Bloopers In Marvel Movies That Were Better Than The Original Scenes
One of the best things about the home releases of Marvel movies is that they almost always come with a gag reel. The reels not only give us a look behind the proverbial curtain, but offer the chance to laugh at and with the stars playing the heroes, villains, and everyone in between. From actors forgetting their lines to wardrobe malfunctions to improvisations left on the cutting room floor, the gag reels always give us a few minutes of nonstop laughter, and usually the biggest complaint is that they aren't longer.
Sometimes, there's even stuff on the gag reel so good we wish it was left in the finished product. In some cases it might have actually added a little something to the story, and in others, well — keeping the bloopers in might have taken away from the story, but the gags are so hilarious it's tough to care.
Here's some examples of Marvel movie bloopers we think were better than the original scenes, and if you notice any fun typos as you read — you're welcome (editor's note: you won't).
Guardians Vol. 2 could have had fun with Stallone and Russell's word salad
Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell have a few things in common. They both hit their fame sweet spots in the 1980s, they both appear in 2017's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and both get frustrated on the sequel's gag reel trying to spit out Guardians-specific names.
The gag reel shows that — while playing the Ravager leader Stakar and chastising Yondu (Michael Rooker) — Stallone had a lot of trouble nailing down the word "Ravager." Stallone is talking to someone off-screen and alternating between "Ravager" and "Ravanger." Even though he gets it right after about four tries, Stallone finally says, "Ah, forget it. I'll see you in looping."
Meanwhile, Kurt Russell has trouble saying his son's codename. As he camps with the Guardians on the planet Berhert, Russell says, "Well, even where I reside, out past the edge of what's known, we've heard tell about the man they call Star Wars." Of course, the name he means is Star-Lord. Russell immediately realizes his mistake but makes it all over again in the next take.
Along with just being funny, leaving in the actors' mistakes could have added a bit to the respective scenes. Showing Stakar using a different word for "Ravagers" could highlight the division between him and Yondu, while the fact that Ego keeps getting his kid's name mixed up with that of a popular movie franchise could underscore what a horrible father he is.
Maria Hill's reaction to Colson's death is classic
In what the Avengers' Blu-ray calls "Marvel's First Ever Gag Reel," it's clear that director Joss Whedon's trademark sense of humor infected the entire cast, and the reel includes a couple of shots of the director interrupting the filming for the sake of giggles.
But Whedon's not the only one who gets to make you laugh. As S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill, Cobie Smulders doesn't get to flex her comedy muscles quite as much as she does on How I Met Your Mother, but she makes up for it with what's arguably the single funniest moment in the Avengers bloopers. Pretending to react to the news of Phil Coulson's (Clark Gregg) death, Smulders starts shrieking like a banshee.
Along with hilariously exaggerated screams of "Coulson!" and "No!" Smulders goes on a vengeance-filled (or is it Avenger-ance filled?) rant. "You will be avenged! You will be avenged! I will get the Avengers and you will be avenged, Coulson!" The best part is the Helicarrier extras all mill about in the background as if it was a normal take.
We can't, in good conscience, pretend this would have fit into the actual movie. But, come on. It's classic.
X-Men: Days of Future Past could have used the extra smooch
The scenes set in the dystopian future of 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past have a pretty bleak tone, so it almost feels wrong that the movie even has a gag reel, but thankfully it does. Among other funny bits, it includes a scene whose blooper-free counterpart was actually cut from the theatrical release.
Before going back into the past to prevent the dystopian future in which the Sentinels have hunted mutants to near extinction, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) turns to Storm and says, "I'm the only one who's gonna remember any of this, right?" Storm (Halle Berry) answers "I think so." Logan nods, says "Okay then," and gives his teammate a long kiss. When their embrace breaks, rather than simply gazing at Logan longingly or asking him to come back, Halle Berry screeches in joy and throws her hands in the air. She hops away off camera, pumping her fists and otherwise continuing to celebrate the smooch.
Now, Berry's classic response to the kiss would have broken the mood. But the kiss itself would have been a nice addition to the film. And the inclusion in the gag reel makes us wonder whether or not Berry purposely messed up that take just to make sure she'd get to kiss Jackman a few more times.
Too much improv left on Deadpool's cutting room floor
One of the interesting things about gag reels is that in some ways, they can reveal a little bit about how the movie itself was made. One example is the blooper reel on the home release for 2016's Deadpool, as it divulges that the actors were encouraged to go off-script. Deadpool's gag reel includes a wealth of completely improvised lines, particularly from Ryan Reynolds and his co-star T.J. Miller.
