8 Lost Scenes That Were Found Years Later
The deleted scenes we thought we'd never see.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 In filmmaking it's always better to have more footage than you need, so that when you're
00:04 in that editing suite you have plenty of options when it comes to the hard decisions on that
00:08 final cut.
00:09 In the halcyon days of the DVD format's youth, deleted scenes were some of the most
00:13 exciting words you could see on a box, and special features like this drove many of us
00:17 to repurchase films to witness footage we'd never seen before.
00:21 As such, the following deleted scenes from films were the ones we thought would never
00:25 see the light of day.
00:26 I'm Sy from WhatCulture.com and these are 8 lost movie scenes that were found years
00:31 later.
00:32 8.
00:33 Ghostbusters - Fort Detmering
00:36 As wonderful as the original Ghostbusters film is, there was always a scene in it that
00:39 just seemed to come out of nowhere.
00:41 There's no other way to describe it other than Ray's ghost blowjob scene where, during
00:45 the montage at the midpoint of the movie, Dan Aykroyd dreams of receiving pleasure from
00:49 a ghostly figure.
00:51 Whatever you're into, I suppose.
00:53 It turns out that that's because it was part of a longer sequence that was eventually
00:56 cut out of the film for pace.
00:58 In the ensuing years, crew on the film would mention that it came from a scene where Ray
01:02 and fellow Ghostbuster Winston would visit the haunted Fort Detmering military post.
01:08 Ghost heads, as they're affectionately known, wondered about the full sequence for years.
01:12 In 2017, a whole 33 years after the movie was released, Ghost Corps, Sony's division
01:17 for Ghostbusters projects, announced that they had found the tape containing the scene.
01:22 It was later released for the 35th anniversary release.
01:25 It's immediately clear why it was cut, being a slow and shallow sequence that doesn't
01:29 really feel as though it belongs.
01:31 As nice as it is to see these classic characters in new footage, director Ivan Reitman choosing
01:36 to splice a portion of it into the final film's montage as a quick gag, rather than a whole
01:41 sequence, turned out to be a stroke of genius.
01:44 7.
01:45 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - Tuco's Bandits
01:48 Sergio Leone's 1966 spaghetti western is a great tale of tensions between three men,
01:53 all trying to get by in the American West during the Civil War, sometimes working together
01:57 and sometimes standing off against each other to unearth a confederate gold stash.
02:02 In the final version, Tuco is chasing his former criminal partner Blondie across the
02:06 state.
02:07 One attempt at his life includes an attack from a group of bandits that Tuco has on his
02:10 side but they're never really given any explanation, they just kinda show up to give Clint Eastwood
02:15 some goons to shoot at.
02:17 The 2004 special edition DVD gave us plenty of unseen moments, one of which shed a little
02:22 light on this scene.
02:23 On his hunt for Blondie, Tuco stops off in a cave and speaks out loud, essentially putting
02:28 a price on Blondie's head and saying he'll split the reward for all ways.
02:32 His bandit buddies descend into the cave and Tuco utters a seriously underrated line, "I'm
02:37 alive, you bastards, and I always will be."
02:39 As such, we now have our bandits.
02:42 What makes this scene even more special is that the good, the bad and the ugly was filmed
02:45 in such a way that every scene had to be dubbed for every regional theatrical release.
02:50 The unusable original sound was no different in these reclaimed, deleted scenes and so
02:54 the original cast had to return one last time to bring these moments back to life.
02:59 6.
03:00 Super Mario Bros. the Movie - Political Rap
03:03 Super Mario Bros. is a prime example of a movie that shook so hard during its shooting
03:08 that nearly every nut and bolt just about flew off the thing and it almost fell apart
03:12 entirely.
03:13 Its editors did what they could to take their wrenches to it, get it, plumbing jokes, and
03:17 tighten it up and as such, many scenes were cast to the wayside.
03:21 Whilst usually pointed and laughed at, there is a cult following for the '93 film adaption
03:26 of Nintendo's most famous mascot that can find the fun in the ridiculousness of it all.
03:31 Those people, which may include myself, were elated then that in 2019 the Super Mario Bros.
