10 Movies Where The Hero Originally Died At The End

Payback was a movie that had well-publicised issues in post-production, with Warner Bros. finding Mel Gibson’s character Porter was too cruel, and trying to retroactively make him more comedic. The director Brian Helgeland didn’t agree with the changes they wanted to make, so he was fired and it was up to Gibson to rework it.

He even shot a brand new final act; where Kris Kristofferson was brought on to play the main villain, and Porter eventually escapes with his money after killing all the bad guys.

In the director’s original cut, however, Porter arranges to collect his money at a train station, and after sneaking his way around he’s ambushed by a hitwoman and badly wounded. He barely manages to escape and is driven away by his love interest before seemingly dying (but at least he got his stolen loot back). This downbeat ending suits the noir tone of the movie better, but it’s easy to see why execs thought it was too bleak.