In what is now considered the “alternate ending”, thanks to the scene being featured on the Blu-ray/DVD, we see the film conclude with the gut-punching sequence of Chris ending up in prison for the murder of Rose and her family — despite his actions being purely self-defence. This original ending came from Peele’s need to address that we’re not living in a post-racial world, telling BuzzFeed, “The ending in that era was meant to say, ‘Look, you think race isn’t an issue? Well at the end, we all know this is how this movie would end right here.’” There have been many alternate versions of this film with longer or shorter runtimes, largely due to the amount of gore and violence. In the UK, a minute’s worth of gore-filled scenes was either shortened or removed entirely upon the film’s initial release; and other countries followed suit with cuts being made to lessen the amount of violence on screen. Now, not only can the fully uncut version be seen on DVD copies of the film, but fans of gore can also just watch the much bloodier and more realistic-looking 2013 remake. The original ending of the film, borrowed from the novel, featured Bruce the shark descending back into the water after being harpooned and leaving Brody alone on the boat. This wasn’t seen as crowd-pleasing as the more definite and explosive death of Bruce that we know, and neither was the extra idea that Spielberg felt would be a more climactic end to the film. He wanted the true ending to be Brody seeing multiple shark fins heading in his direction after the fatal shooting of Bruce, thus ending the film on a much darker and, honestly, inconsistent note. The original script, written by Carey and Shane Van Dyke (Dick Van Dyke’s grandchildren!!), had a much more fleshed-out story and answers to the loose ends of the plot that left viewers of the final product wanting. When Olivia Wilde picked up the script, her rewrites included more focus on the supposed autonomy of the women characters and idealised 1950s vibes that were great for world-building but awful for plot consistency. Honestly, I did enjoy the movie… [it definitely felt like a movie], but one glance at what the original script entailed and I feel a bit cheated out of the full story of Don’t Worry Darling. The initial ending saw Alex slit her throat with a knife that had Dan’s fingerprints on it, framing him for her death, yet casting herself in a sympathetic light. After backlash from the test screenings, the filmmakers immediately went to planning reshoots with a new script that offered more catharsis for the viewer — creating what we now know as the famous demise of Alex. Glenn Close was initially totally against the reshoots for what the murder of her character would signify for the perception of mental illness, but later speaking with the Oxford Union she said, “I don’t think it would have become the phenomenon it became if they hadn’t changed the ending… a hope that somehow the family unit would survive the nightmare.” Director, Joe Chappelle, wanted the original ending to act as a bridge between the other films in the franchise by showing the cult curse pass to another character. Test screenings for the film did not go over well, because the audience really disliked that conclusion. Along with having to scrape together a new ending a year after initial filming took place, the replacement of two major cast members and other production mishaps led to the inconsistent final product the film ended up being. Funny enough, fans of the franchise enjoy the “Producer’s Cut” more now, which features more of the original plot. In the other option for the ending, Bruce Willis’ character fakes his own death and manages to live a long life away from Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn’s immortally vain characters. The cut finale featured Tracy Ullman as a bartender turned lover of Willis’ character with the two running away to Europe together to live out their lives until being spotted by the miserable immortals. The rewrites of the script actually saw Ullman’s character cut out entirely to accommodate for the new direction the writers decided to go in for the ending. Johnny Depp explained in a 2020 interview at the Zurich Film Festival, that he actually cut around “85% of dialogue” that Edward would’ve had. He felt that due to the isolation of the character, it made more sense that his “vocabulary would be limited”. In my opinion, this change really added to the depth of Edward, and I can’t imagine the version of the film where he speaks 85% more. Despite the original cut for the film doing very well in its test screenings and gaining a lot of excitement for the film, studio executives at Miramax ordered the film to be re-edited to match the structure of The Crow more closely. When the writers refused, the studio reworked the film anyway and removed an estimated 30-40 minutes of scenes. The director’s cut of the film featured on the DVD, unfortunately, only lengthens the film by five minutes, and still does not feature the story that the writers and director wanted to tell. The alternate ending featured in the US release of the film slightly veers off from the original conclusion shown in the UK by ending the story with a jump scare of Juno’s “ghost” after Sarah escapes — whereas, in the UK version, we see Sarah waking up back in the caves after that jump scare because spoiler she never actually made it out. Although both endings are very grim, the US version presents a small win in an otherwise violent and emotionally bleak horror, due to the fact that Lionsgate wanted to “lighten things up” a bit for the main character. The musical film would’ve stayed true to its off-Broadway source material if not for the complaints of test audiences, who ~hated~ the first ending. In the original conclusion, Seymour fails to save Audrey from Audrey II in time, and they are both devoured by the giant venus fly trap. After their deaths, a business executive finds Audrey II’s seeds and sells the alien plants everywhere, which eventually all grow into mean and giant alien fly traps that take over the Earth. Who knows? Maybe if this story gets another adaption, the original dark ending will get to meet the big screen. The movie was originally set to end rather simplistically, with Zoey finding a clue in one of her books that suggests the horror games are going to start again. After the failed test screening, director Adam Robitel had said “One of the things that became clear out of that test screening was [what] the audience wanted. So I had this challenge of how do I make them proactive? How do I do this game of a checkmate?” With the reworked ending that Robitel came up with, the film was an international hit, grossing $155 million in the theatres. In the original ending, much like in the final result, the three main characters make it to a refugee community inside a school for the blind, where no one has to worry about seeing whatever is hunting them all. However, in the original ending, it is discovered quickly that the refugee community has made themselves, including their children, blind on purpose in order to survive. Susanne Bier, the film’s director, has stated that this change was made because “I would not have wanted to do an apocalyptic movie that didn’t have a hopeful ending. I’m not particularly interested for the audience to leave, from the cinema or their own screen, with a kind of the completely bleak point of view.” The original ending had Tree dying one last time (at the hands of the wife of the professor she was having an affair with, no less), implying that the time loop would remain forever. The director, Christopher Landon, stated “They were so pissed off because they felt betrayed. They were like, ‘Wait, she did all this hard work… and then you kill her again?!’” In what is now the ending, Tree discovers her killer and finally closes the time loop — to be fair I agree with the test audiences, she earned it! His character, who would use sign language to communicate, was written to just sign “I love you” before sacrificing himself. However, because of a suggestion from co-star Millicent Simmonds, Krasinski’s character signs “I’ve always loved you” as his final words instead, signifying his love throughout everything. My heart is breaking, brb.
