Every scene we have cut, and why.
If you found us on TikTok or Instagram, this is the rest of it. Each of these started as a scene somebody remembered, then a search for a copy clean enough to use, then a trim down to the two minutes that actually land on a phone with the sound off.
The note under each one is what went out with the post. The film pages have the cast, the synopsis and whatever we have written about them. Nothing here is an affiliate link and nothing is sponsored; we just like the scenes.
British and Irish
Hooligans, firms, coppers who have stopped caring, and one perfect pub. The strand that gets the biggest response, which tells you something about who reads this site.
I.D.
1995 · The stand offAn undercover cop in a football firm and the moment he stops being a cop
Shot in Shepherd's Bush with real fans as extras. Warren Clarke's Bob is based on several real Chelsea faces.
Film page
Green Street
2005 · Macclesfield stationForty Manchester lads waiting at the station and the GSE get off two stops early
Lexi Alexander was a world karate champion before she directed. She choreographed every fight herself.
Film page
The Damned United
2009 · Leeds was mineBrian Clough's first TV interview as Leeds manager and he calls them cheats on air
Clough's family refused to cooperate and the real Leeds squad hated the book. Sheen watched hours of Clough on Yorkshire TV to get the voice.
Film page
Starred Up
2014 · Whos nextThe new kid gets put in the ring in the prison gym and asks who's next
Written by Jonathan Asser from his years as a prison therapist. Shot in a real disused prison in Belfast.
Film page
The Italian Job
1969 · Bloody doors offThe line every British person can finish and the van that started it
The van blown up in the scene was real. Caine's line was ad-libbed in rehearsal and kept.
Film page
Villain
1971 · We the governorsRichard Burton as a London gangster telling his firm they are the governors
Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, the Likely Lads writers, and it is the nastiest thing they ever made.
Film page
Mean Machine
2001 · How to cheatThe ex-pro teaches the cons five ways to cheat at football
Vinnie Jones did the football for real. He was still a registered player when it was shot.
Film page
'71
2014 · Belfast streetA squaddie on a Belfast street in 1971 and the riot turns in seconds
Shot in Blackburn, Sheffield and Liverpool standing in for Belfast. Demange wanted it to feel like a war film with no sides.
Film page
Kill List
2011 · The clientTwo hitmen meet the client in an empty hotel and the contract is signed in blood
Most of the dialogue was improvised. Wheatley told the cast what happened at the end only when they needed to know.
Film page
Hot Fuzz
2007 · Whens your birthdayNew in town and he clears the pub of underage drinkers by asking one question
The village is Wells in Somerset. The cathedral was digitally removed because Edgar Wright wanted a smaller town.
Film page
Filth
2013 · Spare me your bullshitA colleague asks if he is all right and he tells her exactly what he thinks of care in the community
McAvoy calls it the best work he has done. It was too much for American distributors and barely got a release there.
Film page
T2 Trainspotting
2017 · Choose lifeRenton updates Choose Life for 2017 and it is bleaker than the original
Boyle waited twenty years so the actors would have aged for real. The speech was rewritten the week before it was shot.
Film page
Shaun of the Dead
2004 · The planThe plan is rewritten three times and every version ends at the Winchester
The pub is the Duke of Albany in New Cross. It closed in 2008 and is now flats.
Film page
Attack the Block
2011 · ChaseAliens on the estate and the kids on bikes are the only ones who take it seriously
Boyega was nineteen and it was his first film. Cornish cast him after he walked in with more attitude than anyone else.
Film page
The Guard
2011 · Ira manA garda quizzes an IRA man about missing guns and it goes exactly as you would hope
McDonagh wrote it for Gleeson and then wrote Calvary for him too. Gleeson's son Domhnall played the priest in this one.
Film page
In the Name of the Father
1993 · Case dismissedFifteen years in prison and the judge says the words in under a minute
Day-Lewis spent nights in a cell and was interrogated by real officers for the arrest scenes. He lost two stone.
Film page
Casino Royale
2006 · CraneBond runs straight through the wall the other man just climbed over
The man Bond is chasing is Sebastien Foucan, one of the founders of parkour. The crane sequence took six weeks.
Film page
Zulu
1964 · Men of harlechThe Welsh answer four thousand Zulu war chants with Men of Harlech
Caine was cast as the officer because he could not play a cockney convincingly enough for the producers.
Film page
Life of Brian
1979 · What have the romans doneWhat have the Romans ever done for us apart from all the things they did
George Harrison mortgaged his house to pay for it. He called it the most expensive cinema ticket in history.
