After fighting back the undead hordes, Ash does eventually manage to get back to his own time and his old job at S-Mart. There's still time to fit in an interlude in which Ash kills another Deadite and gets the girl, naturally, but he's basically all sorted out. However, in Sam Raimis original ending, Ash was meant to be settling into a six-century kip when he gets distracted by some tumbling rocks and accidentally overdoses, waking up 100 years in the future among classic signifiers of a collapsed civilisation: a collapsing Big Ben, a brown sky, and some rusty bedsteads. Now, I know Raimi rather likes this ending as its consistent with the governing principle of putting Ash through absolute hell which guides Evil Dead, Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness, but surely the poor bloke deserves a bit of a break. Aside from anything else, it just feels so abrupt and flippant. After all, whats the point in taking Ash on this journey from screaming idiot to unbelievably cool and sexy hero for the ages if youre going to then sacrifice all of that character development for a quick gag? As facile as the S-Mart ending is (Ash flaunts distinctly superior gunplay skills and gets babe), its a bit more narratively satisfying. Theres enough pathos in this conquerer of the undead having to go back to his job at a supermarket without throwing him into a dystopian future which looks a bit like an attempt at begging for another sequel.
