6 Game-Changing Original Plans You Didn't Know About The Warriors
2. Cochise And Vermin Were Supposed To Die.
Terry Michos who played Vermin, notes that “in the original script, the guy I portray, Vermin, gets killed, but Walter Hill liked what I was doing with the part and changed thing’s around so that I get to stay until the end of the picture”, and indeed he did, as revealed by the original script (which is now online).
In a confrontation with the Lizzies, “the second chick pulls her hand out of her boot. A gun is now in her hand... She levels it at Vermin. She pulls the trigger. The bullet smashed him between the shoulder blades. Pitches Vermin onto his face”. The likeable nature of both Michos, and by extension Vermin, is easy to see, and it’s not hard to understand why Hill had altered the script to spare Vermin’s life - he is easily the most jovial and humorous character, with memorable comedic lines.
Cochise was also spared death, although the reasoning why is unclear. In the Baseball Furies chase of the original script, “from nowhere, an arm grabs him from his blind side.. and soundlessly pulls him down”.