10 Movies That Almost Had Much Better Endings

10. Hannibal And Clarice Run Off Together - Hannibal

The Official Ending: Hannibal (the belated sequel to The Silence Of The Lambs, not the stellar TV series) was in development hell for so long that it lost both the director and actress from the original. The third act sees Lecter escape the clutches of revenge-bent paedophille Mason Verger and introduce law official Paul Krendler to self-cannibalism, climaxing with the bad doctor evading capture by severing his arm, leaving behind a drugged and traumatised Clarice Starling. A final scene sees a one-handed Lecter offering up some of his food to a kid, extolling that "it is important to always try new things." Haha, it's funny because it's brains.

The One We Almost Got: Like all other entries in the film series, Hannibal is based on a Thomas Harris novel, although Ridley Scott's movie diverges from the book in the final moments. In print, Lecter attempts to brainwash Starling into thinking she's his long-dead sister (that's a much more prevalent story beat throughout the books), ultimately failing, but not without the FBI falling in love with him. The ending sees the two run off together as a duo even more unnerving than Natural Born Killers.

Why It Would Have Been Better: Hannibal has some nice ideas and themes, but the ending, despite Ray Liotta eating his own prefrontal cortex, feels a little flat. The film already goes pretty morally corrupt with the sadistic disembowelling of Inspector Pazzi, so it makes little sense to not go the whole hog and bring this incredibly disturbing finale to life.

Check out Hannibal over at Amazon.