11 Reshoots That Actually Improved Movies

9. Deep Blue Sea

Mad Max Fury Road
Warner Bros.

The Reshoot: After test audiences complained about Saffron Burrows' scientist character surviving, believing her to be at fault for causing the deadly shark attacks in the first place, a one-day reshoot was hastily assembled to alter her fate.

In the final cut, she is brutally devoured by a shark at the last minute, leaving just Thomas Jane and LL Cool J's characters alive.

How It Improved The Movie: The combination of Burrows' performance and how the character was written made it hard to like or root for her, so killing her off ended up being much more satisfying. As a test audience member apparently told director Renny Harlin, "killing the b****" was the right thing to do.

Plus, it totally defied the audience expectation that she would survive, as how often do these movies end with just two guys as the survivors? The girl almost always lives.

Focus group audiences ruin so many movies, but this is a rare one where they unquestionably improved it.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.