# Anyone else remember the alternate ending to "Big"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [April 16, 2002, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864 "2002-04-16T02:03:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 53
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2022, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1041 "2022-03-14T03:14:12Z")
Again, the clips I saw comparing similar movies do mention and showed scenes like the La Grande movie, sure when looking at them **now** it looks insane (like really, a teacher falling for a kid in her school is very icky) However, I have seen people remembering wrong scenes in movies and video games added to others movies and games (with very different characters) in faulty childhood or young memories from me and other posters in the SDMB. In one memorably thread, a poster wanting to identify an animated movie completely discounted the movie where an actual laser bridge was used. Many posters did then do go to wild chases on the internet, but it turned out that I did remember that it was the movie that the OP discounted! What you seem to forget is how the brain does remember things, it is usually not like a photographic memory, it is more like bits that can get jumbled together the older one gets. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2022, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1042 "2022-03-14T03:43:14Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > It wouldn’t surprise me if the writer/director Franco Amurri shopped the script around Hollywood for a few years and someone ripped off the idea. That’s entirely plausible. Well, scratch that. A big of Googling shows that the Anne Spielberg/Gary Ross _Big_ script was begun in 1984 and sold to Fox in '85. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2022, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1043 "2022-04-14T22:30:14Z")
35 posts were split to a new topic: [Alternate Endings of Movies that aren’t Big](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alternate-endings-of-movies-that-arent-big/962843) ---
**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 14, 2022, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1044 "2022-04-14T19:15:49Z")
The alternate ending to “Big” is a red herring. In early 1988 a telemovie was test screened in New Zealand, Canada and other countries using various names. This movie was eventually shown on US television with the name _14 Going on 30_, but with an _ **alternate beginning!** _ The original beginning has been carefully covered up all these years. It is rumored to have used the same plot and character names in the first 88 minutes as later used in the movie _Big_. This original beginning has never been shown again but numerous people claim to remember seeing this movie in New Zealand, Canada, and occasionally some European countries. This is the real mystery, what ever happened to the original beginning of _14 Going on 30_, and why was it covered up? ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2022, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1045 "2022-04-14T19:26:55Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > The alternate ending to “Big” is a red herring. I don’t think anyone has claimed to remember a surrealist ending before. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1046 "2022-04-15T03:54:53Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > The alternate ending to “Big” is a red herring. That’s a pretty big clue, however. Almost like Communism. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2022, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1047 "2022-04-15T12:09:28Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > That’s a pretty big clue, however. Almost like Communism. No joking, Clue actually had a fourth ending filmed that was not in the movie. [https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2014/03/13/the-perfect-murder-clues-infamous-fourth-ending](https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2014/03/13/the-perfect-murder-clues-infamous-fourth-ending) ---
**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:** [February 5, 2026, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1048 "2026-02-05T22:39:55Z")
Here’s an image of brief interview with Penny Marshall in which she explicitly (and somewhat heatedly) denies that anything other than one ending was filmed > > Audiences at test screenings for the film lobbied for a “happy” ending, in which Elizabeth Perkins would join Tom Hanks in childhood. “ **The ending that was always written in the script was that he went back and she didn’t,** ” says the film’s director, Penny Marshall. “At one point, the studio wanted her to go back. We talked about it, but [coproducer] Jim Brooks and I didn’t want to change it. It was logic conversations: What’s she going to tell _her_ parents? Are they going to be doing it in junior high? **Also, this was the script the studio bought, and if they were worried about the ending being bittersweet, they should have worried about it a few years earlier.** ” ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2026, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1049 "2026-02-06T01:35:17Z")
Maybe this is all evidence of a alternative universe that happens to be very close to ours? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2026, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1050 "2026-02-06T01:55:17Z")
That’s honestly the most reasonable suggestion I’ve seen ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2026, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1051 "2026-02-06T01:59:48Z")
I mean, think about it- several films have alternate endings, such as Secondhand Lions, Clue, etc- why not Big? Berenstain Bears or Berenstein Bears. The Monopoly Man looks pretty right with a monocle, and so forth. Tiny and plausible differences. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1052 "2026-02-10T20:24:59Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Maybe this is all evidence of a alternative universe that happens to be very close to ours? If the point of divergence was _Big_ having an alternative ending, their world would be completely different from ours by now. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1053 "2026-02-10T20:26:44Z")
If things were random, sure. But any good multiverse is going to have stewards who keep things in alignment as much as possible. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1054 "2026-02-10T20:27:35Z")
The vast majority of them are not, and those with an alternate ending _never_ lie about it, cover it up or lie about it. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1055 "2026-02-10T20:50:42Z")
What are you talking about? Are you thinking that I claimed that - _in our universe_- there was really an alternate ending to Big? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1056 "2026-02-10T20:52:02Z")
No. I am thinking that the factors you introduced don’t really pertain. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1057 "2026-02-10T20:54:48Z")
Of course they do. Films can certainly have alternate endings- that is a proven fact. I postulate that in a different parallel universe Big did have an alternate ending, that many saw. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1058 "2026-02-10T22:12:53Z")
But the alternate Dopers are just as certain that their ending, while different than ours, is the only ending. They will argue to the pain that there is no alternate ending to Big. As they should. ---
**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:** [February 10, 2026, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1059 "2026-02-10T22:22:20Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > different parallel universe There are a vast number of parallel universes, so in one of them _Big_ ends with Josh and Susan dying when a meteor smashes into them. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/1060 "2026-02-10T23:28:08Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > There are a vast number of parallel universes, so in one of them _Big_ ends with Josh and Susan dying when a meteor smashes into them. And one in which ~~Han~~ Josh shoots first. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864.md?page=52) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864.md?page=54)