While he has been something of a legend in the world of auctioneering over the last few decades, there is no denying that Storage Wars took Dan Dotson’s reputation to a whole new level. The auctioneer has been part of the hit series since day one. Over the last decade, Dotson thinks he’s seen it all, opening some incredible storage units and auctioning off some incredible finds. However, the most recent development might be the most exciting yet…

Dan Dotson heard a remarkable story when he was attending the Cars, Stars and Rock N’ Roll charity event in Indio, California. The Storage Wars host was minding his own business when all of a sudden, he noticed a woman was looking at him from the other side of the room. Eventually, he locked eyes with the woman and she approached him. What she would end up telling him completely shook him to his core…

In a video that he posted on Twitter, Dan Dotson paraphrased the story that this woman had told him at the charity event in Indio, California. “An older Asian woman at the table next to me kept looking at me like she wanted to tell me something,” he said. “[She said that] ‘My husband works for a guy and he bought a unit from you for $500 and it had a safe in it.'”. However, that was just the start…

If the 70s was the decade that Dan Dotson developed a passion for auctioneering, then the 80s was the decade that he mastered the art of it. In 1983, Dotson was inspired to start his very own auctioneering company and launch his beloved American Auctioneers. However, that wasn’t all that Dotson spent his time doing while coming up in the industry. In the years to come, the auctioneer would run auction houses and sell everything from porcelain dolls and pottery to furniture.

Although it has specialized in different things over the years, American Auctioneers has stayed true to Dotson’s vision ever since its inception in 1983. These days, Dan’s company focuses intensely on estates, equipment, storage units, and business inventories. It also helps organize fundraisers and appraisals. For the last few decades, the company has averaged about a dozen auctions per week. However, there is no doubt in Dotson’s mind that none of this would’ve been possible without someone close to his heart…

It seems like Dan and Laura Dotson have always been attached at the hip. However, there was a time when they were doing their own thing. Before meeting Dan, Laura was running restaurants and loved nothing more than bringing people together and providing them with top quality food. In fact, Laura was hoping to open a restaurant that made the best pizza in town. So, in 1993, when she was opening up a new restaurant, she went looking for some pizza-making equipment…

It turns out that this was the moment that the two lovebirds met each other. Laura laid her eyes on Dan when he was selling a restaurant and its contents. While Laura believes that Dan was simply trying to get her attention so he could sell things to her, Dan claims that he was actually trying to flirt with her. At any rate, his passion for auctioneering rubbed off on Laura and before they knew it, they were inseparable.

What many casual fans don’t realize about Dan Dotson is that up until a decade ago, he wasn’t that famous. It was only when Laura realized that her husband was a charismatic auctioneer that she advised him to record his antics on video. Eventually, Dan set up a YouTube channel and began posting videos of himself at his auctioneering best. One day, TV producer Thom Beers appeared at one of Dan’s auctions and just like that, they started to make a reality show…

Although Dan and Laura Dotson’s careers got better with time, they did suffer a challenging moment back in 2014. In the early hours of a Summer morning, Dan woke up asking “weird questions” while asleep. Then, when he woke up a few hours later, Dan fell to the ground and was rushed to the hospital. It turns out that Dotson had suffered a double aneurysm. Amazingly, after Laura performed CPR on her husband and he underwent surgery, Dotson was on the road to recovery.

Over the next decade, Storage Wars became one of the most popular reality shows on TV and caught the attention of millions of viewers. While the show has developed a reputation for being extremely divisive, most agree that the show simply wouldn’t be the same without Dan Dotson and his wife Laura. In 2015, Examiner.com wrote the following about Dan’s importance to Storage Wars: “Thom Beers came up with the idea for Storage Wars, but said that Dan and Laura Dotson inspired it.”

