# Make one change to the plot of a movie or show to improve it **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 30, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359 "2012-10-30T20:46:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359/1 "2012-10-30T20:46:06Z")
Battlestar Galactica Adama either dies or has a very long recovery, leaving Tigh in charge longer. Now that is drama, let the shit hit the fan. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359/2 "2012-10-30T20:49:08Z")
Old Yeller doesn’t get rabies, and therefore Phoebe doesn’t refer to it as “doggie snuff porn” decades later, improving two series with one change. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359/3 "2012-10-30T20:51:44Z")
Dune Don’t make it rain. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359/4 "2012-10-30T21:09:58Z")
Go with the original idea in _The Matrix_ and have the Machines be using people 's brains as information processors, not batteries. In _Independence Day_, explain that the alien OS has long since been analyzed (which is why a human computer can interface with it) and that as telepaths the aliens have essentially no concept of computer security in the human sense. There’s no point in passwords and such when everyone can see into your head. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359/5 "2012-10-30T21:18:54Z")
Sin City remove ALL dialog except the two guys whore the comedy relief ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359/6 "2012-10-30T21:48:45Z")
Star Wars: Episode I Obi-wan examines a body of a native, crushed by a tank. “Who’s this,” he wonders. “Never mind, let’s see if we can find that Gungan city on our own,” says Qui-Gon. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359/7 "2012-10-30T21:53:49Z")
Walter White is a chemistry teacher in a secondary school in the UK. The series follows him through 5 seasons while he gets cancer treatments fully paid for by the National Heath Services. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359/8 "2012-10-30T22:00:13Z")
Peggy Hill dies when her parachute doesn’t open ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359/9 "2012-10-30T22:07:27Z")
(Blasphemous maybe) but I still think the end of **Return of the King** should have had a last minute surge of dwarves from the north rather than an army of ghosts. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359/10 "2012-10-30T22:15:37Z")
Many, many movies go one scene too far. There is a kiss-and-make-up or the bad guy get shot or something at the end. Movie makers should watch more Fassbinder and learn when to stop. You will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger did not need that scene in the park. That affair could have ended like all the others. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359/11 "2012-10-30T22:19:00Z")
M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village: At the end, when Adrian Brody’s character is at the bottom of that pit and presumably dying, he’s looking up into the sky. Make the creatures in the film real and one, then more of them peer down into the hole at him. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359/12 "2012-10-30T23:43:40Z")
Forest get’s locked away as a child and we don’t have to suffer through this stupid movie. ---
**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:** [October 31, 2012, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359/13 "2012-10-31T01:05:31Z")
Buffy: Willow doesn’t get addicted to magic - she just continues to decide to use magic whenever she has a problem that she doesn’t want to face up to. Brady Bunch: Bobby wakes up to tell everyone about the dream he had of an impossible creature - a **blond boy** named Oliver. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359/14 "2012-10-31T01:14:23Z")
The Wizard Of Oz (movie) - it’s all real, not a dream. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359/15 "2012-10-31T03:07:52Z")
It’s not a movie I really like, but _The Notebook_ could be improved simply by changing James Garner’s credit from “Noah”[Ryan Gosling] to [the other guy]. The point being that the girl (Abby?) did marry Noah but he left her long ago, while this guy now spends his time pretending to be someone else just to make her happy in her dotage. Another movie I didn’t like, _Sunshine_ : Change the final scene to show that the Earth was completely fine the whole time. Those idiots were members of a doomsday cult who gave themselves Darwin awards Marching Morons-style. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359/16 "2012-10-31T06:08:22Z")
_Ransom_ - Gary Sinise collects his reward money at Mel Gibson’s office, not his apartment, then immediately catches a plane to Rio. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359/17 "2012-10-31T07:16:33Z")
I wish the writers of Lost would have gone with the pseudo sci-fi explanation (aliens, time travelers from the future, whatever) rather than the vague pseudo-mysticism it turned out to be. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359/18 "2012-10-31T08:01:31Z")
Watching “Cats” right now, and I can’t help thinking it would have been better if Gus the Theatre Cat had been the one to go on to a new life. Grizabella had a much better chance of still being alive a year later and having another shot, and she’d been accepted back by the other cats. As old as Gus was, didn’t seem too likely that he’d live to the next Jellicle Ball. ---
**Author:** ![Kiyoshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kiyoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiyoshi)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359/19 "2012-10-31T08:04:42Z")
Why doesn’t Ross, the largest of the Friends, not simply EAT the others? [/futurama] ---
**Author:** ![SecretaryofEvil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@SecretaryofEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecretaryofEvil)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359/20 "2012-10-31T08:43:59Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > Walter White is a chemistry teacher in a secondary school in the UK. The series follows him through 5 seasons while he gets cancer treatments fully paid for by the National Heath Services. Walter White turns down charitable offers to pay for his medical treatment. He’d tell the NHS to go screw\* themselves then spend five seasons using science to murder whatever the British version of Mexicans are. Australians maybe?\*\* \*“Screw” not “Fuck” because it’s AMC not HBO. \*\* I am well aware that Indians are the British version of Mexicans and that Australia would be more accurately described as Britain’s inconveniently located Canada. But I thought it was kind of racist to make that the punchline of the joke. Plus, Australia is an inherently silly place. Also, I should note that I have nothing but positive feelings for the good people of Mexico, and I strongly discourage the use of science to murder them. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-one-change-to-the-plot-of-a-movie-or-show-to-improve-it/639359.md?page=2)