5 movies with memorable alternate endings

I’m usually someone who is happy with the ending of a movie. Still, like most of you, I’m often curious if a movie has one or more alternate endings. For me personally, an alternate ending to a movie is rarely better than the one ultimately chosen for release. To be fair, alternate endings are often experienced in the abstract and not viewed with the film itself. Maybe it’s a complete lack of imagination on my part, but most alternate endings are simply intriguing.

What if the movie had become something different? What if the happy ending was a sad ending that didn’t quite fit with the rest of the movie? What if it’s too ridiculous to believe? For this month’s Make the Case, we decided to take a look at another of the most memorable endings we’ve ever seen. That doesn’t necessarily make them good or more urgent than whatever the standard climax is, but there are always exceptions to the rule.

Also, obviously, we’ll be dealing with some pretty serious spoilers for each movie. So please keep that in mind before you jump on Twitter and shout at me. Clinton was president.

let’s start.

5. True Romance (1993)

directed by: Tony Scott

movie: A pop culture geek (Christian Slater, who plays an idealized version of screenwriter Quentin Tarantino) falls in love with a prostitute (Patricia Arquette) and discovers that she’s getting a large amount of money from a strange pimp (Gary Oldman). Help steal cocaine and try to get rich. Hollywood. The premise is beautifully executed with a large cast, memorable dialogue, and some perfectly paced action-movie beats, making him one of the best things to come out of 90s American filmmaking. It’s one.

end: Clarence (Slater) and Alabama (Arquette) miraculously survive increasingly dire circumstances, escape with a fortune, and live happily with their children on a paradise island. The late, great Tony Scott (Top Gun, Man on Fire, Last Boy Scout), who passed away, we’ll touch on his brother later, but we don’t think viewers care too much about our hero. , I chose this ending because I felt that I could not go with the script writer for the ending. Tarantino was the first to envision it.

Alternative: In Tarantino’s original version, Clarence dies and Alabama runs away with nothing but the money, showing via monologue that he never really cared about Clarence in the first place.

Which is the most effective? For me, the original ending works best. As Scott correctly predicted, a lot of True Romance’s appeal comes down to how much you love Clarence and Alabama. Tarantino’s original ending, which he later agreed would have been wrong for a film directed by Scott, essentially punishes the audience for caring. , it would have been depressing here.

4. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

directed by: James Cameron

movie: Following James Cameron’s landmark 1984 sci-fi/horror hybrid The Terminator, this sequel sees future savior John Connor and his mother Sarah team up with a Terminator sent from the future. We’re choosing to be a very ambitious action epic: Protect. John from New Threat. Terminator 2: Judgment Day is still one of his best action movies. Lord knows they tried, but nothing in the franchise has topped this masterpiece.

end: Our hero can survive long enough to destroy Robert Patrick’s terrifying liquid metal killing machine, the T-1000. Things nevertheless end on an ominous note with a voiceover narration by Sara, indicating that the future is ultimately what we make of it.

Alternative: Good news, everyone. We trampled her Skynet ass and saved everyone’s future!The movie features an older Sarah Connor playing with her granddaughter in a former nuclear holocaust-themed nightmare playground By the way, it’s over.

Which is the most effective? Terminator 2: Judgment Day is perfect from top to bottom, including the ending James Cameron ultimately chose. However, given the mediocre sequels and reboots that followed his 30-plus years since this film’s release, an ending that gave his first two films a significant sense of closure would have been a better choice. maybe.

3. Elections (1999)

directed by: Alexander Payne

movie: A likeable high school teacher named Jim (Matthew Broderick, playing Jim as Ferris Bueller’s sad-sack middle-aged inevitability) decides to take down an ambitious high school student. Tracy (Reese Witherspoon is one of her best girlfriends) wants to win the school election at any cost. Elections is satire at its finest, with compelling characters and a frighteningly entertaining story that hasn’t lost its keen eye for politics and the chaotic intrigues of their respective microuniverses.

end: Jim’s life is completely insane. His efforts to destroy his child crumble under the weight of his own weakness and stupidity. Eventually Jim loses his wife, job and pretty much everything else. When we meet him at the end of the movie, he’s throwing drinks at Tracy as she drives away. Let him deal with it.

