Movies with legitimate different endings

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

Stephen King’s story 1408 got turned into a movie with 4 different endings, shown at different times and places.

None of them were the same as the ending that King wrote.

[Kent_Clark]

Fatal Attraction had, IIRC, three different endings

1. Alex commits suicide and frames Dan. There’s a remnant of this in the final film in a scene where Alex gets Dan’s fingerprints on a knife.

2. Alex commits suicide without the framing of Dan

3. The one finally chosen, where Beth kills Alex. Supposedly the director and producers chose this ending because Beth was the only sympathetic character.

[Little_Nemo]

@magnusblitz

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story supposedly had a different original ending (that’s included as an extra on the DVD) that ends with Globo-Gym winning the final match (no double fault). And then the movie just ends with heroes losing. I think it’s more likely to be a joke than an actual ending - there’s just too many plotlines that only pay off with the actual ending. Although it certainly would’ve made for a twist in a comedy sports movie.

@Robot_Arm

With a few exceptions, the best sports movies are the ones where the result of the Big Game goes against the natural expectations of the movie. Rocky loses the big fight and it’s still a triumph, Fast Eddie beats Fats at pool and it’s still a tragedy. For a comedy where the heroes lose, there’s The Bad News Bears; it wouldn’t be nearly the movie it is if the Bears won at the end.

@thelurkinghorror

Supposedly, that alternate was the intended ending, but executive meddling gave it a happy ending. I didn’t know it was actually filmed though.

I agree with magnusblitz. Thurber filmed the alternate ending and claims it’s his real ending, but I think it’s clear he’s joking. He’s lampshading the fact that sports comedies have a happy ending but he had no real intent to subvert it.

[JKellyMap]

I know this is a tangent, but I happened to just see another example of the heroes losing in the end: in School of Rock, the kids lose the band competition – but are crowd favorites, and play an encore, cause it ain’t about winning or losing, it’s about kickin’ out the jams. I thought that was pretty cool (though my six-year-old cried a little).

[Mahaloth]

@Qadgop_the_Mercotan

Stephen King’s story 1408 got turned into a movie with 4 different endings, shown at different times and places.

None of them were the same as the ending that King wrote.

I liked that movie, but it is clear they filmed it with zero idea what to do with the end.

[Peter_Morris]

A notorious example is The Magnificent Ambersons. Sadly, the original ending no longer exists.

[TriPolar]

The alternate ending to It’s a Wonderful Life was lost for decades. Luckily found and aired. Here is the clip.

[UltraVires]

@Mahaloth

I liked that movie, but it is clear they filmed it with zero idea what to do with the end.

Agreed. They needed some explanation (within the contours of the supernatural) of the extent of the powers the spirit held over the room and how Cusack could beat it. Because at the end, I was wondering how he really knew he was out of the room and not still trapped in a dream sequence.

[garygnu]

I have not seen it, but my wife’s DVD of Hide and Seek advertises FOUR alternate endings.

[ftg]

@Tzigone

I haven’t seen Pretty in Pink listed, though I’ve always heard the ending to that one was reshot.

I’ve seen Jon Cryer and others mention this. The most telling part is Andrew McCarthy’s haircut change during the prom.

But this happens in a lot of movies. It shouldn’t qualify if the original ending isn’t generally available. Which in this case is a real shame. The wrong guy got the girl.

[CalMeacham]

Only one ending was released, but three completely different endings (with entirely different moods) were filmed by Stanley Doen for Lucky Lady in 1975

Despite the fact that his last hit film was in 1967, Stanley Donen kept getting hired as director of a long string on flops in the 1970s and 80s. Liza Minnelli, Burt Reynolds, and Gene Hackman were all critical of Donen’s directing, editing, and general misunderstanding of the film, an uneasy mix of comedy and violence. Indeed, three separate endings had to be filmed because Donen couldn’t figure out what tone was needed.

Lucky Lady (1975) - Trivia - IMDb

Here’s one of the other ones:

Roger Ebert Wrote:

The movie looks great, as we’d expect – but not only don’t we come out humming the tune, we can’t even remember the characters’ names. What an exercise in futility! There’s been a lot of publicity about the differences between Donen and the studio, on the one hand, and the three stars, on the other, over how the movie should end. Three endings were eventually shot: one unhappy, one happy, and the one they used - which is inconsequential and therefore unhappily appropriate.

