12 Depressing Alternate Endings That Were Way Better Than The Originals
Who says it has to end with Happily Ever After?
Call me a glutton for punishment, but I don't believe in Happy Endings quite as strongly as Hollywood seems to: the grimmer and more emotionally affecting an ending, the more enduring it is in the memory.
There's no chance Se7en would be as profound as it is if the final shot was a post-credits reveal of Gwyneth Paltrow with her head still attached, and I can't help but shake the feeling that Buzz and Woody would have been better off melted, rather than being forced to face more future rejection when Bonny grows up. Adversity and depression inevitably lead to the most profound works of art, it's just simple science.
So it's always deeply upsetting when Hollywood has the chance to make a statement with a grim ending and then drops it in favour of something more upbeat. Sometimes, the original, or alternate endings where everyone dies, or life doesn't all turn up flowers and roses are far superior to the Hallmark-inspired garbage we end up being fed. So with that in mind, here we have 12 depressing movie endings that would have actually improved their movies, and why Hollywood probably wimped out of using them...
Honourable Mention
Clerks
The original depressing ending of Kevin Smith's first foray into film-making was glorious - fitting in with the nihilistic undertones of the film, Dante is killed in cold blood by a robber, who then empties the cash register...
It's a great ending, thanks to it's apparently unnecessary provocation, and the fact that it fits earlier discussion about films ending on a downer, and Smith was right to think that films that feature a main character death are more memorable. But we have to be at least partly thankful of this one not making it into the movie, as it would have spelled the end of the director's career before it had even started, according to the man himself.