8 Original Movie Endings That Never Made It To Screen
There are deleted scenes, then there's the stuff they never even shot...
There's a lot riding on a film's ending. Even without the requisite twist of any modern blockbuster script, the ending determines - to an extent - the degree of audience satisfaction. But even before such factors enter into the equation, the ending begins on the screenwriter's desk, and though underappreciated in the system the writer will not be satisfied until the ending successfully concludes every theme and arc explored within the script. Most of it will be jettisoned by the time shooting rolls around, but at least the effort is there and you've provided a few deleted scenes for the Blu-Ray. But once it's handed over to the studio, the film's ending is out of the filmmaker's control.
Filmmaking is very much a democratic process with a top-heavy executive branch, and often the interworkings of a film lead to drastic changes. These can result from negative test screenings, political pressure or just simply the whims of an out of touch studio executive.
Nevertheless, here are the endings we always wanted to see. They may have been storyboarded, but few were even shot.
8. Thelma And Louise - Gory, Gory Death
It makes sense that Ridley Scott would appear on this list. His problematic Blade Runner is notorious for the number of cuts available, each with variations on the ending that is, at best, ambiguous. Needless to say, the man has trouble getting a point across.
When he would like to make a statement, however, he does it with the gritty bluntness of Black Hawk Down. It's the same kind of brutal truth he wanted to apply to...Thelma and Louise?
Despite winning a Best Screenplay Oscar, the movie that launched 1,000 Men's Rights Activists was more an escapist fantasy for downtrodden housewives. Thelma (Geena Davis) and Louise (Susan Sarandon) embark on a crime spree road trip after being neglected too long by the men in their life.
The ending is meant to be a blaze of glory, with the duo driving off a cliff while being pursued by the police. At long last, it appeared women had their Butch and Sundance.
But Scott almost robbed them of that, shooting and originally including the gory car crash and corpses, which the audience was supposed to mourn. Gone were the outlaws battling injustice toward women - just a few added frames reduced them to victims of brutality, rather than survivors of it.