Random Most Fascinating Alternate Endings to Famous Movies (16 items)

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  (#3) Blade Runner

  • Harrison Ford, Daryl Hannah, Sean Young, Rutger Hauer, Edward James Olmos, M. Emmet Walsh, Joanna Cassidy, James Hong, William Sanderson, Brion James, Joe Turkel, Morgan Paull, Monty Pyke, Kevin Thompson, John Edward Allen

  Theatrical Ending
  It’s worth noting that there are eight different versions of Ridley Scott’s neo-noir film Blade Runner. But the ending originally shown in theaters is also pretty universally considered one of the worst: After defeating the rogue replicant and escaping with his replicant girlfriend, Deckard drives through a forest strikingly similar to the one seen at the beginning of The Shining and casually tells the audience in a voice-over that even though Replicants have a four-year lifespan, Rachael (Sean Young) is “special” and will live an indeterminate length of time.
  
  Alternate Ending
  There are two others that are worth talking about. One includes a terrible voice-over that ruins the message of the film, and one that actually fits with the tone and direction of the film. While the theatrical version is annoyingly sappy and the voice-over makes Deckard seem like kind of an idiot (what do you mean you “don’t know why” Roy let you live? He literally just told you!) this ending keeps things uncertain and tragic without insulting the audience’s intelligence.
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  (#11) Fatal Attraction

  • Glenn Close, Michael Douglas, Jane Krakowski, Anne Archer, Fred Gwynne, Jonathan Brandis, Lois Smith, Ellen Foley, Stuart Pankin, Sam Coppola, Anna Thomson, James Eckhouse, Mike Nussbaum, Meg Mundy, J. J. Johnston, Jan Rabson, Tom Brennan, Marilyn Schreffler, Lynnanne Zager, Mary Joy, J. D. Hall, Larry Moss, Justine Johnston, Lillian Garrett-Groag, Barbara Harris, Michael Arkin, David McCharen, Dennis Tufano, Ellen Hamilton Latzen, Thomas Saccio, Judi M. Durand, Vladimir Skomarovsky, Eunice Prewitt, Marc McQue, Faith Geer, Carol Schneider, Christopher Rubin, Greg Scott, Christine Farrell, Alicia Perusse, Chris Manor, Angelo Bruno Krakoff, James 'Packy' Dolan, Mio Polo, David Bates, Reese Golchin, Joe Chapman, Carlo Steven Krakoff, Amy Lyne

  Theatrical Ending
  After two hours of tense psychological intrigue and Michael Douglas/Glenn Close sex scenes, Fatal Attraction finally explodes with Alex (Close) attacking Dan (Douglas) and his wife Beth (Anne Archer) in their home and getting drowned and shot for her trouble.
  
  Alternate Ending
  If you’ve seen the movie, you probably noticed that the new ending is kind of a cop-out: there’s a lot of moral ambiguity here, with the “hero” of our story being a man who cheats on his wife and the “villain” being the woman he sleeps with. Concluding the movie with a scene that makes the evil seductress into a supernatural entity (She can’t drown? What is she, a witch?) that violently attacks someone in their home kinda makes her irredeemable. 
  
  The original ending tackled the ambiguity a little more head-on: Instead of attacking anyone, Alex just kills herself with the knife Dan gave her, and the film ends with Dan being taken away by the police and Beth finding exonerating evidence in the attic. After test audiences were confused by a movie with anything more complicated than a simple good vs. evil dichotomy, the studio reshot the ending – replacing a thoughtful exploration into the destructive nature of emotional manipulation with generic jump-scares.
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  (#4) Brazil

  • Robert De Niro, Bob Hoskins, Ian Holm, Jim Broadbent, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond, Jonathan Pryce, Ian Richardson, Peter Vaughan, Charles McKeown, Sheila Reid, Barbara Hicks, Derrick O'Connor, Bryan Pringle, Kathryn Pogson, Kim Greist

  Theatrical Ending
  As is rarely the case, the theatrical ending of Brazil is actually the superior one, due to director Terry Gilliam’s steadfast refusal to accommodate the studio’s wishes. The ending of Brazil that most people have seen is the dark, tragic version where hero Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is driven insane after being tortured to near-death by an insanely bureaucratic dystopian future government.
  
  Alternate Ending
  The ending the studio wanted was a little different: instead of slipping into an escapist fantasy to avoid the tragic situation he’s found himself trapped in, Lowry slips into an escapist fantasy for no reason: his life is actually OK, and love has conquered all evil, and he can live happily ever after. Not only is this unbelievably corny, but it makes absolutely no sense in the context of the story.
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  (#8) The Descent

  • Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, MyAnna Buring, Nora-Jane Noone

  Theatrical Ending
  In the American release of The Descent, the film ends with the protagonist Sarah (Shauna McDonald) leaving Juno (Natalie Mendoza) to be eaten by underground cave-monsters because she slept with her husband back when he was alive. Sarah then crawls out of the cave, finds her car, and drives as fast as she can until she breaks down crying – only to discover that the ghost of Juno has followed her.
  
  Alternate Ending
  The ending shown in the UK and other countries adds a bit on to that – after screaming at the appearance of Juno’s ghost, Sarah “wakes up” and finds herself back in the cave, with only her torch and hallucinations of her dead daughter to keep her company. As the screams of the monsters echo in the distance, the camera goes black – leaving her doomed. The difference between the two endings is just where you cut to the credits.
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  (#13) Deep Blue Sea

  • Samuel L. Jackson, LL Cool J, Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, Stellan Skarsgård, Frank Welker, Michael Rapaport, Erinn Bartlett, Renny Harlin, Aida Turturro, Ronny Cox, Jacqueline McKenzie, Mary Kay Bergman, Valente Rodriguez, Eyal Podell, Brent Roam, Cristos, Dan Thiel, Daniel Rey, Tajsha Thomas, Sarah Kelly, Sabrina Geerinckx

  Theatrical Ending
  The “protagonist” of the film – the woman responsible for everything terrible that’s happened so far, including Samuel L. Jackson getting eaten by a shark – is killed, and LL Cool J survives. Despite trying their best to not repeat Jaws, Deep Blue Sea still manages to end with a shark blowing up for scientifically implausible reasons.
  
  Alternate Ending
  In the original ending, thus far not released on DVD and only shown to test audiences, switched things: Susan (Saffron Burrows) survived, and Preacher (LL Cool J) was killed. The testers didn’t like this, and reportedly they made the decision to completely redo the ending because people in the audience were shouting “die, b*tch!” and we all know that someone who shouts that in public is the kind of person that needs to be taken seriously.
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  (#12) Star Trek: Generations

  Theatrical Ending
  In order to shoehorn an interesting ending onto such a bland movie, the makers of Star Trek Generations decided to kill Captain James T. Kirk by dropping a bridge on him. The manner of his death is so ridiculous that TVTropes has named the practice of killing off major characters in lame ways after this scene (see: dropped a bridge on him).
  
  Alternate Ending
  The original ending of Generations didn’t show Kirk killed by a bridge – it showed him being shot in the back by Malcolm McDowell. The change came after test audiences reported that this death wasn’t heroic enough. The decision seems to come from that idea that being crushed under a bridge for no reason is more heroic than being shot in the back for no reason, proving that all the test-audiences in the world can’t save your movie if you’re a f**king idiot.

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