# Alternate Endings of Movies that aren't Big **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [April 14, 2022, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843 "2022-04-14T02:36:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843/43 "2022-04-15T00:55:38Z")
I’ve heard there is an [alternate ending to Titanic](https://www.newsweek.com/titanic-fans-alternate-ending-changes-entire-film-1615139). I assume in that one the boat doesn’t sink. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843/44 "2022-04-15T00:57:16Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I assume in that one the boat doesn’t sink No, Titanic still sinks, but in this one, Jack kicks Rose off the door and goes on to live a productive and fulfilling life. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843/45 "2022-04-15T01:12:50Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > As the creator of this thread, I assure you, it is real. And it is **spectacular!** ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843/46 "2022-04-15T01:45:26Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > The only way to stop that future from happening is for an intrepid band of adventurers to travel back in time and stop the evil OP from starting the thread. Forget it. At this point, it’s kind of like SkyNet: inevitable, no matter what you do. ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843/47 "2022-04-15T02:35:01Z")
Alfred Hitchcock shot three different endings for **“Topaz.”** No one liked any of them. I think he finally gave up and let Universal pick one. All three endings are on the DVD release. It’s one of his lesser efforts. Back when people liked Woody Allen, he made a sentimental comedy/drama called **“The Purple Rose of Cairo,”** which I love. The studio objected to the downbeat ending and asked him to film a happy ending. He did. The ending of the final product is a tear-jerker. When asked why he didn’t use the happy ending, Woody said “That **was** the happy ending.” ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843/48 "2022-04-15T02:39:44Z")
The movie Clue had and was released with 3 different endings. Different theaters got different endings. AFAIK the movie was the same except for the final reveal, and the home releases of the movie include all 3 endings. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843/49 "2022-04-15T03:06:49Z")
The first filmed ending of _First Blood_ had John Rambo being shot to death by Colonel Trautman but that ending was NEVER released theatrical. Similarly the first ending of Kevin Smith’s _Clerks_ ended with Dante being shot to death in a robbery but after it was criticized at the first screening Smith cut the death scene from the film. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843/50 "2022-04-15T03:12:06Z")
Wikipedia notes the two endings of [Fatal Attraction.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_Attraction#Alternate_ending) I had always heard there was a third ending, where Dan kills Alex, but it wasn’t used because no one wanted to Dan come out looking like some kind of hero. ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843/51 "2022-04-15T04:55:03Z")
As a theater projectionist, I can recall two cases where a studio changed a film after opening day, and shipped replacement reels with the request that we switch the original ones out. The French film Queen Margot had some early graphicly violent scenes - men getting run through with pikes and such. A lot of that was excised from the new version - maybe as much as a minute. (I sneakily decided to leave the old reels in place, nobody complained. In case anyone wonders who has “final cut” on a film - it’s me!) The other film was “Marvin’s Room”. I ran the first reel and the replacement side by side, could not detect a difference. Might have been a technical fault, but I didn’t see it. In a similar vein, we once got two prints of an Australian movie called “Shame”, to run in two separate houses in our multiplex. Both arrived at the same time, but I eventually noticed one print had cleaned-up dialogue, and the other had all the curse words. Strange. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843/52 "2022-04-15T09:50:10Z")
> [@XOldiesJock](#): > > Back when people liked Woody Allen, he made a sentimental comedy/drama called **“The Purple Rose of Cairo,”** which I love. This is deviating somewhat from the topic of the thread, but I consider _The Purple Rose of Cairo_ to be an example of something I call anti-romantic comedies, which a number of Allen’s films are examples of. They seem to be romantic comedies for most of the the film, but at the end it becomes clear that the couple at the center of the film don’t stay together. There are various ways that this becomes clear. Sometimes it’s actually a moderately happy ending and sometimes it’s a miserable one. Allen does a lot of this. There is also a category of anti-romantic dramas. There are romances that don’t work out, and a lot of people have problems with movies that don’t have happy endings, even when the happy ending doesn’t make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843/53 "2022-04-15T11:10:09Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > And alternate endings have shown up on DVD: Clerks, **Fatal Attraction.** But what Sis kept pounding away on, and the guy didn’t want to accept, was that “final cut” means just that. Only exception either of us could think of was Brazil; other than that, the same edit goes to every theater in every area in every country. Except that the original/ alternate ending to Fatal Attraction actually did have a theatrical release in [Japan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_Attraction#Alternate_ending). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843/54 "2022-04-15T11:50:09Z")
