8 Iconic Movie Scenes We Almost Didn’t Get To See

Hey, did you know that making movies is hard? Sitting in the theater, we don’t see all the intricacies and tiny details that went into shooting this or that scene, and most of the time it takes hours if not days to properly coordinate a complex scene or a stunt. And it doesn’t always work out in the end. Sometimes you just gotta delete a scene or two. But hey, that’s why we have Directors’ Cuts, right?

Here are 8 iconic movie scenes we almost didn’t get to see.

1. Iron Man 3 (2013)
The breath-taking scene of Iron Man rescuing people from the plane, aka “Barrel O’ Monkeys”, was shot using practical effects! Initially it was going to be 100% CGI, but thanks to the Red Bull Skydiving Team, who figured a way to do this scene without any green screens, we got to witness what could probably be the most dangerous stunt ever performed.

2. X-Men: First Class (2011)
Remember when Charles and Eric were gathering the new mutants and came across this lovely exotic dancer named Angel? Yeah, well, what you might not remember is the deleted scene, where Charles plays a mind trick on Angel and makes her see Eric wearing a dress. That’s right, Michael Fassbender actually wore a wig and a dress. Sadly, we didn’t get to see this in the theaters.

3. It (2017)
What would happen if the nigh-omnipotent Pennywise didn’t drag little Georgie into the sewers? Turns out Andrés Muschietti decided to make it happen. That’s right, in the alternative opening version, Georgie snags the paper boat and says “see you later” to the poor, confused clown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqJxWe52_sg

4. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
After learning about Terminator’s ability to learn human behavior if the processor is rebooted, John Connor and his mom get inside Arnie’s head quite literally and perform a visually stunning scene of manually removing the CPU. This scene was initially cut from the movie, but in later editions we saw it in its full glory.

5. Blade Runner (1982)
Is Deckard a replicant? We don’t know, but the hints in the movie tell us that there’s definitely something going on. In the Director’s Cut of Blade Runner there’s a scene where Deckard finds an origami unicorn, which was left by Gaff, another blade runner. All would be well if it wasn’t for a deleted scene where Deckard dreams of a unicorn, suggesting that Gaff knows what’s inside his memories, as they were no more than implants.

6. The Thing (1982)
Similarly to Blade Runner, John Carpenter’s “The Thing” also has a “who’s who” debate that’s been going on for decades. In the final scene of the movie, only survivors are left standing, MacReady and Childs, trying to figure out if the other person is really their friend or the monster in disguise. In comes the alternate ending! The husky dog running away from the base is actually the alien creature. Or at least one of them…

7. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Fans and haters of “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” had one thing in common when they saw the movie. It was the question “Who’s coming, Lex? Is it Darkseid?” Turned out that he was talking about Steppenwolf, which we saw in the Justice League movie. Here’s the thing: there actually was a deleted scene (well, like 40 minutes of them, actually) where Luthor contacted Steppenwolf through the Kryptonian ship. So that’s how he knew. Now, why would you cut this scene, huh, Snyder?

8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1
Remember Harry’s abusive relatives, who adopted him after his real parents died? It’s easy to hate them, it’s true, but one of the deleted scenes shows us that not all of them are terrible people. Harry’s cousin Dudley turns out to be a nice dude after all. This handshake, if it was shown on the big screen, would’ve made a lot of Potter fans cry.