I often see newly released DVD’s advertised on TV that include “alternate endings”. I just saw one for the movie “Tower Heist”.
Presumably, alternate endings are scripted, shot and then audience tested to see which one elicits the best response. If my assumption is true how often are alternate endings made for major Hollywood movies? Is it really as common as it appears?
or is this a classic case of “confirmation bias”…
I don’t think it’s extremely common, but it’s not especially rare. There have been a lot of well-publicized cases. Off the top of my head, besides Tower heist, that you mention:
I Am Legend – the original, more faithful to the story ending didn’t play well
Lucky Lady – 175 comedy that originally had a downbeat ending – Lucky Lady (1975) - Trivia - IMDb
Terminator 2 – Cameron’s original ending, with Connor as a politician, was axed.It’s watchable as an extra on DVD
Forbidden Planet – a scene with Altaira wedding Commander Adams was filmed. There’s a still extant that has been published in Cinefantastique, but AFAIK, no footage of it exists.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers – the original Don Siegel version from the 1950s. It was supposed to end with Kevin mcCarthy wandering the highway and shouting futilely at the cars “You’re next!” The "hopeful ending, with McCarthy in the hospital with a pre-Dick van Dyke Richard Deacon, and the news that a crashed truck full of pods was found, alerting others to the danger, was tacked on later.
Star Trek: Generations originally had an ending where Kirk was shot in the back. After testing, they decided to drop a bridge on him instead.
In general, one ending is shot and is shown to test audiences. If the reaction is unfavorable, they get everyone back to shoot a new ending. It’s been done for decades.
More still, they added a prologue, framing story and narration.
Paranormal Activity had an alternate ending. Problem is, I can’t remember which of the two endings was which. :o
Really? I didn’t realize these alternate endings were done after post since I would think it would be difficult to reassemble the principal actors months after a movie was wrapped. Don’t most working actors tend to go from movie to movie with not a lot of time in between?
One of my favorite films: Hell In The Pacific originally had a subdued, perfect ending. (It’s an extra on the DVD.) It was replaced by a ham-fisted “statement” ending that jarred the viewer out of the story. Huge mistake, in my opinion.
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There are two alternate endings on the DVD for Army of Darkness.
According to Wiki, Sam Raimi filmed a post-apocalyptic ending with Ash waking up in a world gone to hell, but the producers didn’t like it and forced a second ending, where Ash is explaining his exploits in S-mart, and a woman gets possessed by a demon, and Ash has to slay her.
The movie Clue had three possible endings. I think all three were actually shown.
In theory, it is more difficult to round up actors after principle shooting has finished. I think it’s probably embedded in contracts that if, for whatever reason, refilming is required, the principle actors have to fit it in. Or something.
The original ending for ***Clerks ***had Dante being shot dead during a robbery.
Army of Darkness has an alternate ending with Ash waking up very far into a post-apocalyptic future.
Little Shop of Horrors
From wiki:
28 Days Later had two alternative endings on the DVD I watched, one that was filmed and the other that was only on storyboards.
[SPOILER]In the first, Jim doesn’t survive. Selena was talking to a chicken while she was sewing the “Help Us” banners in the farmhouse kitchen, and later, it’s only her and the girl that’s spreading them out.
In the second storyboard one, Frank is saved by a complete blood transfusion from Jim, and they leave him infected and strapped to a table.[/SPOILER]
Wiki says there were three alternative endings but the DVD I saw only had the two I mention.
Ronin had an alternate ending where DeNiro is at the cafe talking to Jean Reno, who says “she’s not coming back,” DeNiro agrees, then it shows that Dierdra actually does show up, decides not to go in, then is grabbed and thrown in a van while men say “This is how we handle traitors!” or something like that. It’s on the DVD.
The third is after the gate crash, Jim is injured and the girls rush him to a hospital and try to save him. He dies and the two girls continue on.
Well, I don’t know about watchable…
I think both “A Fish Called Wanda” and “Fierce Creatures” are noted for having redone the endings after bad test audience response. I don’t know if any footage of either unused ending is available anywhere.
The actors’ contracts specify they will be available for reshoots. Usually, there are only a couple of scenes needed, so it can be done in a few days. If they’re on another production, the director will shoot around them; he won’t stop the actors from doing the reshoots because he may need them himself.
Tremors.
The ending of the original cut had Val saying a plain old goodbye to Rhonda. The test audiences, who loved the film and had really gotten into it, were yelling “Kiss her!”; the director brought Finn Carter and Kevin Bacon back to reshoot the finale with a big Hollywood kiss ending. It works, too.
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Yep, you could tell which theater was showing which by a letter code. A fourth one was filmed as well, but dropped.
From the IMDB entry.
Scott Pilgrim vs the World had an alternate ending where Scott ends up with Knives instead of Ramona. I started a thread about it because I felt this ending profoundly altered the entire story.