A woman recently approached Dan Dotson and told the Storage Wars star that a friend of hers had bought a storage unit from him for just $500. But what he found in it was beyond his or Dotson’s wildest dreams…

In order to understand the significance of this story and what it means to Dan Dotson, it’s important to understand who he is and his part to play in the story. It’s safe to say that Dotson isn’t your average guy. For the good part of five decades, Dan has been heavily involved in the auctioneering industry and in more recent times, he has run American Auctioneers with his wife, Laura. But Dan is always on the hunt for a good find.w

It seems like auctioneering has been running through Dan Dotson’s veins from the very beginning. Having watched his grandfather work as a farm auctioneer back in the 70s, young Dan Dotson developed a passion for this vocation from a very early age. At just 11 years of age, Dotson learned the art of auctioneering from his grandad during the summers and with time, he was so immersed in the culture that he would compromise his own education, selling furniture for auctioneer Merl Bernard.

This brings us back to that defining encounter that Dan Dotson had with the woman at the charity event. As previously mentioned, the Storage Wars star had auctioned off a storage unit to someone for a cool $500. However, it turns out that the sale would end up coming back to haunt the auctioneer. Why though? Dotson soon realized that he had overlooked something inside the storage unit, something that would completely turn this story on its head…

In the Twitter video, Dan Dotson revealed what the woman had gone on to tell him about the mysterious contents of the storage unit in question. According to her, her husband’s friend had purchased the unit and after looking through its contents, he discovered a mysterious safe. Determined to find out what was inside, they tried opening it themselves, but to no avail. As a result, they decided to contact a professional to help them open it.

The woman told Dotson that the man in question had contacted a professional. Knowing that they couldn’t do it themselves, they brought the professional to the storage unit and asked them to open the mysterious safe. However, after spending a good amount of time on it, they simply couldn’t get it open. “The first person they called to open the safe, I guess, couldn’t, or didn’t,” Dotson said. But they weren’t going to give up. “So they called a second person…”

The man in question firmly believed that all he needed was the right person who knew what they were doing with a safe. After contacting a second person, the professional spent a good amount of time on it before finally opening the safe’s door! “They called a second person and when that person opened it up,” he said. However, Dotson couldn’t believe what was apparently inside it. “Inside the safe, they’re normally empty, but this time it wasn’t empty…”

No, the safe definitely wasn’t empty. In fact, when the woman began to reveal the contents of this safe, it seemed like Dan Dotson’s entire life flashed before his eyes. As she said the words “$7.5 million,” Dotson had to ask her to repeat herself to make sure that he heard her right. That’s right folks; the man had discovered $7.5 million inside a storage unit that he had bought from Storage Wars‘ Dan Dotson for just $500. Talk about a return on investment!

Naturally, Dotson was completely overwhelmed by the information the woman had presented to him. Never in his many years of auctioneering had he ever stepped foot inside a storage unit and come across so much money. And when the moment finally presented itself, he had overlooked the money completely. He was somewhat distraught by the news. Posting photos on Facebook of the find, the site of the cast in their many stacks of cash was like something out of a gangster movie…

Movie characters like Tony Montana and Don Corleone would have been proud of the photos Dotson posted on his Facebook account. After getting in touch with the anonymous buyer of his storage unit, Dotson revealed to the public that the person had unearthed stacks upon stacks of cash. Displaying the cash in wrapping paper before placing it on top of his bathtub, the photos were absolutely stunning. But how did $7.5 million end up in a random storage unit?

In their video, Dan Dotson and his wife Laura tried to work out why exactly this would have happened. “I don’t think you would forget that you have $7.5 million inside a unit,” he said. Laura Dotson also had a couple theories as to why it might have ended up there. “Credit card went bad, it was finished, they moved away, perhaps the person went to jail. Who knows what it was it?” she said. The signs all seemed to point to one thing…

It wasn’t just Dan and Laura who had interesting thoughts on how the cash got into that storage unit. Rene Nezhoda, a thrift store owner who has also worked on Storage Wars, is convinced that the money is the result of some sort of illicit activity. “If you find money like that, there’s probably a reason it isn’t in the bank,” he said. However, Dan and the other people involved could only work with the information in front of them…

It turns out that the previous owner of the storage unit, as well as the $7.5 million inside the safe, had found out that it was now legally in the hands of someone else. As soon as they learned about this, they got in touch with their attorney, with the intention of getting their money back. They were ready to negotiate with the current owner to settle on some sort of deal. But what exactly were they offering for the money?

