From Sex Scenes Gone Wrong To Disarming A Gunman On Set – 15 Behind The Scenes Moments From Major Movies That Range From Funny To Kinda Terrifying

"If anyone is ever planning on having sex on top of a pile of cash: don't."

Although we usually get a clean, finished product, the making of movies is often full of bumps in the road, sticky situations, and unfortunate mishaps.

Disney+

Here are 15 unfortunate mistakes and chaotic filming processes from major movies:

1. The Hateful Eight

The Weinstein Company

What happened on the set of The Hateful Eight was a very costly mistake, and it actually made it into the final cut. In the scene where Kurt Russell's character destroys a guitar, it turns out that he actually destroyed an antique Martin from the 1860s. The guitar was loaned to the movie from the Martin Museum, and worth $40,000, but also what the museum director called a "priceless, irreplaceable artefact."

Jennifer Jason Leigh, who had been practising with the guitar said that she thought they were supposed to be swapping it out with a dummy one. She also said that Kurt and director Quentin Tarantino must have thought they'd already switched out the priceless artefact. Jennifer talked about Kurt's reaction: "Kurt felt terrible; he had no idea. When he found out, his eyes literally welled up."

The director of the museum, Dick Boak, said how they were devastated, saying: "We’ve been remunerated for the insurance value, but it’s not about the money. It’s about the preservation of American musical history and heritage.” He went on to add that the museum wouldn't be loaning out any of its guitars for film productions from then on.

You can see the scene, and her genuine reaction here:

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2. Superbad

Sony Pictures Releasing

If you've ever watched a sex scene in a movie with your parents in the room, this is far worse. During the filming of Superbad, Christopher Mintz-Plasse was only 17 years old. This meant that when it came to shooting his sex scene, it was a requirement for his mum to be there watching. 

On the experience of doing the scene, Chris had this to say: 

"Yeah, it’s definitely uncomfortable – at the time, I was actually a virgin, so I had no idea what I was doing. I was very nervous, very scared, and then I look over to Video Village [the nickname given to the area around the monitor on set] and my mum is eating a handful of popcorn, talking to the producers.”

Watch the scene here:

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3. Rocky IV

United International Pictures

During the shooting of Rocky IV, Sylvester Stallone wanted to get an air of realism for the fight scenes. He thus decided to instruct Dolph Lundgren, who played his adversary, Ivan Drago, to "just go out there and try to clock me, for the first minute of the fight, it is going to be a free-for-all.”

So Dolph did indeed try to "clock" him and ended up landing a punch that hospitalised Sylvester. Looking back at the footage, Sylvester thought it was one particular uppercut that hit I'm in the ribs and pushed it against his heart. The blow kept him in the ICU for nine days. 

Speaking about the incident, Dolph joked “All I did was obey orders. He was the boss. I did what he told me. We came back to L.A. and the producer was like, ‘Hey Dolph, you’ve got two weeks off — Sly’s in the hospital.'”

4. Goodfellas

Warner Bros.

Another on-set injury that led to a trip to the hospital happened to Michael Imperioli while they were shooting Goodfellas, but there was somewhat of a mix-up when he arrived at the hospital. 

It was the scene where his character, Spider, was shot by Tommy (played by Joe Pesci) and goes flying back into the bar with bullet wounds in him. After refusing a stunt double, Michael flung himself back, hitting the bar, but the glass he was holding smashed and sliced through his fingers. 

A production assistant drove him to the hospital, where the nurses saw all the makeup and instantly got the wrong idea, as he explained:

“Three bullet holes in my chest and it’s Queens, New York. They think I’m about to die, they think I’m delirious, talking about Robert De Niro. So, they put me on a stretcher, wheel me into trauma, and I’m telling them what’s happening. They won’t listen to me.”

The hospital staff finally saw all the packs of fake blood and realised he wasn't babbling, and he really did just cut his fingers.

Here's the scene:

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5. Titanic

20th Century Fox

There were a number of problems that cropped up during the filming of Titanic, the freezing water and trying filming conditions are well-known – Kate Winslet actually got hypothermia from the water. 

