# Anyone else remember the alternate ending to "Big"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864
**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:** 8
### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2013, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/141 "2013-06-27T18:42:40Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#):
>
> There are no credits for deleted or alternate characters. If there were an alternate cut, the actress would be credited there, but not in the (only) (released) cut with the walk-away ending.
Thanks. I didn’t realize that.
---
### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2013, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/142 "2013-06-27T19:29:01Z")
Apparently there is commentary on the extended cut DVD where the producers claim that no such alternate ending exists. If this is true, would this have any impact at all on your belief, **80’s Child** (and others)?
---
### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2013, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/143 "2013-06-27T21:44:47Z")
In case no one has yet linked to it, a short [Atlantic Monthly piece](http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/06/the-reagan-era-subtext-of-i-big-i-and-the-late-80s-body-swapping-film-boom/277302/) on why there were several films like Big which were released around the same time (and thus could mess with our memories).
---
### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/144 "2013-06-27T21:51:25Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#):
>
> Thanks. I didn’t realize that.
Not that there aren’t exceptions. There are many cases of credits for actors whose work hit the cutting room floor - such as Flash Gordon and Emperor Ming in the end credits of _A Christmas Story_. But in general, if an actor doesn’t appear in a specific cut, you won’t see a credit for them even if they shot significant (deleted) scenes.
---
### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2013, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/145 "2013-06-27T22:19:23Z")
> [@80\_s\_Child](#):
>
> To all you people who haven’t seen this ending and are spouting hate, really your comments are not relevant to the original question of “Does anyone else remember the alternate ending to Big?”(Kind of a yes or no don’t you think?)
No one is spouting hate, but I think the fact you are realizing your memory is false is making you think that.
And _I am the original questioner_ and listen to me: There is no alternate ending.
---
### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2013, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/146 "2013-06-28T00:05:45Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> OK, I’ll cop to an exaggeration. But the other topics are more interesting!
Ask the conspiracy theorist?
---
### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2013, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/147 "2013-06-28T00:19:38Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#):
>
> And _I am the original questioner_ and listen to me: There is no alternate ending.
There can be only one.
---
### Author:  [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2013, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/148 "2013-06-28T06:36:06Z")
This thread is kind of hilarious.
For what it’s worth, I’m reading Penny Marshall’s autobiography right now and she talks about filming the final scene in “Big” - you see Hanks then hear him walking and then cut back to the kid in an oversized suit, he walks away toward the house. That’s it.
The books is sort of fascinating, Marshall seems to know everyone in Hollywood. She was going to use Robert DeNiro for the movie because Hanks, Costner, and Quaid all passed on it initially but Fox didn’t want DeNiro for some reason.
---
### Author:  [@Rickbee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rickbee)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2013, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/149 "2013-09-04T22:34:45Z")
> [@Telemark](#):
>
> I believe the evidence has been presented in other threads or via links, but I can’t find it right now.
[quote=“Mahaloth, post:108, topic:103864”]
:takes of hat and tips it to everyone:
[I’m more stunned that I started a thread 6 years later on the same topic.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=109762) My bad!
Oh, and for the final time:
The ending is definitely the one in 14 going on 30!
**THERE IS NO ALTERNATE ENDING TO BIG!!!** [/QUOTE
Mahaloth, this is a message from the Netherlands. Tonight i specially made an account for Straight Dope. Don’t let other people tell you your memory is mixed up. You saw what you saw. Just like a few other happy ones. BIG+.
My wife and i are huge fans of Big. The first time we took the time to watch the movie on TV in Holland, (with several comm brakes it’s really something), and watching Josh walking to his home and then ending credits, at that exact moment, we looked at eachother and said. What the heeey is this (in Dutch of course). What happened to the rest? Ever since we hope, just as tonight, that the TV broadcast is WITH this ending.
Now, all you memory wizzards. Tell me. ( or actually, don’t) How can two people, at the same time, have the “wrong” memory, even on two movie titles ( 13 or 14 going on 30) we never even knew the excistance off. And i looked them back and they didn’t ring a bell. THAT’s what memory does.
