Marvel StudiosThese days it’s not uncommon for film fans to begin to panic when a movie goes in for reshoots but did you know that some of the most iconic scenes in the history only came about because of reshoots.
While it may come as a surprise to many but films like many an art tend to evolve as the production goes on and this sometimes leads to great ideas being scrapped or changed dramatically.
From Darth Vader slaughtering rebels to Indiana Jones running to the loo rather than fighting a swordsman some of cinema’s greatest moments owe there existence to reshoots.
The good folks over at Digital Spy have put together a comprehensive list of reshoots but here’s a few of our favourites.
Avengers
While those of us in the UK may have gotten to see The Avengers assemble before our cousins across the pond, they got to see Earth’s mightiest heroes eating shawarma.
Yes the scene which began Marvel’s obsession with mid-credit scenes was a reshoot and was in fact filmed just two days after the film’s premiere so us early birds didn’t catch the worm on this one.
Rocky
The first Rocky’s heartbreaking ending was nearly very different with our plucky underdog actually winning his fight with Creed then crowdsurfing his way around the arena
Unfortunately for Stallone he didn’t have enough extras to carry him and they were forced to go for the more subdued, and arguably more effective ending, of Rocky losing the fight.
E.T. The Extraterrestrial
Considering that it would eventually become the logo for his production company, Amblin, it’s strange to think that the legendary lunar fly bye in E.T. nearly didn’t happen.
Initially E.T. wasn’t going to escape instead like poor ALF he was going to get caught by government agents and die.
Fortunately this didn’t test well with audiences so they elected to go for the happy ending we all know and love!
Rogue One
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHzquKS3PCU
It’s pretty well known that Rogue One went through some pretty extensive re-shoots following alleged studio dissatisfaction with the film’s first cut.
And while we’ll probably never see what the film looked like in it’s first draft we do know that the film’s thrilling climax, Vader’s massacre of the Rebel Alliance troops came about because of the re-shoots.
It’s a good thing too, we’re not saying that every film needs Darth Vader (It does) but it’s undeniable that the scene where his iconic red lightsaber’s activated is one of the film’s most memorable scenes.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
It goes without saying that one of the most iconic duels in the history of modern cinema is Indiana Jones’ fight with the swordsman in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
For those who haven’t seen it the scene basically exists to prove why you should never bring a sword to a gun fight, but did you know it very nearly didn’t make it into the film?
In the original draft Indy was supposed to have a climactic sword fight with the unnamed swordsman but unfortunately Harrison Ford was suffering from a poorly tum and had the runs.
Desperate to get to the loo Ford insisted that Spielberg and Lucas rewrite the scene so he could deal with pesky swordsman as quickly as possible and an iconic scene was born.
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
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