Before Wild Wild West flopped its way into pop culture infamy, Will Smith was riding a red-hot streak. But one scene in that 1999 disaster left even the director shaking his head. Barry Sonnenfeld, who had just directed Smith in the blockbuster Men in Black, later admitted the moment “made no sense” and might’ve dragged the whole film down with it.
It wasn’t supposed to go that way. In the mid-’90s, Smith had been leveling up fast. He scored back-to-back hits from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to Bad Boys and Independence Day. Then came Men in Black in 1997. It dropped on July 4th weekend and cemented Smith as the summer box office king. So when Sonnenfeld pitched Wild Wild West, another summer spectacle with gadgets, comedy, and action, it sounded like another win.
But Wild Wild West missed… badly. Will Smith played Jim West, a cowboy Secret Service agent chasing down Kenneth Branagh’s steampunk villain, Loveless. Kevin Kline came in as his partner. And the vibe? Think sci-fi spaghetti western meets Looney Tunes. It had a giant mechanical spider. Enough said.
What really killed it, though, was one scene Sonnenfeld couldn’t forget. Late in the movie, Smith’s character disguises himself as a belly dancer to sneak into Loveless’ lair. Yep, full drag. Cue the weird dance, a cringy attempt at humor, and a plot detour that derailed the tone completely. According to Sonnenfeld, producer Jon Peters pushed for it and wouldn’t back down.
“I never wanted to see Will in drag,” Sonnenfeld told Mel Magazine. “I thought it was prurient, unnecessary, silly, and in there only because [producer Jon] Peters loved it and refused to let us take it out. We really lose the audience from there till the end of the movie because of the stupidity of that weird harem dance.”
And just like that, the wheels came off. The scene landed deep in the third act, but the fallout lingered. Fans were already skeptical. Critics piled on. And what should’ve been another July 4th banger fizzled into a punchline. Will Smith later called Wild Wild West one of his biggest career regrets, and considering he passed on The Matrix to make it, that stung even more.
Still, the flop didn’t break him. Smith bounced back with Ali, The Pursuit of Happyness, Hitch, and I Am Legend. He even scored multiple Oscar noms and eventually won for King Richard. But no matter how high he climbed, Wild Wild West remained that one movie that haunted the résumé. And that one scene? Well, Sonnenfeld didn’t sugarcoat it. It “made no sense.” Audiences agreed. Sometimes, one dance is all it takes to break the spell.
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