10 Unused Film Endings That Were Better Than The Real Thing

9. Salt Was Almost Really Dark

Phillip Noyce's spy thriller is probably best remembered as the movie written with a dude in mind to play the hero, before Angelina Jolie was cast and not a single word of dialogue was changed, but it's also a rather natty little popcorn flick. It's certainly no Bourne Identity, but the twisty-turny double-crossing and confusion of a CIA spook who may or may not be a double agent was fun. Especially because, in the process of clearing her name and getting some answers, Jolie's eponymous hero got to take part in all kinds of OTT action sequences, mainly involving knocking seven shades of shinola out of Liev Schrieber. It rarely makes a lick of sense, but the ending was pretty standard. Salt averts nuclear war, saves the day, and everything goes back to normal (with the requisite, optimistic door left open for a sequel). Two alternative endings took a far different tone: one involved the US president getting killed and replaced with a sleeper agent. The other had Salt blowing up a Russian training camp populated with kids. Yeesh.