In a futuristic Britain, Alex DeLarge is the leader of a gang. One night, after getting inebriated on drug-laden “milk-plus”, they participate in an evening of “ultra-violence”, which includes a fight with a competing gang led by Billyboy. After not being happy with a number of takes, Stanley Kubrick told Malcolm McDowell, who played the character, Alex, to do whatever he wants.
This welcomed the stunning improvisation of McDowell who started to sing “Singing in the Rain” during a terrifying scene, making him seem all the more crazy.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Gene Wilder added a lot to this classic, there were many lines that weren’t originally in the script. He agreed to star in the film under the condition that he could decide how he made his grand entrance. He chose to enter limping with a cane and then drop the cane and somersault. His reasoning?
“From that time on, no one will know if I’m lying or telling the truth,” Wilder received a nomination for a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. The film was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score.
RoboCop
Improvisations can have a great impact on other characters, as they don’t know what’s coming. When Kurtwood Smith’s character, Clarence Boddicker, is taken into custody, to other actors’ surprise, he says the line “Give me my f***in’ phone call!” The actors were shocked, which is exactly the effect that Smith and director Paul Verhoeven aspired for.
The movie takes place in crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future. Police officer Alex Murphy, played by Peter Weller, is murdered by a gang of criminals and later revived by the megacorporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) as a superhuman cyborg law enforcer known as RoboCop.
Saving Private Ryan
In this classic Steven Spielberg war movie, during a scene in which Tom Hanks as Captain Miller and Matt Damon as Private Ryan talk about their lives at home, Matt Damon completely makes up the story about catching his brother kissing a girl. The film received critical acclaim and praise was given to Spielberg for his directing while the actors, particularly Tom Hanks were recognized for their performances.
The film was the second-highest-grossing film of 1998 worldwide. The film’s success once again was confirmed by the 71st Academy Awards, in which it received 11 nominations and won five of them including Spielberg's second win for Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing.
This Is Spinal Tap
This hilarious comedy about the made-up rock band Spinal Tap was full of improvisations, so much that the three lead actors received credit for writing the film. Rob Reiner recorded hours of improvised lines, and it proved to be difficult to cut the footage down.
The improvisation actually started years before in the late 1960s when Michael McKean and Christopher Guest first met during college and played music together. They worked with Harry Shearer and Rob Reiner on a TV pilot in 1978 for a sketch comedy show called The TV Show, which featured a parody rock band called Spinal Tap. During the production of the sketch, McKean and Guest began to improvise, and thus came to life the characters that became David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel.