10 Original Endings That Would Have Ruined Famous Movies
9. Die Hard With A Vengeance - McClane Riddles The Bad Guy To Death
The Actual Ending:
John McClane takes down a helicopter containing Hans Gruber's brother using nothing but a handgun and his wily instincts. Explosions and a witty one-liner ensues.
It's pretty typical Die Hard stuff.
The Ending We Almost Got:
The third installment in the Die Hard franchise branched out a little from the simple formula that made the first two films such hits, adding in elements of mystery. But had the director gotten his way, the film would've went even further off path, ending on an unusually dark note
Simon Gruber manages to escape capture by the police and successfully makes off with the gold bouillons. McClane was blamed, in part, for the robbery and fired from the NYPD. An unspecified amount of time later, McClane catches up with him in Hungary and proceeds to play a game of Russian Roulette with a rocket launcher in a darkly lit room, all while forcing Simon to answer a series of riddles. (Because the tables have turned. Get it!?)
After some menacing banter, Simon gets skewered by a missile and McClane "gets his man" so to speak. This is actually a wonderfully dark ending...if Die Hard were a film noir and not a straight-up action flick.
The whole scene is too far removed from the playful tone these movies are known for, and McClane's turn to an outright psychopath with nothing to lose, while interesting, would've left audiences with a bad taste.