Inspired by my own post in the Nazi movie thread. Unboxed spoilers ahead.
It seems that most of the time when a movie ending is changed it is to give it a crowd pleasing happy ending. In The Natural book Roy Hobbs accepts the payoff to throw the game, changes his mind at the last moment, and strikes out anyway. Movie Roy Hobbs turns down the payoff and heroically hits the game winning homerun in a shower of sparks.
When I was looking to see if my recollection of the movie Von Ryan’s Express was accurate I found out they did the opposite. Movie Ryan (Frank Sinatra) is running back to the moving train after delaying the Nazis long enough to ensure the escape. Movie Ryan is gunned down before he reaches the train. Book Ryan escapes on the train and makes it to Switzerland.
What are some other examples in which the movie was changed from the book to give it an unhappy ending?
Steven King’s novella The Mist has an ambiguous, though somewhat hopeful, ending in which the characters drive through the monster-filled mist toward the city of Hartford, from which they’ve heard a fragment of a radio broadcast implying that the city hasn’t been overrun.
In the movie version, the car runs out of gas, and the characters agree that they’d rather be shot by the lead protagonist than devoured by the Lovecraftian beasties. He kills them all, including his own sleeping son, but doesn’t have a 5th bullet for himself. He leaves the car, only to encounter an Army unit that’s exterminating monsters, rescuing locals, and generally seems to be getting the situation under control.
Achingly unhappier for the protagonist, though potentially happier for the rest of the Earth’s population.
John Campbell’s original story “Who Goes There?” (written under his pseudonym Don A. Stuart) has the Thing of the movie title pretty clearly and unequivocally dead, and as a plus, the survivors get its high technology. The first movie version jettisoned almost all of the story, including its central concept, but kept the happy ending (sans the gift og high-tech).
The remake is much more faithful to the original story, but has more of the team killed off, it’s ambiguous if the Thing really has been killed, and the survivors atre doomed to freeze to death. Without even knowing if they succeeded.
Serious bummer.
A Clockwork Orange. In the movie, Alex’s conditioning is reversed, and he gloats that he’s “been cured all right” as he prepares to resume his life of ultra-violence. The novel’s last chapter (omitted in the initial American edition) sees Alex choose to give up ultra-violence of his own free will.
The book version of Circle of Friends has Bennie dumping her cheating boyfriend and perhaps finding someone new. In the movie, not only does she take him back, she goes against her Catholic morals and sleeps with him. I much prefer the non-doormat book Bennie, even if on first glance the movie ending seems happier.
Richard Adams’ novel The Plague Dogs has a completely happy ending. Both dog’s escape the Army, its discovered that they aren’t infected with anything, and the smaller dog is even reunited with his (not dead) original owner.
In the animated movie they, ah, um, well, don’t do any of the above…
