30 Movie Extras That Ruined Scenes

Yet as with everything, there’s as much good as bad, and there’s no shortage of movies ruined by the extra actors who did not pull their weight in the pricey productions they were cast in. 

When everyone was wondering whether Eve would really shoot Cary Grant’s Roger Thornhill character, one of the kids on the set saw it coming, covering his ears five seconds before the action happened. Talk about a spoiler alert!

In one scene, Ferrel meets with Delilah, an old friend from high school, and as they catch up, Delilah’s kids are snacking in the background. Weirdly, in one cut, the children are frozen, staring into space. That ruined the scene, and it was a tad distracting, to say the least. 

The rest of the school finds out, and as seen in this scene, one lad responds with unadulterated fury like he was given the role of a villain.

That was quite clumsy, and the film had to be changed to accommodate the blooper. George Lucas added a “bonk” sound effect to the scene 27 years later when he remastered the movie for a special edition release.

The extra happens to be Eldo Ray Estes, a makeup artist who decades later won four Emmys for his incredible work on As the World Turns. We now know he was always meant to be noticed. 

The muscular man in a black singlet clapping to the beat in a dancing scene is Jean-Claude Van Damme. It was his first movie role as an uncredited extra. 

In one scene, Scott’s team wins a crucial basketball match, and everyone’s cheering. But, if you watch the background performers, you’ll spot a girl in the stands who cheers so hard that her pants become unzipped, and she spends the rest of the scene awkwardly trying to fix it.

In a scene when Doc introduces Marty to his sons, his youngest gestures for the camera to come closer and points his fingers lower. We can only assume what he meant by that, but what’s shocking is that the editing team actually kept it. 

What’s worse, he wasn’t supposed to look at the camera, but the man couldn’t get himself to do anything but that. Wasn’t the food on his table appetizing enough?

In one scene in The Empire Strikes Back, while everyone was evacuating the kids, one man was busy saving an ice cream machine. It was such an iconic moment that the man got an action figure and a compelling backstory.

In one scene in the candy shop, a girl’s chin gets knocked when The Candy Man is lifting the counter hatch to let the children in. Luckily, she was barely injured and was mostly focused on getting the candy.

If you have an eye for details, you might have noticed a cheeky extra smiling during a pensive moment. Depending on how you perceive it, this might be a genius moment considering how different people react to tense moments. Even so, Nolan didn’t appreciate this, and he scrubbed him off the digital release.

A woman was asked to go get help for the injured coach, but instead of making haste and getting off-screen, she stopped mid-walk and stared directly at the camera. It was an odd blooper that had fans wondering what her deal was

This feeling probably came from the acting team as evidenced by this extra who wanted to show he was working. The man swept a chunk of air leaving fans in giggles in an otherwise serious scene.

In one scene, Lisa’s mother is seen walking into a room, saying “Hello” to no one in particular, then standing awkwardly with a deadpan expression. Meanwhile, a man is seen talking to himself in the background, gesturing as if having a deep conversation with an unseen person.

It’s a moment that’s hard to ignore, even amid the grandeur of the epic conclusion to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.

During Doug’s 40th birthday celebration, Oswalt appeared in the background, motionless and with a deadpan expression for a full minute. Despite his lack of lines, Oswalt’s memorable appearance proves that sometimes the smallest details can make the most significant impact in a scene.

This mistake takes the viewer out of the moment and ruins the continuity of the scene. Despite this, the film remains a classic and an important milestone for both Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson.

As Blofeld pets the cat, it scratches his arm, causing him visible discomfort. This moment reminds us that cats are always going to be cats, even in the world of James Bond.

The extras were cast as martial arts students but couldn’t keep a straight face during the scene. Even while other students were stone-faced, they failed to do their job. The guy in the center didn’t even try to hide his laugh and turned the famous scene into a comical mess.

In a pivotal moment of Star Trek Into Darkness, a colossal spacecraft is obliterating residents of a futuristic San Francisco. While people run for their lives, this extra finds the whole idea amusing. He stands around in the background smiling with his enormous specs, making him hard to miss.

Everything about the scene was going well until an extra did a little too much. It appears he was overly excited about the action and threw himself down without even taking a hit. Talk about an out-of-place whooping!

A frustrated officer yells, “No more dead cops!” Then, the extra in front of him makes a face that ruins the scene’s intensity. He looks oblivious to what was happening, and his face seems to say, “Dead cops? Nobody told me about dead cops.”

So, we can understand his pain when a few extras look more interested in having a good time than in pretending to look like they’re actually fighting. Their visible grinning and constant smirks remind the audience that the fighting was not real. Well, there goes the authenticity.

One particular moment perfectly captures Algren’s skill in drilling the army. He is so good that when his horse kicks an extra straight at the groin, the extra resumes his position like a well-trained soldier after a momentary flinch. Now, that’s commitment!

