10 Doomed Movie Characters Saved By Reshoots
7. Will Rodman - Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
James Franco played the main human character in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dr. Will Rodman, a scientist who inadvertently develops hyper-intelligent chimpanzees while attempting to create a cure for Alzheimer's disease.
During the original shoot, Will was killed during the epic final clash between the apes and the police, taking a bullet fired by John Landon (Brian Cox) and intended for ape Caesar (Andy Serkis), ultimately dying in Caesar's arms.
Test audiences found this outcome too bleak, though, and so Fox organised a last-minute reshoot where Will instead survived and had a touching farewell with Caesar in the forest.
Fascinatingly, this was a late enough call that James Franco and Andy Serkis were called back to shoot the new ending literally a month before the movie was released, forcing the VFX team into ultra-crunch mode for the final few weeks of post-production.
As with Final Destination's Alex, though, Will's reprieve was temporary, as sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes had Will die off-screen, with the implication being that he and his partner, Dr. Caroline Aranha (Freida Pinto), died from the Simian Flu virus.