We all make mistakes, right? It’s just part and parcel of being human – to err is human, and all that. We can, at least, take solace from the fact that our mistakes don’t cost the movie you’re working multiples of thousands of dollars.
There are, however, some times where a mistake is not only kept in the movie, but also makes the movie better! Let’s explore some movie mistakes that made the movie better.
Tora! Tora! Tora! – a close-call for some stunt men
Tora! Tora! Tora!, released in 1970, is an epic war movie that dramatises the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
As the movie was released in the time before CGI, all stunts had to be done for real. This involved actual planes, actual ships, and actual explosions – though some camera trickery was, of course, used.
One such memorable scene from the movie involved a P-40 Warhawk crash landing into other planes, causing the nearby servicemen to flee.
This memorable scene – was also never supposed to happen.
During filming, the crew learned that one of the plane’s landing gears was jammed. Knowing that it would crash land, the pilot stayed in the air for as long as possible to burn up as much fuel as they could.
When the plane landed, it smashed into some replica planes, causing them to explode.
The people you see running away in the above clip were stuntmen. And they were genuinely running away for their lives.
Thankfully nobody was seriously injured in the sequence – though that’s incredible when you see one stuntman get almost crushed by a falling tank.
The filmmakers decided to keep the footage of the crash and included it in the finished cut of the movie.
Raiders of the Lost Ark – when Harrison Ford really couldn’t be bothered
Released in 1981, Stephen Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark would kick-start the epic franchise that is Indiana Jones.
The movie would also launch the Indiana Jones actor, Harrison Ford, into superstardom.
Jones was an archeologist; or at least how archeologists probably picture themselves as, who would travel the globe looking for rare treasures — while fighting Nazis along the way!
In one scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones was going to fight a muscle-bound henchman with a sword. That was the plan at least. The crew had been filming in 130 degrees temperatures in Tunisia for 6 weeks. The sword fight was supposed to be epic – it took a whole morning to shoot just three storyboards.
And then Harrison Ford came down with food poisoning!
Not willing to shoot a really long and elaborate sword fight, it was decided that it would be better if Jones used the gun he was having. And thus, one of the greatest scenes in cinematic history was born.
