5 Iconic Movie Moments They Only Did Because They Had To

5 The ‘Goodfellas’ Club Entrance

One of the most famous sequences in Goodfellas has Henry Hill escort his date into the Copacabana nightclub. Rather than go in through the front, they enter through the kitchen and rub elbows with the staff. It’s all done in one shot, and it took the crew eight tries and a ton of careful choreographing. If you haven’t seen the movie, you’ve still unknowingly seen the whole thing referenced or parodied. 

But that wasn’t the original plan for the scene. They were forced to send the actors in through this back entrance because they couldn’t get permission to take the filming crew in through the shorter and more direct traditional route. 

And when you think about it, this is a crazy scene to do by choice. If they’re showing off how connected their guy is, the obvious way to go is to have him walk past the long line at the front and walk in through the grand entrance, getting welcomed by the greeters there and handing out bribes. 

While Henry brags that entering through the rear is “better than waiting in line,” it’s not quicker than cutting the line, and it risks dousing them both in some chef’s spilled soup. But it sure wound up more interesting to look at than just looking strolling through a club’s foyer. 

4 Jimmy Fallon’s Red Sox Win

Fever Pitch began as 1992 essay and then a 1997 British movie, followed by a 2005 American remake. The British version of the story is about a teacher who’s an Arsenal fan and juggles his loyalty to his team with his relationship with his new girlfriend. In the end, Arsenal pulls off a historic win, and the two lovers also stick together, so it’s a happy ending any way you look at it.

For the American remake, the studio made the lead guy a Red Sox fan, which meant the movie would have to end with his team losing. The Red Sox always ended up losing, and the script would incorporate this fact, having the guy (Jimmy Fallon) explain the Curse of the Bambino to his girlfriend (Drew Barrymore). But then, with the ending of the movie already in the can, something unexpected happened. This was 2004, which meant the Red Sox moved forward and actually made it to the World Series. They now had to redo the ending, with the couple attending the 2004 Series — but they still weren’t sure if the Sox would win or lose. 

The end of the movie takes place during the actual final game of the series, at which the studio wasn’t allowed to bring their own cameras but had to rely on the stadium’s. The Red Sox did win (their first championship win in 86 years), and that became the end of the movie.

Oh, and if you’re having trouble coming to terms with how an American remake could ever be conceived with a less happy ending than the British original, it turned out they did originally plan to end with a Red Sox win of sorts. The movie was going to slip in an epilogue with the now-elderly couple witnessing the team winning — at some unspecified date in the distant future, because the team winning anytime sooner than that was impossible. 

3 The Disney City of Agrabah

When Disney was planning out their movie Aladdin, they decided to set it in the desert city of Baghdad. The place had 3,000 years of recorded history, so it would make a great setting for an Arabian tale. Right?

Then came a little something called the Gulf War. Saddam Hussein treacherously didn’t consult Disney before invading Kuwait, and the U.S. coalition didn’t consult them before responding. Disney hadn’t been planning to set their movie in a current warzone, but in the spring of 1991, that’s exactly what they were facing. 

They got around that by making the kingdom a fictional place instead. They came up with the name “Agrabah” by scrambling the letters in “Baghdad” (and then changing it some more, since direct scrambling didn’t work). If they weren’t so far along in production, maybe they would have scrapped the movie altogether. Or maybe they would have shifted the setting to China, since that’s where the 18th century Aladdin story was really set. 

2 ‘Star Wars’ Porgs

The Last Jedi places Luke Skywalker on a planet made up of rocky islands, and they shot those scenes on the Irish island of Skellig Michael. The island is a protected site, on multiple levels — its physical structures are protected under UNESCO, and it’s also a wildlife preserve. That meant that the crew were forbidden from shooting all the puffins who covered the island, as fun as that would have been. Instead, the production channeled those birds into the creation of the marvelous merchandising opportunity known as porgs. 

Also, remember those “physical structures” we just mentioned? Those are clocháns, domed huts built in the eighth century. Isolated monks lived here back then, before Vikings showed up and killed everyone. There was no need for artists to brainstorm what sort of building the exiled monk Luke Skywalker would live in, because they already had the designs sitting right there all around them. 

1 ‘The Polar Express’ Creepy Motion Capture

2004’s The Polar Express has left a profound cultural impact, even among people who never saw it. You don’t need to have watched the movie to know, “Oh yeah, that’s the movie with the uncanny motion-capture animation, which makes children cry.” Today, anytime you see a new politician who looks like they’re merely pretending to be human, tradition dictates that we compare them to the terrifying hominids in The Polar Express. 

That iconic motion capture wasn’t a creative inspiration, exactly. It was a loophole.

The Polar Express began as a picture book from 1985. When author Chris Van Allsburg sold the film rights to it, he inked in a stipulation that the adaptation could not be animated. He wanted it done in live action. Director Robert Zemeckis had other ideas. “Live action would look awful,” he said, “and it would be impossible. It would cost $1 billion instead of $160 million.” Using performance capture meant that the film complied with the letter of Van Allsburg’s stipulation — at least according to lawyers.

Despite that, you yourself would surely describe The Polar Express as an animated movie, which is what Van Allsburg didn’t want. The Visual Effects Society gave it an award for Outstanding Performance by an Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture. The American Film Institute put it in a list of 50 movies eligible to be named the best animated film of the century. 

Also, the Stinkers Bad Movie Awards awarded it “Worst Song” for “Hot Chocolate.” That’s not relevant but is still important to know. 

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