10 Deleted Movie Endings Way Better Than What We Got
From existential crises to pie fights, some of the best endings never made it to the final film.
The ending of a film is paramount. It isn't just about the journey, but the destination, and a bad enough ending can ruin pretty much any movie. So it's perfectly understandable for a film studio, or even the director themselves, to not have enough confidence in the proposed ending to a film they're working on, to the point where they outright change it even after they've finished filming the original one.
But sometimes the filmmakers jumped the gun on that front. Sometimes they had it right the first time, and whoever was suggesting that the ending be changed should have kept their mouths shut. Thankfully, if the original version was at least shot, then we can at least see the true ending to a film play out in the special features on the DVD.
Which is very good in this case, because it gives one a look at just how good the ending to a film could have been. Whether because it fit the theme better, or because the ending we got was really just that bad, these are the best deleted endings to films that were better than the ones we got.
10. Army Of Darkness
Now, don't misunderstand, the ending we got to Army Of Darkness in theaters was by no means bad. It wouldn't be at the bottom of the list if that were the case. But all the same, the ending that Sam Raimi wanted the film to have is generally agreed upon to be better.
It features everyone's favorite demon-hunting nincompoop, Ash Williams, being sent back to his own time after the events of the film. In the finished version, he did what he was told like a good boy, took five drops of the sleeping potion, and woke up when he needed to wake up.
But in the original ending, Ash, being Ash, miscounts the drops, instead taking seven, and so ends up sleeping way longer than he was supposed to. He then wakes up after the demons have had their way with humanity, lamenting that he did indeed sleep too long. Making for a superior ending that fits much more in line with what is expected of Sam Raimi in his prime: hilarious bleakness.
Or, judging by the ruined Big Ben in the apocalyptic imagery, maybe we handled the demons just fine and Ash just woke up right after Brexit went into effect.