 The iconic scene in the movie where Jones is fighting an Egyptian swordsman is remembered by many. The actor playing the butcher behind Jones, however, was quite terrible at his job. His unimpressive knife-wielding abilities would make any real butcher blush with embarrassment.

As the ice age transforms the dystopian earth overnight, a terrifying storm ravages everything. While everyone is scrambling for their lives, one man stands in the downpour, completely motionless. Maybe he’s just a really good swimmer?

Notably, the Mon Calamari from Dac had peculiar features, including eyes on the sides of their heads, making it difficult to see properly while in costume. In Return Of The Jedi, an extra clearly couldn’t find the button he was supposed to be pressing due to his rubber suit. He comically stumbles around in the background before finding it again.

Given this knowledge, it’s easy to assume Nolan hired accomplished stunt performers for the intense fight scenes in The Dark Knight Rises. In reality, the fight scenes included many extras, and you can spot one man punching the air during the Wall Street battle. It seems like Nolan was a tad too focused on Batman and Bane during this epic fight scene.

Else, they would have scouted an actual teenager in place of the bald man in this scene. Or maybe, the personnel in charge of casting didn’t have a good look at the extra’s head before throwing him in front of the camera. 

Unfortunately, reflex action worked against this extra who played dead in The Last Ship. You can clearly see that he grabs onto the conveyor belt as he falls off the edge. 

In the 10th season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, this extra can be clearly seen staring right into the camera. In fact, if you listen to the sounds carefully, you’ll hear someone behind the camera pointing out that fail. 

The make-up artist probably did not apply the fake blood right and it started trickling down before the shot was supposedly taken. It is just interesting that this kind of obvious failure goes under the radar of the editing team. 

The extra is clearly seen putting on a cowboy hat, which may easily go unnoticed as odd. However, that prop is definitely out of place for the movie’s setting. 

There’s a scene where the protagonist Sydney Prescott attends a sorority party and Ghostface had just murdered a female student. Of course, the party ends with the police breaking it up. As the students rush out of the house around Sidney, there’s a confused guy acting inebriated carrying a bowl in his hands. It adds some unintentional comedy to a rather serious moment!

While everybody on the beach is running around hysterically, one guy is sporting a bucket hat and has a massive smile on his face. He’s clearly unaware that there’s a gigantic killer shark wreaking havoc!

As Hogan is riding down the highway on his motorcycle through Palm Beach, Florida, he goes past a body of water. At 15 seconds in, a man is captured throwing his dog into the ocean. While the guy and his dog weren’t extras, it was such an unexpected moment that’s worth noting.

As Luke is fighting off his enemies, he attempts to kick one of them in the face – but he just kicks air instead. It’s pretty comical just how bad the miss is! The extra did his job by committing to the bit, although Hamill was really the one to blame here.

The only thing in his way was a pillar, but he still managed to slightly lean into the frame. We’re glad the frame ended before he began waving and yelling, “Hi, Mom!”

While the extra threw up a salute in the wrong sci-fi universe, he did a good job of standing out. Funnily enough, the arm belonged to Adam Wyse, the son of a talent agent who often got him work in great films.

Well, there are two extras donned in impressive monkey makeup who could care less about their actions. One monkey is visibly reacting to the mob, rather than joining, and then another one is not into the stone-throwing at all. Maybe it was the heat or the irritating makeup?! Who knows.

To expand upon his bad guy persona, he doesn’t even close car doors. How inconsiderate! One of the scenes in which he does this could have been swept under the radar if weren’t for an extra who played his driver. The guy had a vogue moment when he unfavorably reacted to Dodgson not closing his own door.

This particular scene would have been picture-perfect if it wasn’t for a goofy extra in the background. The guy obviously thought that he had to be over the top after one punch was pulled. Well, we will give him credit for the enthusiasm!

This extra in Home Sweet Home Alone stared at the camera for a few seconds, and when the shot cuts back to him, he is still staring at it! We’re not sure what was going through his head, but he was somewhere else.

Take this group of people fleeing a movie theater in The Blob. While they should be terrified that a giant blob is going to attack them, they are laughing and smiling, instead. They were probably having so much fun that they forgot what to do!

While they are trying to take a picture, they are unaware that the camera isn’t open! How goofy.

While this slip-up isn’t the extra’s fault, it is still quite embarrassing. He didn’t even have convincing zombie makeup on his stomach in Dawn of the Dead!

During the raid on Cyberdyne Systems, it didn’t take the extra long before he noticed himself entering the frame and was like, “Nope, I’m out!”

He is standing on the sidewalk for a few seconds and is anticipating his direction to begin walking after the trucks have passed. It just looks so silly.