Do you still buy the occasional DVD or Blu-Ray instead of just streaming everything? If so, you understand the sublime joy of extra features like the blooper real. After you watch a movie that takes you on an emotional rollercoaster from beginning to end, it can be some very fun catharsis to dive into reel after reel of actors messing up and making us laugh.
But did you know there are bloopers that aren’t really bloopers? That, there are times that actors make major mistakes…the kind that sometimes leave them scarred for life. But because the actors didn’t break during filming, the “blooper” made it into the final cut.
Still not sure what we’re talking about? Don’t worry…all you have to do is keep reading to discover film bloopers so perfect they were left in the movie!
Leonardo DiCaprio’s gruesome hand injury
We’re going to kick things off with one of the best modern examples of a gruesome blooper making it into the final cut of a movie. In Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, Leonardo DiCaprio plays against type as a virulent and powerful racist in the 19th century. The character eventually gets his comeuppance, but DiCaprio himself got injured before that could happen.
In a scene where he must give a speech about Black people being inferior, DiCaprio was tired…after all, this was the sixth take, and he was getting a bit annoyed. So annoyed, in fact, that he slammed his glass on the table, breaking it and bloodying his hand. Incredibly, DiCaprio kept going, and not only did this injury end up onscreen but the entire cast and crew applauded Leo once the scene was over!
The Wicked Witch really did catch on fire
Weirdly enough, The Wizard of Oz is more popular now than it has been in decades. The reason why is clear: the theatrical adaptation of the famous Broadway play Wicked has been tearing up the box office and generally making audiences more sympathetic to the Wicked Witch of the West. Of course, if you know much about the dangerous set of The Wizard of Oz, you might have already had plenty of sympathy for the original witch.
In that movie, Margaret Hamilton gave every scene a special flourish, including the scene where she terrorizes Munchkinland and then exists through a literal ball of fire. It turns out those flames were just as scary for her as they were for audiences because Hamilton received second- and third-degree burns from the flames. She spent weeks recovering from her injury and vowed to never work with fire again. This didn’t keep the scene from making the cut, and it has remained one of the most famous cinematic scenes ever since!
Gandalf bumping his head
Here’s a dorky confession: the Lord of the Rings films are the ultimate comfort movies for us. Because of that, we’ve watched Fellowship of the Ring countless times. Sure, the story is great and the acting is amazing, but we mostly love to vibe out with our favorite characters, like when Gandalf comes to visit Bilbo Baggins shortly before the Hobbit’s 111th birthday.
In this scene, Gandalf famously bumps his head on the rafters, which is an amazing bit of visual storytelling because it demonstrates just how small Bilbo and his Hobbit house really are. This wasn’t director Peter Jackson’s idea, though. Gandalf actor Ian McKellen really did bump his head into a rafter by accident, and Jackson (who famously has a weird sense of humor) thought it so funny that he left it in.
Daryl Hannah broke herself for this movie
While the sequel was surprisingly great, there has never been another film quite like the original Blade Runner. This sci-fi movie about renegade robots and the future cop chasing them down had plenty of things to say about identity and our sense of self. Of course, it also had killer action sequences, including when the titular Blade Runner played by Harrison Ford chases down a killer robot played by Daryl Hannah.
During this scene, her character slips on the pavement and smashes her elbow through a car window. This moment ironically humanizes her and helps sell her desperate flight from her would-be killer. But it wasn’t scripted…Hannah really did slip, and she ended up chipping her elbow in eight places. She soldiered on through the pain, though, and her injury ended up making it into the final cut!
Viggo Mortensen breaks a leg (okay, it was just a few toes)
Okay, we already admitted to being Lord of the Rings super nerds, so will you permit us one more example from this Peter Jackson’s fantasy trilogy? In the sequel film The Two Towers, there’s a scene where Viggo Mortensen’s Aragorn is frantically trying to rescue two Hobbits who have been kidnapped by orcs. He discovers a scene of carnage and assumes his friends are among the dead, causing the character to kick a helmet and then fall to the ground in apparent rage and grief.
That wasn’t rage or grief, though. It turns out that Mortensen broke a few toes by kicking that Uruk-hai helmet so hard. But the moment looked and felt so authentic that Jackson left it in the finished film, making for one of the most effective scenes in Tolkien cinematic history. We’ve always heard that great actors need to “break a leg,” but we’re just happy Mortensen was so committed to the role he didn’t mind sacrificing a few toes.