When Miller's Weasel first sees Wade's scarred face, for example, the comedian unleashes a torrent of improvised takedowns, starting with the suggestion that their relationship move "completely to text and phone calls." Miller makes it clear: "No FaceTime — no time around that face." Multiple takes of other insults include Weasel saying Wade's face looks like "someone turned your face inside out ... but then you got in a house fire," or, alternatively, "a house fire was in another house fire."
Reynolds' improv includes a long list of jabs toward Gina Carano's Angel Dust. Among other things, he compares her to Criss Angel Mindfreak, rapper Busta Rhymes, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys actor Kevin Sorbo, and Mötley Crüe co-founder Nikki Sixx. Hilariously, the reel shows that the line that makes it into the theatrical release — "You're gonna leave me all alone here with less-angry Rosie O'Donnell?" — ticked Carano off so much she gives Reynolds an actual punch to the face as a reward.
Yondu could have spouted a lot more nonsense
For most of his all-too-short time in the MCU, Michael Rooker's Yondu is known for being a very intimidating presence. In one of the funnier moments of 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy, Yondu chooses a unique tactic to scare the Broker (Christopher Fairbank). While the black market merchant tries to explain why he can't reveal the name of the Orb's buyer, Yondu keeps interrupting him with gibberish.
The gag reel for Guardians reveals that Rooker improvised even more nonsense than what showed up in the theater, and it's just glorious. We won't even try to spell out the stuff that comes out of his mouth, though one of the interruptions begins with incoherent mumbling and ends with what almost sounds like a fart. Sean Gunn stands behind Rooker as his second-in-command Kraglin, and it gets tough to tell whether he's laughing because that's what his character is supposed to do, or if Gunn is just losing it.
Sure, we think the original scene was funny enough, but adding all the gibberish Rooker comes up with in the gag reel would have made it so much better. We should mention that Rooker also has a funny moment seconds earlier, when he's checking out the jeweled knick-knack that eventually winds up on his ship. To no one in particular he exclaims, "Look at its eye! It follows you wherever you go! You can't fool it!"
In the Civil War gag reel, Stan Lee makes a hilarious mistake
As far as MCU movies go, 2016's Captain America: Civil War is pretty intense. The final throwdown between the warring heroes gets ugly, but thankfully one of the architects of Marvel Comics shows up toward the end to not only deliver an important package to Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.), but to make sure we get a few laughs in.
In one of his many beloved MCU cameos, the late Stan Lee shows up to the Avengers' headquarters as a Fed Ex driver, delivering the package that contains a letter from Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) along with an emergency contact phone. In the finished product, Lee looks down at the package and announces he's looking for "Tony Stank." The film's gag reel shows a take where Lee says something else, and we're not sure if he did it as a joke or if it was a legitimate goof-up.
In the reel, instead of "Tony Stank," Stan "The Man" says he's looking for "Robert Stank," fusing the actor's real first name with the misread version of his character's last name. Now, admittedly, the original scene was hilarious. But, adding the "Robert Stank" could've been a fun fourth-wall-breaking moment, especially considering that Marvel officially made the fan theory that Lee was playing The Watcher in all of his cameos into official MCU canon.
Peter Parker has a rougher time in the Spider-Man 2 gag reel
In 2004's Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) isn't finding young adulthood easy. He may have super powers and genius level intellect, but the challenge of juggling college, multiple jobs, a social life, and fighting crime as Spider-Man is proving too much for him. In one of the many scenes meant to show how Parker is struggling, he drops his textbooks and as he kneels down to retrieve them, multiple passing students who either don't notice him or don't care whack him in the head with their bags.
The movie's gag reel shows us one take when things went even worse for Parker, although thankfully Maguire has a good sense of humor about it. Shortly after Parker is hit from behind by one student's bag, he's hit by another from the front. A prompt shows us the second student is none other than the director of the first Spider-Man film trilogy, Sam Raimi. And in this particular take, Raimi gives his lead actor more than just a smack to the head. After the book bag hits Maguire, one of the straps briefly gets caught on the actor's neck, dragging him a bit before letting him go.
Adding that extra choke would have made the scene funnier, particularly since it's Raimi doing it. But we can understand if the idea was brought up and Maguire — not wanting to be choked too many times that day — vetoed it.
In Guardians Vol. 2, we could have learned more about Ravager wooing techniques
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2's gag reel gives one minor character a bit more time to... well we hesitate to use the word "shine," but he gets more time on screen anyway. Comedian Steve Agee plays Gef the Ravager — a bearded, goggled villain who is ultimately killed along with most of the other Ravagers by Yondu's flying arrow. If you don't remember him, it may jog your memory to mention that he suffers the added humiliation of getting his beer mug smashed moments before his death.
