10 Movie Mistakes Left In To Troll You

6. The Cocaine Sneeze - Annie Hall

galaxy quest
United Artists

Sometimes on-set mistakes ultimately turn out to be happy accidents that actively improve a movie. That's certainly the case with the infamous cocaine sneeze scene in Woody Allen's masterful rom-com Annie Hall.

In the scene, nebbish comedian Alvy Singer (Allen) decides to try some cocaine with his partner Annie (Diane Keaton), and mere moments after learning that the premium product goes for $2,000 an ounce, he lets out an uncontrollable sneeze, sending a plume of the white stuff all over himself.

Allen called the scene "a complete, unplanned accident," but decided to leave it in after it cracked test audiences up, so much in fact that the pause before cutting to the next scene had to be extended in order to give viewers a few seconds to regain their composure.

Considering how utterly out of nowhere the gag is, it's a perfect example of a filmmaker rolling with the punches. The result is a gut-busting assault on the audience that comes totally out of left-field.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.