A lot of us, even if we generally liked the recent film version of I am Legend, were (to put it mildly) less than satisfied with the last five minutes of the movie.
Turns out a different ending was originally filmed, and will be available on the DVD release.
Neither ending is as good as the one in the novel, but I think this is a definite improvement, and fits better with elements earlier in the movie (such as Neville’s misinterpretation of the alpha male’s behavior).
Using a second post for spoilers:It is strange to see Neville survive the story, but you can’t have everything. I love when he glances at his wall of photos, showing the infected subjects he’s captured and experimented on over the past three years; I think he realizes it looks like a serial killer’s display.
Also, and I feel smug about this, the very ending shows definitively that there is in fact at least one bridge still connecting Manhattan to the mainland. For some reason, some people focused their critiques on an unsupported conviction that all the bridges were destroyed, which I disagreed with; now I’m vindicated, they’re wrong, and I’m likin’ it.
Also, seeing the little white church at the end in the theatrical release made me queasy, so any ending without that is an improvement.
That was neat, but didn’t work with the rest of the movie. I still say it would have been better if they had lengthened the first half of the movie and had Neville die in the car crash on the pier.
This alt ending IS very cool! Now, I liked the theatrical ending WITH all the C’tian symbolism (self-sacrifice, the Blood is the Life, the butterfly, the retreat with the church). However, even as this ending would have omitted that, it would have gained a lot more thoughtfulness & deep feeling.
MUCH BETTER. I’m not the type who thinks that an adaptation must be judged by how closely it adheres to the source material, but the theatrical I Am Legend’s ending just seemed slapped on. The quasi-Christian stuff just didn’t match up with the majority of the film. This works. It keeps the “Signs” bullshit to a minimum, and better develops the themes that Neville isn’t such a good guy for indiscriminately killing the vamps.
Can somebody spoiler* the theatrical ending. I’ve watched the Vincent Price version many times and the Charlton Heston version two or three times, but haven’t seen the new version yet. (Waiting for the DVD.) I do like the alternative ending shown on the web site listed above, though it does seem odd to have Neville live at the end.
*(Use a spoiler box, of course.)
Thanks!
Satch
Wow…that was awesome. Thanks for posting that link.
[spoiler]Neville notices that he’s cured the infected girl and that the uninfected girl has a tattoo of a butterfly, reminding him of something his daughter said. Neville gives the girl and the little boy she’s with a vial of the cured test subject’s blood and hides them in a coal chute (or something). Just as the vampires break in, Neville blows them and himself up.
The girl and boy arrive at the colony in Vermont, with a church conspicuous in the background. The girl gives a sappy speech about how Neville’s a legend for curing humanity.
So yeah, Neville actually dies, but it’s still more sappy, and totally undermines the equivalence between Neville and the vampires. [/spoiler]
Wow. That ending is FAR superior to the theatrical ending, and much more in keeping with the spirit of the novella (if not the letter of the novella). They blew the call.
I liked the alternate ending, but I think the “humanization” of the infected deviates from the rest of the movie a little bit. Making them more human is closer to the original story, though, and that’s cool.
I liked this ending, too. Who said, “Butterfly,” though? Was it one of the vampires, or was it the kid inside? I couldn’t tell.
Actually no. They were obviously building to this ending, with the Alpha Male being much more clever and emotionally deeper than Neville gave him credit for. It just never paid off in the theatrical version.
I mentioned the alternate ending the other day in the main “I Am Legend” thread.
Neville’s child, as he was driving them to the helicopter to vacate the island.