It seemed peculiar for one party to offer money in return for another sum of money. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what the original owner did. They offered the current owner of the money $600,000 in exchange. At this stage, the current owner wasn’t exactly thrilled that the previous owner of the $7.5 million had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. This begged the question: would the current owner accept this offer? And if not, where would they go from here?

The new owner declined the offer. Furthermore, one speaker on a podcast Second Shot commented that the current owner was well within their rights to do so. In fact, they believed it was fair game that the $7.5 million was in new hands. According to them, if you stumble across someone’s lost wallet, you are obligated to return it. But this was very different. The previous owner hadn’t lost the money – they had failed to pay the rent for the storage unit.

After conferring with their attorney, the previous owner decided to return with a second offer. This time though, they were prepared to double the offer. Instead of $600,000, they offered a whopping $1.2 million instead. This meant that the current owner would keep that amount and give back the remaining $6.3 million. While the pair sat down and thought through the negotiations, someone else also had thoughts to share on the matter. Dan Dotson also thought about what he would do in that situation, and so did his wife Laura…

As Dan and his wife Laura tried to put themselves in the current owner’s shoes, they considered what they would do in this situation. When asked if he would take the $1.2 million or not, Dan Dotson ultimately claimed that he would say yes to the deal. This is mainly because he wouldn’t want to go through the trouble of further negotiations. “I wouldn’t ask a damn thing,” he said. “$7.5 million is a lot of money…but that’s a lot of running, too.”

It wasn’t just Dan and Laura who shared their thoughts on what they would do with such a large sum of money. One person wrote the following: “If they had that much money, why didn’t they pay for the storage unit? Why would you put money in there anyway.” Another person wrote. “I’d keep it! Why the hell didn’t they claim it, why the hell would they let it sit until someone bought the locker?” Soon enough though, the two parties came to a decision…

One thing is for sure; there are two sides to every story. And while this incredible discovery could prove to be a life-changing sum of money for the anonymous buyer, we also have to think about the person who lost the money. Could it be the case that one person’s loss will prove to be another person’s gain in this story? What Dotson would soon learn was that there was one more crucial chapter left to be told…

When everything was said and done, the current owner of the $7.5 million decided to accept the previous owner’s offer. In what ended up essentially being a reward for holding onto the money, the person received just under $1.5 million as part of the deal. While he may have considered this as a loss, the anonymous individual still came out of the situation a very rich man. However, there was still a very important detail to take away from this remarkable story…

Dan Dotson might feel like he missed a huge opportunity with that goldmine of a storage unit. However, based on his huge $4.5 million net worth, we can’t see him having too many financial issues anytime soon. While the average auctioneer is believed to earn about $46,000 per year, Dan Dotson’s reputation as TV’s most famous auctioneer means that he’s earning somewhere in the region of $300,000 per year. And it appears that the apple my not fall too far from the tree…

It seems like Dan and Laura’s son Garrett Dotson might just follow in the footsteps of his superstar parents. Back in 2008, when he was just 10 years old, Garrett did a bit of auctioneering of his own when he put up his dirtbike for auction. While his parents don’t put any pressure on him to join them in the auctioneering game, it seems that Garrett has an unbreakable passion for all things car-related and works for Stance Show Off.

In the end, everyone involved in the story took away something that heavily benefited them. The previous owner got most of their money back, the current owner still came out of the deal a rich man, and Dan Dotson ended up with an awesome story that would go completely viral! The Storage Wars man ended up receiving thousands of likes and comments on social media for his posts and it came just before the new season of Storage Wars.

