Movies that changed the endings and were right to do so

Cafe Society
41

The original ending to True Romance was a total downer. Tony Scott fought Quentin Tarentino over the ending because Tony had gotten emotionally attached to the characters and wanted them to live. More to the point, though, is that Scott felt the entire story was a straight up fairytale, and so the fairytale ending was appropriate. Tarentino is still a bit annoyed by it, but grudgingly admits that Tony’s ending is better.

In the movie, Clarence gets his eye shot out, but Alabama drags him out of the hotel with the money, and they live happily ever after in Cancum with their son Elvis.

In the original script, Clarence dies from his wound. Alabama grabs the money and takes off. While driving down the road, she pulls over, and with tears streaming down her face puts a gun in her mouth. After a bit, she decides that she might as well live, movie ends. It provides much better context for the narration in the beginning of the film, (“I never thought you could find true love in a place like Detroit”,) but like Tony Scott, I really wanted those characters to make it.

42

[QUOTE=Quartz]
I’ve only seen the original ending of AoD. What was the S-Mart ending?
[/QUOTE]

[spoiler]As in the original version, Ash is given a potion to return to his own time, along with precise instructions for its proper use. However, in the new version, the magician character reveals that Ash must again recite the dire incantation “klaatu barada nikto.” (There’s no cave bit; Ash simply takes the potion, bids farewell to his maiden fair, and rides into the sunset.)

Flash forward to the present day. We find that Ash has indeed safely returned to his normal life, that of a sales clerk at ‘S-Mart’ (a K-Mart clone down to the blue light specials). He has just finished telling the story of his adventure to an obviously disinterested co-worker (played by Ted Raimi). Ash wistfully observes that while he could have stayed in the past, kept the girl, and perhaps even been king, he felt obligated to return to his proper place and time. (Amusingly, Ash still has the freshly healed facial scars from his quest, and also wears his Medieval Times cyber-hand to work). Ted asks blandly if Ash managed to recite the incantation properly the second time. Ash indignantly maintains that he did, mostly… maybe not every little syllable, but…

As he works, Ash is approached by a female co-worker who shyly confides that she overheard his story and thought it was cute. However, before Ash can respond, all hell breaks loose in the form of a demonically possessed customer; the implication being that Ash’s poor incanting skills allowed an Evil Dead spirit to pursue him down the centuries (or, hey, maybe it’s just a typical K-Mart customer! HA! But, I kid K-Mart).

Anyhoo, the demon knocks Ash into the shelves and then attempts to kill his new girlfriend. Ash distracts the demon’s attention using a boomstick from the sporting goods department and delivers Quotable Lines 1 and 2 in short order. A brief, frenzied melee follows in which both a shopping cart and an item of athletic equipment are used to good effect. In the end the demon is vanquished, Ash saves the day, gets the girl, and delivers Quotable Line Number 3. Fade out.

Well… trust me, it’s a lot cooler and funnier than I make it sound here. It’s a gem.[/spoiler]

43

[QUOTE=PoorYorick]
The specific part of the ending of Shawshank Redemption that I thought was better in the movie was how the protogonist set the warden up to get busted, then the pay off at the end. If I remember correctly, that wasn’t in King’s novella.

Should have made myself clear.
[/QUOTE]
That was in the dead tree version Even talked about how that guard cried like a baby when they came to arrest him.Although, come to think of it, I can’t recall if the warden ate a bullet in the book.

44

I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and the movie versions of About a Boy but they end completely differently. I won’t give away the final third or so of the book other than to say that its ending would require the book to be set in 1994 as it’s based upon an actual news event from that year and a news event that can’t really be fictionalized or switched, while the movie is more generic but it works.
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin was imho nowhere near as good as the book (though the fact I generally loathe Nicholas Cage may influence my opinion) but it had a far more satisfying/happier ending than the novel.

The Grandfather’s death scene from the novel Little Big Man was quite different from the movie version. Both worked quite well, but in the novel unlike the movie Grandfather dies

However, the change led to one of the most brilliant scenes from the movie (from “Sometimes the magic works, sometimes it does not” til “but of course, she is lying”) so I’ll go with the movie version.

