Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines
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Part of the joy of watching films is that the experience doesn’t necessarily end when the lights come back on. Often, we carry the characters, themes and images with us long after we leave the theatre – and that also goes for some of the best dialogue. Lines like “there’s no place like home”, “may the Force be with you”, and “I’ll be back!” have entered the cultural zeitgeist, to the point where even people who haven’t seen the movie in question will get the reference. Normally, such utterances are the creation of talented screenwriters, but some of the best-known lines of all time weren’t planned at all! Whether it was an unscripted improvisation, a happy accident or a last-minute stroke of inspiration, here are the greatest movie lines that were never meant to be spoken.

By Victoria Luxford

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines.
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“Here’s Johnny!” (The Shining, 1980) – It’s an iconic moment in the history of horror: crazed Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) hacking a door with an axe, then grinning through the hole and announcing himself to his terrified wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall). Improvised by Nicholson in the moment, the line was the catchphrase of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, the most popular late-night TV host in US history. The juxtaposition of this beloved TV show and the horrors unfolding at the Overlook Hotel created a chilling context that immortalised the line. It almost didn’t make the cut, however, as director Stanley Kubrick lived in England and didn’t understand the reference.

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines.
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“You’re gonna need a bigger boat” (Jaws, 1975) – Steven Spielberg’s breakthrough film is a classic, credited with creating what we now know as ‘the summer blockbuster’. However, the filming of the movie was a nightmare due to the water-based storyline and tight production budget. Disgruntled crewmembers were confined to small vessels for filming and regularly complained that they would “need a bigger boat” to achieve certain shots. Star Roy Scheider alluded to the on-set inside joke when he first met the infamous shark – and the rest is movie history!

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines.
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“I love you.”…”I know.” (Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, 1980) – As Han Solo (Harrison Ford) is frozen in carbonite in one of the most disheartening moments of the original Star Wars trilogy, the distraught Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) shouts, “I love you!” Ever the cavalier scoundrel, Solo replies bluntly, “I know.” The original line was intended to be “I love you, too”, but Ford was adamant that a character as tough as Solo would not display his feelings so openly. He instead improvised “I know”, much to the fury of Star Wars creator George Lucas. “You want your badasses to be a badass until the end,” Ford argued. Both lines were filmed, and test audiences reacted more positively to what is now one of the most comedic and romantic moments in sci-fi.

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines.
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“I am Iron Man!” (Iron Man, 2008) – Yes, really. The final line of the first Marvel Universe film, which changed the direction of Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr) character, was thought up on the spot by the actor himself. In the comic books, Iron Man hides his identity for years, but the ad-lib impressed Marvel boss Kevin Feige so much he kept it in the film. “That success inspired us to go further in trusting ourselves to find 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,” Feige told Deadline. Fittingly, it would also be his final line in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame.

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines.
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“Alright, alright, alright.” (Dazed and Confused, 1993) – The phrase that has followed actor Matthew McConaughey throughout his career came entirely from him in his first role. The Texas-born Oscar-winner was only meant to be on the set of Richard Linklater’s ‘70s comedy for a makeup test, but after seeing his look, the director offered him a role in the movie. Thrown by the offer, McConaughey took a walk to figure out who his character was and, according to his memoir Greenlighting, the three words came to him. He embraces the catchphrase, even saying it during his Oscar acceptance speech in 2014.

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines.
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“She talks in her sleep.” (Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, 1989) – In the third Indiana Jones film, Sean Connery’s character, Henry Jones Sr, joins his son on an adventure. Initially intended to be a dry academic, Connery wanted his role to be more debonair – and that included the implication that he had been ‘intimate’ with Indiana Jones’s (Harrison Ford) love interest, Elsa (Alison Doody). When it’s revealed that Elsa is a Nazi and that Henry had known this, Indy asks how he knew. Henry glibly replies, “She talks in her sleep.” The line was improvised by Connery, reportedly making the crew laugh so hard that it was kept in the film.

