Movies That Originally Had Much Darker Endings

We can all appreciate a grim ending if the movie calls for it.
But not every film needs to be a downer.
That's a lesson quite a few filmmakers have learned the hard way.
A surprising number of classic films and modern-day blockbusters initially came equipped with
far bleaker finales, but those sad scenes were stripped away for something a little
more lighthearted — or, at least, a little less depressing.
Here are a few beloved films that originally had much darker endings.
10 Cloverfield Lane
While 10 Cloverfield Lane was successful with audiences and critics alike, many people were
upset with the film's final moments.
After spending most of the film locked in a bunker with crazy Howard, Michelle finally
escapes — only to find herself under attack by aliens.
"Oh, come on!"
It was a complete 180, and a lot of moviegoers found the ending out of place with the rest
of the movie.
But it's got some seriously good undertones.
As film critic Tasha Robinson explains, 10 Cloverfield Lane is really a film about domestic
abuse, and Michelle is a victim who's constantly running from her problems.
Thanks to the controversial ending, Michelle is able to defeat her adversaries and overcome
her "habit of running" and the "long-term effects of abuse."
The ending is a major victory for Michelle… and one that wasn't in the original screenplay.
In the first draft of the script — which was originally titled The Cellar — Michelle
breaks out of the bunker and drives to Chicago, hoping to find her family.
But when she finally arrives, she discovers the city has been mysteriously destroyed.
The end.
She never knows if the city was obliterated by aliens or nuked by the Russians, and neither
do we.
The film ends right there, with the Windy City nothing but a big pile of ashes.
Robinson calls this an "impersonal and cynical ending," and evidently the producers at Bad
Robot thought the same thing.
After buying the script, they hired Damien Chazelle — who wrote and directed Whiplash
and La La Land — to punch up the script and give Michelle a happier ending in which
she defeats both her literal and figurative demons.
American Sniper
Clint Eastwood's American Sniper isn't exactly what you'd call an upbeat movie, but the original
script took it several notches deeper into depressing territory.
In real-life, Chris Kyle was killed at a shooting range in February 2013.
So since his tragic death was such a pivotal part of the Chris Kyle story, why didn't it
make the final cut of Clint Eastwood's movie about his life?
Well, according to screenwriter Jason Hall, his death was supposed to be in the film,
but a few days after the incident, Kyle's widow called Eastwood and actor Bradley Cooper
with a favor.
As Hall explained, "[She] called and said, 'This is going to be how my children remember
their father, so I want you to get it right."
Hoping to honor her request, the creative group behind the movie considered five different
endings before finally deciding to show Kyle heading to the infamous shooting range with
Routh before fading to black.
Hall explained the decision by saying, "In the end, I think we felt that this was a film
about Chris's life and not about his death."
Training Day
Denzel Washington picked up his second Oscar for his performance as Detective Alonzo Harris
in 2001's Training Day.
One of the most corrupt cops to ever grace the silver screen, Harris was declared the
50th greatest villain of all time by the American Film Institute.
"King Kong ain't got s--- on me!"
So at the end of the film, when Harris is finally gunned down by the Russian Mafia,
moviegoers knew he'd gotten his just desserts.
But the original Training Day screenplay actually had Harris surviving, living to terrorize
Snoop Dogg another day.
After Washington accepted the part, he decided that Alonzo had to bite the bullet…like,
a whole lot of bullets.
In an interview with Dr. Todd Boyd of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Washington explained
that when he read the ending, he "was not having it."
Thankfully, he got his wish, and Alonzo got a glorious death scene.
True Romance
Written by Quentin Tarantino, True Romance tells the story of Clarence, a lonely film
geek who falls in love with a prostitute named Alabama.
The two end up accidentally getting involved with the mob.
At the end of the movie, Clarence and Alabama find themselves in the middle of a gunfight,
with the Mafia on one side and the cops on the other.
While Clarence does take a bullet, our heroes manage to take the money and run, settling
in Mexico and giving audiences an upbeat ending.
However, this wasn't Tarantino's original vision.
At first, the young screenwriter had Clarence die in the climactic bloodbath, forcing Alabama
to grab the money and leave her husband's body behind.
But director Tony Scott was so enamored with these two characters that he asked Tarantino
to let Clarence survive.
Tarantino didn't want to make the changes, so Scott agreed to film two separate endings
— one happy, one sad — and see which one worked better.
No surprise ending here.
We got the happy version.
Interstellar
Love it or hate it, you've got to admit Christopher Nolan's Interstellar is a pretty ambitious
project with a lot of great visuals and some interesting ideas.
Of course, there's also that whole "love is the one thing that transcends time and space"
bit.
Some fans appreciated the film's sentimental ending, while others weren't so crazy about
the sappy message.
And if you're someone who likes your sci-fi served cold, then you probably would've preferred
the ending in the original screenplay.
In the finished film, Coop flies straight into a black hole, which allows him to view
the past, present, and future as one moment.
Coop uses his fifth-dimensional abilities to communicate with his daughter and save
mankind.
However, this wasn't what screenwriter Jonathan Nolan intended.
According to Nerdist, the uplifting ending was his brother Christopher's doing.
As the screenwriter explained at a media event, after Cooper enters the black hole, "the Einstein-Rosen
bridge [colloquially, a wormhole] (would) collapse when Cooper tries to send the data
back."
In other words, the guy died, and mankind most likely slowly starved into extinction.
That's one serious galactic drag.
And while we're on the subject of narrowly avoided intergalactic bummers...
Guardians of the Galaxy
Generally speaking, the Marvel Cinematic Universe usually likes to keep things upbeat at the
ends of its movies.
And perhaps the happiest ending of all comes in Guardians of the Galaxy.
After defeating Ronan the Accuser, Star-Lord plugs a new Awesome Mixtape into the ship's
tape deck and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" plays over a feel-good montage of all the
good guys from the film.
It's an ending specifically designed to let moviegoers leave with a smile.
Sure, things got super sad when Star-Lord read that letter from his mom.
But at least he's got a new family now, right?
You know who's still sad and alone, though?
Peter Quill's grandfather.
Originally, the old man was supposed to show up in the film's final moments, which would've
totally killed the Marvin Gaye mood.
Director James Gunn told SlashFilm:
"It was Grandpa Quill and he has this photograph of Meredith and Peter as a little boy and
he looks up at the stars and we go up to the stars and it was really sweet.
It means that he must have seen Quill getting abducted at the end of that day and is still
waiting for him to return.
But it was freaking sad so we took it out."
Grandpa Quill holding a photo of his dead daughter, still waiting for his grandson to
come back home after all those years?
Yeah, talk about a buzzkill.
Cue dancing Baby Groot!
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Movies That Originally Had Much Darker Endings

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