10 Film Directors Who Used The Same Ending Twice
5. The Hero Is Saved From A Perilous Fall - Alfred Hitchcock
The Original
Alfred Hitchcock sure did love perilous - some might even say vertiginous - finales to his films, but five years before he even made Vertigo the filmmaker delivered an unforgettable high-wire finale in his 1953 masterpiece Rear Window.
The film's ending sees protagonist L. B. "Jeff" Jefferies (Jimmy Stewart) thrown out the window of his apartment by murderer Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr), leaving him clinging on for dear life.
Though in this instance Jeff falls, he's thankfully caught by some police officer underneath, and Thorwald is swiftly captured.
The Repeat
In Hitch's more high-concept thriller North by Northwest, released just the year prior to Vertigo, the literal cliffhanger finale was recycled for protagonist Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant), who faces off against Phillip Vandamm (James Mason) and his goons on Mount Rushmore.
Thornhill and Eve (Eva Marie Saint) end up assailed by Vandamm's henchman Leonard (Martin Landau) as they descend the mountain.
Leonard even steps on Thornhill's hand as he clings to the cliff edge, but just as it seems to be over for the pair, Leonard is shot and killed by a park ranger, allowing them to clamber to safety.
That hilariously unsubtle, Freudian final shot of the train going through the tunnel was a true original, at least.