It’d take more than ten seconds, but I’d restore The Bad Seed’s original ending where the mom dies, and Rhoda doesn’t get struck by lightning. I believe there was a remake which did just that. And anyway, I kinda like the hilarity of the original too, in a bad movie kind of way.
Never mind.
The ending of the 1950s version of **The Bad Seed **was imposed on the filmmakers by the Production Code. After all the things she did, there was no way the Code would allow Rhoda to be left standing at the end of the movie.
But why would a demon need a spaceship? 
Although I don’t subscribe to it, some people have suggested that the “alien invasion” is really a dream by Gibson’s character that enables him to get back his faith at the end. To further support this explanation, they cite the movie’s seemingly strange logic (e.g., aliens who can’t open doors) and slightly-off tone (e.g., the weird Lynchian conversation with the recruiting officer in town).
I’ve always wished that in Lethal Weapon 4, Martin Riggs had briefly questioned whether all the money that Roger had suddenly come into was some of the drug money he considered taking from the drug lords at the end of the second movie.
Although I still prefer the “demon” idea, yours would also be better than what we got. But shouldn’t there be something in the movie itself to indicate that one of these explanations is true? Even if the characters themselves didn’t know what was going on, one of them could have at least speculated about it, if only to give Shyamalan an out when people say “Boy were those aliens ever dumb!”
I like keeping some things mysterious too, but not to the point where viewers will just assume the writer was incompetent. (Note: the previous comment may also be applied to Lost.)
Maybe we’re just watching the movie differently. Even on first watching, I never took it that the kids’ interpretation was supposed to be the correct one. We don’t get the correct explanation of what the raiders’ motive is. I think the crop circles are a misdirection.
Thinking on it, I see some validity to the demon idea. The primary effect of the events of the movie is to terrify people and cause them to question things… If we take it that Christianity is in some sense true in the world of the movie, then the raider/demons are seeking mostly to make people question their faith. They fail in the Gibson character’s case, presumably because God has intervened beforehand (by arranging the death of the Patricia Kalembar character (the wife) and giving her the brief prophetic vision that ultimately saved them), but they may have succeeded in other causes. Alternatively, God did not will the PK character’s death, but did give her the prophecy, which came through garbled.
God is a wormhole alien.
Maybe a few mumbles about how we don’t know for sure that these are “aliens” would be enough. But more than that would be a mistake.
But the origin of the beings that terrify Mel and his family is irrelevant. They are bogey-men. Maybe they’re bogey-men from outer space, maybe they’re bogey-men from under the stairs or under your bed, maybe the bogey-men came because the cornfield was made over an indian burial ground, maybe the bogey-men were made in a secret government lab, maybe the bogey-men were sent by Satan. They’re still bogey-men, their purpose is simply to cause terror, their origin is irrelevant to the story.
Compare and contrast to the Buffy tVS episode “Hush”, where the Gentlemen’s origin is handwaved away by saying (or rather writing) that they are fairy-tale creatures, and they are banished similar mundane methods (a scream, rather than a glass of water).
“Signs” isn’t a perfect movie, but it does work as a fairy-tale or nightmare, and follows the same logic.
In goblet of fire, a brief exposition of priori incantatum would have been great. Rather than Dumbledore just saying “ah, priori incantatum.”
The flashbacks were indeed revelatory and essential. Then Price has an emotional speech during which Dunn realizes what he (Price) had done (which is reproduced in the quotes section of IMDb, and is somewhat of a spoiler):As Dunn walks slowly away from Price, the camera stays with him as Price, in his wheelchair, speaks from behind him: “Now that we know who you are… I know who I am. I’m not a mistake! It all makes sense. In a comic, you know how you can tell who the arch-villain’s going to be? He’s the exact opposite of the hero, and most time’s they’re friends, like you and me. I should’ve known way back when. You know why, David? Because of the kids.” Freeze frame for five seconds; screen displays “David Dunn led authorities to Limited Edition [Price’s shop] where evidence of three acts of terrorism was found.” Unfreeze. Dunn walks out of frame and we cut to focus back on Price in his wheelchair, saying, “They called me Mr. Glass.” Freeze frame again; screen displays “Elijah Price is now in an institution for the criminally insane.” Fade to black; roll credits.So yeah, maybe it’s not a “succession of title cards,” but it’s non-essential and it disrupts the impact of the revelation and the flow of that final scene. But I guess test audiences wanted a neater, cut-and-dried resolution, as AClockworkMelon said.
