10 Things You Didn't Know About Saving Private Ryan

Before the props, the money, the boot camp and the helpline, Saving Private Ryan had to go through a few re-writes in order to get the story right. According to Tom Hanks, the script went through a total of 11 re-writes, and even then it wasn't quite good enough for Spielberg.

Because of this, many of the film's most memorable moments ended up being ad-libbed on set and left in. Barry Pepper's sniper Private Jackson can be heard quoting various lines from the Bible as he lines up his shots, something that Pepper apparently thought to add to his character during filming.

The most famous case of ad-libbing during shooting comes after the group find Ryan and he sits down with Hanks' Captain Miller. The story that Ryan ends up telling Miller was completely ad-libbed by Damon on set. Going into detail about his brothers and a key moment from their relationship, Spielberg liked the spontaneous nature of the speech and decided to leave it in.