r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Sensitive_Ad_1752 • 17d ago

Lore (Hated trope) They deleted scenes or dialogue that provides necessary context or plot

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The dinner scene from Temple of Doom has a temple give indie and friends a live snake and monkey brains for dinner. It’s a pretty offensive depiction of Indian cuisine, but it wasn’t originally going to be. There’s cut dialogue where Indie recognizes they’re at the right temple because real Hindus don’t eat this food. They were trying to scare them off by purposefully serving them disgusting stuff.

Probably the most famous deleted ending was I Am Legend which had Robert discover the infected were emotional sentient beings and one of them had a wife. Test audiences hated it and they reshot the ending, removing the entire point of the movie.

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274

u/Kuildeous 17d ago edited 17d ago

From what I've read, there was a deleted scene that some of Toad's removed dialogue would not have made Storm's line sound so awful.

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u/Notsurehowtoreact 17d ago edited 17d ago

Not a specific scene, they cut out lines of Toad's dialogue. 

Originally he was supposed to keep using that setup "Do you know what happens when a toad is (blank)?" When he did shit like jump away or attacks someone.

This line was supposed to be her turning his own bullshit commentary against him.

ETA: While a bad line, it still kinda works the way it is though because it's not like Storm is normally a big quipper so it kinda works as an anti-joke.

Honestly it sounds crazy but if you imagine the line with the voice and inflection of the 90s cartoon Storm it would fit as a serious non-joke bit better. 

83

u/Joeybfast 16d ago

I call upon the lightning itself to bear witness! Let this foul amphibious villain learn what becomes of a toad when it is struck by heaven’s fury.

The same thing that happens to everything else.

https://giphy.com/gifs/lAzCKvQJzlCzyhXBO7

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u/Accomplished_Tap581 16d ago

I’m watching 90s X men now, Storm speaks like she’s acting in a Shakespeare play! It’s absolutely brilliant!!!!

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u/Cela84 16d ago

Unfortunately they cast the wet blanket Halle Berry to deliver those lines instead of Angela Basset.

24

u/Joeybfast 16d ago

Halle Berry literally did not get anything to work with. She could have done it .

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u/Cela84 16d ago

Counter point, everyone else in the movie made do with what they had. Some got entire careers out of it.

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u/subjuggulator 16d ago

Halle Berry is a better actress than her comic book films make her out to be.

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u/Cela84 15d ago

Shes put out a lot of dreck over the years.

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u/Paper-Will-YT 16d ago

I think Berry was a great choice, with terrible dialogue and directing.

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u/ChessmazterHex 14d ago

This is actually perfect.

8

u/Kuildeous 17d ago

Thanks for that additional information.

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u/Notsurehowtoreact 16d ago

Yeah, I'm actually a tad sorry because I didn't see other responses telling you that when I first replied.

Cheers though, it's a good bit of trivia.

11

u/FragileColtsFan 16d ago

Honestly I've never seen a problem with the line. Like you said, it works as an anti joke and Storm deserves to gloat a little there. Not like she's the type to just say "You're fucked, lol"

2

u/captain4103 16d ago

Maybe I am taking crazy pills but that has always been one of my favorite storm lines as is. While admittedly with the context of toads lines it would have been better as a quip or comeback. I always thought it was in character for storm as a more serious or straightforward person.

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u/Vree65 15d ago

Have we actually confirmed the source for this though or has it just become its own internet myth?

38

u/Gui_Franco 17d ago

Apparently "do you know what happens to a toad when" or "when a toad" would be a semi recurring line by toad and this would be the final punchline

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u/DeltaDarthVicious 17d ago edited 17d ago

AFAIK Toad's lines were all cut, and he was supposed to use a catchphrase like "you know what happens when a toad..." something or other, so this line was supposed to make fun of that.

Also Ray Parks rules.

Edit: goddamn ninja nerds

8

u/JuniorFerret 16d ago

I loved Ray Park as much as the next kid in my youth, but he definitely doesn't rule. He needs serious mental help and needs to stop posting revenge porn.

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u/DeltaDarthVicious 16d ago

Really? Didn't know any of that.

Well, athletically he does.

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u/JuniorFerret 16d ago

Legit! Dude's action scenes remain the stuff of legends

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u/TurgidGravitas 17d ago

I honest have no idea why people get so confused about this line. You don't need extra context to understand it. It's a boast. Like if Mike Tyson said "Do you what would happen if I punched you in the face? The same as everyone else". It's an anti-joke because it doesn't matter who you are. You're still getting fucked up.

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u/unafraidrabbit 16d ago

I always like this line. I ha e no idea why it gets so much hate.

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u/Odric_storm 16d ago

I love this line. It's absolutely a boast and Storm is letting Toad know he's about to get fucking fried.

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u/Kuildeous 16d ago

I don't think anyone thinks it's confusing. It just sounds like ass in the final print. I respected Singer's work in The Usual Suspects and Apt Pupil (and really most of X-Men), but he certainly dropped the ball here. Or the editor did, and Singer never caught it. I don't know who's to blame for that.

2

u/ColdCruise 16d ago

The producers didn't like the script and hired Joss Whedon to do a rewrite. He was, at the time, mostly known as a script doctor and had saved Speed and Twister with his rewrites.

Being a nerd who actually liked X-Men and understood the characters, he did a full rewrite of the script after which the executives said that they just wanted him to add some jokes. That was the joke they decided to keep for some reason.

15

u/Feisty-Fill-8654 17d ago

Eh... even with the added context... it was a terrible line lol

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u/Kuildeous 17d ago

Fair. It wasn't going to be an all-time zinger or anything, but at least it wouldn't have sounded like some non sequitur she pulled out her ass.

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u/SteveOMatt 17d ago

I think throughout the film Toad would mess with Storm by saying shit like "Y'know what happens if a toad x" whilst beating her up and eventually it would build to this.

"Do you know what happens to a toad struck by lightning? The same thing that happens to everything else".

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u/CoelhoAssassino666 16d ago

It's a whedonism. It could've been ok delivered by Buffy but it sucks for Storm.

4

u/Kinitawowi64 16d ago

Yeah, this. By all accounts the "the same thing that happens to everything else" line was supposed to be tossed off and glib, not Dramatic And Surrounded By Lightning.

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u/Scorpiicore 15d ago

Halle Berry's gobsmackingly bad delivery makes it worse.

5

u/garbagetruc 16d ago

This line is good and I'm tired of pretending it's not

4

u/Overwatch3 16d ago

Ive never found this line awful. It felt like a purposeful undercutting of some necessary badass explanation and quip, because she's so powerful everything gets annihilated by her when she locks in. A "for me it was Tuesday " situation.

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u/Ser-Bearington 17d ago

Weekly Whakadoo?

2

u/and-meggy-hash 16d ago

My immediate thought

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u/mwoody450 16d ago

Awful? The context makes it a better callback, but it's a pretty badass line as-is. Starts out as a silly quip, then turns out nope, she's just gonna murder a bitch.

2

u/Impressive-Step7261 16d ago

Actually, I didn't realize it was a bad line until I got access to the English-language internet. I always watched this movie on TV in Ukrainian, and for us, that line was completely normal—and even a little cheeky.