15 Sci-Fi Movie Endings That Would Have Changed Everything

8. Thor: The Dark World (2013)

The original run of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, now known as the Infinity Saga, is looked back upon with a wistful fondness, not least because of the scattershot attempts at continuing the franchise that fans have been subjected to by Kevin Feige and co since Endgame’s credits rolled. But it wasn’t all as shiny as we remember – at the bottom of the pile of these films are lacklustre features like Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk and, of course, the eminently forgettable Thor: The Dark World.

Treading water between Avengers films, The Dark World explores Loki’s (Tom Hiddleston) inheritance as a frost giant, and his reluctant alliance with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) to prevent the dark elves from destroying the universe or whatnot. In a heroic final act, Loki sacrifices himself and has a touching moment with his brother – before this is undone a couple scenes later.

But the film almost had stakes: the original plan was to have Loki die for good. And this would have had deep and lasting ramifications for the MCU. If Loki had died here, Thor would have struggled to escape Sakaar, defeat Hela (Cate Blanchett) and get the heck out of Asgard before Ragnarok went down, and thus not have been around to help defeat Thanos.

Alas, audiences for this original ending simply didn’t believe he was actually dead, lessening the impact and forcing Feige and director Alan Taylor into an about-face.