9 Legendary Deleted Film Scenes (You'll Never Get To See)
6. Hand In Hand Ending - Rocky
Rocky's Adrian! ending is one of the most uplifting scenes in cinema history, but Stallone's original vision for the film was a bit grittier. As originally shot, Rocky and Apollo are carried out of the ring after their fight. Rocky then looks for Adrian backstage, and then they hold hands and walk towards the dressing room together.
Rocky's proved to himself that he could go the distance, and now his moment has passed and hes about to go back to his normal life. Audiences found this ending too depressing, so they wisely changed it to the tear-jerking version seen then and now. The chances of this footage surfacing again were dashed when Stallone tried to use some of it for Rocky V, only to be told it had been incinerated years before. Photos of this ending, alongside other deleted scenes, are widely available and the image of Rocky and Adrian walking hand in hand was used on some of the posters.
Rocky evolved during filming into something more uplifting than the original script, but it would be nice to see this oft mentioned scene for a look at it's original tone.