15 Sci-Fi Movie Endings That Would Have Changed Everything

Christopher Landon’s Happy Death Day didn’t reinvent the reel, but it did revitalise meta horror for a new generation, taking the self-awareness of Scream and throwing in a Groundhog Day-style sci-fi twist.

College student Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) finds herself repeating her birthday over and over again following her murder. Each time she comes back from the dead she inches closer to who is behind the plot to kill her and why, circling a baby-faced killer. This all comes to a head in a conclusion that sees her take on her bitter housemate Lori Spengler (Ruby Modine) – who wants to get rid of Tree so she can have the lecherous professor Gregory Butler (Charles Aitken) all to herself. Tree comes out on top, the time loop is broken, and all is well.

In the film’s original ending, however, Gregory’s wife Stephanie (Laura Clifton) catches up with Tree at the hospital, once she’s “safely” out of the original time loop, and kills her with a drip injection. Perhaps this time it’s for good, or perhaps it’s the beginning of a new time loop – but whatever the truth, test audiences hated it, so Landon reshot the ending.

But that didn’t stop him plunging Tree back into the thick of it in 2019’s Happy Death Day 2U…