1. Blade Runner, Voice-Over Version
Author Philip K. Dick's sci-fi novels have spawned a number of great films, but none come close to Blade Runner. Based on the short story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, this dystopian sci-fi noir has Ridley Scott and Harrison Ford but giving career-best achievements. Dark, rainy landscapes and the threats from both government and Replicants give Blade Runner a classic noir flavor with futuristic updates. The regular Humphrey Bogart moral conundrums of standard noir fare now involve subtle meditations on Deckard's own mortality, as he treks down rogue Replicants, bioengineered robots with a shelf-life of four years. In the intended Director's cut of the film, the ending is ambiguous, with Deckard and Rachael fleeing from Gaff, a Blade Runner himself with a penchant for origami. While not being a happy ending, it leaves the viewer with ideas to chew on and mull over. In the studio-enforced Theatrical cut, a tacked-on happy ending appears in the form of a voice-over from Harrison Ford. He explains that he and Rachael are leaving to be together, and by the way she happens to literally be the only Replicant who doesn't have the limiting four-year lifespan. This is basically the same ending as The Sixth Day. To put that in perspective, the movie studio opted to change the near perfect ending to one of the 1970's darkest Hollywood films in a way to make it resemble an Arnold Schwarzenegger that actually includes the line
"There's someone in my house, eating my birthday cake, with my family, and it's not me!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fCeH-WnJYM
Do you agree with my picks? Thought of some glaring omissions? Leave a comment below or check my bio at the bottom of the page to find more about me. And don't bother with telling me There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men were ruined by their endings; they weren't, and it's not a matter of opinion, it's fact.