11 movie scenes that were so difficult to film they nearly got cut

The Fast and Furious franchise has built a reputation for jaw-dropping stunts that bring audiences back again and again (and again) to the movie series. But one stunt proved almost too difficult to include: Fast Five's standout scene in which Dom and Brian attempt to speed away with a 100-ton bank vault through the streets of Rio de Janeiro. 

Director Justin Lin wanted to use as little CGI as possible so it was up to stunt coordinator Jack Gill to make things happen. A real bank vault couldn't be supported by the cars so they created a replica that weight 10,000 pounds, and still couldn't be moved by the cars. Swapping out the Dodge Challengers for ones with bigger tires and more powerful engines ended up saving the scene.

Tom Cruise is well-known for insisting on doing his own stunts, even when these sequences get so intense that the film's insurance company tries to get involved and stop the Hollywood heavyweight from putting himself at risk. 

For Ghost Protocol, Tom climbs up the exterior of the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. The star fired the film's insurance company so he could perform the climb himself with rigging as his only safety net. When he jumps off the building to land back on it with only a rope for support, there was no way to cushion the landing so he landed full force on the glass.

Robert Downy Jr. might not have gone skydiving himself, but the stuntmen on the set of Iron Man 3 had a tough day at work in the film's airplane rescue scene. It was originally intended to be shot with a green screen but stunt coordinator Jeff Habberstad prompted the crew to do it practically. 

The Red Bull Skydive Team were brought on set, dressed in civilian clothes with concealed parachutes and no goggles. But the most incredible part? They made the jump seven to eight times a day for six days.

Cliffhanger saw Sylvester Stallone play the part of a mountain climber brought in to an airplane heist, with plenty of sky-high stunts making up the screen time. But it's the airplane transfer that still stands out to this day. 

Travelling between two planes with a single cable, stuntman Simon Crane performed the sequence three miles above the ground. If either plane had varied on the set speed of 150 miles an hour, he would have been ripped in half – fortunately, he pulled it off without needing either of the two parachutes production provided. 

Harrison Ford's role as Indiana Jones involved plenty of memorable scenes, but one scene came with additional risks: when Indy craws under a moving truck and is subsequently dragged along the road by his whip.

His stuntman Terry Leonard was nearly killed during a similar stunt a few months before and was, understandably, resistant to perform the sequence. He eventually agreed to the stunt on the condition that his friend and stunt coordinator Glen Randall drive the truck.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt's action sequence in Inception helped make the feature a major hit to this day, helped in large part by the unique gravity-defying choreography and rotating set piece.

The star was only given two weeks to rehearse and things only got more difficult as the shoot moved into the large rotating hotel room, with the threat of a 10-foot fall.

Biblical hit Ben-Hur was shot during the '50s before cinema had its full set of computing wizardry available in the editing booth, so practical effects were the only option. So far, so simple – until you get almost 100 racehorses involved.

With nearly a year spent in preparation for the chariot race sequence in a million-dollar carved arena and cameramen struggling to keep up with the horses from the car, it's more surprising stuntman Joe Canutt escaped a near-trampling with just a cut on his chin.

Apocalypse Now was an infamously difficult movie to get on film, and one key issue came in the filming for a helicopter napalm strike. The US government would only provide helicopters if there was a script change which director Francis Ford Coppola refused.

The president of the Phillippines ended up supplying the aircrafts but provided fewer than promised due to an ongoing rebellion. Added to this, the Philippine pilot weren't trained to fly on film, leading to difficulties in choreographing.

There's nothing silly about The Usual Suspects. Unfortunately, it seems the stars didn't get the memo. In the poster-shot sequence during which the five criminals make a police lineup as difficult as possible – but it was even trickier for director Bryan Singer behind the scenes.

Instead of being played straight, the actors couldn't stop laughing and threats from the director only made things worse. The giggle fits were allegedly down to Benicio del Toro dealing with internal issues that became an on-camera issue. In the end, it all worked out and the funnier takes are an iconic part of the film today.

Jurassic Park set a new standard for cinema, but that doesn't mean pulling off their jaw-dropping effects were smooth sailing behind the scenes. 

The enormous mechanical T-Rex at the heart of the blockbuster hit frequently malfunctioned, forcing filmmakers to adapt several shots and help create the unpredictable attacks on screen.

Not many movies have the honour of being recognisable from a single song, line or pose. But Titanic is one such hit.

When Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater stand on the prow of the boat, they made history. But the scene was tricky to capture and depended on very carefully built sets as well as visual effects. Ultimately, it was worth every second as it's still the film's most recognisable scene to this day.