8 Early Drafts That Almost Ruined Iconic Movie Endings
2. Get Out
Get Out was the horror hit of 2017, addressing racial tensions and contemporary issues with a deft hand and earning itself an oscar for best original screenplay in the process. But would that still be the case if Get Out had dropped its ending and replaced it with this heart-dropping sequence of events?
The film follows Chris as he spends a weekend at his girlfriend's family home to meet her parents and brother. Rose's parents seem awkward at first due to their daughters relationship being an interracial one, but as guests drop by and tensions become stronger, a dark truth is soon revealed - that Rose's white family are abducting black people to house the minds of sick, old white people, and they plan on selling Chris to the highest bidder.
The Ending
Chris has killed his girlfriend's family in spectacular fashion. Rose, wounded and vulnerable, lies in the middle of the road - where Chris strangles her. As he does so, a police car pulls up - he stops, and our nerves are electric as we assume what will happen to him, based on the police treatment of black people we've become all too familiar with. Instead, Chris's friend Rod appears and the two leave behind the house of horrors Chris had been trapped in.
The Original
Jordan Peele originally wrote a much more reflective ending, one that saw Chris apprehended by two white police officers and arrested on the spot - despite saving the world from a family of racist, body-harvesting maniacs. Rod visits him in jail, and Chris's defeated demeanour says much more than any words he could speak. He knows he can't get out, and it's horrible to watch.
While the ending isn't necessarily worse, the one we have been offered is explained in Peele's own words: "By the time I was shooting it, it was quite clear the world had shifted, racism was being dealt with, people were woke, and people needed a release and hero, which is why I changed the ending and had Rod turn up at the end.”
Get Out - Alternate Ending (1080p) from BloodBloodBlood on Vimeo.