10 Iconic Movie Moments That Were Completely Improvised

2. Marlon Brando's Seminal Monologue - Apocalypse Now

If any movie truly encapsulates the idea of a fine line between madness and artistic genuine then it is Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now - few films have experienced production woes on a level anything approaching those which the cast and crew of this epic anti-war movie went through. It was as if the madness of war itself had infected the machinery of movie making. Seeing one of your lead actors arrive on location clinically obese and completely unfamiliar with the script would be enough to make even the toughest directors quiver with horror, but when the actor in question is Marlon Brando it's perhaps safe to assume that he'll pull something out of the bag and turn things around. Sure enough, Brando was barely perturbed by the situation and suggested that Coppola simply place a camera in front of him (avoiding his rotund form) and let him improvise away to his heart's content. The monologue from his character Colonel Kurtz is arguably better than anything that could have been scripted - dark, enigmatic and utterly engrossing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T-VAi2Xqq8