10 Original Endings That Would Have Ruined Great Movies

7. Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)

The Ending We Got: Having officially driven a douchebaggy South African diplomat and his douchebaggy goons crazy for the course of the entire movie, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover find themselves up against a ton of baddies aboard a massive ship for the final showdown - one that results in Glover shooting said South African diplomat in the face whilst simultaneously revoking his diplomatic immunity.

Mel Gibson, who plays witty but burned-out badass Sgt. Martin Riggs, crushes a really smug second-in-command (and the guy who killed his wife) with a crate, but is shot, like, five times, and hints to his partner that he might be about to die. But then it turns out he's just tricking his partner and everything's completely fine. Har har! The end.

The Original Ending: And here's another ending that never made it past the initial script stages. Shane Black, who penned the original Lethal Weapon and this sequel, originally wrote an ending that meant Riggs would die from his wounds in Murtaugh's arms, having learned that life was worthing living and that friends, well they were damn important.

It would be sad, but it would also be realistic and gritty. It would also get cut out, because Warner Bros. had a franchise on their hands, and there was no way they were killing off a character that good for the sake of art. Pah. Shane Black subsequently left the project and disassociated himself from all the movies and characters he created, and although we respect his decision to be, um, original, we love Riggs far too much to kill him off, too. Sorry, Shane.