20 Horror Movie Endings We Almost Got
6. Everyone Dies - Dawn of the Dead (1978)
George A. Romero's seminal zombie film Dawn of the Dead ends with survivors Peter (Ken Foree) and Fran (Gaylen Ross) meeting on the roof of the mall, where they fly away in a helicopter to parts unknown.
Given that the pair have limited fuel, it's hardly much of an upbeat conclusion, but at least there's some faint sliver of hope that they might find a way to survive.
No such luck in Romero's originally written ending, though, where Peter and Fran lose all hope to the extent that Peter shoots himself dead and Fran follows up by sticking her head into the path of the helicopter's rotor blades.
Worse still, the end credits would show the helicopter's rotor blades quickly stopping, implying that even if Peter and Fran had flown away, they wouldn't have gotten far on their available fuel.
But Romero was ultimately talked out of such an unrelentingly bleak ending, opting instead for one that at least allows for the possibility of hope.