10 Risky Film Moments Directors Thought They'd Lose You
3. The Car Crash - Vanilla Sky
Cameron Crowe's remake of 1997's Open Your Eyes follows David Aames (Tom Cruise), a man whose life is turned forever upside down after his jealous lover Julie (Cameron Diaz) offers him a ride and then intentionally crashes the car, killing herself and severely disfiguring David.
On the film's DVD commentary, Crowe confessed that test screenings of the film saw frequent walkouts following this end-of-first-act scene, likely due to the extraordinary mood whiplash of the accident and how aggressively it shifts the rest of the movie's tone from romance to psychological thriller.
Crowe was concerned that the shift would be too much for mainstream audiences lured in by A-listers like Cruise and Diaz, and even though the film indeed scored mixed reviews and a dreaded "D-" CinemaScore, it still went on to gross over $200 million regardless.
In essence, Crowe was absolutely right, but he still managed to come out of it with a commercial success on his hands. Phew.