10 Great Movies Almost Ruined By Their Alternate Endings

2. Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb

The Ending You Know: The world ends. Made at the height of the Cold War, Dr. Strangelove Or: Do You Even Read The Full Title Anymore doesn't pull any punches, climaxing in accidental orders and male inferiority kicking off World War III. Kubrick's pitch-black comedy sees the leaders utterly unable to avert destruction, time and again failing to see the big picture; even as they have seconds left to live, the Russian spy snaps pictures and the Americans plot to win the new mineshaft war. The Ending We Almost Got: The originally shot ending had the war room inexplicably devolve into a massive pie fight, with the actors becoming indiscernible as the world literally crumbles. Kubrick cut the scene when he realised it was too farcical, distracting from the rest of the film's comment. Why It Would Ruin The Film: The final moments of Dr. Strangelove are some of the funniest out there. The sight of nuclear blasts decimating the world shouldn't elicit laughs, but it's so perfectly framed, with the imminent doom not getting in the way of pithy rivalry you can't help but chuckle. As Kubrick rightly thought, the pie fight scene would have pushed it too far; it makes the ending silly, rather than tragically hilarious.