15 Movie Sets You Didn't Know Were Hell To Work On

4. Days Of Thunder

Why It Was Hell: Producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, along with writer Robert Towne, often argued with director Tony Scott about his directorial style (enough to make you wonder why they hired him in the first place). This creative wrangling in part led to a shoot that ran three months over schedule (ending just a month before release), causing the budget to almost double, with staff members often being paid to sit around on set, collecting huge overtime payments. Simpson and Bruckheimer spent $400,000 of the budget on building their own personal gym and flew hookers to the set for their own pleasure, all while Scott only realised in editing that he had forgotten to capture the film's money shot, of Cole Trickle's (Tom Cruise) car crossing the finish line. Was It Worth It?: Despite all the concerns, Days of Thunder eventually made close to 3x its $60 million budget and is said to be Quentin Tarantino's favourite racing blockbuster film, even while mixed reviews derisively compared it to Cruise's Top Gun. In short, it did its prime job: to make money, and to further the Tom Cruise brand.