Deciding on the perfect ending for a movie can be tough.
Filmmakers have to end their story on just the right note, or audiences might go home
angry — and sometimes, that can involve a lot of trial and error.
Case in point: These flicks, which underwent dramatic changes in the endings department.
Die Hard with a Vengeance finds John McClane going toe-to-toe with Simon Gruber, a riddle-loving
terrorist with a grudge.
After dropping a bunch of bombs and brain-teasers, McClane discovers that Gruber is actually
more interested in stealing $140 billion in gold bullion than blowing anything up.
So along with his reluctant sidekick, Zeus Carver, McClane tracks Gruber down but finds
himself in a tricky situation when the bad guy gets both a machine gun and a helicopter.
Thinking on his feet, McClane shoots a powerline, and the falling cables bring down Gruber's
chopper...and that's it.
For most fans of the franchise, it lacks the satisfying personal touch that made the showdown
in the first Die Hard so memorable, but that's not for lack of trying.
In the original ending, Gruber escapes to Europe with all the gold, where he's living
the easy life when an angry McClane shows up.
In this version, McClane has been kicked off the force as the feds suspect him of helping
Gruber.
But now, the ex-cop wants revenge.
He puts a Chinese rocket launcher - one missing the directional arrows —-on the table between
them, and he starts asking Gruber riddles.
The terrorist doesn't know which way the weapon is aiming, and when he finally gets a riddle
wrong, he's forced to pull the trigger.
"You sure?"
"Oh yes."
Unfortunately for Gruber, it's aimed straight at his chest, and boom goes the terrorist.
It's a pretty epic ending, but according to screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh, the studio
thought it was, quote, "too cruel."
Admittedly, it would've been a dark move for McClane, but it does make a somewhat more
satisfying showdown.
Starring Michael Douglas and Glenn Close, Fatal Attraction was a massive hit when it
was released in 1987.
It was the second highest-grossing film that year, picked up six Oscar nominations, and
introduced audiences to Alex Forrest, the seventh-best villain of all time according
to the American Film Institute.
However, this thriller might not have been so popular if the filmmakers had stuck with
the original ending.
If you're not familiar with the plot, Fatal Attraction is about a married man named Dan
Gallagher who has an affair with the aforementioned Alex Forrest.
When he tries to end the relationship, Alex goes a little psycho and attempts to murder
Dan's wife.
Before she can do the deed, Dan tries to drown her in a bathtub, and then his wife finishes
Alex off.
It's a violent climax to a twisted thriller, and audiences ate it up.
However, the original finale was far kinder to Ms. Forrest.
In this alternate ending, Dan is framed for murder, but Alex eventually writes a letter
that frees him from blame.
"Alex Forrest is dead."
"I'm sorry.
Your husband is under arrest."
Test audiences were appalled.
They wanted blood, and even though Close and director Adrian Lyne were opposed to changing
the ending, Paramount executive Ned Tanen ordered the filmmakers, quote, "to terminate
the b---- with extreme prejudice."
Released in 2017, Happy Death Day tells the story of Tree, a college student caught in
a Groundhog Day-style time loop.
Of course, Tree's predicament is a lot worse than being stuck in a sleepy Pennsylvania
town with Ned Ryerson.
She's being stalked by a masked killer, and every time she dies, her day starts over and
she has to face the mysterious murderer yet again.
Eventually, Tree realizes the killer is - spoiler alert! - her sorority sister Lori, and after
eating a poisoned cupcake, she defeats Lori and breaks the loop.
It's a satisfying ending - but the flick's original finale wasn't quite as hopeful.
In this alternate version, Tree is actually murdered in the final few seconds by the wife
of the professor she was having an affair with.
The film implies she'll be stuck in the time loop for a long, long time.
"Did you really think you'd get away with screwing my husband?"
"You gotta be kidding me."
Test audiences hated it.
Director Christopher Landon explained to CinemaBlend:
"[Audiences] were like, 'Wait, she did all this hard work, and made all these changes
and she's a better person now.
And then you kill her again?'"
On top of that, Landon originally intended for there to be two killers: Lori and Gregory
Butler, the professor Tree was messing around with.
