4 More Iconic Movie Scenes That Almost Got Cut

Pulp Fiction's adrenaline shot scene made a test audience member faint

During a test screening, an audience member reportedly passed out during the scene where Vincent stabs an adrenaline shot into Mia's chest, shutting the screening down. Producer Harvey Weinstein pushed to cut the scene for wide release, but Quentin Tarantino kept it in — it's now one of the film's most quoted, most tense moments.

Independence Day's White House explosion nearly got pulled for being too sensitive

Studio executives worried that showing the White House being destroyed on-screen was too close to real recent domestic terrorism concerns and pushed to cut or alter the moment. It stayed in the final cut and became the film's signature marketing image, plastered on posters and trailers everywhere.

RoboCop's boardroom scene was resubmitted to the MPAA 11 times before it kept its edge

The scene where a malfunctioning ED-209 riddles an executive with bullets was so graphic the MPAA slapped the film with an X rating. Director Paul Verhoeven and the studio resubmitted the film eleven times, trimming the violence bit by bit until it scraped by with an R — the boardroom scene is still one of the most quoted moments in '80s action cinema.

Say Anything's boombox scene almost didn't happen — its own star refused to play it straight

John Cusack resisted playing the scene as written, feeling it made his character look like a pushover. Director Cameron Crowe got the take he needed by telling Cusack the camera had no film loaded for one last try, letting him perform it stripped of self-consciousness — the resulting shot of Lloyd holding up a boombox became one of the most referenced images in movie history.