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines.
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“You talkin’ to me?” (Taxi Driver, 1976) – It’s a line frequently quoted among the all-time greatest movie moments, but in the script of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, there was no dialogue. The scene in which Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle tests out his gun and holster in the mirror only required the actor to pose like a cowboy and talk to himself – there was no dialogue specified. Forced to improvise, De Niro came up with one of the most memorable moments in film, as Bickle imagines being confronted by an invisible assailant, watching himself in the mirror as he pulls out the gun.

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines.
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“I love lamp.” (Anchorman, 2004) – It’s a silly line that delivers one of the biggest laughs in Will Ferrell’s early noughties hit. Steve Carell’s Brick, the dim-witted weatherman, tries to empathise with lovestruck Ron Burgundy (Ferrell) by saying he loves inanimate objects. On set, the line was an improvisation from Carell, who didn’t have many lines in the scene and was told by director Adam McKay to just say what came to him. What transpired was comedy gold, as Ferrell picked up on the joke and worked with it.

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines.
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“Here’s looking at you, kid.” (Casablanca, 1942) – While it’s remembered as one of the greatest films ever made, Casablanca’s road to the silver screen was anything but easy. The script was still being altered while filming was going on, meaning the actors had to improvise certain lines to make the scenes feel authentic. One such line was “Here’s looking at you, kid,” improvised earlier by Humphrey Bogart in a scene where his character, Rick, and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) are living in happier times, and again when they say goodbye for the final time. As both a callback to their history and an illustration of Rick’s hard-edged emotion, it’s timeless.

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines.
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“Funny how?” (Goodfellas, 1990) – Fans of the crime classic Goodfellas will know how unbearably tense this sequence is, where mobster Tommy (Joe Pesci) pretends to be offended by Henry (Ray Liotta) calling him funny. The scene was improvised, based on an experience Pesci had with a real mobster in his younger years. It illustrates perfectly the character of Tommy, a volatile loose cannon whose temper may derail a situation at any moment.

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines.
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“Hmmm hmmm!” (The Wolf of Wall Street, 2013) – Not content with “alright, alright, alright”, Matthew McConaughey made another iconic Hollywood moment in dark comedy The Wolf of Wall Street. In the scene, his character is a mentor to Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort, offering him some unusual tips for success. This concludes in a bizarre chant, involving humming and beating his chest, that was absolutely not in the script. The moment catches DiCaprio by surprise, and Belfort’s glances around the room are really the actor looking to the director for approval – or help!

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines.
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“I’m the king of the world!” (Titanic, 1997) – Years earlier, DiCaprio had improvised his own masterpiece in James Cameron’s record-breaking film, Titanic. When his character, Jack Dawson, having won a ticket to finally go home to America, is at the bow of the ship enjoying the view and dreaming of his future, he declares, “I’m the king of the world!” Even Cameron was impressed, quoting the line when the film won Best Picture at the 1998 Oscars. Fun fact: it’s one of several improvisations in the film, including the moment where Kate Winslet’s character, Rose, spits in the face of her former fiancée (Billy Zane).

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines.
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“Oh, look at that. I’ve been impaled!” (Frozen, 2013) – One of the standout performers of this Disney hit was Josh Gad as Olaf, a snowman who isn’t entirely aware of his own fragility. His cheerful nature is summed up hilariously when an icicle runs through him and he brightly exclaims, “Oh, look at that. I’ve been impaled!” In the recording studio, Gad was allowed to come up with funny things to say on the spot, and the filmmakers loved this particular line so much, they animated around it to make the joke work!.

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines.
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“I’m hearing this – and I want to hear this.” (The Devil Wears Prada, 2006) – This comedy about the cutthroat world of fashion is a goldmine of clever, caustic lines (“Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking.”), but there’s one that you won’t find in the original script: Emily Blunt’s spiteful character, also named Emily, tells underling Andy (Anne Hathaway), “I’m hearing this”, as she mimics a talking mouth with her hand, “and I want to hear this,” closing her hand like a clam. While it could very well have been a part of the devilish screenplay, Blunt later revealed that she stole the line from a mother in a supermarket who was scolding her child!

