Movie endings can make or break a movie. The directors know this, so they focus test their movies, trying to make sure that they end with the perfect conclusion, perfect shot and perfect words. For this reason, some movies have wildly different alternate endings than the finished cut.
Alternate endings are fun, nonetheless. They help shape how audiences interpret and enjoy a movie. They also often add dimension and complexity to a movie, even in cases where they undo its creative prestige. Movie fans love to engage with alternate movie endings, because it is fun, and it allows audiences to expand the worlds in which their favorite movies exist.
Soul: Joe Stays In The Great Beyond
The premise of the movie Soul sees Joe unwilling to go to ‘The Great Beyond’ because he does not want to die before he achieves his big break in music. In one alternate ending, Joe finally ends up in The Great Beyond, at which point the movie ends, with no visualization of what he meets there. In another alternate ending, he reaches The Great Beyond, and audiences see what occurs when Joe gets there.
Another alternate ending saw Joe stay in ‘The Great Before,’ tutoring the unborn souls before they got to Earth.
Get Out: Chris is Arrested
Get Out is a famous horror movie whose Black protagonist survives. The horror movie genre is well-documented for killing off Black and other minority characters first. Subsequently, a horror movie with a Black protagonist killing the white villain was a surprising twist.
Get Out, however, had one more twist before it ended. That is, the arrival of the police cruiser just after Chris strangles Rose. This scene is meant to scare audiences into feeling Chris’ fear as a Black man in America against the white justice system. Luckily for Chris, it is his friend, Rod, who has come to save him. In the alternate ending, the police actually show up, and Chris resigns his fate to a life in prison.
10 Cloverfield Lane: Howard Survives
The psychological thriller 10 Cloverfield Lane uses paranoia as its central source of tension. The protagonist Michelle wakes up in a bunker and is told that she must stay there for a year or two because Earth has been wiped out in a nuclear attack. Her ‘savior’ Howard is the movie’s creepy antagonist who Michelle does not trust. She doubts that he is telling the truth about the outside world and eventually murders him so she can escape the bunker. Outside, she finds out that he was telling the truth.
In the alternate ending, Howard does not die and is portrayed as the good guy and Michelle’s good savior. The other bunker resident, Emmett, who originally helps Michelle escape, is portrayed as the villain.
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: Scott Gets Back With Knives
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World reaches its conclusion when Scott finally defeats all of Ramona’s exes. Scott’s own ex Knives also finally concedes that her relationship with Scott is over. In the alternate ending, however, Scott ends up back together with Knives as they both realize that they are better suited for each other on a deeper level.
Scott and Ramona break-up amicably, apologize for their part in the relationship ending, and take accountability in the process. Ramona also learns that she does not need to be in a relationship to function as a whole person.
I Am Legend: Neville Is The Villain All Along
I Am Legend ends on a depressing note when the Darkseekers invade Neville’s lab just as he finds a cure for the virus. To protect the cure and to protect Anna and Ethan, he blows himself up with a grenade along with the Darkseekers, leaving Anna and Ethan to make it safely to Vermont. In the alternate ending, Neville learns that his test subject is the girlfriend of the Darkseekers’ leaders, which is why they are after him.
The Darkseekers consider him their biggest enemy, Neville realizes. Furthermore, although thinking himself to be a good guy, he has caused them a lot of misery.
Toy Story 4: Woody Goes Back To Bonnie
Toy Story 4 saw Woody struggling with his new role as Bonnie’s toy. Unlike Andy, Bonnie prefers Jessie, and even dubs Jessie the sheriff of all her toys, giving Woody’s badge to her. Woody, used to being the head of all the toys, is unable to deal with this. Soon, Woody meets Bo Beep again after they parted in Toy Story 2. She is an ownerless toy who lives life for herself. Woody has always been in love with her and decides to join Bo Beep since Bonnie does not need him.
In the alternate version, Woody goes back to Bonnie, and Bo Beep decides to give up her ownerless status to become Harmony’s toy.
Interstellar: Cooper Dies
Minus the physics of time and space travel, the politics of human society in regression, and the death of human civilization, Interstellar explores the emotional message that nothing can ever defeat “love that “transcends the dimensions of space and time.” Cooper’s love for his daughter helps him to find a way home in the movie, but in the alternate ending, Cooper is killed when the blackhole, with which he sends a message to his daughter, collapses on him. He effectively sacrifices himself to save humanity.
The Butterfly Effect: Evan Kills Himself
The Butterfly Effect starred Ashton Kutcher as a college student who finds he can travel back in time thanks to time-traveling powers passed down from his dad. As a child, Evan and his close friends suffered extremely traumatic events that affect them in the present. To save them from these events, Evan decides to travel back in time to prevent these events from occurring. Upon returning to the present, he finds that he or his friends have suffered incredibly painful fates thanks to his meddling. He finally makes one last time travel to fix things and stops going back in time.
In the alternate ending, however, he decides to return to his mother’s pregnancy and chokes himself as a fetus; so that he would never be born and never pass down his time-travelling genes to a new generation.
The Shining: Jack Was A Reincarnation
The Shining ended with a lot of questions about who Jack was. These questions were prompted by the final scene in the movie where Jack is pictured in a photography of partygoers in 1921 at the same hotel. How did Jack end up in that photograph? Was it the hotel’s victory at making Jack into one of its ghosts?
In an alternate ending, hotel manager, Stuart, arrives at the hospital to help a traumatized Danny and Wendy and hands Danny the same tennis ball from Room 237. This alludes to Ullman either being a ghost. Or, having seen the photograph, Ullman hired Jack to make sure he would die once more, in which case, Jack is either one of the hotel’s ghosts or a reincarnation of himself.
Titanic: “You look for treasure in the wrong places.”
James Cameron’s Titanic is famous for its ending where the lone Rose throws the diamond necklace into the ocean over the ship’s wreck site. In an alternate ending, Rose’s granddaughter Lizzy, and Brock are present, and they try to stop her from throwing the necklace overboard. Rose then gives a sentimental speech about why she wants to throw the diamond necklace into the ocean.
“The hardest part of being so poor was being so rich. But every time I thought about selling it, I thought about Cal, and somehow I made it without his help. You look for treasure in the wrong places Mr. Lovett, only life is priceless and making each day count.”
