Oh, did panache mean cutting the last scene right after the whole, “It’s a cookbook” line? I remember thinking that would have been a lot more effective when I first saw it. Though I think that scene lasted longer than ten seconds.
Supposedly there was a deleted scene that made some attempt to justify this. If you remember, early in the movie we saw that Goldblum’s character had been working on translating the alien signals onto his computer. In a deleted scene, he was shown working directly on the alien computers at the secret lab and translating their software on to his Mac.
In Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith: lLose the NOOOOOOOO! and slightly alter the part where Annie’s throwing things around with his mind to where he’s actually throwing them at Palpatine, who casually delivers a smackdown. Palpy then states something like " You have much to learn, my young apprentice, but you are not ready for that lesson yet." Cue maniacal laughter.
Anikin: Mom?
Amidala: Thet’s right, Anni. We’re so grateful that you saved our planet, we arranged to buy your mother out of slavery.
She can live the rest of her life her on Nabbo as a free woman while you go to Jedi Academy.
Anikin: Yipee!
Along the same lines, while I was watching 60 Minutes last night I was thinking that it would be vastly improved if “A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney” was actually “A Few Minutes of Andy Rooney Being Waterboarded”.
My choice would be to change the “human battery” explanation in *Matrix *to one where the humans tried to control the computer’s hardware, only to have it jump into using human brains as processors. I think you could get that across in 10 seconds and it would eliminate one of the stupidities of that movie.
The original Terminator movie: show Sarah Connor getting a parking ticket; and then cut to Skynet’s machines digging through the rubble of what used to be the basement of City Hall and unearthing a scrap of paper that shows that a Sarah Connor got a parking ticket in that city on that date. IOW, why Skynet sent a terminator back to that particular point in time- it was the only surviving record of Sarah’s whereabouts before Judgement Day.
ROMEO:
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!
Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death!
Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!
Here’s to my love
JULIET:
zzzzzzz…snort
ROMEO:
What the hell? Juliet, you’re alive?
JULIET:
Oh my Romeo yes. It was a clever ruse to escape marriage
ROMEO:
…
Dude. That’s pretty fucked up.
JULIET:
Oh happy days! We can now run away together.
ROMEO:
Yeah…um, Rosaline invited me to a party tonight and I think I’m gonna go check it out. Stay cool.
Yep, this is what I was going to post. Just change the scene where Morpheus says “all to turn you into this” - have him hold up a processor chip rather than a battery.
Knowing he is doomed, Khan activates the Genesis device, so that his final act will be to take Kirk and the Enterprise with him.
The Enterprise, of course, escapes the explosion just in time – but Khan never knows this. He dies believing that he has gotten his revenge.
One shot of Khan witnessing the escape of his nemesis (10 seconds would be more than enough) and his defeat is even more devastating, and the end of a teriffic film would have been all the more satisfying. Imagine Montalban playing that reaction, realizing that Kirk has bested him a final time. It would have been great!