There's nothing wrong with a grim ending if it fits the movie, but it's all too easy to
go too far down that dark rabbit hole.
Whether they're comedies, horror movies, or summer blockbusters, these movies all started
out as total downers… until the filmmakers saw the light and decided not to send their
audiences out of the theater with a serious case of the blues.
Spoilers ahead.
Rocky
There's no doubt that the Rocky movies are some of the most uplifting films ever made.
They're all about finding love, chasing your dreams, and proving you're someone special.
On top of that, this franchise is absolutely jam-packed with inspirational montages.
But for a series that's so positive, Sylvester Stallone initially planned on taking these
films in some pretty dark directions.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Stallone's original ending was downright depressing.
Not only does Rocky lose, but in this version, he actually throws the fight and then opens
a pet store.
Nock the same punch as the Italian Stallion going toe-to-toe with the champ for 15 straight
rounds.
Get Out
The ending of Jordan Peele's Get Out is one of the greatest fake-outs in horror movie
history.
After going full Rambo on his white kidnappers, Chris finds himself in a rather tricky situation.
Kneeling over the body of his evil ex-girlfriend, Chris suddenly sees a cop car coming down
the road.
Fortunately, it's just Chris's TSA buddy, Rod, come to save the day.
Talking to Buzzfeed's Another Round podcast, Peele admitted that originally, a real cop
was supposed to roll up and mistake Chris for a criminal, giving the film a more realistic
and darker ending.
He explained:
"It was very clear that, like, the ending needed to transform into something that gives
us a hero, that gives us an escape, gives us a positive feeling when we leave the movie."
Peele himself liked the theatrical ending much better than the darker original one,
adding:
"There's nothing more satisfying than seeing the audience go crazy when Rod shows up."
The Silence of the Lambs
Sophisticated, intelligent, and always hungry, Hannibal Lecter sent a chill through our collective
spine at the end of The Silence of the Lambs.
After escaping the courthouse, the psycho psychiatrist makes his way to the tropics,
where he gives Agent Starling a phone call before stalking the doctor who tormented him
for so many years.
"I do wish we could chat longer, but I'm having an old friend for dinner."
It's a macabre way to end a film, but Ted Tally's screenplay originally had a far darker
scene planned for the ending.
This time, Lecter is calling from Chilton's office.
After saying goodbye to Agent Starling, he puts down the phone and turns to Dr. Chilton…who's
tied up in a chair.
Lecter then walks toward him with the knife and asks, "Shall we begin?"
As director Jonathan Demme explained to Deadline:
"It was too horrifying a way to close the proceedings…
I thought this story deserved more to it than the crude, trussed-up Dr. Chilton about to
be carved by Dr. Lecter."
So Tally rewrote the scene and put Hannibal in the Caribbean so audiences could see him
"out in the world."
Groundhog Day
One of the greatest comedies ever made, Groundhog Day was written by Danny Rubin and directed
by Harold Ramis—but the two filmmakers had very different ideas about the ending.
In the movie, weatherman Phil Connors eventually becomes a good person, breaks the curse that
makes him keep reliving February 2nd, and wakes up the next day, finally free from his
Groundhog Day hell.
But in Rubin's script, Phil then discovers that Rita is trapped in a time loop of her
own, stuck in February 3rd for the foreseeable future.
As The New Yorker put it, this is a pretty "bleak" ending, and we've got to say, Ramis
definitely made the right choice by altering the screenplay.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
When it comes to dark endings, it's really hard to beat the original Planet of the Apes
series.
"Oh my God..."
But the recent reboots have definitely tried.
In 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Caesar and Will Rodman part ways in the woods
after the climactic Golden Gate Bridge battle.
But on the page, things take a much more tragic turn: According to producer Dylan Clark, the
guy who runs the primate prison follows Caesar into the woods and shoots Rodman.
But this ending didn't sit well with Clark, who said:
"The scene, dramatically, was idiotic.
And worse, it just made you feel bad.
It was just like, 'Oh my God, this is the worst movie ever."
Split
The theatrical release of Split doesn't have the most upbeat ending, but as it turns out,
the movie could've gone in an even darker direction.
Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan originally intended to wrap things up with Kevin sitting
outside a school, waiting for all the children to come running outside.
That's when the credits would roll, strongly implying the Beast was about to feast.
However, Shyamalan said this was way too dark:
"It made [the end] kind of feel one note for me about what [the Beast's] intentions were.
I just didn't want the Beast's motivations to be reduced to just killing, that kind of
thing.
So that's why I wrote the ending you see in the movie."
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