Have you ever thought that a movie would be much better with the addition of just one or two scenes? This is NOT about plot holes…but here are some examples:
In “The Devil Wears Prada”, Miranda Priestly scolds Andrea Sachs for not delivering coffee quickly enough. “I’m so disappointed in you.” This should have been followed by a scene back in the coffee shop where the server tells Andrea “You just have to do what the other interns did. Give me $xxx per week, and when you come every day in just wave to me, I’ll meet you at the back door and take your order.
In the same film - at the end - we should have seen Andrea WEARING THE BLUE SWEATER AND SMILING
The original ending, which can be seen on the DVD as an extra, was FAR better than what was released.
Some studio big shot decided that director Boorman’s final scene was “ambiguous” (in fact it ended the story perfectly) and forced a change to an abrupt WTF tacked scrap of stock footage.
As released the film is still a masterpiece right up to the final few seconds.
Reorder the scenes so that Jennifer Lawrence’s scenes come first (before Chris Pratt’s), so the audience learns the “twist” alongside her character.
Then change the ending so that Chris Pratt dies fixing the ship instead of being rescued. Jennifer Lawrence spends some time after that in complete isolation on the journey. Last shot is Jennifer Lawrence standing in front of another sleep pod, debating whether to open it. Fade to black.
Emperor tells Darth Vader that Padme has died. Instead of screaming “Noooo”, he just starts breathing very heavily. Machines left and right start breaking and the ground is shaking. Even the Emperor is stunned by this powerful display.
Vader calms his breathing, kneels before the Emperor: “What is thy bidding my master?”
The Big Sleep is famous for having a plot that is almost impossible to unravel. That is one of its charms in a way, but I think they could have added a flashback in the final showdown between Marlow and Eddie Mars, triggered by Marlow trying to find out from Mars what dirt he had on Vivian Rutledge, and showing Carmen biting her thumb while she shoots the Irish chauffeur (sorry I forget his name) because he rejected her.
Maybe that’s too direct. But it would hew a little closer to the book, I think.
I never read the Harry Potter books so I understand Neville killing Nagini was different than what we saw but I thought it would have been awesome if while Neville was giving his big speech in front of Voldemort and the entire school while holding the sorting hat he wandered over to the unsuspecting Nagini and in one move let the hat fall to the ground revealing his hand holding the sword of Gryffindor and slashed the head off Nagini.
Raiders of the Lost Ark - Apparently, originally, when Indiana and Saul take The Golden Medallion to the ancient language expert he tells them not only the height of the Staff of Ra but warns them to close their eyes if the Ark is opened. That’s how Indi knows and ultimately rescues the Ark. I agree it weakens the drama to say it then, but at least at the end when Indi is talking Marion at the steps of the museum he should have mentioned it.
Otherwise, as was pointed out in Big Bang Theory, Indiana had no effective role in the story at all.
Cast Away: I think we could have done with a few less scenes of Tom Hanks moping around after he gets rescued, and a few more scenes on the island. In particular, cut the scene where he talks about how he thought about hanging himself, but the tree wouldn’t support his weight. Insert a sequence on the Island where he shown trying it. Show it, don’t tell it.
The Last Jedi: After the Resistance sees the First Order tracked them through hyperspace, add a scene with Leia and Holdo where they discuss that hyperspace tracking is believed to be impossible, so maybe there is a First Order mole in the Resistance, and they need to keep their plans on a strict need-to-know basis. Now Holdo doesn’t seem like an arrogant idiot who refuses to share because “respect my authoritay” and we can eliminate the pointless Poe mutiny subplot.
Star Trek:First Contact - Move Picard’s backstory exposition dump up to the first 10 minutes of the movie, instead of having him drop it on Alfre Woodard when the movie is already 3/4 over. I knew what was going on, but my then-fiance, who had never watched the show, was completely lost and the exposition dump came way too late to help.
Heck, the movie opens with Picard having a bad dream about being assimilated. Right after that, insert a scene with him getting counseled by Troi where he recounts everything for the newbie audience members. It wouldn’t affect the long time fans who were already used to Troi always pointing out the obvious. It seemed like a really dumb move to limit your box-office appeal to already existing fans.
Some on this board have disagreed with me about this one, but I stand by it:
At the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, Khan knows he is about to die. But he also believes he is taking Kirk and the Enterprise with him, and thus considers himself ultimately victorious. I contend that a shot of Khan watching the Enterprise speed away, realizing he has lost, would have made his defeat more complete and more satisfying.
Bit of a cheat, but: SUPERMAN II. As it is, our hero gives up his powers so he can be with Lois Lane, which is when the Phantom Zone villains arrive and start conquering the planet, which is why the big guy heads back to the Fortress of Solitude to cry out that he’s now realized his mistake and has failed humanity and no one else can help mankind unless his powers get restored, and then that — uh, happens?
Yeah, I guess it happens. You know, off-screen. Something with crystals.
A quick scene was the idea, with the floating head of Marlon Brando agreeing that, yeah, you’ve made a dreadful mistake, Kal-El: abandoning the world for the sake of private ambition, so now the only way to redeem yourself is if I sacrifice what little is left of my existence after all these years; and so listen carefully, my son, for we shall never speak again…
…and, see, that’s a story: consequences; regret; the son becoming the father, and the father, the son; even toss in a serene smile of acceptance, to really drive home why you hired a two-time Oscar winner in the first place.
Thank you for the replies. I’d like to add one more:
“Meet the Parents”: While the end titles are scrolling up, one side of the screen should have been a lie detector tape, also scrolling up. And the voiceover is Jack Byrnes. From the questions and responses, we find out that he is interrogating the CAT!
“Is your name Jinxie?”
“Meow”
“Do you live at…”
“Meow”
“Do you know anything about the toilet flooding the septic tank.”
“MEOW”
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