But at the end of the day, he went with just one villain and made sure that Tree would
never get caught in a time loop again, until part two, anyway.
"No way.
I don't believe this.
It's Monday the 18th… again!
AHHHHHHHH!!!"
When it comes to movies with dramatically changed endings, the most infamous of the
bunch has got to belong to Little Shop of Horrors.
Directed by Frank Oz, this musical finds Rick Moranis playing Seymour, a geeky florist in
love with his blonde bombshell of a coworker, Audrey.
In his quest to impress her, Seymour begins raising a venus fly trap he names Audrey II,
but as Seymour quickly discovers, this is no normal plant.
Not only can this thing talk, it also feeds on human blood, and it gets bigger with every
meal.
A couple of corpses later, Audrey II is gigantic and plans on devouring Seymour and his lady
love.
And this is where the original and theatrical endings diverge in wildly different directions.
In the original version, Audrey II takes sadistic glee in devouring our two heroes.
Even worse, a whole bunch of flesh-hungry flowers start spreading across the world.
They grow to gigantic sizes, chase frightened citizens, and destroy every building in sight.
It's an incredibly impressive sequence with some truly staggering puppet work.
According to The Dissolve, the climax cost $5 million of the film's $25 million budget.
But when Little Shop was screened for test audiences, as Oz put it, quote, "The theater
became a refrigerator, an ice box."
Audiences went icy cold the moment Audrey II ate Seymour and his hapless girlfriend.
So the filmmakers scrapped the plant-pocalypse and let the two heroes live happily ever after.
That is, if they manage to ignore this little guy right here.
The Evil Dead franchise isn't known for its upbeat endings.
The first movie finds Ash Williams dragged off by a demon, and Evil Dead II sends our
screaming hero back to the Middle Ages.
Army of Darkness, on the other hand, ends on a much happier note.
After defeating an army of spirits and skeletons, Ash escapes the Dark Ages by drinking a potion
and saying some magic words.
He winds up back in the modern day, working at a department store, and killing one last
Deadite that hitched a ride into the future.
[gunshots]
However, this wasn't the ending that director Sam Raimi intended.
Originally, Ash was supposed to drink six drops of a magic potion - one for each century
- and then he'd fall into a long slumber.
When he woke up, he'd be back in the present.
However, as he's counting out the drops, Ash gets distracted, loses count, drinks too much,
and wakes up in a post-apocalyptic future.
The world has been reduced to rubble, and it's too much for Ash to take.
"No!
NO!
I slept too long!"
Universal Pictures wasn't crazy about this grim ending, so Raimi gave us the epic S-Mart
battle instead.
Granted, the alternate finale is more in line with the nihilistic tone of the series, but
watching Ash go full John Wayne on a Deadite is still pretty awesome, so we're not complaining
about studio interference this time.
Directed by Edgar Wright, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is an action-packed romantic adventure
where, basically, Michael Cera disses Captain Marvel, gets in a bass battle with Superman,
and exchanges blows with Captain America, all in a quest to date the girl of his dreams,
Ramona Flowers.
Playing the titular Scott Pilgrim, Cera has to defeat Ramona's seven evil exes if he wants
to win her hand.
One by one, he beats them into oblivion and finally gets to date the rainbow-haired object
of his affection.
Sadly, that means he leaves his ex-girlfriend, Knives Chau, but she seems okay with Scott's
choice.
"I'm too cool for you anyway.”
"Ciao, Knives."
"Go."
In the original ending, however, things took a very different turn after Scott beat Ramona's
final boyfriend Gideon, and the film culminated in Ramona walking off into the distance as
Scott and Knives rekindled their romance.
"Well, bye and stuff."
"Yeah… and stuff."
Evidently, this was so controversial that people at test screenings actually started
arguing about it, so the filmmakers used their 1-up to start over and film a new ending.
A third possible ending would've made fans lose their minds.
Wright briefly considered a last-minute twist where we learn everything that had just happened
was part of Scott's deranged fantasy and that the slacker was actually a serial killer who'd
just murdered seven innocent people.
Whether you think Scott should've wound up with Knives or Ramona, we can probably all
agree it was wise for Wright to skip this crazy ending.
