8 Horror Movies Where The Killer Was Meant To Be Someone Else
4. I Am Legend - Robert Neville
When 2007 brought the Will Smith-fronted I Am Legend to the silver screen - the third movie to be loosely adapted from Richard Matheson's 1954 novel of the same name - the Fresh Prince star was positioned as the de facto hero of the piece.
In this post-apocalyptic world gone to the dogs, Smith's Robert Neville is a virus immune doctor on a mission to develop a cure for the horrors and mutations that have engulfed the globe.
As the film opens, Neville is the sole human survivor in New York City, and the narrative of the picture unfolds with him every bit the all-conquering hero who ends up making the ultimate sacrifice - as in, his own life - for the greater good and for the hopeful regeneration of mankind.
The thing is, the original intended ending saw the tables turned, with Robert Neville as the unknowing villain of the piece.
Pulling more directly from Matheson's novel, the original ending for I Am Legend saw the vampiric 'monsters' of the film having retained their human emotions. After the leader of these mutants orders them to back away from Neville, he apologies upon realising that he's fought and tortured so many of these creatures throughout the movie.
That ending was changed, with Smith's character instead blowing himself and these monsters to smithereens after making sure that Alice Braga's Anna has the cure in her possession.