8 Movie Scenes You Didn't See (Thanks To Test Audiences)
Crash test dummies or crash test geniuses? You decide.
There's some really weird versions of movies out there that have never made it to the public eye. Whether it's three versions of Blade Runner doing the rounds to the chagrin of purist nerds the world over, or that Pretty Woman script that saw Julia Roberts as a drug addled mess who got dumped at the end, or even, perhaps most shockingly of all, a version of Suicide Squad that people actually liked - it's almost unbelievable, right?
More often than not, these changes are made thanks to the help of a handy test audience, a group of people who sift through the first iterations of films and wield the power to make or break them with their reactions. Whilst they usually pick all the horrible scenes out like a bunch of name-brand coconut chocolates out of a selection box, every now and then something great gets unfairly cut - making for a whole variety of crazy moments that we never get to see in cinemas.
Collecting together some of the most famous films that got the test audience treatment then, these are the scenes that got watchers so riled up they had to be taken out entirely. Are they really that bad? Take a look for yourself...
8. Carmen And Zander Kiss - Starship Troopers
The 90s answer to intergalactic warfare, Starship Troopers is the perfect mix of action, science-fiction, and good old fashioned bug-squashing - but it didn't start out as the cult classic it's grown to be. At least, not quite.
In a distant future where high-schoolers are encouraged to join the military to earn their citizenship, Earth comes under fire from a creepy instectoid race: it's about as campy as it sounds, and full to the brim with satire, death, and splatter-ific violence. The only good bug is a dead bug after all.
You'd think test audiences might take offence at the gore and murder, or perhaps the tone of the warfare, or even the young protagonists pushed into the armed forces - but it was in fact the love triangle surrounding Rico's girlfriend Carmen that got them so riled up the footage had to be edited. Sounds like the test group might have had some bad break ups...
Director Paul Verhoeven took the choice to remove scenes with Carmen and Rico's school rival Zander getting closer and sharing a kiss to appease the angry mob that decidedly hated her character from the first iteration of the movie. A small change, but one that obviously had a big effect on watches.