‘And I…Am…Iron Man’
Marvel Studios rewrote the rules on movie storytelling thanks to their sprawling decade-long film series that brought beloved superheroes to the big screen. It all started in 2008 with Iron Man, a surprise box office hit, considering the character had been mid-tier in the comics for decades. But Robert Downey Jr.’s signature take on the role helped catapult the Marvel Cinematic Universe through 20-plus films to Avengers: Endgame. So it was only fitting that he would be given one of the most iconic moments in the series…except it almost never was.
In the climax of Endgame, Thanos reiterates his “I am inevitable” line from Avengers: Infinity War. However, Iron Man has tricked the “Mad Titan” and at that moment says, “And I…am…Iron Man.” The line wasn’t in the original script for Endgame. So where did it come from? In the original scene Downey Jr. had no line there. He just snapped his fingers. The directors felt the scene was lacking. They brainstormed and someone said, “What if he says, ‘I am Iron Man?’,” a callback to the original Iron Man film. They immediately called Downey Jr. to do a reshoot to get it into the movie.
‘I Don’t Wanna Go’
Tony Stark’s heroic final line in Endgame isn’t the only Marvel Cinematic Universe representation on our list. In the prior Avengers film, 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland) delivers a devastating “I don’t wanna go” just as he’s erased from existence. As Holland explained in a 2019 interview, he originally wasn’t supposed to say the words out loud.
“… A technique I do if I’m trying to cry is I’ll say a phrase over and over again,… In that scene it was ‘I don’t wanna go,’ and I just thought I would say it out loud and it works. It’s really good in the film.”
‘What an Incredible Cinderella Story …’
Bill Murray’s “Cinderella Story” monologue in Caddyshack might be the film’s most famous moment… and it was completely ad-libbed. According to director Harold Ramis, “All it said in the script is: Carl is outside of the clubhouse practicing his golf swing, cutting the tops off flowers with a grass whip.
Murray has also spoken about the monologue, saying, “I was good back in those days. I could do something when they turned the camera on. I was wired into what I was talking about. Improvising about golf was easy for me. And it was fun. It wasn’t difficult to come up with stuff. And there was a great crowd of people there to entertain.”
‘Everyone Wants to be Us.’
Originally, Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly’s line in the climactic limo conversation in The Devil Wears Prada was meant to be “Everyone wants to be me.” However, Streep changed thin to Everyone wants to be us” to further the thematic idea that Anne Hathaway’s Andy was becoming just like Miranda.
‘Alright… Alright… Alright’
Matthew McConaughey’s iconic delivery of “alright… alright… alright” in Dazed and Confused was inspired by Jim Morrison’s stage banter on a live Doors album. According to he actor, the inspiration came to him between takes: “So right before we’re about to go I’m like, ‘What is Wooderson about?’ And I go, ‘He’s about four things: He’s about you, know, his car, he’s about gettin’ high, he’s about rock ‘n’ roll and pickin’ up chicks.’ I go, ‘I’m in my car, I’m high as a kite, I’m listenin’ to rock ‘n’ roll …’ Action … and there’s the chick. Alright, alright, alright … three out of four.”
‘Molly, You in Danger Girl’
While filming the hit supernatural romance Ghost, Whoopi Goldberg punched up the script to fit her persona. For example, she reworked a more straightforward line into the more “Whoopian” “Molly, you in danger girl!”
‘I Love Lamp’
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is arguably the most quotable move of the century so far, but one of it’s most repeated lines was in fact an ad-lib. According to Steve Carell, “[Director] Adam [McKay] was like, ‘We should have more lines for you, but we don’t have any on the page.’ He literally said ‘Just say something,’ and hence came ‘I ate a big red candle’ and ‘I love lamp. The ‘I love lamp’ thing was just me at the end of a scene staring at a lamp and I said ‘I love lamp’ and Will [Ferrell] picked up on it and said, ‘You’re just saying things you’re looking at.”Source: Dreamworks
‘Yippee-Ki-Yay BLEEP’
Bruce Willis’ iconic Die Hard line and catchphrase was slightly altered by the actor prior to filming. Screenwriter Steven E. de Souza told The Hollywood Reporter, “I wrote ‘Yippee-ki-yay, a–hole, but Bruce, on his final take, ad-libbed the ‘motherf—er,’ much to the amusement of the crew. The studio nervously left it in for the first test screening and the reaction made it permanent.”
‘I’m Totally Buggin’ Myself’
The ageless Paul Rudd delivered this line in 1995’s Clueless, but it wasn’t scripted. Rather, it was an improvised callback to Rudd’s costar Donald Faison. As Faison explained years later, “When you see us laughing at the end, we’re literally laughing for real because nobody expected him to say that. And how he said it. I think sometimes I would say, ‘I’m bugging.’ Not buggin’, bugging — ‘I’m bugging myself.’” Rudd himself added, “And then we kept trying to do different versions of it. Then we all couldn’t stop laughing for a little too long.”
‘Not You, I Don’t Even Know You’
According to an interview with actress Heather Matarazzo her iconic Princess Diaries line was ad-libbed at the suggestion of producer Debra Martin Chase. “Debra Martin Chase, who was one of the producers, was like, ‘Say something like, Not you, I don’t even know you.’ That was the kind of set, where it was just collaboration, and just wanting to make the best film possible, and a lot of laughs and a lot of love,” Matarazzo recalled.
‘Have Fun Storming the Castle!’
According to an interview with Billy Crystal, he improvised many of his lines during his appearance in he cult classic The Princess Bride. “We ad-libbed a lot of stuff: “Have fun storming the castle.” “Don’t go swimming for an hour — a good hour. There was a lot of really funny stuff that never made it into the movie.”
‘You Can’t Watch Meg Ryan for Two Hours and Not be Thinking about Another Girl’
