I was telling a friend the other day that I remembered the Tom Hanks movie ending different when I was younger. I saw it on video when it first came out and swear there is a different ending.
In the version we all have seen, it ends with Josh and his friend walking down the street. Fade to Black.
In the version I remember, it cuts to school and Josh is in class. The teacher introduces a new student named… the girl Josh was in love with. Yep, she went to the fair and asked the machine to become Josh’s age. Josh and her have eye contact and they laugh. Fade to black.
The imdb lists this as a possible alternate version in the New Zealand video release. I distinctly remember this(shot for show) in the U.S.
You may be confusing two movies. Big came out around the same time as three other movies with similar themes. Every Sunday night, ABC used to show a family-friendly Disney movie. One of these was quite similar to Big. The title escapes me at the moment, but the basic plot is this:
-Boy’s geeky friend invents machine designed to age seeds into full grown fruits and vegetables.
-Boy uses machine to make self into an adult, and impersonates the new principal of his school.
-Hilarity ensues he implements the sort of changes a mental 11 or 12 year old would make, were he running a school.
-Boy falls in love with his beautiful teacher
-I’m kind of foggy about what makes him decide to change back, but I’m sure some valuable life lessons were learned.
-Boy reverts to normal age, comes into class the next day to find out that hot teacher has likewise used the machine to regress to his age, and is now a new student in his class.
-Boy’s geeky friend shows up as a new science teacher
If anyone else recalls this movie, I’m sure they’ll be able to provide the name of the movie and more details. Does this sound familiar to anyone? I know I’m not hallucinating this.
From what I remember, it’s been a long time since I saw Big on video, it ends with the same scene as you have described as in the US version here in Kiwiland.
I dimly remember reading they contemplated an ending where either the Toms Hanks character stays as an adult (but they didn’t want the worried mom casting a pall over the ending) or the Elizabeth Perkins character becoming a girl again so they could grow up together (either not the point of the story, or not believable).
In any case, Elizabeth Perkins should have become a Major Star from this movie.
No real details, and I suspect that if this were really filmed it would have shown up in the US DVD release. My guess is that it’s a misremembered ending from a similar movie.
Huh? There’s no announcement that there’s a new student, and the focus of the scene is on the new teacher. In fact, the first part makes the whole thing seem really weird. How does someone get into a class without being the new student?