Richard Castellano’s Peter Clemenza goes with another henchman of Don Corleone in The Godfather to take out Paulie Gatto for attempting to kill Don Corleone. Instead of simply saying “leave the gun,” Castellano embellished a bit. Following the hit, he says, “leave the gun, take the cannoli.” His words, born from pure genius, have been uttered all over the world.

Anthony Hopkins had been acting for over two decades when he landed his most famous role. As the cannibalistic Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, Hopkins brought pure evil to life. In a monologue directed at Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling, Hannibal describes eating a man’s liver with “fava beans and a nice Chianti.” During rehearsals for the scene, Hopkins added a sound effect which would double down on his creepiness. He added the goosebumps-inducing hissing noise.

R. Lee Ermey is one of the most memorable actors in any of Stanley Kubrick’s films. In Kubrick’s classic Full Metal Jacket, Ermey played a drill sergeant that no one can forget. Incredibly, Ermey, one of the most recalled characters in the film, was not even supposed to be in the film at all. He had sent Kubrick a home video of himself insulting Marines and Kubrick added him to the film. Kubrick would later admit that at least 50% of his dialogue was improvised.

Misspoken lines sometimes lead to the best unscripted lines. On other occasions, an actor’s reaction to things around them will lead to something memorable. In Midnight Cowboy, Dustin Hoffman’s quick reactions may have saved his life even though he went off script. As he and Jon Voight cross a street, a taxi driver failed to see the “street closed for filming” sign and drove through the scene. He almost ran them over, but, in character, Hoffman memorably shouted, “I’m walking here!”

Orson Welles is a legend of the film industry due to Citizen Kane, in addition to the rest of his body of work. In The Third Man, he added an unplanned monologue. He said, “In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed. They produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”

If you are looking through iTunes, you might find Spinal Tap under artists. However, the band is not real and is the fictional band at the heart of Rob Reiner’s This is Spinal Tap. The mockumentary hilariously follows the British band through their wild rock n’ roll life modeled after 80s hair bands. Stars Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and Christopher Guest ad-libbed so many lines in the film they were given writing credits for the film.

A Boston undertaking was around the corner following Good Will Hunting. Boston bros Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, along with director Gus Van Sant, created one of the best films of 1997 and, in turn, also announced their introduction to Hollywood. Comedian/actor Robin Williams put his comedy improv skills to use in one of the final scenes. As he reads a letter with the line “I gotta see about a girl” from Damon, Williams exclaims, “Son of a gun. He stole my line.”

It’s always in the conversation for the greatest gangster movie of all-time, but that does not mean Martin Scorses’s classic Goodfellas rigidly stuck to his script. Due to the brilliance of its all-star cast featuring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Ray Liotta, Scorsese had no issue giving his actors some leeway. In one of the most quotable scenes, Liotta’s Henry Hill tells Pesci’s Tommy DeVito that he is a “funny guy.” Pesci humorously replied unprompted, “Funny how? Do I amuse you?”

Julia Roberts has long been considered one of the best actresses in Hollywood. No matter how successful she gets, Pretty Woman will always be her crowning achievement. Paired with Richard Gere as he tries to turn her into a classy gal, Roberts absolutely nails the role of Vivian. At one point, he shows her a box with a necklace. When she reaches for it, he snaps it closed, startling Vivian. Gere’s practical joke was unplanned, and Roberts was actually startled.

Rob Reiner seems to have no issue with actors making up their lines. His 1989 film, When Harry Met Sally, has become a staple of the rom-com genre. In one scene, Billy Crystal tells Meg Ryan that they will be speaking in a goofy voice the rest of the day. He says various nonsense hoping that she will repeat after him. At one point he says, “I would be proud to partake of your pecan pie.” Ryan instantly started laughing, and Reiner kept the line in.