The 2007 film **I am Legend** has a completely different ending that was shot, but not seen until the DVD release > [@](#): > > ### Alternate ending[[edit](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=I_Am_Legend_(film)&action=edit§ion=2)] > > The two-disc special edition DVD, released in 2008, contains an alternate ending more closely follows the novel.[[9]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Legend_(film)#cite_note-ign-9) > > During the lab attack, the alpha male Darkseeker creates a butterfly shape while attempting to break through the glass to the laboratory. Neville realizes he is referencing the butterfly-shaped tattoo on the female Darkseeker’s neck, and the alpha male is trying to recover his mate. Neville puts his gun down and returns the female. Neville and the alpha male stare each other down, where Neville apologizes after seeing the latter emotionally breakdown upon his mate’s return. As the alpha male contemplates killing Neville, he eventually forgives him and departs with the rest of the pack. Once they are gone, a shocked Neville looks over at the many photographs of his test subjects and realizes he has become a monster in the eyes of the infected, showing remorse for the experiments he has undertaken over the years. > > The next morning, Neville abandons his research and heads along with Anna and Ethan to Vermont as a changed man, in the hope of finding the survivors’ colony. They cross the [George Washington Bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Bridge), while Anna delivers a hopeful monologue ending with the statement: “You are not alone.” > **[I Am Legend (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Legend_(film))** > > I Am Legend is a 2007 American post-apocalyptic action thriller film directed by Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Akiva Goldsman and Mark Protosevich and starring Will Smith as US Army virologist Robert Neville. Loosely based on the 1954 novel of the same name by Richard Matheson, the film is set in New York City after a virus, which was originally created to cure cancer, has wiped out most of mankind, leaving Neville as the last human in New York, other than nocturnal mutants. Neville War... The 1975 film **Lucky Lady** had, I think, three different endings shot. People had problems with each of them > [@](#): > > ### New ending[[edit](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lucky_Lady&action=edit§ion=8)] > > In the original script, the two male leads were killed by government agents and the final scene happened ten years later with Liza Minnelli’s character married to a boring businessman remembering the men she once loved. The writers said when they sold it, “The studio loved the script, and at that point no one objected to the ending.”[[8]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady#cite_note-new-8) > > “One of the first images in our minds when we began to work on the script was the ending,” said Katz. "The idea of this woman remembering the two men she loved. We worked backwards from that. To us, the romance of the piece was in the idea of separation and loss.[[8]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady#cite_note-new-8) > > Because the film was booked in for a Christmas release, Donen only had three months to edit the film. During this time Donen became concerned about the ending, feeling that the film had become much lighter than originally intended, and tried several different ones, including simply cutting off the final ten minutes. He eventually decided the film needed a happy ending and Fox agreed to finance a reshot scene. Because Minnelli was filming _A Matter of Time_ in Rome, Donen, Hackman and Reynolds flew to Rome in November and shot a new ending.[[8]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady#cite_note-new-8) The ending consisted of the three characters in bed together ten years later.[[18]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady#cite_note-end-18) > > Huyck and Katz wrote the new ending, albeit reluctantly. “To us the original ending made a comment about the choices a woman has to make. But instead of making it the story of this woman, Stanley has made it a story of three people. That’s valid. It’s just different from what we originally intended.”[[8]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady#cite_note-new-8) > > Garth Wigan, a Fox executive at the time, later recalled, “We previewed the movie nine times. The 2-hour, 30-minute version was wonderful. Burt Reynolds and Liza Minelli died at the end and everything was set up for them to die. But market research told us they shouldn’t die, so we started chopping a bit here, a bit there. We took the seriousness out. The only good preview we had was when the film broke, and Stanley Donen, the director, did a dance for the audience while it was being spliced.”[[19]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady#cite_note-19) > > It was decided that the new ending was not suitable, in part due to poor make up. So a third ending was used, which cut off the last ten minutes of the film.[[18]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady#cite_note-end-18) > > Minnelli later criticized Donen for taking “out the part that made you feel like the three of us are in peril. I saw the finished picture and I never once was afraid for us. Most of the serious moments were removed too.”[[14]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady#cite_note-liza-14) > > Reynolds and Minnelli both criticized the new ending, requesting that the studio show the three different endings to the press. Donen refused and since he had final cut the studio backed him. Donen called Minnelli an “emotional child” for this criticism.