20 Things You Somehow Missed In Apocalypse Now

As the production of the film went along, Coppola began to see how significant parts of John Milius' script would have to be altered. The original script called for a final battle scene, in the tradition of old John Wayne war films; Colonel Kurtz's renegade army would repel an assault from the North Vietnamese Army, with Willard and the crew of the boat joining in at the mad Colonel's side. Coppola knew this would not match the tone of the rest of the film, which involved the passive Willard watching as events become progressively more disturbing and unhinged. While there are many violent scenes, notably when the crew of the patrol boat unintentionally butcher a group of Vietnamese civilians, these scenes do not fit in with typical "war movie" tropes, where heroes have to battle and overcome external antagonists to achieve their noble aims. Coppola needed to figure out something else for the ending of the film.

With no script to work from, the production moved toward its eventual conclusion, with Coppola fingering a battered copy of Heart of Darkness, nervously fretting that the film would end in a disaster.