The gag reel includes a brief and funny drama on Contraxia involving Gef and one of the yellow robot courtesans servicing the Ravagers. Gef's strategy of wooing the robot includes the line, "I felt a connection, you know, when you stepped on my foot," and yelling, "Why don't you love me back?" as she leaves.
Like the first movie, Guardians Vol. 2 is pretty funny and probably didn't need this extra bit, but it still might have made the film even funnier. It also could have added to the Ravagers' motivations. After all, if you're pathetic enough that even lovebots are turning down your advances, it could go a long way toward explaining why you're disgruntled enough to eventually betray your boss and murder your coworkers.
The Deadpool 2 mid-credits scenes may have actually been better
One of the most fun parts of 2018's Deadpool 2 is Wade Wilson's corrective time romp in the mid-credits scenes. Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) fixes Cable's time travel device, and Deadpool uses it to save his girlfriend, save his X-Force teammate Peter (Rob Delaney), prevent the making of the 2011 bomb Green Lantern, and cut short the action of 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
But while Negasonic has a surprisingly easy time fixing the futuristic tech, Deadpool has a tough time grabbing ahold of the thing. On the gag reel we learn that it took Ryan Reynolds at least four takes to catch the time traveling device without dropping anything else. On the first take, the device lands in Reynolds palm but bounces away. On the second try, Hildebrand comes up short and Reynolds instinctively tries to kick at it as if it were a hacky sack. Finally, on the third take, Hildebrand throws it a little too far to the left but Reynolds is able to reach out and snatch it. Then, perfectly, he stands up straight and the crossed swords on his back fall off.
Considering how ridiculous the Deadpool films tend to be, we can't help but wonder if something like that might have actually played well in the film. Maybe Wade could have even capped the moment with his signature slogan, "Maximum effort."
Bruce Banner has trouble with a clipboard
On the Avengers gag reel, Mark Ruffalo proves himself to either have a wealth of underutilized slapstick comedy potential or to simply be the clumsiest actor on just about any superhero movie set you could find.
In the middle of filming one of his lab scenes with Robert Downey, Jr., Ruffalo calls out for the crew to wait because he has to "reset a prop." He picks up a clipboard from one counter and places it on another, and as he's walking away the clipboard clatters to the floor. He stops, picks up the clipboard, puts it back on the counter, and it immediately falls to the floor again. He does this two more times, picking it up and putting it back both times, yelling out apologies and assurances like "I got it! Don't worry!" and "It's okay! It's coming!"
To be fair, we don't know exactly how this would have fit in the finished product, especially when you consider that — in character — probably after the second or third time he drops the clipboard, there's a good chance we'd all be seeing green.
Hela could have used some audio accompaniment
There's one little wonderful nugget about the making of the Star Wars prequels that fans of the franchise love, even if they aren't particularly fond of the prequels themselves. According to Ewan McGregor, the Obi-Wan Kenobi actor would regularly make the lightsaber sound effects with his mouth in scenes when he'd duel enemies like Darth Maul or Count Dooku. Well, according to the gag reel for 2017's Thor: Ragnarok, McGregor isn't alone in finding it tough to not do the sound effects team's job for them.
Cate Blanchett plays the death goddess Hela in Ragnarok, and the gag reel includes a few takes of different scenes in which Blanchett makes childlike sound effects to accompany the unleashing of her character's powers. At one point she breaks into laughter and asks someone off-screen, "I shouldn't make the noises with my mouth, should I?"
The gag reel reveals that Blanchett's fight scenes with co-star Chris Hemsworth offered other challenges. The Oscar-winning actress had a tough time dragging her co-star across the floor — joking, "I've been training for months, but I don't think I can lift that" — as well as finding it tough to not hit Hemsworth for real.
Parachutes have changed since World War II, Cap
The first time Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor meet in The Avengers, things don't go that well. The thunder god kidnaps Loki (Tom Hiddleston) from the Quinjet, prompting Iron Man to fly after him without caring what his colleagues on board think. Cap calls after Stark, "We need a plan of attack!" and grabs a parachute to follow him. But on the gag reel, things are a little different.
On the reel, Chris Evans yells "We need a plan of attack!", grabs the parachute, and clearly has absolutely no idea how to get the thing on. The action comes to a crawl as he struggles to get his legs and arms through the straps and secure it to his back. It gets to the point where you genuinely feel bad for the guy. He tries lifting the straps to his shoulders in a movement that almost borders on dirty, saying, "Guess it doesn't go up as smoothly as I was hoping." Eventually, one of the crew has to show up and help him secure the prop.
Showing this in the finished film definitely wouldn't have come off as particularly heroic. But, considering Cap's from a different era, it might actually have made sense for the character, particularly if he'd thrown in a line like, "I guess parachutes have changed since I last used one."