03:36 the Movie archive announced that they had found a tape with 15 more minutes of footage.
03:41 This tape confirmed a lot of rumours about what the film's directors, Rocky Morton and
03:45 Annabelle Jankel had shot that had been cut by interfering studio heads.
03:49 Most important out of all of it was that it finally unearthed a scene that gives further
03:53 reason and depth to the out of nowhere twist that the villainous King Koopa's underlings
03:57 Spike and Iggy would turn on their leader.
04:00 That scene?
04:01 A 90s as all heck trade-off rap performance.
04:04 Likely cut due to its political commentary, yes really, essentially the two characters
04:08 are performing a political rally.
04:10 It's an awkward but still good-hearted comedic moment that matches the general tone of the
04:15 rest of the movie.
04:16 Further moments found on the tape certainly back up the more political tones that were
04:19 discarded but the rap scene was certainly the centrepiece of it all.
04:24 5.
04:25 Alien Overmorphing
04:27 The internet gives us instant access to so much information that makes finding out about
04:31 deleted scenes and cut material from our favourite movies very easy.
04:35 If you were an Alien fan in 1979 you may not have known about its most wanted deleted scene
04:41 for some time.
04:42 That is unless you picked up the movie's novelisation which included a sequence now
04:46 referred to as the 'Ovomorphing' scene.
04:49 Whilst escaping the Nostromo as its self-destruct sequence counts down, Ripley comes across
04:53 the bodies of two of her former crewmates, Brett and Dallas, in the belly of the ship.
04:58 They're encased in some strange matter that looks similar to the egg that the facehugger
05:02 had previously sprung forth from and Dallas begs Ripley to kill him.
05:06 It's the kind of harrowing, gross tragedy that you would expect from this Geiger-driven
05:10 horror flick.
05:12 Director Ridley Scott cut the scene because Ripley needed to keep moving with the self-destruction
05:16 bearing down on her but fans were passionate about the scene that hit the cutting room
05:20 floor.
05:21 Sure, it may have slowed down the pacing but hardcore Alien lore nerds felt that it explained
05:25 a gap in the Aliens' biology.
05:27 The scene was finally shown 13 years later in 1992 on a Laserdisc release and, due to
05:33 fan demand, was inserted back into Alien as part of the director's cut in 2003, making
05:39 it not just found but canon.
05:41 4.
05:42 Election - Alternate Ending
05:44 1999's Election, if you've never heard of it before, sounds like the most quintessential
05:49 90s movie.
05:50 A black comedy starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon doing emotional damage
05:54 to each other over the process of a student body election.
05:58 Unfortunately for all of its successes, it gets lost among all the other great films
06:03 that were released around the turn of the millennium.
06:05 An appropriate segue then into the fact that the film had an alternate ending shot that
06:09 is closer to the Tom Perotta novel it was based upon that also got very much lost.
06:14 Precisely who found it isn't exactly clear but the important thing is whoever it was
06:18 picked up the right VHS at a yard sale one day in 2011.
06:22 Yep, the alternate ending for Election was discovered in a box on somebody's front
06:27 garden.
06:28 The original ending ends on a much more touching note with Broderick's Jim and Witherspoon's
06:32 Tracy meeting a few years later by chance and putting the past behind them.
06:36 It's interesting to see but another case where the decision to cut it was correct.
06:40 The film's final, much more spiteful ending with Broderick throwing a drink at Witherspoon's
06:44 car in a fit of rage fits the tone far more appropriately.
06:47 Still, maybe don't throw your extra footage into a box in the attic, eh directors?
06:52 Yeah?
06:53 3.
06:54 Once Upon a Time in America - The Mausoleum
06:56 Sergio Leone's crime drama Once Upon a Time in America has a long history of having
07:00 its runtime butchered.
07:02 The Ladd Company feared that the film's 269 minute runtime needed to be shorter, cutting
07:07 it to a comparably paltry 139 minutes.
07:11 Over the years since Leone's death his children have taken to restoring the film to its original
07:15 state and beyond using more and more discovered unused footage.
07:20 As it stands the film starts with gangster Noodles laying wasted in a Chinese opium den
07:25 after his friends have been shot down by the police.
