10 Deleted Scenes That Explain Movie Character Backstories

These scenes will completely change the way you see certain characters.

Boromir Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring Sean Bean
New Line Cinema

To many, the characters are the single most important part of a movie.

What good is a thrilling plot, spectacular visual effects, or heart-racing music if you just don't give a hoot about the people on screen? A good character is an audience's way into a film, their avatar in the fight, the one they either want to see get the big victory or be utterly obliterated.

Building characters is not an easy job, especially not within the constraints of a 2 hour film. That might explain why some characters in huge movies can feel a little incomplete.

As it turns out, they're not all incomplete. Some have just been lightly shaved.

After trawling through the editing room trash can, we've pulled out ten bits of deleted footage that would have added wholly new layers to the backstories of some of the cinema's most famous characters.

Whether these were cut for time or just didn't fit the director's vision we'll never know, but what we do know is that, if these scenes had made it into the end product, we'd all be sat here today with very different opinions.

10. Andy - Dawn Of The Dead

Boromir Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring Sean Bean
Universal Pictures

An oft-overlooked but essential part of Zack Snyder's 2004's remake of Dawn of the Dead is Andy.

A gun store owner, Andy is trapped in the same mall as the other survivors. He exchanges distanced messages with the group via whiteboard and builds up enough good will with them that they try and take him with them when they leave.

Spoiler alert - it does not end well.

Andy ends up bitten by zombies and killed by the very people who were once trying to save him. It's a tragic ending for the local businessman, but it would have been even more heart-breaking had we gotten to know him a little better.

The DVD release of Dawn of the Dead contained deleted video diary scenes from Andy's point of view. In them, he explains more about his predicament, but what's more telling is the footage that Andy has taped over.

Brief glimpses of the tape's original contents show Andy interacting with a woman and a young girl. Though it's never explicitly explained, it's heavily implied that this is his family.

This would have added way more humanity to Andy's character and made it even more tragic when he lost his life.

Contributor
Contributor

Jacob Simmons has a great many passions, including rock music, giving acclaimed films three-and-a-half stars, watching random clips from The Simpsons on YouTube at 3am, and writing about himself in the third person.