12 Shocking Movie Deaths You Won't Believe Almost Happened

7. Dante Gets Shot And Killed During A Convenience Store Robbery - Clerks

The surprising success of Clerks paved way for an entire slacker shared universe, a straight sequel, another sequel potentially in the works, and an animated TV show. What you may not know was that none of this stuff would've happened at all had Kevin Smith stuck to his original shock ending for the character of Dante (Brian O'Halloran) Instead of cutting to black after Randal (Jeff Anderson) declares "you're closed!" before leaving, the original ending continues on with Dante working alone before a customer enters the store. Upon informing the latecomer that the store is closed, the customer suddenly shoots Dante and kills him in cold blood before robbing the place. This was followed by a final shot of Dante's lifeless body on the ground before the film ends. After Smith showed this version of the film to a few of his Hollywood friends, they immediately started criticising the sudden twist ending and advised him to finish the movie at Randal's departure. To his credit, Smith took on this constructive advice without any resistance and cut back on the original ending so that Dante remained alive. Smith later explained that the initial depressing ending came about due to his own flaws as a newbie director and because he "didn't know how to end a film".