10 Film Directors Who Used The Same Ending Twice

The Original

It was always clear that a Quentin Tarantino-directed period piece would be like none we'd ever seen before, but did anyone quite expect the filmmaker to go there?

His sprawling World War II epic concludes by literally rewriting history, Tarantino deciding to give audiences the outcome he wished had happened - Hitler and Goebbels catching a round of machine-gun ammo in the face each, before the theatre they're locked inside gets burned to the ground.

Tarantino's deviation from reality was unsurprisingly met with pushback, but expecting historical authenticity or "realism" from the guy who made Kill Bill was always mighty foolish.

The Repeat

Tarantino pulled a similar trick at the end of his most recent film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, opting to alter the fate of actress Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), who in real life was of course slain by the Manson family in her own home.

In the film, however, the Manson family members never even get to confront Tate, as they first end up crossing paths with their neighbours, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) and Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), who violently murder the invaders in self-defense.

Tate survives and, to sweeten the fairy-tale-like ending, she even invites Rick over for a drink, seeming to imply his own fading career was rejuvenated as a result.

Much like Basterds, the message is clear: cinema can serve as a corrective to the evils of reality, rewriting history in the way we'd prefer to see it.