What really, really bothers me most. Was it perhaps on the European release of the VHS which i brought to the second hand store two weeks ago. :smack:
THE SEARCH GOES ON! And be honoust. Those who saw it, describe it in the very exact same way. And it was a lovely ending. We don’t make this up. We are the happy few.
---
### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2013, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/150 "2013-09-04T22:51:09Z")
As I said before, I have memory of that ending, too. But I don’t think it exists. I’m convinced it’s just a conflated memory. It makes no sense to me that in all these years, it hasn’t shown up and that people involved in the production of _Big_ seem to deny it. But I would love to be proven wrong.
---
### Author:  [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2013, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/151 "2013-09-05T00:13:20Z")
Similarly, I seem to recall a scene in _Raiders of the Lost Ark_ where after Indy gets to the U-Boat, it begins to dive and he lashes himself to the periscope with his whip.
I can only suppose that one doesn’t exist either.
---
### Author:  [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2013, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/152 "2013-09-05T00:26:45Z")
> [@Rickbee](#):
>
> Now, all you memory wizzards. Tell me. ( or actually, don’t) How can two people, at the same time, have the “wrong” memory, even on two movie titles ( 13 or 14 going on 30) we never even knew the excistance off.
Argument by incredulity is a poor tactic and human memory is very notably unreliable.
It’s amazing how people can remember something that the actors, directors, and writers of the film don’t even remember.
---
### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2013, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/153 "2013-09-05T00:36:34Z")
> [@Rickbee](#):
>
> Mahaloth, this is a message from the Netherlands. Tonight i specially made an account for Straight Dope. Don’t let other people tell you your memory is mixed up. You saw what you saw. Just like a few other happy ones. BIG+.
Did you find the Straight Dope because you were researching the ending?
---
### Author:  [@Rickbee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rickbee)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2013, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/154 "2013-09-05T17:18:54Z")
Hi. Yep. Inspired by the TV broadcast. I HAD to try it again. Via Google i found it.
Btw. I asked Administrator to change honoust in honest and to please put your post in the quote box. Because I don’t know how to do that.
---
### Author:  [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2013, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/155 "2013-09-05T17:23:05Z")
I heart this thread.
---
### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2013, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/156 "2013-09-05T17:51:38Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#):
>
> I heart this thread.
It has become my most long-standing contribution to the Dope. I’m proud of it.
---
### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2013, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/157 "2013-09-05T18:11:09Z")
This thread is a lot like the scene from the movie where Ben Gazzara and Tom Hanks play a heartfelt game of Whack-a-Mole. I love that part.
---
### Author:  [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/158 "2013-09-05T18:28:11Z")
Does anyone else remember the alternate ending to this thread? Where once somebody pointed out where the confusion came from everyone just said “Oh, OK.” and went on with their lives?
---
### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/159 "2013-09-05T19:26:09Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#):
>
> Does anyone else remember the alternate ending to this thread? Where once somebody pointed out where the confusion came from everyone just said “Oh, OK.” and went on with their lives?
That’s how I remember it. It’s even there in post 115. We can’t both be making that up. What are the chances?
---
### Author:  [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2013, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864/160 "2013-09-05T20:39:12Z")
> [@Johnny\_Q](#):
>
> Similarly, I seem to recall a scene in _Raiders of the Lost Ark_ where after Indy gets to the U-Boat, it begins to dive and he lashes himself to the periscope with his whip.
>
> I can only suppose that one doesn’t exist either.
It was in the novelization and in the Marvel comic adaptation. There isn’t a deleted scene available, that I know of, but there are fragments and photos of them shooting it.
[http://www.theraider.net/films/raiders/deleted\_scenes.php](http://www.theraider.net/films/raiders/deleted_scenes.php)
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864.md?page=7)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-remember-the-alternate-ending-to-big/103864.md?page=9)