[[18]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady#cite_note-end-18) > **[Lucky Lady](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lady)** > > Lucky Lady is a 1975 American comedy-drama film directed by Stanley Donen and starring Liza Minnelli, Gene Hackman, Burt Reynolds and Robby Benson. Its story takes place in 1930 during Prohibition in the United States. > The film is notable for serving as a storefront\[clarification needed\] for George Lucas and Gary Kurtz who were looking for crew to assist with the look of Star Wars. Both visited the set during production and were impressed with what they saw. Several of the predominantly British ... The 1956 version of the British film **1984** had an alternate ending shot in which Winston Smith heroically defies Big Brother > [@](#): > > An alternate ending was also produced, in which Winston rebels against his [brainwashing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainwashing) and starts to shout, “Down with Big Brother.” He is then shot down. Julia runs to his aid and suffers the same fate. > **[1984 (1956 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_(1956_film))** > > 1984 is a 1956 British black-and-white science fiction film, based on the 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, depicting a totalitarian future of a dystopian society. The film was the first feature-length adaptation of the story, and followed a previous Westinghouse Studio One adaptation and a BBC-TV made-for-TV adaptation. 1984 was directed by Michael Anderson and starring Edmond O'Brien as protagonist Winston Smith, and featured Donald Pleasence, Jan Sterling, and Michael Redgra... ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843/55 "2022-04-15T12:18:40Z")
Is that the one with the octopus? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843/56 "2022-04-15T12:25:22Z")
1931’s [The Champ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Champ), a story about a washed-up alcoholic boxer making a comeback. from the [trivia page](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021730/trivia/?ref_=tt_trv_trv) _The film did fine at its first preview until the last reel. As originally written, Champ loses his comeback boxing match, then dies as his son weeps. After going along with the sentimental story until that moment, audiences felt cheated by the downbeat ending. As a result, production chief [Irving Thalberg](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0856921) ordered the final scene reshot so that Champ won the match. At the next preview, the audience cheered at the end._ ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843/57 "2022-04-15T13:04:31Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > In case anyone wonders who has “final cut” on a film - it’s me! Username checks out. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843/58 "2022-04-15T13:05:08Z")
a famous case of there NOT being a different ending is, of course, the original **King Kong vs. Godzilla** > [@](#): > > ### Dual ending myth[[edit](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=King_Kong_vs._Godzilla&action=edit§ion=19)] > > For many years, a popular myth has persisted that in the Japanese version of this film, Godzilla emerges as the winner. The myth originated in the pages of _Spacemen_ magazine, a 1960s sister magazine to the influential publication _[Famous Monsters of Filmland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famous_Monsters_of_Filmland)_ . In an article about the film, it is incorrectly stated that there were two endings and “If you see _King Kong vs Godzilla_ in Japan, Hong Kong or some Oriental sector of the world, Godzilla wins!”[[124]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Kong_vs._Godzilla#cite_note-FOOTNOTEAckerman196352%E2%80%9356-132) The article was reprinted in various issues of _Famous Monsters of Filmland_ in the years following, such as in issues #51 and #114. This misinformation would be accepted as fact[[125]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Kong_vs._Godzilla#cite_note-FOOTNOTEThorne197731-133) and persist for decades. For example, a question in the “Genus III” edition of the popular board game _[Trivial Pursuit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivial_Pursuit)_ asked, “Who wins in the Japanese version of _King Kong vs. Godzilla_ ?” and stated that the correct answer was “Godzilla”.[[75]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Kong_vs._Godzilla#cite_note-FOOTNOTERyfle199887-83) Various media have repeated this falsehood, including the _[Los Angeles Times](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Times)_ .[[75]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Kong_vs._Godzilla#cite_note-FOOTNOTERyfle199887-83) Nevertheless, it should be noted that the American version of the film is different from the Japanese version, as the Wikipedia article makes clear. But there’s only one ending. > **[King Kong vs. Godzilla](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Kong_vs._Godzilla)** > > King Kong vs. Godzilla (Japanese: キングコング対ゴジラ, Hepburn: Kingu Kongu tai Gojira) is a 1962 Japanese kaiju film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. Produced and distributed by Toho Co., Ltd, it is the third film in both the Godzilla and King Kong franchises, as well as the first Toho-produced film featuring King Kong. It is also the first time that each character appeared on film in color and widescreen. The film stars Tadao Takashima, Kenji Sahara, Yū Fujiki, Ichirō... ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843/59 "2022-04-15T13:16:22Z")