45

It’s not a movie, but in the BBC’s radio drama of the Hitchhiker’s Guide series, the end of the final episode of the Quintessential Phase (the very last one, corresponding to the end of the book Mostly Harmless, that is) changed the ending to something considerably more upbeat than the book’s ending.

I think Douglas Adams would have approved, since he later said that when he wrote Mostly Harmless, and concluded the series, he was having a very bad year.

46

[QUOTE=RikWriter]
The Natural. The book ended with Roy Hobbs striking out and losing the game, then being banned from baseball for life. I’d have slit my wrists if the movie had ended that way.
[/QUOTE]

I wouldn’t have slit my wrists, but the movie’s upbeat ending standing up to the bad guys, hitting the home run in the bottom of the ninth to win the pennant, and getting the girl sure hit the spot with me.

47

Titanic changed its original ending (Deleted Scene w. Spanish subtitles here) and I think was right to do so. I simply can’t imagine Bill Paxton’s character doing that. He’d have grabbed the necklace instead… can’t say I really blame him either.

48

[QUOTE=Sampiro]
I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and the movie versions of About a Boy but they end completely differently. I won’t give away the final third or so of the book other than to say that its ending would require the book to be set in 1994 as it’s based upon an actual news event from that year and a news event that can’t really be fictionalized or switched, while the movie is more generic but it works.
[/QUOTE]

I think the really important part about the movie’s ending is that they worked hard to make it fit really well into the context of the situation. They actually took something from earlier in the book and incorporated that into a different ending. And, in my opinion, I think it really works, as well. Good movie.

49

[QUOTE=Sampiro]
Titanic changed its original ending (Deleted Scene w. Spanish subtitles here) and I think was right to do so. I simply can’t imagine Bill Paxton’s character doing that. He’d have grabbed the necklace instead… can’t say I really blame him either.
[/QUOTE]

Whoa. Everyone on the boat takes that event a little too well for it to be believable. Were I the bearded guy, I think I’d Shove Rose in after the diamond.

I should make movies.

50

[QUOTE=nameless]
Whoa. Everyone on the boat takes that event a little too well for it to be believable. Were I the bearded guy, I think I’d Shove Rose in after the diamond.

I should make movies.
[/QUOTE]

I think eBay had a commercial where the woman jumped in after the diamond, then sold it on the internet.

51

Let’s not forget Independence Day, where Randy Quaid’s character originally took out the spaceship with a biplane.

52

I’ve just scanned this quickly, so forgive me if these have already been posted (I didn’t see on on a quick run-through)

1.) Goldfinger. In the book, Auric really was trying to bust Fort Knox.

2.) The African Queen. C.S. Forester hated for his heroes to succeed, for some reason (except for Hornblower, and a few other exceptions). I was glad to see the Luisa sunk by The African Queen.

3.) The Little Mermaid and The Steadfast Tin Soldier in Fantasia 2000. Hans Christian Anderson had a thing for pointless sad endings. Especially in TSTS, the sad endiong comes outta nowhere and spoils the mood. It’s not as if he was recounting traditional tales – Anderson himself made these up. I’m, glad Disney changed them (something I’m not always happy about. By the way, in Carlo Collodi’s “Pinocchio”, the puppet squishes his conscience/cricket.)

53

[QUOTE=Autumn Almanac]
I think Peter Jackson’s retooling of the One Ring’s destruction in The Return of the King was a wise move.

Tolkien’s version works in the book but would have seemed silly in the movie. Making the fall a result of Frodo and Gollum’s struggle is a lot more satisfying, while still retaining Tolkien’s main point that the ring’s destruction was ultimately accidental.

[/QUOTE]

I have to disagree…

Tolkiens ending is intended to show that the Ring destroys itself. Frodo’s command to Gollum “if you touch the Precious again, you will cast yourself into the fire” is fulfilled by the power of the Ring, but Gollum is still holding the Ring, and evil destroys itself. It was the Law of Unintended Consequences. I didn’t see why they cut that line - the rest would still have worked.