Comedic genius comes in many forms. Throughout his life, Gene Wilder did everything he could to make people laugh (something he did quite well). Reportedly, Wilder only accepted the role of Willy Wonka under the condition he could do his surprise tuck-and-roll entrance in the film. The entrance forces you to quickly judge the then-mysterious Wonka only to reverse your opinion quickly. It was explained as “From that time on, no one will know if I’m lying or telling the truth.”

Tom Hanks has decades of memorable roles in the bag, but Forrest Gump will always touch our hearts most. During his introduction to Bubba, Forrest introduces himself by saying, “My name is Forrest Gump. People call me Forrest Gump,” repeating the style that Bubba introduces himself. Hanks tossed the line in himself, and it fit perfectly with his character. Robert Zemeckis, the director, loved the addition and kept it in the final cut. Hanks took home an Oscar for Best Actor for the role.

There are countless hilarious lines written and delivered in the film, but there is one in particular that always stood out – the one where the Waco Kid reassures Bart after the townspeople reveal their hatred toward him. He says, “You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know… morons.” Wilder improvised the line: “You know…morons,” which caused Cleavon Little to genuinely crack up once hearing the line he never saw coming.

Everyone has Star Wars fever thanks to the franchise’s new releases between 2015 and 2017. The 1980 second installment to the original trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, is widely considered the best film in the franchise. It also has one of the most notorious improvisations of all time. Right before Darth Vader splits up Han Solo and Princess Leia, they passionately kiss. Carrie Fisher looks at Harrison Ford and says, “I love you.” Instead of responding with the expected “I love you too,” Ford replies, “I know.”

In fact, the most famous line from the film starring Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, and Kevin Bacon does not appear in the script. As Cruise’s character cross-examines Jack Nicholson’s Colonel Jessup looking for the truth, Jessup replies, “You can’t handle the truth!”

Depending on how you look at it, Mel Brooks’ 1974 film Young Frankenstein could be seen as a comedy or a horror film. Since it errs towards a comedy, Marty Feldman tried to have a lot of fun with his role of Igor, the assistant to Dr. Frederick Frankenstein. His memorable line, “What hump?” was not in the script but Brooks loved it anyways. In addition, Feldman would move his hump to different places for comedic effect.

Harry and Lloyd quickly became America’s favorite idiots following their road trip to Aspen in Dumb and Dumber. Jim Carey had some experience with improv during his time on In Living Color. He had a chance to put it to use during the road trip scene in which they Lloyd makes the most annoying sound in the world. The whole scene was improvised, and the filmmakers have said that 15% of the film was improvised thanks to Jeff Daniels and Jim Carey.

When Peter Jackson first adapted J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels to the big screen, Viggo Mortensen was yet to become a star truly. The franchise launched him into stardom and even new stars occasionally ad lib a line or two. In an emotional moment when his character Aragorn believes the two hobbits, Merry and Pippin, are dead, Mortensen kicks a helmet out of frustration and yells. The yell was real because Mortensen broke his toe on the helmet.

In the second Harry Potter film, Harry goes over to Ron Weasley’s house for dinner. He witnesses the differing views of the Weasley parents towards disciplining their children. Molly scolds them for using the enchanted cars as Arthur acts like he wishes he was invited for the ride. According to Chris Rankin, the next line was shot “13 or 14 times, and every time it was something else.” “What exactly is the function of a rubber duck?” made the cut in the end.

Rick Moranis retired from acting in 1997, but that does not mean we have forgotten how talented he was. In Ghostbusters, he plays Louis, Sigourney Weaver’s obnoxious and chatty neighbors. In the early 80s, Moranis was a cast member on Second City TV, so we know he is a world-class comedic improviser. According to director Ivan Reitman, Moranis improvised his entire speech to his party guests in the film. Reitman said, “Rick just made all of it up as he was doing it.”

