I’ve long thought a few good movies could have been great movies with just a little change in a key scene. Either to help set up the plot better or to just add a small scene that really makes you go wow.
For example…
In Death Proof, the three stuntwomen leave the actress with the hillbilly when they go out on their joyride and are chased by Stuntman Mike. The actress is never mentioned again and there’s an underlying “She’s gonna get raped and/or killed” feeling to the whole exercise. I thought it would have been the perfect ending to cut back to the actress and find out she’s trying to kill the hillbilly. Preferably drenched in blood and carrying a chainsaw. It would have been hilarious!
On that note, in Zombieland:
Billy Murray’s death would have got an extra shot in the arm if Jesse Eisenberg had shot him a second time after they already knew he was dead and then said “Double tap.” (one of his rules).
Finally, a plot related one. In Terminator Salvation, the machines looking for Kyle Reese is a complete plot hole. At this point in the timeline, he’s just a kid who’s not even a part of the resistance. The only way they could know is if they included a short scene featuring Helena Bonham Carter’s computer program showing Sam Worthington the police files from 1984 with Kyle Reese and the T-800.
What are your ten second additions that would make a movie/TV show go from good to great?
European Vacation - From the scene where Michelle Trachtenberg is seen from the back raising her top to get someone on the Autobahn to stop, we cut to the same scene from the front, and get 10 seconds of Michelle’s tits bouncing.
**
Big Band Theory** - Every episode, Raj or Sheldon interrupt Penny and Bernadette in the midst of passionate Sapphic sex. With oil. And toys.
Glen Beck - The last 10 seconds show an angry viewer punching the shit out of Glen. A different viewer every day.
Jar-Jar is running up while the Jedi are in danger when we first meet him.
One simple spin, power on and slash with the light saber.
That’s all I ask.
Three movies made better with one stroke.
I think you misread the question. Glen Beck belongs in the thread for TV shows that would be massively improved by being changing to ten seconds or less.
And there’s a gif out there where the part where she flashes her bra and bounces up and down is edited to show breasts and it’s done very, very convincingly. I did a quick search and couldn’t find it but it’s out there.
I think The Notebook could have been massively improved by changing just one thing - a line in the credits. Instead of Garner being Noah (Ryan Gosling), make him the other guy. There may be one scene with the ‘kids’ that might need to be changed but possibly it could play either way.
If only Brent Spiner had explained in Independence Day that they had released bits and pieces of alien technology they considered safe, like the operating system for Mac, we wouldn’t have been subjected to decades of whinging about “How could a Macintosh interface with an alien computer?”
On a more serious note, Roger Ebert gave Thelma and Louise three and a half stars, noting that, had they held the final freeze frame for a few seconds before going to the credits, he’d have given it four stars. Here’s his reasoning:
Rather longer than 10 seconds, but I’d re-cut the end of The Return of The King. The credits roll after everyone bows to the hobbits, and the remaining scenes are intercut with the ship sailing into the West as the very last scene at the end of the credits.
