Roy Scheider plays Chief Martin Brody. While warning his partners aboard the ship he improvised his line “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” The film tells the story of a man-eating great white shark which attacks beach visitors on Amity Island, a fictional resort town.
Chief Martin Brody comes to hunt it along with marine biologist, Richard Dreyfuss, and a professional shark hunter, Robert Shaw. The line is today considered one of the most famous lines in cinema history. Jaws of course went on to win multiple Academy Awards.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Gene Wilder added a lot to this classic, there were many lines that weren’t originally in the script. He agreed to star in the film under the condition that he could decide how he made his grand entrance. He chose to enter limping with a cane and then drop the cane and somersault. His reasoning?
“From that time on, no one will know if I’m lying or telling the truth,” Wilder received a nomination for a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score.
RoboCop
Improvisations can have a great impact on other characters, as they don’t know what’s coming. When Kurtwood Smith’s character, Clarence Boddicker, is taken into custody, to other actors’ surprise, he says the line “Give me my f***in’ phone call!” The actors were shocked, which is exactly the effect that Smith and director Paul Verhoeven aspired for.
The movie takes place in crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future. Police officer Alex Murphy, played by Peter Weller, is murdered by a gang of criminals and later revived by the megacorporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) as a superhuman cyborg law enforcer known as RoboCop.