If you can find a film funnier than Caddyshack, please let us know. Almost 40 years later, we are still rolling on the floor laughing at Bill Murray’s Carl Spackler. Murray is one of the greatest comedians of his generation, and Caddyshack is exhibit A.  Murray has always been a great improviser so of course his most famous scene, the Cinderella story bit, was entirely made up. Murray took the stage direction “Carl cuts off the tops of flowers with a grass whip,” and made it a classic.

Since the mid-aughts, Judd Apatow has continuously put out comedy classic after comedy classic. Knocked Up starring Seth Rogan and Katherine Heigl is one of his most brilliant features. Rogan must navigate his upcoming fatherhood following a one-night stand gone awry and naturally can’t get out of his own way. Rogan, along with his pals Jason Segel, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, and Martin Starr improved many of their lines including the funny bit about Munich.

Bill Murray is constantly given opportunities to improvise because it comes so naturally to him. He did not have a lead role in Tootsie, but they nonetheless gave him an opportunity to shine spontaneously. Murray plays Dustin Hoffman’s roommate in the 1982 film. At the party scene, Murray went on a huge unwritten monologue following instructions from director Sydney Pollack. No one knew what he would say, but he nailed it anyway. The film made $172 million at the box office.

As Miranda Priestly, a magazine editor in The Devil Wears Prada, Meryl Streep put on one of her most memorable performances. Streep nailed the delivery of the line, “Everybody wants to be us.” The thing is, the perfect line was not in the script.

Scorcese is known for telling some of his actors to improvise for various scenes. One of the most famous lines in not only his films, but in film history came organically without a script directive. Not only was Robert De Niro not instructed to say “You talkin’ to me?” in Taxi Driver as Travis Bickle, but he was not given any instruction at all. The script only said, “Bickle speaks to himself in the mirror.” It was up to De Niro to fill in the blank.

Steven Spielberg’s Jaws almost defines the word iconic. The film was so big it spurred the term “blockbuster” for the long lines it drew at movie theaters. After Roy Scheider’s Chief Martin Brody assembles his crew, they go out on the ocean looking for the beach-terrorizing shark. When he realizes that he had been feeding bloody food to a massive great white shark, Brody tells Robert Shaw’s Quint, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” John Williams’ score only amplified the terror.

Before she became one of the hosts on The View, Whoopi Goldberg was an incredibly talented actress. Her performance in the 1990 film Ghost made her into a household name. She earned the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Oda Mae Brown, a psychic. She finds herself in contact with the ghost of Patrick Swayze’s character Sam. Sam asks her to warn his girlfriend Molly (played by Demi Moore) that his killer is still alive. Whoopi added in the line, “Molly, you in trouble, girl.”

Humphrey Bogart is closely associated with his line, “Here’s looking at you, kid,” from the film. Of course, Bogart inserted the line into his dialogue on his own. According to legend, Bogart first used the line in between takes with Ingrid Bergman.  He was in the middle of teaching her poker.

No list of films with crazy twists is complete without including The Usual Suspects. One of the most iconic scenes is of a police station perp line-up. During the scene, the actors were given a pass to do what they please to create some comedy. Part of this was due to a character’s flatulence. In addition, the line “in English please,” was improvised by a cop after Benicio Del Toro slurred his words inaudibly.

The Warriors by Walter Hill did okay commercially but gained new legs as a cult classic. At the end of the film, David Patrick Kelly’s antagonist Luther says the most memorable line of the film, “Warriors, come out to play!” Between his tone and the way he is clinking bottles together set a unique tone to his words. He was never told to say the line though. Hill loved the way it came together and kept it in the final cut.

As a filmmaker, you are likely to work with a legendary actor that is known for being difficult. Francis Ford Coppola had the pleasure of working with Marlon Brando (again) in his war epic Apocalypse Now. Brando’s Colonel Kurtz only appears at the end of the film, but improvised a huge chunk of his role. He ad-libbed almost 20 minutes of his dialogue because he refused to memorize his lines. He reportedly once folded up his script into a paper hat and wore it.

