10 Alternate Scenes That Completely Change Famous Movies
Sometimes a single line can make all the difference.
To us viewers, movies are a seamless whole, a single distinct narrative running from start to finish. However, for the writers, directors and editors, they're anything but.
It's a wonder that we even get as many good films as we do when you consider that every movie is basically just a jumble of unconnected scenes fed through a constant meat grinder of editing by entire teams of people, all of whom are trying to work towards a single creative vision.
With such a long and convoluted path from start to finish, it's no wonder that a lot of things get dumped along the way. Scenes, characters and even entire plotlines can end up on the cutting room floor as part of the rigorous editing process.
It isn't all just unnecessary filler that gets cut though. Sometimes a scene will be removed from a film that would've completely altered how the story plays out. These changes can range from things like plot holes staying open and characters having completely different motivations to their original outline to entire endings being dumped and replaced.
10. Why Obi-Wan Lied - Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi
Darth Vader revealing that he is actually Luke's father is one of the most iconic twists in cinema history. However, it also raised one of the franchise's biggest unanswered questions. Why did Obi-Wan lie and tell Luke that Vader killed his father?
That question was originally meant to be answered in Return of the Jedi. In a deleted bit of footage (one that was thought to be completely lost until a few years ago), Luke asks a dying Yoda why Ob-Wan lied about his father. Yoda responds by saying "Obi-wan would have told you long ago had I let him…".
It's only a single line of dialogue, but it's one that adds a whole lot to the film. Instead of trying to cook up some nonsense about Obi-Wan meaning "dead" in a spiritual sense, fans now had a much simpler and easier explanation for his actions, he was just carrying out his the wishes of his boss.
More importantly, the scene also adds a new layer of moral complexity to the film. The unambiguously good Yoda is turned into a darker figure, one who was willing to trick Luke into murdering his own father because he was worried that, if he knew the truth, the conflicting emotions would mess with his training.