Anyone else remember the alternate ending to "Big"?

As already mentioned a year and a half ago, one did.

That’s good, but OTOH that scene would have been shot without her, so her knowledge of whether it was ever shot is not as conclusive as I’d like.

What I would like is confirmation of not only the scene NOT being shot… but that it was ever scripted at all. It’s not inconceivable that Perkins is working from later (fan) discussions and so forth and misremembering what was actually in any working scripts.

Especially this late in the game, the only people I’d trust to give an authoritative answer are Penny Marshall, the actor playing the young Josh and just maybe the scriptwriter.

This is, I have to say, one of the most consistently intriguing questions on the board. There’s just enough hint of truth(s) to keep the essential claims alive, with no absolute answer yet found.

If it was a prank by some minion working long hours to prepare the movie for distribution, that could explain why the “alternate ending” is claimed by some overseas audiences but not so much in America (noting also that movies used to be released overseas much later than in their country of origin.) Unless it doesn’t.

And then this minion spent his life savings flying all over the place to break in and steal back all those altered copies so that not a one of them can be found today! What a dedicated prankster!

(shrug) I dunno - I bet if someone tries to round up all the original Australian theater prints of any movie from 1987 they will be out of luck. If that’s what happened, they could still be out there in wherever old film stock goes to die.

It’s one of the most pointlessly stupid questions on the board. There’s an absolute answer, but some people are just too ignorant and/or stubborn to accept it.

No… there is a very solid theory, countered by a large number of people who swear it’s wrong.

There is no authoritative statement that the alternate ending does not exist, which is the only way this negative can ever be “proven.”

What very solid theory are you referring to?

There is no solid theory, only faulty memories.

The movie 14 Going On 30 IS the alternate ending.

I believe the “solid theory” is that people are conflating memories.

I ran across Penny Marshall’s memoir “My Mother Was Nuts” the other day at the library; page 227 talks about Josh’s return home - Marshall reports some discussion of the idea of Susan staying with Josh after he returns home, but there’s no indication that this ever became part of the script http://www.amazon.com/Mother-Was-Nuts-Penny-Marshall/dp/0547892624#reader_0547892624

That might be part of why the story persists and viewers want there to be a happy ending for Josh and Susan. However (and this might be discussed somewhere upthread; this has gone on way past TL;WRR) - I think a huge part of what makes the movie work is that Josh makes the choice to leave all of his adult wonders behind, including Susan, and there’s no realistic way they can ever even see each other again. That bittersweet finish is far more sensible and meaningful than a candy-coated “Hi, Josh!” schoolroom scene. But I can see how some viewers don’t want it to end that way.

The movie 14 going on 40 is the movie ending most people mix up with the alternative ending for the movie BIG…

14 going on 40

As was first mentioned in post #15 and then many other times in this thread.

Post #14…fourteen years ago.

This thread is 14 going on 40.

Did anyone think that the ending might have actually been ‘14 Going on 30’?

Do people read threads anymore?

I only read the OP, and comment. Then I move on, never to return, because other threads need my wit and keen observer’s eye, and there’s only so many hours a day.

By the way, has anyone considered that they are confusing Big and 13 going on 30? That may be the answer. But I’m not going to research it or anything.