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

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  (#16) Titanic

  • Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, James Cameron, Bill Paxton, Ioan Gruffudd, Billy Zane, Victor Garber, David Warner, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bernard Hill, Eric Braeden, Suzy Amis, Jonathan Hyde, Jenette Goldstein, Bernard Fox, Danny Nucci, Ewan Stewart, Nicholas Cascone, Jonathan Phillips, Jason Barry, Lewis Abernathy
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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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  (#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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  (#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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  (#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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  (#2) Little Shop of Horrors

  • Bill Murray, Steve Martin, John Candy, Rick Moranis, Jim Belushi, Christopher Guest, Tisha Campbell-Martin, Levi Stubbs, Tichina Arnold, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, John Scott Martin, Barbara Rosenblat, Michelle Weeks

  Theatrical Ending
  After Audrey 2 reveals that she’s actually an alien from outer space and tries to bury Seymour (Rick Moranis) beneath the rubble of the destroyed plant shop, Seymour retaliates by electrocuting the plant until she explodes. He and Audrey are promptly married, and the movie ends on a high note.
  
  Alternate Ending
  The alternate original ending, finally released to the general public for the first time in 2012, takes the conclusion in an entirely different direction. Audrey 2 attacks and kills Audrey, who before dying, tells Seymour that he should feed her to the plant so that he can be famous. Then Audrey 2 eats Audrey, then Seymour, and spreads her buds across the country, taking over all major cities and presumably, the world.
  
  The reason for the change is one of the more fascinating backstories in film history. Though the original ending, running a rumored $1 million to shoot, was included in the first test-screenings of the film, the creators found that the ultra-downer turned the theater into an “icebox.” Director Frank Oz speculated that “in a stage play, you kill the leads and they come out for a bow — in a movie, they don't come out for a bow, they're dead. They’'re gone, and so the audience lost the people they loved... and they hated us for it.” He stands by the idea that the changed ending is the better ending, because it gives the audience the story they want.

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