The 1925 version of **Phantom of the Opera** has a complicated release history. There are three main versions, but lots of minute variations, and at least one alternate ending was filmed, with others discussed > [@](#): > > The studio considered the novel’s ending too low-key, but Clawson’s third revised script retained the scene of Christine giving the Phantom a compassionate kiss. He is profoundly shaken and moans “even my own mother would never kiss me.” A mob approaches led by Simon (the brother of a stagehand murdered by the Phantom). Erik flees the Opera House with Christine. He takes over a coach, which overturns thanks to his reckless driving, and then escapes the mob by scaling a bridge with his strangler’s lasso. Waiting for him at the top is Simon, who cuts the lasso. The Phantom suffers a deadly fall. His dying words are “All I wanted…was to have a wife like anybody else…and to take her out on Sundays.”[[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_of_the_Opera_(1925_film)#cite_note-MacQueen,_%22The_1926_Phantom%22-4): 40 > > The studio remained dissatisfied. In another revised ending, Erik and Christine flee the mob and take refuge in her house. Before entering Erik cringes “as Satan before the cross.” Inside her rooms, he is overcome and says he is dying. He asks if she will kiss him and proposes to give her a wedding ring, so Christine can give it to Raoul. The Persian, Simon, and Raoul burst into the house. Christine tells them Erik is ill; he slumps dead to the floor, sending the wedding ring rolling across the carpet. Christine sobs and flees to the garden; Raoul follows to console her.[[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_of_the_Opera_(1925_film)#cite_note-MacQueen,_%22The_1926_Phantom%22-4): 40 > > … > > The ending changed yet again during filming. The scripted chase scene through Paris was discarded in favor of an unscripted and more intimate finale.[[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_of_the_Opera_(1925_film)#cite_note-MacQueen,_%22The_1926_Phantom%22-4): 40 To save Raoul, Christine agrees to wed Erik and she kisses his forehead. Erik is overcome by Christine’s purity and his own ugliness. The mob enters his lair under the Opera House, only to find the Phantom slumped dead over his organ, where he had been playing his composition _Don Juan Triumphant_ .[[5]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_of_the_Opera_(1925_film)#cite_note-MacQueen,_%22Phantom_II%22-5): 40 > > … > > The first cut of the film was previewed in Los Angeles on January 7 and 26, 1925. Audience reaction was extremely negative and summed up by the complaint “There’s too much spook melodrama. Put in some gags to relieve the tension.”[[5]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_of_the_Opera_(1925_film)#cite_note-MacQueen,_%22Phantom_II%22-5): 39 By March the studio had taken against the ending and decided the Phantom should not be redeemed by a woman’s kiss: “Better to have kept him a devil to the end.” The “redemptive” ending is now lost, with only a few frames still surviving.[[5]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_of_the_Opera_(1925_film)#cite_note-MacQueen,_%22Phantom_II%22-5): 40 > > … > > The third and final version resulted from Universal holdovers Maurice Pivar and [Lois Weber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Weber) editing the production down to nine reels. Most of the Sedgwick material was removed, except for the ending, with the Phantom being hunted by a mob and then being thrown into the Seine River. > > … > > the filmmakers initially intended to preserve the original ending of the novel, and filmed scenes in which the Phantom dies of a broken heart at his organ after Christine leaves his lair. Because of the preview audience’s poor reaction, the studio decided to change the ending to a more exciting one. Edward Sedgwick was hired to provide a climactic chase scene, with an ending in which the Phantom, after having saved Ledoux and Raoul, kidnaps Christine in Raoul’s carriage. He is hunted down and cornered by an angry mob, who beat him to death and throw him into the [Seine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seine). > **[The Phantom of the Opera (1925 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_of_the_Opera_(1925_film))** > > The Phantom of the Opera is a 1925 American silent horror film adaptation of Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra, directed by Rupert Julian and starring Lon Chaney in the title role of the deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House, causing murder and mayhem in an attempt to make the woman he loves a star. The film remains most famous for Chaney's ghastly, self-devised make-up, which was kept a studio secret until the film's premiere. The picture also features Mary Philbin, ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843/60 "2022-04-15T15:28:52Z")
I read somewhere that Coppola shot _four_ different endings to **Apocalypse Now** , and ended up using two, one on the 35mm print and another on the 70mm. ---
**Author:** ![Eclipse\_Chaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Eclipse\_Chaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eclipse_Chaser)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843/61 "2022-04-15T15:32:53Z")
Wasn’t there an alternative ending to the movie version of Stephen King’s “Mist” to replace the original downbeat one? ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843/62 "2022-04-15T15:53:32Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > As a theater projectionist, I can recall two cases where a studio changed a film after opening day, and shipped replacement reels with the request that we switch the original ones out. Another film I noticed this on was the Lasse Hallstrom film “The Shipping News.” I don’t remember the exact details but I saw the film multiple times and some prints were edited with certain scenes cut shorter and one or two scenes removed. It was bizarre because it was such a non-offensive random film, but there were _definitely_ two versions running simultaneously because I remember thinking when it got to a particular shot “Oh this is the edited one!” or “Oh good this has the extra scenes.” Weird. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843.md?page=4)