It is not often that the star of the film is overshadowed by another character in the final scene. It is even rarer that this would happen to Harrison Ford, but he was in fact upstaged at the end of 1982’s Blade Runner. Rutger Hauer plays Roy Batty, a fugitive replicant, and the film’s antagonist. During his emotional monologue at the end, Hauer started by reading from David Peoples’ script but added his own flair to his speech. It’s now known as the “tears of rain” speech.

Although he has had other strong performances, Ben Stein’s most iconic moment in his career has to have been the ad-libbed economics lesson he taught in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. “John Hughes, the director and producer and writer, asked me to ad-lib two scenes,” he said. “When I finished the scene, everyone on the set was gathered around and started applauding. I thought they were applauding because they’d learned something about economics. I later learned they were applauding because it was so boring.”

When it comes to audio commentaries for the DVD releases of his movies, J.J. Abrams always gives a detailed insight into the process behind every creative decision. When Karl Urban said the line “All I’ve got left are my bones” in 2009’s Star Trek reboot, Abrams confessed that line was never actually in the script. In fact, that wasn’t the only ad-lib in the movie. Simon Pegg’s Scotty also made up the line, “Can I get a towel?”

When the late wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper was given carte-blanche to say whatever he wanted during a scene in They Live!, he came up with the line, “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass…and I’m all out of bubblegum.” “Yeah. I couldn’t tell you what it really means either,” he said in an interview. “It was one of those – ‘Roddy, you’ve got bullets on you, you’ve got a shotgun, you’ve got sunglasses, you go into a bank, you’re not gonna rob it, say something…action!'”

One actor on the set of this Indiana Jones sequel noted how funny it was to see Sean Connery perform an ad-lib. “My favorite memory is Sean making up that line, “She talks in her sleep.” It was on the spot,” co-star Julian Glover said. “Harrison said, ‘How did you know she’s a Nazi?’ and he said that, and they had to stop filming. Everybody just fell on the floor and Steven said, ‘Well, that’s in.'”

The men behind the hilarious zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright, recently discussed a scene that the former completely improvised in the movie. Although Wright was convinced that the improv wouldn’t help move the story forward, he did admit that he couldn’t ignore it when Frost made Simon Pegg laugh with his cheeky adlib. It was just too funny. “‘Cafe au lait’, all that kind of stuff,” Frost said. “‘Cockocidal maniac,’ I think was improvised.”

Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is better known as simply Dr. Strangelove. Stanley Kubrick’s black satire touches on the threat of nuclear war and the paranoia which crippled the people around it. The film started out as Kubrick’s vague idea for a nuclear accident thriller. By using a retro-script filled with a collection of ad-libs, the film had quite a unique feel. Peter Sellers added Dr. Strangelove’s accidental Nazi salute to the character.

Ben Stiller has been a major player in Hollywood’s greatest comedies of the last few decades. As Derek Zoolander, Stiller could play to his greatest strengths as a goofball. When he meets David Duchovny’s JP Prewitt, Stiller perfectly delivers a hilarious and unintended repetition of a line. Duchovny gives a soliloquy responding to Zoolander’s question, “Why male models?” In the end, Stiller asks the question again. Fortunately, Duchovny played off of the comment perfectly, and the film became a comedy classic.

Sometimes, actors and directors are in cahoots when it comes to a shocking addition to a film. In RoboCop, Kurtwood Smith takes a beating by RoboCop in his character as Clarence Boddicker before being taken into police custody. As he approaches a desk, he spits blood on the paperwork laying in front of him. He then shouts, ” Give me my f***in’ phone call!” The line was only discussed with director Paul Verhoeven so the rest of the actors could genuinely react.