IMHO

Si

54

[QUOTE=Terrifel]

…<snip>
Well… trust me, it’s a lot cooler and funnier than I make it sound here. It’s a gem.
[/QUOTE]

I think you described it pretty well. I’m a little curious on the quotable lines though. There’s the obvious (spoilered and in code as to not ruin it for those who haven’t seen this ending)

H___ T_ T__ K___ B___. and the one with Y_ S__ B____.

Prehaps you can give a similar hint to the third?

55

[QUOTE=JohnT]
Let’s not forget Independence Day, where Randy Quaid’s character originally took out the spaceship with a biplane.
[/QUOTE]

As silly as the concept is, I thought it was more believable than a biplane pilot being able to pick up fighterjet piloting in a few hours. It also made more sense for him to ram the mothership, instead of firing the missile up the ship’s wazoo- he’d strapped the missile to the biplane, since he had no way of firing it.

56

[QUOTE=Lightnin’]
As silly as the concept is, I thought it was more believable than a biplane pilot being able to pick up fighterjet piloting in a few hours. It also made more sense for him to ram the mothership, instead of firing the missile up the ship’s wazoo- he’d strapped the missile to the biplane, since he had no way of firing it.
[/QUOTE]

Well, to be fair, the biplane pilot WAS an experienced and decorated fighter pilot circa the Vietnam conflict. Dunno how much the F-4 Phantom and the F/A-18 Hornet have in common, but they were at least designed and produced by the same company (MacDonald Douglas). He was maybe 30 years out of practice with fighter jets, but he had at least been keeping up with his flying in the mean time, and was sober for the first time in years.

57

7 Faces of Dr. Lao

The book just. . . ends. Sorta like a stick. You just get to the end, and there ain’t no more.

(And I still don’t know whether it was a bear or a Russian.)

58

Finney’s “The Circus of Dr. Lao” doesn’t even really have a plot. The vatious plot threads are mostly the creation of screenwriter Charles Beaumont.
And in the movie, it wasn’t a Bear or a Rusdsian – it was a somewhat anachronistic Abominable Snowman.

Something similar happened with 20,000 eagues Under the Sea – the Disney version. Screenwriter Earl Felton complained that the novel didn’t really have a lot of plot, once you got on board the Nautilus. It looks as if he cribbed a lot of plot from one of Verne’s other submarine novels, “The Weapon of Destruction/For the Flag”

59

Casablanca alternate ending

60

[QUOTE=brewha]
I think you described it pretty well. I’m a little curious on the quotable lines though. There’s the obvious (spoilered and in code as to not ruin it for those who haven’t seen this ending)

H___ T_ T__ K___ B___. and the one with Y_ S__ B____.

Prehaps you can give a similar hint to the third?
[/QUOTE]

[spoiler]Actually “Y_ S__ B____” occurs much earlier in the film, when Ash fights one of the ghouls in the castle throne room (unless there’s yet another cut of the film out there). The other two lines I was thinking of are used just after the hell-customer is about to crush the female clerk with a cash register, and Ash blasts it out of her claws with a shotgun:

ASH: L___, I_ A_____ I_ G_____ T_ H___ T_ A__ Y__ T_ L____ T__ S____.

DEMON: Who the hell are you?!

ASH: T__ N____ A___… H_________.

…Okay, maybe they’re not exactly “quotable” lines, in that you’re not likely to get the opportunity to drop them into casual conversation (at least in that context). But at the very least, they’re damn funny.

Actually, now that I think about it, another amusing little exchange from that sequence also counts as “quotable:”

DEMON: I’ll swallow your soul!

ASH: C___ G__ S___.

Man, you know you’re a fan of a movie when you can recognize dialogue from just the first letters of each word. I wonder if that also applies to Monty Python sketches…

“T___ I_ A_ E_- P_____!”[/spoiler]