Alternative: In an ending that is more in line with the original novel, Tracy and Jim have a conversation following Tracy’s graduation, with Tracy admitting her uncertainty and concern about her seemingly perfect future. Jim gives her her comfort. Everyone is staring out the window, waiting for the clock.

Which is the most effective? I haven’t read the book, which I always intended to do, but the recently reappeared alternate ending doesn’t fit with the rest of the film. , especially it’s imperative to force us to see Tracy succeed despite his creepy and self-destructive efforts. , she’s still a child. We’ll support you on your dark comedy journey, which we’ve just experienced.

2. Clues (1985)

directed by: Jonathan Lynn

movie: Completely subverting the idea that basing an entire movie on a murder mystery board game is goofy even by Hollywood standards, Clue is one of the best ensemble comedy films of the 1980s. A smart script with plenty of room for chaotic silliness, the film stars Tim Curry, Michael McKean, Madeline Kahn, Colleen Camp, Christopher Lloyd, Lesley Ann Warren, Martin・Maru, Eileen Brennan shows the best performance. Clue has been a quotable cult favorite for years, and it’s never too late to discover him one of the best his decade of horrifying has given us.

end: This is where things get a little complicated. Perhaps the best-known example of the film’s famous alternate ending in this column, Clue has more than just one ending. In a truly interesting endeavor to do something truly different in a theater setting, the endings you could see in theaters depended on when and where you saw the film. . In this era, the film shows him all three endings in succession.

Alternative: But wait. A fourth ending is known to have once existed. It was conceived and filmed with three others, but was never released. We know that becoming a murderer, Wadsworth will try to escape and end up trapped in a car with a German Shepherd.

Which is the most effective? Honestly, they’re all funny and plausible in the context of the movie, so pick your favorite clue ending and live your best life.

1. Blade Runner (1982)

directed by: Ridley Scott

movie: Blade Runner begins with Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford in one of many iconic roles). He’s a tired cop struggling to survive in his dystopian 2019 Los Angeles. Deckard is tasked with hunting down his four androids known as Replicants. Forced into action, Deckard quickly discovers that it’s not as simple as just hunting them down in this quintessential neo-noir masterpiece. Blade Runner is his dense work of sci-fi entertainment that is bleak and visually stunning. It exists in several different camps, but retains the cohesion that makes it one of the most exhilarating experiences cinema has ever had.

end: Blade Runner’s original ending despite everything we’re shown in this hellish neon world on the brink of oblivion, where humans and machines are suffocating in the shadows of a dying planet. is optimistic. Deckard survived his efforts to track down the replicant Roy Batty (a powerful and anomalous form of Rutger Hauer) and others. Interrupted by needless narration, we learn that Deckard and his lover Rachel (the underrated Sean Young) have escaped Los Angeles unharmed. The future may be uncertain, but well, they will face it together.

Alternative: Blade Runner comes in several formats, with different running times and narrative choices. Technically, there are seven different cuts of the film available, but we’ll focus on the most famous. The 1982 theatrical version of Happy Him Imagines His End, features voice-over, and does not suggest that Deckard himself may be a replicant. His 1992 Director’s, directed a few years later by Scott himself in his cut and final cut, had the narration removed and ended with a darker, more abrupt note, strongly suggesting that Deckard was in fact a replicant. increase.

Which is the most effective? Blade Runner finally got a sequel in 2017 with Blade Runner 2049, but despite the shocking revelations into Deckard and Rachel’s lives after the events of the first film, there’s no question of Deckard/Replicant. It doesn’t really come close to a definitive answer..it’s hard not to get a little sentimental about the original theatrical ending, but comparing it to Ridley Scott’s final cut shows Scott’s creative It is clear that the first choice was the right one.

Read the following: Making a Case: 7 of the Best Neo-Noir Movies