07:28 Once Upon a Time then retells the events of the past that led to that moment and then
07:31 continues onwards to the future.
07:34 One of these deleted sequences is the surreal cemetery scene where Noodles visits the Riverdale
07:38 Mausoleum after being informed that the remains of his friends have been moved there.
07:43 Within he discovers a plaque that inexplicably claims that he paid for the mausoleum, despite
07:47 the fact that he was living in hiding after their deaths.
07:50 The general tone really amps up Noodles' feelings of guilt and serves to add credence
07:55 to the theory that some of the story is protagonist Noodles' drug-addled dream.
08:00 Still sitting in the opium den, Noodles is supposedly picturing the future.
08:04 When played alongside the other scenes such as love interest and wannabe singer Debra
08:08 performing on Broadway with no context around it, it certainly adds some depth and intrigue
08:13 to that potential interpretation.
08:15 2.
08:16 Blue Velvet - Alternate Introduction
08:19 David Lynch's Blue Velvet is dark, uncomfortable and full of interesting unspoken subtexts.
08:25 The story is essentially a noir film with the detective in question being college student
08:29 Geoffrey Beaumont who, one day, discovers a severed ear.
08:32 This leads him into a strange underbelly in his idyllic town where he becomes involved
08:37 with a woman named Dorothy and her abuser Frank.
08:40 But Geoffrey lucking upon the ear wasn't how the film originally started and considering
08:44 that Blue Velvet was basically cut in half before it was released to the public, it's
08:48 not all that surprising to hear it.
08:50 Still, it was assumed that all of this footage was gone forever until one studio hand found
08:54 it in a warehouse in Seattle 25 years after its release.
08:58 Packaged in the eventual Blu-ray release we get a spattering of scenes but the most integral
09:02 is the original opening that starkly begins with Geoffrey chanting upon a rape in the
09:06 basement of his college.
09:08 He watches for a few moments before finally interrupting.
09:12 Geoffrey's journey throughout the movie into the seedy criminal underworld of his
09:15 town feels framed as one of curiosity and voyeurism and thus this is an appropriately
09:20 unnerving way to start.
09:22 It gives a deeper sense of meaning to the later scene where Geoffrey watches Frank rape
09:26 Dorothy from a nearby closet.
09:29 During the film Geoffrey's love interest Sandy asks him if he's a pervert or a detective.
09:33 This original opening certainly skews the line on that one.
09:37 1.
09:38 The Exorcist - Spider Walk
09:40 When The Exorcist was released in 1973 it was billed as the scariest film you would
09:45 ever see.
09:46 Sensibilities were different then and sure enough there were reports that the movie led
09:50 audience members to faint from fright.
09:51 What's remarkable is that one of the most chilling shots wasn't in the original cut.
09:56 If you've somehow never seen it, well first of all fix that, but also The Exorcist tells
10:01 the story of Regan, a small child who seemingly becomes possessed by the devil.
10:06 In the process of expelling the evil from her body we are treated to some of the most
10:10 shocking and state of the art effects that were made in film at that time.
10:14 Regan running down the stairs bent over backwards is one of the most iconic moments in horror
10:19 history and was inspired by a similar scene in the book.
10:22 When it came to the theatrical edit of the film though it was left out, with director
10:26 William Friedkin citing that its planned placement didn't work and interrupted the otherwise
10:31 slow build to Regan's demonic takeover.
10:34 Fans of the book missed its inclusion and rumours about it swelled for decades.
10:38 In 2000 however The Exorcist returned to cinemas with a director's cut, promising a version
10:43 you've never seen before.
10:45 And 27 years later The Exorcist was the topic of terrified debate because of Regan's horrifying
10:50 gymnastics.
10:51 The scene drove audiences in their thousands to see the classic once more, making The Exorcist
10:56 the highest grossing horror film for many, many years to come.
11:00 And that's the list, let us know what you thought down in the comments below and whilst
11:04 you're down there let us know what other movie scenes you know about that went missing
11:08 for a very long time that we can now all see and enjoy.
11:11 Speaking of enjoy, don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe if you haven't
11:15 and also hit the notification bell.
11:17 I'm Sy for whatculture.com and have a good week.