Being John Malkovich was the feature film debut for both director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman.  They both earned plenty of praise and award nominations for their interesting project. The movie is quite unpredictable which boded well with any unexpected events during filming. As they filmed one scene, John Malkovich could not escape the wrath of a drunk extra. The extra threw a can at his head and shouted, “Hey, Malkovich. Think fast!” as Malkovich walks away. He then loudly cussed in real pain.

Marion Ravenwood always seemed to drag Indiana Jones into ominous situations. During Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indy is chasing after Marion when he runs into a sword-wielding man in black. In the scene, Harrison Ford simply pulls his revolver and shoots the man with one bullet. George Lucas’s script called for a long fight instead of the single bullet. On the day of shooting, Ford had a cold and begged Steven Spielberg to not draw out the fight.

Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan is arguably the greatest war film ever, capturing all of the horrors of World War II starting with the storming of Normandy Beach. With Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Matt Damon, it was bound to be great. In one quieter scene, Hanks and Damon sit and talk about their lives in America. The scene adds some levity to a heavy film. It also included an ad-libbed anecdote by Damon about catching his brother kissing a girl.

Stanley Kubrick is known for his legendary yet off-kilter projects. A Clockwork Orange is quite the thriller, but is no easy watch. Kubrick was reportedly very disappointed with the many takes of the scene in which Alex (played by Malcolm McDowell) and company break into a woman’s home and attack her. He eventually told McDowell to “Just do whatever you want.” McDowell added his own taste of disturbing to the scene by breaking into song, singing Singing in the Rain throughout the scene.

John Boorman presented quite the thriller in 1972 with Deliverance. The film starred Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty as friends on a trip into the wilderness. When everything goes awry, it becomes a survival mission. The film earned three Academy Award nominations and is memorable for one disturbing scene when one of the characters gets attacked by some hillbillies. One of the attackers yells “squeal like a pig,” and begins to squeal, a line not in the script. Many take credit for its inclusion.

With enormous comedy acting and writing talent behind it, National Lampoon’s Animal House defined frat boy comedies. As the Delta house terrorize Faber College, they bring the laughs by the truckload. John Belushi, a former SNL star, completely improvised a scene in the cafeteria. The camera follows him as he piles food on his tray. When he sits with the bad guys, he puts whipped cream in his mouth, punches his cheeks as it goes everywhere and says, “I’m a zit. Get it?

Yet again, a Stanley Kubrick film finds its way on this list. No scene and line in Kubrick’s films come close to as iconic as the image of Jack Nicholson’s Jack Torrance looking through a hole in the bathroom door as he says, “Here’s Johnny.” After taking on the job of caring for the haunted hotel during the winter, Torrance is driven to insanity. He says the line after breaking through the door with an ax. Nicholson took the line from The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson.

The Fugitive has become a cable classic thanks to the intense performances of Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. Jones even picked up an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as U.S. Marshal Deputy Samuel Gerard. Gerard is in pursuit of Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) after he escapes on his way to prison. With Kimble cornered, he says ” I didn’t kill my wife.” Jones was supposed to say “That isn’t my problem,” but instead iconically replied, “I don’t care.”

In 1986, the second chapter in the Alien franchise was released. Aliens starred Sigourney Weaver yet again as Ellen Ripley on a mission into space in which she battles an extraterrestrial beast. Many believe that Aliens is better than its precursor, something that director James Cameron also achieved with Terminator 2. One of the best additions to the cast is Bill Paxton’s Private Hudson. Before his death in 2017, Paxton claimed many of his lines were improvised, including the iconic statement, “Game over, man! Game over.”

Superhero movies dominate the big screen every summer, but no super villain has ever been as menacing as Heath Ledger’s Joker. He gave the performance of a lifetime in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Unlike the rest of this list, Ledger is not on here for what he said, but for what he did. In a scene at the police station following the Joker’s arrest, Jim Gordon is promoted to Commissioner. As the applause dies down, only Ledger remains clapping, an action not listed in the script.