13 Iconic Movie Characters Who Were Supposed To Die (But Didn't)
2. Dante Hicks - Clerks
The Original Plan
Despite financial constraints that had eaten up a couple of personal credit cards, Kevin Smith's directorial debut Clerks actually came with two endings. In the original, Dante Hicks ends a perfectly bad day by being murdered by a shoplifter.
It actually fit the tone of the movie, which is basically a nihilistic portrait of modern, mundane existence, but it's still shocking to watch even now...
What Happened Instead?
It was deemed too downbeat by pretty much everyone who saw it when it screened at the Independent Feature Film Market.
Apparently, Bob Hawk and John Pierson advised Smith that the film should end on a far happier note, and remarkably Smith agreed, bucking the trend he'd set years later of hating everything critics said about his work.
Instead, the film now ends with Randall taking down the Open sign and telling him "You're closed", before a fade to black. It also works, because that's how an unremarkable day should end, and it meant we got to finally see a Clerks sequel years later.