1. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
The "Sad" Ending... I'm not sure that "sad" is the right word to use here, given the freaky nature of this movie in general, but it's definitely not a happy ending, is it? I mean, the world is destroyed. Nuclear bombs explode everywhere. It's all over. Still,
Dr. Strangelove is hilarious for the most part, so it's kind of hard to feel sad when it happens. You'll remember the ending mostly, of course, for two moments: Major T.J. "King" Kong riding a missile to the ground, and Dr. Strangelove himself suddenly being able to walk. Did somebody say "iconic?" I did. It was me.
The Abandoned "Happy" Ending... For some bizarre, unknown reason, this movie was originally supposed to end with - brace yourself - a pie fight. One big, happy, totally unnecessary pie fight. Why? Just 'cause, I gather. Yes, instead of the brilliantly satirical ending that we wound up with, Kubrick originally played around with the idea of ending
Dr. Strangelove on an unexplained moment of pure, unadulterated farce. Seriously: just everybody in the war room hurling pies at each other, laughing manically. Eventually Kubrick opted
not to do this, because it's insane, and the man is a genius.
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