Love it or hate it, the ending of The Force Awakens is definitely one of the most memorable
in the Star Wars franchise.
After hearing so much about Luke Skywalker, Rey finally finds the Jedi master on the island
of Ahch-To.
As the John Williams music starts to swell, Rey offers the bearded knight his long-lost
lightsaber, and then we cut to credits.
It's a classic ending, re-introducing audiences to a beloved hero.
However, The Last Jedi quickly - and, pretty controversially —-subverts that ending when
Luke grabs the lightsaber and tosses it into the ocean.
After making a grave mistake involving his nephew, Kylo Ren, Luke has been trying to
cut himself off from the Force, hoping the Jedi Order will die with him.
Interestingly, this character arc ended up changing the original ending of The Force
Awakens, as J.J. Abrams had initially intended to end his film with the Jedi Knight showing
off his otherworldly powers.
According to Mark Hamill, The Force Awakens was supposed to end with Rey discovering Luke
on Ahch-To, where he would be surrounded by floating boulders - no doubt a cool nod to
The Empire Strikes Back.
However, before The Force Awakens hit theaters, Hamill was reading The Last Jedi script and
realized The Force Awakens' ending didn't match up with Jedi's new direction.
So he called up the filmmakers to see what was happening.
Fortunately, the folks at Lucasfilm had picked up on the problem and altered the ending before
the film hit theaters.
Loki's death in Avengers: Infinity War sparked a lot of controversy among Marvel fans, but
this wasn't the first time the god of mischief had met his maker.
In the original cut of Thor: The Dark World, Loki is actually killed in his battle with
Algrim, the monstrous elf with a bad attitude.
So when Thor and Loki say their heartbreaking goodbyes - the one so hysterically parodied
in Thor: Ragnarok.
"I'm sorry I tried to rule Earth."
"Ah, they'd be lucky to have you."
"I'm sorry about that… thing with the Tesseract.
I just couldn't help myself!"
That was supposed to be for real.
However, Loki fans weren't going to stand idly by and let the MCU get away with murder.
As Tom Hiddleston explained on the Empire Film Podcast:
"In test screenings, the audience didn't accept it.
There was a very strange and almost unanimous resistance to it."
So Marvel was forced to change the ending of the film, revealing that Loki was alive
and well and looking a lot like Anthony Hopkins.
While it might've felt like a cop-out at the time, it wonderfully set up everything that
happened in Ragnarok, so this is one time where test audiences did a marvel-ous job.
Directed by Alexander Payne, 1999's Election is a black comedy with an infamously cynical
ending.
Matthew Broderick plays Jim McAllister, a high school teacher who absolutely hates one
of his students: the overeager and narcissistic Tracy Flick, played by Reese Witherspoon.
Of course, McAllister isn't exactly the most mature dude in the room, as he's a grown man
trying to sabotage the ambitions of a high school student.
So when he's caught rigging the election for student body president against Tracy, he's
promptly fired from his job.
In the theatrical ending, McAllister moves to New York, becomes a museum tour guide,
and then does a little sightseeing in Washington D.C.
That's when he spies Tracy working alongside some prominent politician.
Infuriated at her success, he throws a soft drink at her car before running in the other
direction.
However, there was actually a far sweeter ending - which, if you'll believe it, was
discovered on an early VHS workprint purchased at a flea market in 2011.
In this original ending, McAllister and Tracy actually let bygones be bygones.
Pardon the quality - like we mentioned: this clip was discovered on a VHS from the '90s.
"Y'know, I was having some personal problems last year, and I guess I took it out on you."
In this alternate ending, McAllister never moves to New York.
Instead, he's still in his hometown, working as a used car salesman.
Tracy shows up, looking for a vehicle, and the two start bonding.
McAllister apologizes for his bad behavior and even consoles her when she admits she's
worried about going to college.
Tracy then asks McAllister to sign her yearbook, and the film ends as the ex-teacher starts
writing, "Dear Tracy."
Needless to say, this didn't go over well with test audiences, as the sweet ending didn't
mesh with such a satirical film.
This is one vote that went the right way.
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