There was another unique incident that occurred while they were filming, however, when a pot of chowder for the crew was spiked with PCP. The hallucinogenic drug sent many of the workers into somewhat of a frenzy, resulting in a large amount of them being taken to the hospital. 

Director James Cameron recalled the events: "People are moaning and crying, wailing, collapsed on tables and gurneys. The DP, Caleb Deschanel, is leading a number of crew down the hall in a highly vocal conga line. You can’t make this stuff up.”

6. The Wolf of Wall Street

Universal Pictures

We already know that sex scenes aren't as glamorous as they look, and the discomfort Margot Robbie felt when filming the infamous sex on a pile of cash scene certainly fits into that category:

"When I got up off the bed, I turned around to get my robe and everyone gasped. "I said: 'What is it?' And they said: 'You look like you've been whipped a million times. Your back is covered in a thousand red scratches.'"

She explained what had happened, saying: "I got a million paper cuts on my back from all that money! It's not as glamorous as it sounds. If anyone is ever planning on having sex on top of a pile of cash: don't."

7. Apocolypse Now

United Artists

The shooting of this movie was so chaotic that they made another whole film about it called Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. Not only did the filming location change last minute, but Francis Ford Coppola was firing people, including his lead, all the time. 

The helicopters they'd borrowed kept being recalled by President Marcos for his own war against anti-government rebels, and the cast and crew were coming down with a number of tropical diseases. At one point a typhoon hit and production was shut down. 

They also decided to use two dead bodies for authenticity, which they got from someone who supplied them to medical students, but they didn't realise he was a graverobber. Co-producer Gray Frederickson (who wasn't part of this plan) explained what happened: "The police showed up on our set and took all of our passports. They didn't know we hadn't killed these people because the bodies were unidentified." 

Essentially, the filming of this movie was an almost complete list of 'things that could go wrong' – we haven't even mentioned Marlon Brando turning up looking completely different to what Francis had envisioned. Nor Martin Sheen having a heart attack and Francis's epileptic seizure. 

On the production, actor Dennis Hopper said: "We had access to too much money and little by little we went insane. Ask anybody who was out there, we all felt like we fought the war."

8. Jaws 2

Universal Pictures

It's clear that films like Jaws and Jaws 2 get their fear factor from clever shooting and editing – the filming process wouldn't be anywhere near as scary. Marc Girplin, who played Sean in Jaws 2, however, revealed a rather terrifying story about when they were filming. 

The crew had taken them out on a raft, tied the raft down, and then proceeded to drive the barge further away, in order to get the right shot of them all alone in the ocean. Well, when the team had gotten really far away, the cast, who were all alone on that raft, saw an actual fin circling them – Marc said they were being circled by a 15-foot hammerhead shark. 

The somewhat annoying coincidence was that the shot they were supposed to be filming called for them to scream out "hey there's a shark, there's a shark" and look distressed. So the crew were miming and shouting "that's great keep going," while everyone was genuinely terrified.

9. Maps to the Stars

Entertainment One Films

On-screen sex scenes are extremely stylised, but the filming of such scenes isn't always as smooth as they seem. Robert Pattinson discovered the uncomfortable nature of these shoots when he and Julianne Moore were filming their sex scene in Maps To The Stars. 

Robert explained that the heat, and his propensity to sweat, made his costar think he was unwell: 

"It was the first time I’d met Julianne as well. It was so hot in Toronto and she’s one of these people – she doesn’t sweat at all! But I sweat like a f**king crazy person. I was trying to literally catch drops of sweat to stop them hitting her back."

He went on to say that, when they were done, she asked him if he was having. a panic attack.

Here's the scene in question:

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10. Life During Wartime

IFC Films

On the subject of sex scenes, Allison Janney recalled how the shooting of her first-ever sex scene didn't go as planned at all. It was for the film Life During Wartime with actor Michael Lerner. She explained exactly what went wrong in an interview with People: 

“We had to have sex up against a wall and they started spraying us with glistening stuff to make us look sweaty, but no one seemed to realise that we were standing on a marble floor.

