27 Scenes That Shouldn't Have Been Deleted

1. Super-lovin’
Hancock (2008)

Just like the film itself this is a scene of two halves – one a revolting/hilarious scat gag about super-powered ejaculate (Hancock throwing a woman to safety before punching holes in his trailer roof), the other a touching moment of loss and isolation...

“If you want, I could fly you…”

2. Search Warrant
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

Unlike the more famous discarded material from Cameron’s super-sequel (like the awful Sarah Connor playground post-script) this short sequence doesn’t disrupt the tone of the film.

Instead, it gives us further evidence of Robert Patrick’s brilliantly creepy T-1000, scanning John’s room like a human metal detector.

3. Bigging Up Tatooine
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

Let’s be honest, when Biggs dies during the attack on the Death Star in the existing cut it feels like an emotional loss on the scale of forgetting where your car keys are.

Add these pre-adventure buddy scenes back into the mix, though, and you’re sitting on a teary-eyed timebomb. BIIIIGGS! Why, God, why!?

[page-break]
4. The Suicide Squad
Life Of Brian (1979)

Unexpectedly stern stuff, even from the Python team’s most controversial work.

Avoiding crowds of obsequious visitors, would-be Messiah Brian runs into a group of, ahem, ethically pure Israelites looking for Jehovah’s golden boy.

Nazi parallels being drawn with Zionist movement? Properly devastating.

5. "Don't know about that accent..."
Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines (2003 )

Cheeky insider moment trimmed from T3, but worth a re-watch thanks to some priceless Arnie mugging.

Skynet military types view a promo video for the upcoming 'Terminator' range, featuring the human model for the system – a grinning, all-American Schwarzenegger with an inappropriate twanging Texas drawl.

6. Happy Ending
Borat (2006)

On the eve of his comeback with Bruno , it’s worth reminding yourself how far Sacha Baron Cohen is willing to demean himself for a laugh.

In this case, past the point of theatrical release, as this unfit-for-cinemas massage scene shows ("You finish him? You started him…").

[page-break]

7. Sour Deal
High Fidelity (2000)

Fitting, this: an out-of-print rarity from the ultimate collector-nerd fantasy flick.

John Cusack’s record dealer is offered a beautiful stash of vinyl for next to nothing in a revenge-fuelled fire sale, but clashes with his ‘honour among geeks’ moral code.

8. Heavy Workout
Batman Forever (1995)

Evidence that perhaps the gayest scene in Joel Schumacher’s camp Batman makeover didn’t even make it into the finished film.

It has everything: shadowy photography, thrilling teenage rebellion ("You don’t even know me!") and Chris O’Donnell sweating and grunting through a violent gym workout.

9. Early Christmas Presents
Step Brothers (2008)

What Will Ferrell does best: an improv-heavy scene packed with child-like humiliation and envelope-pushing churlishness.

Ferrell’s Brennan and step-bro Dale are allowed to open one early Christmas present each.

Worth keeping in for Ferrell’s petulant outrage ("It doesn’t count, I opened a box of shit!").

[page-break]
10. Frank Poetry
Donnie Darko (2001)

This scene of Donnie reading Frank-inspired verse to his school class was presumably cut because it made a solid connection between the time traveller’s maybe-psychosis and the outside world - something which played with more ambiguity in the finished film.

11. Holden Out
Blade Runner (1982)

A scene cut from early in the movie, filled with an ominous technological anxiety.

Harrison Ford’s Deckard pays a visit to a fellow detective put into hospital by the replicants he’s now chasing.

"It’s a wipeout!" his colleague wheezes in terror. "They’re almost us!"

12. Bill, Killing
Kill Bill: Vol 2 (2004)

Why this was cut is a mystery – shot in brilliantly overblown Hong Kong style with wonky zooms and whipping cuts, this short fight scene shows Bill hacking into a group of would-be assassins while an impressed Beatrix Kiddo looks on.

All the effects work is complete, and David Carradine is awesome.

[page-break]
13. Big Bro
Wall-E (2008)

An alternate version of the big garbage-hold scene used in the finished movie.

This time round, though, it’s Eve who’s been shocked and Wall-E who has to play saviour, leading to a major 'Aaawwww!' moment as the little fella interacts with his huge Wall-A cousins.

14. Joker Takes The Bus
The Dark Knight (2008)

An unseen angle from inside the school bus on which The Joker rides away from the hospital he’s just exploded.

Ledger is incredible, his face-smeared monster jittering and jolting without ever once looking at the destruction out the window.

