10 Famous Movie Endings That Had Radical Last Minute Changes

10. Dante Was Supposed To Die At The End Of Clerks

Kevin Smith's first film set the template for pretty much every other movie the stoner fanboy has made since. There's the comedy duo of Jay And Silent Bob, the New Jersey setting, and the potty mouths on everybody as the non-more-blue script calls for discussions on oral sex, accidental necrophilia and porno mags. Kevin Smith has a filthy mind, and it comes out through his character's dialogue. Funded entirely on credit cards and the sale of his comic book collection, Clerks was a surprise hit in the early nineties, coming at the crest of a wave of cult indie movies picked up by big studios. It was hilarious, dirty, and surprisingly charming. Smith's original vision for the film, however - especially its ending - was a lot different. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERDGH7SpzZ8 The film ends in a rather low-key, subtle way. Since the film took place over a single day of Quick Stop employee Dante Hick's life, it obviously ends with him closing up shop, as friend and minimum wage anti-hero Randall repeating the movie's running joke that "he's not even supposed to be here today." Soul Asylum plays. Everybody wins. Which was not how the original script ended. Luckily everybody involved in production balked at the finale Smith had planned. At first Clerks was a decidedly Lynchian prospect, with the writer/director inspired by Twin Peaks, the surreal soap opera which was itself a cult hit back in the day. The film was going to be all about the bizarre customers during the night shift, but thankfully he realised his aptitude for comedy and made everything a lot more cheerful. Except for the ending, which was cribbed from Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing, which saw Dante gunned down by a thief who then jacked the cash register. It was a complete tonal shift and, thankfully, one that Smith noticed and changed before the film got a major release.