6 Blockbusters From 2015 That Almost Had Completely Different Endings

6. Mario Stands On The Washington Monument & Smiles Menacingly - Pixels

Pixels was considered to be one of the worst movies of the year, featuring a deranged and totally incomprehensible plot that somehow saw aliens invading Earth under the guise of various '80s video game characters, because... well, because somebody in Hollywood thought that would be a good idea. And apparently it was, considering its box office gross. Yes, despite the horrific reviews, Pixels made $194 million on a budget of $88 million. This is a film in which Kevin James plays the President of the United States, by the way. Adam Sandler plays the lead (oh no!), and after battling a succession of iconic video game characters (such as Pac-Man and, uh, the Centipede from Centipede) the movie ends with his character - a former washed-up video game champion turned world-saver - and a ragtag crew of gamers defeating a giant, crazed Donkey Kong and being hailed as heroes. Originally, though, the movie was supposed to end on a more ominous note - with an appearance from the most famous video game icon of all: Mario himself. In the draft script, the final scene in Pixels read as follows:

"PAN UP AND SPIN AROUND, so we face the Washington Monument, damaged but still standing. When we reach the top, we see a small figure on top, hands on hips, watching all this from high above. Mario. We zoom in on his face, and he smiles. CUT TO BLACK"

Director Chris Columbus went on to explain why they opted out of using Mario: "We tried it, " he said. "There was a moment we even did a preview of it, we thought it was interesting but we wanted to kind of use him somewhere else." And they did: he's visible in the background of one scene (though in his Donkey Kong "Jumpman" incarnation). Terrible as Pixels is, you can't help but feel as though this original Mario ending would have been a little more satisfying than what they came up with.