That doesn’t matter – I thought those two moves were stupid. You don’t spend two season working up to the death of your major villain, only to resurrect him not five minutes after he’s killed. That’s some Friday the 13th-level shit right there.
Sicko! Watching a baby girl’s breasts:
European Vacation (1985)
Michelle Trachtenberg (b. 10/11/1985)
Saving Private Ryan, an excellent movie but the the bit with Hanks saying with his dying breath “Live a good life”, or somesuch was totally unbelievable and incredibly cheesy.
In Star Trek: Generations, the scene where Solan (Malcolm McDowell) has just launched a missile that caused the sun to go supernova, which gives him the power to open the Nexus gate while the universe around him is being destroyed: he simply waits for the gate to open and close around him. He should have been laughing manically, like a triumphant mad scientist
WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW? HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAA!
Million Dollar Baby - have her stand between rounds, with no stool
Ok, here’s how we improve Signs AND Independence Day:
Show alien ship approaching Earrth. A group of Signs aliens are looking at readouts surrounding an image of Earth.
First alien: What the hell? That’s a water planet!
Second alien: Water planet? What the hell? Water is too corrosive to exist in its natural state on any planet.
First alien: No, look at the readouts, the surface is three quarters water! And the atmosphere has significant amoutns of water vapor in it, which periodically condense and fall on the few places that AREN’T covered by water.
Second alien: Well fuck that shit! I am not going anywhere NEAR that place! Itll kill me for sure!
First alien: I’m totally down with that, mate. But you know … (face gets a sly grin) “I know some folks that would pay good money to know the location of a planet like this.”
Next scene: Independence Day Mothership approaches Earth.
"No, Pippin, we cannot use the eagles to carry the rings to Mordor, because _____.
Now sit down and stop asking foolish questions."
Here’s how to improve A New Hope
Well…
I agree about Jonesy, given that he’s already had the whole ‘healed’ arc, there was no interesting reason to put him in jeopardy again. But WRT the Big Bad, what would you have done for a cliffhanger? I think the pint here was that, the healer of the Big Bad was a new Big Bad. That was the twist. What else could they have done (under the premise that they thought there would be a new season)?
I always wondered… since the NEXUS transgresses temporal notions… and ‘part’ of Whoopie and Solan are already in the Nexus, would Solan STILL be in the Nexus partially, because one alternate universe version of him made it there completely?
In which case, win-win!
Another Independence Day improvement/
Everybody figures out in about 10 seconds that the alien signal interfering with out satellites is a COUNTDOWN. It really shouldn’t take, like, a super genius to figure that out.
Oh, yeah, and the President says, “Nuke Em” well before they get to earth.
And the First Lady dies instantly in her crash.
And we see the stripper chick do her whole routine.
I would have kept Justin dead and come up with some other way to indicate that Sofie was the new Big Bad. Maybe have her go after Ben (unsuccessfully) or something. Or have her go after both of them, pre-empting Ben’s attempt on Justin’s life. Or something! I just think it’s stupid to undo the progress and drama of your entire show thus far in a matter of minutes. And I loathe to the core of my being the proposed plan (per Dan Knauf) for the third season to start with Sofie and Justin married, which Justin’s permanent death would preclude, making me a big fan of that particular idea.
Gonna have to disagree with you on this. At the end Hanks says “earn this” because throughout the whole movie people are questioning whether or not this one guy deserved the manhunt simply because his brothers died. Lots of brothers/sons died…so they wanted Ryan to earn all of the effort it took to find him. It also sets up the final scene where old Ryan starts crying/getting emotional about his life.
Massive OPEN SPOILER to Gone Baby Gone Follows:
This is more than 10 seconds but I want to change the ending of Gone Baby Gone. An otherwise great movie that should have ended 20 minutes earlier. Once Casey Afflecks girlfriend says “if you call the cops I will never speak to you again” we see him go outside in apparent debate…then the cops come and the movie goes on. The movie should have ended with him in debate so the audience can decide for themselves what happened.