10 Movies You Didn't Know Recycled Footage From Other Films
8. Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure Borrowed A Battle Scene From War & Peace
"Check it out, we're in the middle of a war, dude," says Ted 'Theodore' Logan when Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure's main characters touch down in 1805 Austria.
The war they were in the middle of was War and Peace, the 1956 movie starring Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda. That's where this footage originated from.
It turns out Bill & Ted's $10 million budget wasn't enough to recreate the Napoleonic Wars, so director Stephen Herek had to improvise. It's obvious the scene was taken from elsewhere, given that the ones it is sandwiched between have dramatically different production values, and the fact a goofball time-hopping comedy had the audacity to poach footage from a high-brow literary adaptation is hilarious.
Stealing scenes from elsewhere is usually frowned up and considered lazy, but in this case, it's a most excellent gag.