10 Movies Where The Hero Originally Died At The End

Dawn Of The Dead remains George Romero’s zombie masterpiece; which is saying something, considering he also directed Day and Night too. It has a great concept, likeable characters and memorably gory effects, all topped off with a killer score by Goblin.

The ending, typically for this list, was almost very different. Romero’s original script featured the last two survivors Peter and Fran killing themselves rather than escaping, with Peter shooting himself and Fran sticking her head into the helicopter blades. The credits would play over a shot of the whirling blades, which would slowly wind down and stop, implying the two wouldn’t have got very far anyway.

Test footage of Fran’s death was shot before Romero decided to scrap the dark ending, though the movie still features the build-up to it. Fran’s dummy head was also recycled during filming; it was painted to resemble a male zombie, whose head is specularly blown up by a shotgun.