10 Movies That Almost Had Much Better Endings

5. Bird Box

The Actual Ending

After spending years trying to keep herself and the two children she cares for safe from the creatures which kill anyone who sees them, Malorie (Sandra Bullock) makes it to a sanctuary along with the kids, which just so happens to be a school for the blind.

The school has been able to flourish due to the residents' inability to see the creatures, and feeling a sense of hope for the first time in years, Malorie not only frees her pet birds, but also finally gives names to the children - Tom (Julian Edwards) and Olympia (Vivien Lyra Blair).

The One We Almost Got

The film originally ended in somewhat bleaker fashion as in Josh Malerman's original novel, with Malorie and the kids arriving at the school only to learn that the residents intentionally blinded themselves to ensure they could never set eyes upon the creatures.

Screenwriter Eric Heisserer stated in interviews that it seemed "smarter" to give the film a more optimistic ending, and director Susanne Bier similarly stated that she had no desire to leave the audience feeling hopeless.

Why It Would've Been Better

Though both endings provide a certain catharsis, the intense bleakness of the book's ending, where people are so desperate to survive that they literally remove their own sight, feels truer to the overall tone of the story than the softer, more coincidental meeting with the already-blind survivors.

Given that the final film ended up being viewed by 80 million households during its first week on release, though, Netflix probably feels that their more mainstream-skewing ending was the right one, integrity be-damned.