15. Lairy Leary
Natural Born Killers (1994)

In an appearance excised from the final cut, Denis Leary plays a pacing, anxious prison inmate delivering a conspiracy-heavy rapid-fire rant about anything and everything.

It’s a bit like watching the Reduced Oliver Stone Company, or Bill Hicks in fast forward. Either way, it’s ace.

[page-break]
16. The Apprentice
Star Wars: The Revenge Of The Sith (2005)

Nasty murderful scene of a Jedi being stabbed up by that rasping droid thing, General Grievous (why would you build a robot with asthma?)

Anyway, it’s worth watching for the total lack of chemistry between Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen (their secret hand signals are shonky as hell).

Gives you a warm glow at the thought of Anakin being all burned and crispy at the end.

17. Bumming Out
Ghostbusters (1984)

A Saturday Night Live-flavoured sketchy scene which presumably didn’t fit with the tone of the finished movie.

Shame, because Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd show their character-comedy chops as a pair of Central Park bums throwing back and forth about sport and politics.

18. Thar Be Monsters!
The Goonies (1985)

Now it makes sense! For everyone who grew up watching The Goonies and not understanding why the hell gadget boy Data blurted, "And the octopus was really scary!" at the close, here’s your answer.

Did they even have a continuity guy doing?

[page-break]
19. Human Sacrifice
Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas (1998)

One of the wildest passages in Hunter S Thompson’s book, which most fans assumed hadn’t been filmed by Terry Gilliam and crew.

But here it is: Johnny Depp’s Thompson-double Raoul Duke and Benicio Del Toro’s attorney put the fear of God – and, more urgently, crazed addicts – into a straight Midwestern cop...

"Just be thankful your heart is young and strong!"

20. Bigmouth Strikes Again
The Lord of The Rings: Return Of The King (2003)

Climactic battle pre-amble featuring the scarred and stretchy-lipped mouthpiece of the dark lord.

Trimmed because, despite the villain’s claims, the audience is never in doubt that Frodo is alive, but the creepy special effects (and Aragorn’s thumping sword-swing) make it a keeper.

21. Toy Soldiers
The Sixth Sense (1999)

The young Haley Joel Osment shows terrifying empathy in this stripped scene from M. Night Shyamalan’s spooky chiller.

With Bruce Willis’ Dr Malcolm looking on, Osment’s Cole plays a tearful game of soldiers so involved that he gives his KIA playthings histories and families right down to the weight of their first-born. Strong stuff.

[page-break]
22. Hungry Like The Wolf
Pulp Fiction (1994)

Given the choice between having more or less Harvey Keitel in your film, the correct answer is to always have more.

This snippet fills out the Wolf’s fix-it scenario, and shows off some zinging dialogue.

23. More Boogie!
Boogie Nights (1997)

The deleted scenes from Paul Thomas Anderson’s modern porn classic are much like the film itself – full of frantic, stream-of-consciousness momentum.

It makes it hard to tell one scene from another, but if there’s a film we could definitely stand to be even longer than it is already, it’s Boogie Nights .

24. Blue Hotel
Wild At Heart (1990)

This short sequence doesn’t really go anywhere, but it’s an object lesson in David Lynch’s use of anxiety and tension.

What happens: Diane Ladd and Harry Dean Stanton arrive at a hotel, where a man is vacuum cleaning.

What we feel: an unbearable weight of dread and horror. Only in Lynch-land...

[page-break]
25. Mother-Loving Nature
Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy (2004)

Thanks to the improve-heavy work routine of Ferrell and his films, there’s actually an entire ‘deleted film’ of Anchorman (most of it sloshing around on YouTube).

Here’s a choice cut: wandering, bearded Ron in conversation with Jess Moondragon about really loving nature...

26. Whip It Good!
Indiana Jones and The Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)

Rough, but worth a look because of the notoriety of the scene.

Harrison Ford famously suggested Spielberg cut short the swordsman fight scene by just having Indy gun down the flashy scimitar-swinger.

Here's a collection of brief, surviving moments from how the fight was originally going to look.

We prefer the wit of the finished version, but only just...

27. Bite Me!
Twilight (2008)

Eeek! That big-haired vampire totally put my finger in his mouth!

A deleted scene from a film so cherished by (mostly female, mostly teenage) vamp-fans that its appearance on YouTube sparked meta-debates in the form of other YouTube videos .

Yes. Videos about videos about the deleted scene.

Jesus.

Liked This? Then see:

See more Movies Features

Sign up for the Total Film Newsletter