10 More Genius Ways Movies Fixed Their Own Mistakes
9. Dialogue Was Dubbed From English To Alien To Reflect The Changing Plot - Men In Black
Despite how slickly crafted the final product is, Men in Black's story was actually re-written throughout production.
The central alien plot was initially far more complicated, with the two Arquillian aliens (Carel Struycken and Mike Nussbaum) at the restaurant intended to be ambassadors of two warring alien species trying to bury the hatchet, as Edgar Bug (Vincent D'Onofrio) attempts to keep the war waging.
This exposition was all explained in the restaurant scene with the aliens speaking English, but in order to reflect the more simplified new plot, director Barry Sonnenfeld made the genius decision to avoid reshoots by simply re-dubbing the dialogue in the Arquillian language.
And because the Arquillian language was entirely made-up, Sonnenfeld was able to record whatever babble he needed to sync up with the original English-speaking mouth movements and then add whatever subtitles he wanted.
Brilliant.