10 Sci-Fi Movie Endings You Can No Longer See

Even the most confident of directors can't ever be entirely sure how audiences will react to their movie until it's actually been screened.

As a result, the test screening process is a majorly important part of big-budget filmmaking, giving both the director and the studio an opportunity to figure out what works and what doesn't.

Of course, it goes without saying that test audiences and studio executives have been responsible for making egregious, cynical changes to countless movies for the worse, but there are also times when their judgment proves totally shrewd.

But regardless of whether it was a good or bad call, these 10 sci-fi movie endings all ended up getting cleaved away and replaced, because somebody down the line - either a test audience, producer, or studio head - thought they didn't work.

And while alternate endings often end up getting released as supplementary material on home video, these endings haven't surfaced in the years since, so it's sadly not likely we'll ever get to see them for ourselves.

As it stands, only a small handful of people have ever seen these intriguing, promising original endings...

Rise of the Planet of the Apes memorably concludes with ape leader Caesar (Andy Serkis) bidding his human companion Will Rodman (James Franco) an emotional farewell and disappearing into the forest.

But the originally filmed ending was considerably more dramatic, with Will attempting to protect Caesar from the owner of the primate shelter, John Landon (Brian Cox), and getting fatally shot as a result. This then led to the apes massacring the armed humans who pursued them into the forest.

Yet producer Dylan Clark felt the scene was "idiotic" even while it was being filmed:

"We were shooting, and I remember saying, 'You know what? This is just gonna be a bummer. People are just gonna be like, 'Augh.' It was a dumb scene is the truth. We had Brian Cox coming out of nowhere and shooting James Franco. The scene, dramatically, was idiotic. And worse, it just made you feel bad. It was just like, 'Oh my God, this is the worst movie ever.'"

And so, just a month before the film was due to release, the decision was made to reshoot the ending. And given how much disdain Clark clearly has for that original ending, it's sadly unlikely it'll ever be screened outside of those who worked on it.