Film page
Skyfall
2012 · RatsThe villain explains how his grandmother dealt with rats and it is about him
The shot is two minutes long with no cuts. Bardem rehearsed the walk so the speech would land as he reached the chair.
Film page
The old guard
Films that were settled long before we got here. The job with these is picking the two minutes that earn a stranger's attention on a phone.
Network
1976 · Mad as hellThe anchorman tells everyone to open their windows and shout and they do
Finch won the Oscar posthumously. He died two months before the ceremony.
Film page
12 Angry Men
1957 · The knifeEveryone says the knife is one of a kind and juror eight puts an identical one in the table
Lumet shot it in 19 days and moved the camera lower and closer as the film went on to make the room feel smaller.
Film page
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1975 · MedicationHe asks the nurse to turn the music down and learns what he is dealing with
Shot inside Oregon State Hospital with real patients as extras. The hospital superintendent plays the doctor.
Film page
The Deer Hunter
1978 · Russian rouletteTwo friends forced to play Russian roulette and Walken cannot stop shaking
De Niro asked for a live round in the chamber during the slap takes so the fear would be real. It was.
Film page
Full Metal Jacket
1987 · War facePrivate Joker admits it was him and the sergeant wants to see his war face
Ermey was hired as a technical adviser. He improvised most of his insults and Kubrick gave him the part.
Film page
2001: A Space Odyssey
1968 · Stress pillThe computer suggests the astronaut sit down calmly and take a stress pill
Douglas Rain voiced HAL in two days and never saw the film during production.
Film page
Dr. Strangelove
1964 · Plan rA general explains Plan R to the President and it gets worse with every sentence
Kubrick tricked Scott into playing it big by calling the broad takes rehearsals. Scott never forgave him.
Film page
The King of Comedy
1982 · Rupert pupkinRupert Pupkin finally gets his set and opens with his parents
It flopped in 1982. Scorsese has said it is the film of his he thinks about most.
Film page
The Insider
1999 · Get on the phoneThe source has locked himself in a hotel room and the producer gets the manager to say it word for word
Crowe was 34 playing a man of 52. He put on weight and greyed his hair and got the Oscar nomination.
Film page
Calvary
2014 · Say your prayersA priest walks onto a beach to meet the man who said he would kill him
Written for Gleeson after The Guard. McDonagh says it is the same character if he had gone into the church.
Film page
The Godfather Part II
1974 · I know it was youHe kisses his brother at midnight and tells him he knows
John Cazale made five films before he died at 42. All five were nominated for Best Picture.
Film page
Do the Right Thing
1989 · Love and hateRadio Raheem explains love and hate with his knuckle rings
The love/hate speech is lifted from The Night of the Hunter. Bill Nunn improvised the boxing.
Film page
Terminator 2
1991 · HospitalSarah runs into the man who tried to kill her and he says come with me if you want to live
Robert Patrick studied the head movement of birds for the T-1000. He ran without breathing hard so it looked effortless.
Film page
Wall Street
1987 · Greed is goodGreed for lack of a better word is good and the room applauds
Stone based Gekko on real raiders including Ivan Boesky, who gave a speech at Berkeley saying greed was healthy.
Film page
The Fugitive
1993 · The damI didn't kill my wife. I don't care. Then he jumps
Tommy Lee Jones improvised I don't care. Ford thought he had ruined the take.
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Michael Clayton
2007 · Im the guy you buyThe fixer names his price and the general counsel says yes on a hidden microphone
Swinton won the Oscar. The film lost Best Picture to No Country for Old Men, which is fair.
Film page
Blade Runner 2049
2017 · BaselineCells interlinked within cells interlinked and he is nowhere near baseline
The baseline text is from Nabokov's Pale Fire. Gosling had to say it flat, hundreds of times, without blinking.
Film page
Manhunter
1986 · LecktorWill Graham asks Lecktor for help and Lecktor asks how he caught him
Brian Cox based his Lecktor on the Scottish serial killer Peter Manuel, who defended himself in court.
Film page
All the President's Men
1976 · Run that babyThe editor tells a story about getting it wrong and then says run that baby
Robards won the Oscar for a part with about ten minutes of screen time. Bradlee, the real editor, said it was too flattering.
Film page
RoboCop
1987 · Ed 209The boardroom demo of the new law enforcement droid and the junior executive who volunteers
The ED-209 was stop-motion by Phil Tippett. The executive's death was cut for the cinema release and restored later.
