Best Unscripted Scenes In Marvel Movies

With sequels, spinoffs, crossovers, and corporate tie-ins aplenty, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has to run like clockwork—which doesn't always leave a lot of room for experimenting or fooling around. Yet some of the best Marvel movie moments weren't even in the script. The Avengers assemble once again to look at their favorite movie scenes they filmed off the cuff.

Thor director Kenneth Branagh lined up one heck of a cast to bring Marvel's Asgardian contingent to life—and he took full advantage of all that talent when he asked Anthony Hopkins, who played patriarch Odin, to improvise during a scene in which he banished his wayward son Thor from the kingdom. Chris Hemsworth, who played Thor, and Tom Hiddleston, who played his brother Loki, both reportedly had a hard time keeping it together during the scene.

Tony Stark is a man who likes to live by his own rules. Robert Downey Jr. played by a slightly different set of rules filming The Avengers. This improvised scene features Stark offering Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) some blueberries, which stemmed from Downey hiding food all over the set and deciding to snack while he and Ruffalo were filming.

As befitting its title, Thor: The Dark World is a decidedly gloomier experience than its quip-filled predecessor. Even if the laughs aren't quite as plentiful the second time around, there are still a few funny bits, such as the scene in which Thor, at a loss for what to do with his hammer after entering an apartment, decides to hang it on a coat hook. As it turns out, that wasn't in the script; Chris Hemsworth came up with the idea while goofing around during takes, and he just thought it was funny.

Early in Guardians of the Galaxy, Chris Pratt's Star-Lord character has an embarrassing moment when he tells a group of would-be captors his name—and they have absolutely no idea who he is. As Pratt later admitted, the bit was the result of some improv he came up with after talking with director James Gunn. Moviegoers didn't know his name at the beginning, but they sure as heck remember it now.

There are a lot of moving parts at play in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and release dates need to be stuck to, even if the movie in question doesn't have everything it needs—like a script. The Incredible Hulk wasn't quite as screenplay-deficient as the original Iron Man, but William Hurt, who played the military antagonist General "Thunderbolt" Ross, later said his scene with Robert Downey, Jr. was 100 percent improvised. We all know Iron Man likes to wing it when it comes to having a plan.

Chris Evans' journey from zero to hero in Captain America: The First Avenger culminates when he steps his newly musclebound frame out of a high-tech military chamber after taking the super-soldier serum. Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) can't resist reaching out and touching one of Cap's puffed-up pecs. As Atwell admitted, when cameras rolled during that scene, it was the first time she'd seen Evans without his shirt on. We honestly don't blame you, Hayley.

The Avengers come together when it counts, but that doesn't mean they're always buddies. For example, there's the entertainingly testy relationship between Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) in Avengers: Age of Ultron, which comes to a humorous point when the archer has a chance to fell his speedy frenemy with a well-placed arrow and mutters to himself, "Nobody would know"—a line Renner came up with himself.

Iron Man director Jon Favreau had more of a framework than a script when filming started, so he made do by taking an improv-heavy approach. Favreau filmed a number of scenes with extra cameras so he'd have additional shots in the can if someone happened to randomly come up with a particularly great line. Fortunately, he had a cast that was up to the task—particularly co-stars Robert Downey, Jr. and Jeff Bridges, who later copped to improvising the majority of their characters' lines.

Ant-Man is a pretty nifty, Marvelized take on the standard heist movie, but it's also kind of a domestic dramedy about the strained relationship between a husband and wife (Bobby Cannavale and Judy Greer) and her ne'er-do-well ex-con ex (Paul Rudd). The trio's exchanges make up some of the movie's funniest moments. According to Cannavale, most of their lines together were off the cuff.

When Denis Leary signed up to play Gwen Stacy's police-captain dad in The Amazing Spider-Man, he was expecting to be bound to all the big-budget restrictions that tend to go along with your average blockbuster. Leary was pleasantly surprised to discover that director Marc Webb wanted to leave plenty of room for unscripted moments. He admits that freedom led to one of the film's best bits: a scene in which Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) tries to warn Captain Stacy that supervillain the Lizard is on the loose, only to be rebuffed by Leary's Godzilla joke. If only the sequel had this much personality...