10 amazing deleted scenes that didn’t deserve to be cut
The editing process of any given movie is the one part that is so criminally overlooked. Involving painstaking hours of screen time where shots are meticulously reviewed alongside bucketfuls of oat milk lattes, editors almost never get the praise they deserve. Often working with the director, the pair will make difficult decisions, deciding which shots to stay and which should be left on the cutting room floor.
Usually, this only extends to shots, but sometimes entire scenes have to be culled from the final film, with their presence ruining the pacing of the film, and being judged as superfluous overall. These deleted scenes make their way into the ‘special features’ of DVDs and Blu-Rays, providing extra content to die-hard fans that want to see what didn’t make the cut from their favourite movies.
Such has inevitably meant that a number of iconic moments have been left from movies, relegated to the dusty ‘special features’ corner where very few viewers ever witness their mastery. So, in this list, we’re giving time to those deleted scenes that never got the love they deserved, brutally ripped from their movies like a strand of cheese string pulled from the mozzarella baton.
Take a look at our list of excellent deleted scenes, highlighting classic unsung moments from the films of Peter Jackson, Ari Aster, James Cameron and more.
10 amazing deleted scenes that didn’t deserve to be edited out
At the zoo – This is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 1984)
Balancing on a satirical knife-edge, the comedy of Rob Reiner’s This is Spinal Tap is mastered by the dedication of the lead cast members, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer. Endlessly quotable, the mockumentary follows a fictional ‘70s band on tour in America as they experience a serious commercial decline, and is as hilariously funny as it is genuinely enthralling.
Packed with some golden moments of comedy, we believe that the deleted scene in which the group share a mundane conversation about monkeys should’ve been left in, it’s just too brilliantly daft.
Cocoon scene – Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
There’s much discussion about the deleted cocoon scene from Ridley Scott’s iconic 1979 sci-fi horror Alien, primarily because if it hadn’t been cut from the movie, it would have changed the franchise forever. The moment itself sees victims of the Xenomorph pinned against the walls of the spaceship encased in a cocoon of sorts with a hard outer shell and plenty of disturbing gloop. They weren’t only slowly dying, but they were also being transformed into alien eggs.
The moment is gloriously disturbing and adds to the horror of the movie whilst showing off the film’s excellent special effects. Scott only removed the scene due to pacing issues, but incidentally, this also meant that the egg-laying Xenomorph Queen from James Cameron’s Aliens made sense.
Dudley’s departure – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (David Yates, 2010)
In the early Harry Potter movies, the title character’s relationship with his family is explored in a fair bit of depth, but as the films get darker, the Dursley family is left in the dust. A deleted scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 looked to revisit this, however, with the touching moment coming when Dudley, Harry’s cousin, tries to leave on good terms with the hero of J. K. Rowling’s story.
“I don’t think you’re a waste of space,” Dudley utters, before Harry replies, “see you ‘Big D’”. It’s a genuinely heartfelt moment that feels earned and would’ve made for a nice end to the duo’s story.
Falafel hot dog – Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (Adam McKay, 2004)
Well-known as one of the greatest comedy movies of the 21st century, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is a truly influential comedy that would help elevate the careers of several cast members involved. Whilst there are multiple hilarious moments throughout the movie, there is one moment in the 2004 film that was left out from the final cut that is different enough from the other jokes that it should’ve been included.
The scene itself sees the lead characters of the KVWN network, played by Paul Rudd, Will Ferrell, Steve Carell and David Koechner, share lunch in a diner, whereupon Carell’s character admits to eating a ‘falafel hot dog’ that really contains a coffee filter with cigarette butts on it. So silly, but so good.
Gandalf’s battle with the Witch King – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson, 2003)
Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is already over nine hours long in total, and that’s not even taking into account the ‘extended editions’ that add about three hours on top of that. Naturally, there’s a lot of gold that Jackson had to cut from the original films as a result, with several deleted scenes being worthy of mention. Though, to avoid this merely being a Lord of the Rings list, we’ve opted for the battle between Gandalf and the Witch King.
An iconic moment, brilliantly captured by Jackson and his team, this scene is a little bit of fan service that shows the powerful wizard go up against one the nastiest villains in the series, it’s a thrilling moment that would’ve elevated the original movie.
A more humanised Terminator – Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron, 1991)
Terminator 2: Judgement Day is a perfect action classic, but the original movie could’ve been improved with one scene that was added to a later cut. The scene comes when John and Sarah Connor flick the switch in the Terminator’s brain, allowing him to learn. Having shut down the cyborg, Sarah is keen to destroy the machine that tried to kill her in the previous movie, but John convinces her out of her rage, eager to see if the robot can learn to become more human.
It’s a hugely important moment in the series that James Cameron only removed to save time. Speaking on the director’s commentary track for the movie, he stated: “we had a movie that was running about two hours and 40 minutes. There was just no way that we felt we could play it”.
The Mouth of Sauron – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson, 2003)
Two entries ago, we stated that we could have made this list entirely Lord of the Rings related, and this is certainly true, with our next pick also being from the third film in the fantasy trilogy, The Return of the King. This scene is more low-key than the Witch King battle but is just as compelling, showing the moment when The Mouth of Sauron approaches Viggo Mortensen’s Aragorn before carnage commences.
Adding some personality to the hideous orcs, trolls and dark beings of Middle Earth, this moment is one of the most compelling in the entire film, so why exactly they cut it, we will never know.
Peter and his father – Hereditary (Ari Aster, 2018)
Ari Aster’s Hereditary changed the horror genre when it was released in 2018, showing how such films could contain frightening moments whilst also carrying heavy themes about family and depression. One of the best family moments comes in the deleted scenes when the teenage boy confides in his frightened father after accidentally decapitating his younger sister in a car accident.
“Nobody blames you Peter, I can’t imagine for one second that you’re not going through the exact same thing we are,” the father, played by Gabriel Byrne, says to his son, playing out the start of a powerful and heartfelt scene in the shocking horror film.
‘Stairway to Heaven’ – Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe, 2000)
A favourite of music lovers across the world, this powerful coming-of-age story follows William Miller, a high-school boy given the opportunity to tour with a rock band and report on their growing success. Experiencing the industry through their drug and sex-fueled escapades, the movie is a compelling tale that could’ve been so much better if only the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ scene was included.
The eight-minute deleted scene sees William trying to persuade his mother (played by Frances McDormand) to allow him to go on tour with the band by playing her ‘Stairway to Heaven’ by Led Zeppelin. The whole song is played for the enjoyment of the audience and the cast, with William’s mum finally being won over by the end after seeing how much joy it brings to him.
Unicorn – Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
If this unicorn-related deleted scene were left in Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi classic, the long-standing cinematic mystery of whether Rick Deckard is a replicant would have a rather simple answer. The scene was cut in the original release but is present in Blade Runner: The Final Cut and shows Harrison Ford’s Deckard daydreaming at a piano, imagining a Unicorn dashing through the forest.
The scene links to the moment later in the film when he finds a small origami unicorn whilst getting ready to flee with Rachael (Sean Young), a woman he falls in love with. After some narrative manoeuvring, the inclusion of his scene proves that Deckard is indeed a replicant.