Film page
Subtitles, no apology
Korean, Danish, German, Spanish, Cantonese. The received wisdom is that subtitles die on social. The received wisdom is wrong.
Memories of Murder
2003 · Kind of plainYears later the detective goes back to the ditch and a girl tells him someone else was just there
The real killer was identified by DNA in 2019, sixteen years after the film. He had watched it in prison.
Film page
Parasite
2019 · The peachHow to get the housekeeper fired with one peach
The house was built from scratch on a backlot, including the garden. It does not exist.
Film page
The Social Network
2010 · 600 millionYour best friend is suing you for six hundred million dollars and he says I didn't know that tell me more
Fincher shot the opening break-up 99 times. Eisenberg says the deposition scenes were the easy days.
Film page
Inglourious Basterds
2009 · The accentAn SS major joins the table and mentions the accent is unusual
The tavern scene runs 25 minutes and was shot in a real cellar. Tarantino calls it the best thing he has written.
Film page
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
2019 · Bruce leeBruce Lee offers a friendly contest and the stuntman takes him up on it
Bruce Lee's daughter objected to the scene. Tarantino said Lee was arrogant and Cliff Booth is a fictional killer.
Film page
The Master
2012 · Do not blinkThe rule is you cannot blink and every wrong answer starts it again
Phoenix and Hoffman did the processing scene in long unbroken takes. Phoenix's face was raw from not blinking.
Film page
The Lives of Others
2006 · Its for meYears after the Wall he finds a book dedicated to his code name and buys it
Ulrich Muhe, who plays the Stasi officer, found out after the Wall fell that his own wife had informed on him.
Film page
Burning
2018 · Never been jealousHe says he has never been jealous in his life and you believe him which is the problem
Based on a Murakami short story. Lee Chang-dong never says what happened and Steven Yeun will not either.
Film page
Pusher
1996 · The dealThe buyer has 45 and the price is 50 and this is where the week goes wrong
Mads Mikkelsen's first film. Refn was 25 and had never been to film school.
Film page
Four Lions
2010 · 12 bottles of bleachHe bought all the bleach from one shop using different voices and demonstrates them
Morris spent three years researching, including interviews with people who had been in the cells. The bleach bit is from a real case.
Film page
Pan's Labyrinth
2006 · Pale manShe was told not to eat anything and she eats two grapes
Doug Jones played the Pale Man and the faun. The eyes in the hands were his idea after del Toro's first sketch had them in the face.
Film page
Run Lola Run
1998 · Run oneShe hangs up the phone and runs and the whole film is that
Franka Potente was not allowed to wash her hair for seven weeks so the red dye would stay consistent between runs.
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The Hunt
2012 · ChurchChristmas Eve in church and he finally walks over to his oldest friend
Mikkelsen won Best Actor at Cannes. Vinterberg based it on a real case a child psychiatrist brought him.
Film page
Wild Tales
2014 · Road rageHe insults the driver he overtakes and then his tyre goes
It was the highest-grossing Argentine film ever released and got an Oscar nomination. Every story was shot in a different style.
Film page
Another Round
2020 · What a lifeA history teacher who trained as a dancer finally dances
Mikkelsen trained as a gymnast and dancer before acting. Vinterberg's daughter was due to appear and died in a car crash days into filming; he dedicated it to her.
Film page
Let the Right One In
2008 · PoolThe bullies hold him under for three minutes and something arrives to help
The pool scene is shot from underwater on purpose. You hear it more than you see it.
Film page
Under the Skin
2014 · EndingWhat is under the skin, in a forest, in the snow
The pick-ups were shot with hidden cameras. The men were told afterwards and asked to sign a release.
Film page
Das Boot
1981 · 230 metres230 metres down and the bolts start firing across the boat
The cast were kept out of daylight for the whole shoot so they would go pale. The set had no removable walls.
Film page
Elite Squad
2007 · HillsideBOPE on the hillside above Rio and the rules are different up here
It was pirated so widely before release that 11 million Brazilians had seen it by the time it hit cinemas. It won the Golden Bear anyway.
Film page
Infernal Affairs
2002 · Hifi shopTwo men who do not know who the other one is listen to a hi-fi together
The hi-fi scene is the only time the two leads share a frame before the ending. The remake kept the idea.
Film page
These films turn up in the games too. Frame a Day is a single still from one of them, every day.
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