27 Lynchpin Scenes That Almost Got Cut

Nicholson’s line “You can’t handle the truth!” was partly improvised. Cruise kept in character the whole time, matching Nicholson’s enthusiasm and making the fight in the courtroom feel real. Rob Reiner employed a lot of cameras and extended takes to show how tense things were. The moment seemed too powerful in the early cuts, which may have made the story less clear, but it was so brilliant that it stayed.