Minor spoilers ahead for A Minecraft Movie.
The creative minds behind A Minecraft Movie shared with IGN that one of the film's most humorous scenes drew inspiration from the classic The NeverEnding Story. In a memorable moment, Jack Black's character, Steve, finds himself in a precarious situation where he must cling to Jason Momoa's Garrett during a flight, as there are only enough Elytra wings for Garrett and Sebastian Hansen's Henry. This scene, filled with physical comedy, showcases Steve's frantic efforts to avoid a perilous fall. Interestingly, this sequence was not just for laughs.
"We definitely wanted a Falkor moment from *The Neverending Story* that was both majestic and beautiful, but also one that goes south pretty quickly," said *A Minecraft Movie* director Jared Hess."It was so funny in between takes when they cut," added producer Torfi Frans Ólafsson. "Jack is sitting on top of Jason and they're in this complicated rig... and Jack starts singing, because he does that in between scenes, but he starts singing the words to The NeverEnding Story and riding him like he's riding Falkor."
This amusing reference is particularly poignant because Jack Black previously played Slip in The NeverEnding Story 3. For Jason Momoa, this scene was especially meaningful as he played a significant role in its creation.
"I got to participate in writing that, and this big guy [Jack Black] wanted to do it too," Momoa shared with a laugh. "This was after Top Gun: Maverick came out, so I also wanted to be able to go into it and then hit the brakes and then have them slide down and I switcheroo on them. We were sitting there at the hotel dying about this idea of Jack and I doing this stunt and it made it [into the movie] and it's phenomenal."
"I don't know if it made it in the final cut because there were different versions of that scene, but it could have gone hard rated R," Jack Black noted. "In the end, I think we made it family-friendly!"
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Momoa also hilariously went into a recreation of the two of them on set (watch the video to see this firsthand!).
"Let my hips guide you! You can't just ride me like I'm majestic," Momoa said. "I was dying, man. I was dying."
For more insights, don't miss our review of A Minecraft Movie, details on how the team utilized a private server during production, and our breakdown of the film's ending and post-credits scene.