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines.
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“I don’t want to go!” (Avengers: Infinity War, 2018) – Downey Jr’s Iron Man was also present for another iconic Marvel line, but this time one of the most heartbreaking of the series. In Avengers: Infinity War, the evil Thanos (Josh Brolin) succeeds in his quest to disintegrate half the world’s population, including poor Peter Parker/Spider-man (Tom Holland). Distraught, he turns to his father figure Tony Stark/Iron Man (Downey), revealing his fear at his moment of death. Behind the scenes, Holland revealed to GQ that the line, which is repeated, came from a rehearsal technique where he repeats an emotional line as a means of getting emotional. They used it for the film, and the results are harrowing.

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines.
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The Scream (Home Alone, 1990) – The Christmas classic Home Alone relies greatly on the charisma of Macaulay Culkin, the eight-year-old star playing a boy who is accidentally left behind when his family goes on vacation. In one scene, as he’s talking to himself and recounting his grown-up grooming routine, he applies aftershave to his freshly shaven face – and immediately screams. The scene, which became a selling point of the movie, didn’t happen entirely to plan. Culkin was meant to slap the aftershave on and recoil with a slight scream. Keeping his hands on his face and prolonging the scream was his idea, and made the shot much funnier.

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines.
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“I didn’t know you could read.” (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 2002) – Another youngster who relied on his own initiative is Tom Felton, who played Harry Potter’s sinister school rival, Draco Malfoy. In one charming moment in The Chamber of Secrets, Draco asks where one of his friends/henchmen had been and why he was wearing glasses. The boy meekly replies, “reading”, to which Draco genuinely declares, “I didn’t know you could read.” The line wasn’t in the script, but rather the result of Felton forgetting his real line in the moment – and coming up with something better!

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines.
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“Make like a tree… and get out of here.” (Back to the Future, 1985) – While Marty McFly is the hero of every era in the Back to the Future series, he meets a continuous villain in egotistical bully Biff Tannen (Thomas F Wilson). In reality, Wilson is a seasoned comedy actor with a lot of training in improv, and he was behind a lot of what made the character of Biff so beloved. In one scene, he tries to be menacing to Marty by using the old quip “make like a tree and leave,” but instead mangles the wisecrack and says, “Make like a tree… and get out of here.” This line perfectly sums up the idiocy of the school bully, but it was thought up on the spot by Wilson, making it a trait of the character for years to come as it was referenced in the sequels.

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines.
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“I’m Batman.” (Batman, 1989) – This line has become synonymous with the character, as he announces himself to terrified criminals in the back streets of Gotham City. It was first used by Michael Keaton in Tim Burton’s hit film, which imagined a darker image of the Caped Crusader than had previously been shown on screen. In the scene, a crook asks the hero, “what are you?” Keaton was meant to say either “I am the night!” or “I am vengeance!” but neither was working particularly well, leading Keaton to improvise, “I’m Batman!” and provide a perfect introduction. The actor has used the line in interviews, university commencement speeches, and again as Batman in 2023’s The Flash.

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines.
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“Bond. James Bond.” (Dr. No, 1962) – Finally, we return to Connery in a line that even the most seasoned film fans may not realise was made up. Almost everyone with a passing interest in James Bond films has tried the infamous “the name’s Bond, James Bond” in the mirror, with friends, or in their head. However, the line itself came from the late actor, who was meant to say simply, “My name is James Bond.” The delivery became so iconic that every actor to play James Bond since has had to deliver the line. Connery struggled with the role, eventually resenting being typecast by it and locked into a role that he felt didn’t showcase his acting range. However, his work undoubtedly shaped the character that endures to this day.

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Off The Top Of Your Head: The Best Improvised Movie Lines

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