Lucky Lady movie review & film summary (1975) | Roger Ebert

[DooWahDiddy]

Back to the Future 2?

Okay, but seriously, Little Shop was going to be my contribution, which has already been mentioned. The original stage version had the not-so-happy ending of the plant eating everyone and taking over the world. Test audiences of the film didn’t like that, so they replaced it with the ending everyone knows (Audrey escapes and Seymour electrocutes the plant). But the original ending was filmed and is available on YouTube (no special effects were added but it’s still cool to see).

[CalMeacham]

The US and UK versions of the horror film The Descent differ:

The endings of the US and UK versions differ. In the end, Sarah wakes up at the bottom of the cave, crawls out, and makes her way back to the car. When she is driving away, she pulls over and vomits, and when she leans back into the car, she is startled by the ghost of Juno sitting in the passenger seat. The US version cuts to the credits here. In the UK version, this apparition causes Sarah to wake up for real at the bottom of the cave, revealing her escape to be just a dream. She then has a vision of her daughter’s birthday cake, which we see is just her torch. The camera backs out, the voices of the creatures can be heard again and are increasing in strength as they are closing in on her, and the movie ends. This ending was considered “too dark” for US audiences.

And there was apparently still yet another alternate ending:

In the alternate version of the movie, Sarah escapes the cave and runs to her car. She drives down the road and stops. After vomiting out the window, she sits up and Juno, whose face is streaked with blood, is sitting right beside her. Sarah screams and the camera cuts to the credits.

The Descent (2005) - Alternate versions - IMDb

You can find them on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=714fcdTKGYA

[CalMeacham]

Rob Zombie’s version of Halloween evidently has an alternate ending, too, which is on YouTube. I don’t think it was properly released, though, so, like the endings to Lucky Lady, they’re not really “legitimate”. (The Descent Endings are, though – both were theatrically released)

[burpo_the_wonder_mutt]

Probably doesn’t count since it wasn’t filmed, but Kevin Smith’s Red State had a totally different scripted ending than what was in the completed film (he didn’t have the money to pull it off):

From IMDb: Kevin Smith’s first drafted ending for Red State was to have the climactic shootout at the church end when the true apocalypse begins: Trumpet blasts herald from the sky which turns blood red and is filled with angels, one of which impales Pastor Cooper with a flaming sword. Given the film’s $5,000 special effects budget this ending was logistically impossible yet elements of it inspired the film’s final ending.

Further: In one of his Q&As, Kevin Smith revealed that the original ending to the film featured the Apocalypse: after Cooper taunts Keenan, he and the other members of the church along with every agent, save Keenan, dies with their hearts and heads exploding. After hiding during the violence, Keenan uncovers his eyes to see the last church member being killed by a gigantic angel, who sees Keenan and simply puts its fingers to its lips and goes “Shhhhh…” before ascending to Heaven as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse descend onto Earth.

I would love to have seen that, but it would have changed the tone of the film (possibly fatally).

[Darren_Garrison]

@DooWahDiddy

But the original ending was filmed and is available on YouTube (no special effects were added but it’s still cool to see).

Interesting–I didn’t know that there was a color version of that in the wild. The version I have on DVD (which was pulled from the market because it had it) is in black and white.

[That_Don_Guy]

I have seen from a few sources that the ending to the TV version of Hangar 18 (which I think was renamed Assault Force when aired on network TV, but later went back to its original title) is somehow “completely different” from the theatrical version.

Also, didn’t Exorcist II: The Heretic have a second ending shipped to theaters when the producers discovered that viewers were laughing at the first ending?

[Kamino_Neko]

@DooWahDiddy

But the original ending was filmed and is available on YouTube (no special effects were added but it’s still cool to see).

It was finished up and the Director’s Cut was released on BluRay checks 5 years ago.

[Loach]

It probably doesn’t fit the definition of legitimate but the movie Once Upon A Time in America was released in multiple versions some of which ended differently. Different endings were not shot, it was edited without the directors approval.

[The_Vorlon]

Don’t know what the difference was, but a week into the run for A Color Purple a courier showed up with a new last reel, and left with the original.