10 Famous Movie Endings That Were Total Accidents
2. Director Mike Nichols Forgot To Yell Cut - The Graduate
Endings don't come much more iconic than The Graduate, whose final scene sees Ben (Dustin Hoffman) whisk Elaine (Katharine Ross) away from her planned wedding, before the pair high-tail it on a bus.
The final shot focuses on Ben and Elaine as they soak in the enormity of what they've done and what lies ahead for them, their facial expressions changing from joy to ambiguous contemplation.
The ending is largely accepted to be one of cinema's greatest, a genius feat of visual storytelling which leaves the audience with plenty to ponder.
But the circumstances which led to that ending were totally accidental, as on the 2016 Criterion release of the movie, film historian Bobbie O'Steen - who also happened to be the wife of the film's editor, Sam O'Steen - confirmed that her husband actually directed the scene in place of the film's actual director, Mike Nichols.
And O'Steen, having no real directorial experience, forgot to yell "cut!" when Hoffman and Ross stared into the middle-distance. But once Nichols saw the footage, he decided this was the only way to end the movie.