They said action and he pulled me up against the wall and his feet slipped out from under him and he went crashing down on the floor.”

Luckily no one was hurt, but she did say it had the whole set laughing for an hour or so. 

11. The Princess Bride

20th Century Fox

Cary Elwes suffered a slew of mishaps during the filming of The Princess Bride, one of which made it into the final cut. It was the scene where Rugen, played by Christopher Guest, knocks Westley out so he can capture him and bring Buttercup back.

Apparently, Christopher wasn't hitting Cary hard enough to get a proper reaction, so Cary suggested that he hit him harder. The resulting blow knocked Cary out clean. "I woke up in the emergency room, still in costume, to the frightening sound of stitches being sewn into my skull," he remembered. 

Cary also got into another accident while messing around on Andre the Giant's ATV in between shoots, which ended up breaking his toe. Cary added to his list of injuries when he was later bitten by a Rattlesnake... 

12. The Passion of the Christ

Icon Productions

This movie garnered its fair share of criticism, with many saying it was blasphemous. With what happened during filming, some could have argued that a higher power was also expressing its disapproval. During the filming process, there were three incidents of lightning striking the cast and crew!

Jim Caviezel, who portrayed Jesus, was struck, and assistant director Jan Michelini was actually struck twice. Speaking about one of the incidents, producer Steve McEveety said: 

”I’m about a hundred feet away from them when I glance over and see lightning coming out of Caviezel’s ears. Both Caviezel and Michelini got struck. The main bolt hit Caviezel and one of its forks hit Michelini’s umbrella." 

Steve also mentioned that Jan had actually been struck months earlier when he, again, was holding an umbrella. I guess this just reiterates the advice to not hold up an umbrella during a lightning storm?

13. Another Time, Another Place

Paramount Pictures

One bizarre, and frankly quite worrying incident happened on the set of Another Time, Another Place. The film starred Sean Connery and Lana Turner, and their characters engage in an affair. This subject matter didn't sit right win Lana's then-boyfriend, a gangster named Johnny Stompanato. 

One day when they were shooting, a jealous Stompanato reportedly came onto set with a gun, pointing it at Sean and telling him to get away from his girlfriend. According to reports, Sean grabbed the man's hand and twisted the gun out of his hold. 

Apparently, Lana called Scotland Yard, and Johnny was deported for breaking gun laws – but the story didn't end there. The couple's relationship would come to a brutal end when, after hearing threats and shouting from their room, Lana's teenage daughter killed Johnny while defending her mother. 

14. Blade: Trinity

New Line Cinema

For the movie, Jessica Biel actually did all her own archery work, practising hard to really master the sport. Well, all that practice clearly paid off as she became pretty handy with the bow. There was, however, one costly moment that her skill led to when shooting one particular scene. 

In the scene, Jessica was shooting an arrow towards a camera. They'd taken precautions to protect that crew and the camera itself, by blocking off everything apart from a little two-by-two square just in front of the lens. Well, as it happens, Jessica actually hit that tiny target from 40 feet away, embedding the arrow six inches into the camera, destroying the $300,000 piece of equipment. 

Here's the moment it happened, and her reaction to it:

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15. The Abyss

20th Century Fox

The filming of this movie was unbelievably stressful and put a lot of (literal) pressure on the cast and crew. Around 40% of the principal photography was shot underwater, so there was always an element of danger to the process. 

The director, James Cameron, had a near-death experience when he was at the bottom of the filming tank without oxygen. While he was trying to surface, another diver offered him a breathing apparatus. The equipment was faulty and he was inhaling water instead. The diver pulled him close, thinking he was helping James, so James had to punch the other diver in the face to get away to safety.

Ed Harris who was acting in the film said he once burst into tears on the way home. He said, “we were guinea pigs, in a way; Jim wasn’t quite sure how this was all gonna go down.”

What's the wildest behind the scenes story you've heard? Let us know in the comments below!