9 Famous Movie Moments Unbelievably Nailed On The First Take

7. Joaquin Phoenix's Goes Apesh*t On A Jail Cell; No Further Takes Required - The Master

Joaquin Phoenix gives one of the best performances in recent cinema in Paul Thomas Anderson's complicated 2012 drama The Master. He's a tour-de-force from start to finish, and it's outright criminal that Phoenix didn't receive more acclaim for his turn in the film.

Paul Thomas Anderson is the kind of director who you imagine to do a lot of takes, so it's interesting to learn that - for one particular scene - the filmmaker opted for the first. The scene in question is the one where Phoenix's drifter, Freddie Quell, is placed in a jail cell and proceeds to smash it up. When it came to shooting the scene, Phoenix unleashed hell to such an intense degree that it wasn't possible to reach those heights again.

"The first take that we did is the take that is in the movie," Anderson said on the scene. "I can remember seeing it, thinking, I think this is OK, I think that's good." Though a few more versions were ultimately shot, the version in the final cut of The Master is that initial take.