15 movies with alternative endings that completely change their perception

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Take a look at familiar pictures in a new way.

There are spoilers in the text of the article and embedded video clips.

1. Terminator 2: Judgment Day

• USA, 1991.
• Science fiction, action, thriller.
• Duration: 137 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 5.

An alternative ending to the adventures of Sarah Connor and her son was released on video, but they tried to forget about it as soon as possible. After all, he completely ruled out the possibility of Doomsday, and, consequently, the subsequent incompetent sequels of the film. In this scene, an aged Sarah sits and talks about a time of peace instead of a war with cars, while the camera shows us an adult John and his little daughter.

2. Alien

• Great Britain, USA, 1979.
• Horror, fantasy, thriller.
• Duration: 116 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 4.

Ridley Scott's original horror movie ends well: Ripley throws an unkillable, evil xenomorph into space and flies home with her cat in a rescue shuttle.

But the original version of the script, according to the director, was far from so optimistic. The alien killed Ripley by ripping her head off. Then the alien pressed a button on the shuttle's control panel and said, in the voice of Captain Dallas, "End of communication."

This would show that the creature adapts so quickly that it even learned to imitate the voices of its victims. But the producers of the film from Fox threatened to fire Scott on the spot for such tricks. As a result, the bad ending was never filmed and an optimistic ending ended up in the film.

3. Get away

• USA, Japan, 2017.
• Science fiction, thriller.
• Duration: 104 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 7.

In the horror movie Get Out, Chris manages to escape from a family of crazy body snatchers who specialize in performing rituals on blacks. He leaves his two-faced girlfriend Rose, letting her bleed to death.

But in the original version of the film, the guy is arrested by the police. Naturally, they don't believe him when he tells what really happened in the Armitage family and is sentenced to death. Chris accepts the verdict bravely - in the end, he stopped their atrocities, albeit at the cost of his life.

4. Rambo: First Blood

• USA, 1982.
• Action, adventure.
• Duration: 93 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 7.

At the end of the cult action movie, John Rambo shoots a police station and prepares to deal with the abused Sheriff Will Teasel. But Colonel Trautman, who arrived in time, persuades the hero to surrender to police reinforcements.

Rambo will receive a prison sentence, but he will survive, and he will still have many adventures. All this will stretch for as many as four sequels.

The alternative scene is much darker. Rambo cannot stand humiliation, and therefore gives Trautman a pistol and forces him to shoot him. The veteran of the Vietnam War gave everything for the sake of his homeland, but the monstrously unfair attitude of his fellow citizens towards him finally broke Rambo. As a result, such a sad ending was abandoned. By the way, in the book "First Blood" by David Morell, the hero also dies.

5. The butterfly effect

• USA, Canada, 2003.
• Science fiction, thriller, drama.
• Duration: 113 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 6.

Evan Treborn discovers his ability to manipulate time. He tries to correct the mistakes of the past that made his life unbearable, but every time it only makes it worse.

The film has four endings. Officially, Evan burns his diaries, which ends a series of misfortunes, but his acquaintance with Kelly never happened. In the other two endings, Evan and Kelly do get to know each other.

And in the fourth, the most creepy one, Evan, realizing that his ability to rewind time does only harm, kills himself in the womb, strangling himself with the umbilical cord. It turns out that his mother was pregnant twice before him, and both children died the same way. This means that they share the ability to manage time, and Evan's brother and sister also chose suicide in the womb.

6. Scott Pilgrim vs. All

• USA, 2010.
• Fantasy, action, melodrama, comedy.
• Duration: 112 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 5.

A guy named Scott Pilgrim fell in love with the beauty Ramona Flowers. But the girl said that she would meet with him only after he defeats seven of her exes, including six men and one girl. Scott is determined to go all the way.

In the original ending, after defeating all of the exes, Scott stays with Ramona. In the alternative, he returns to his ex-girlfriend Knives, and Ramona leaves him. Apparently, Scott decided that it was better to live with a girl who truly loves him than with the one who ended up bringing him so much trouble.

7. I am a legend

• USA, 2007.
• Science fiction, action, thriller, drama, adventure.
• Duration: 96 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 2.

Robert Neville, a survivor of the zombie apocalypse that turned people into aggressive mutant cannibals, is fighting a merciless struggle for survival. In the theatrical version of the film, he heroically sacrifices himself to save another survivor named Anna and her child.

In an alternative ending, filmed in the spirit of the original novel, Neville finds himself in the hands of monsters. It turns out that they have overcome the stage of the disease that caused them aggression, and now they have become completely human. It turns out that the main character was not killing mindless monsters, but intelligent creatures.

In this interpretation, the plot takes on a completely different meaning: it turns out that Neville, from the point of view of monsters, is a villain. As it turned out, zombies have learned to live their new life and do not want to be healed at all. Neville gives the leader of the pack an infected woman captured by him, on whom he conducted experiments to find a vaccine. The zombies respond by allowing him, Anna, and Ethan to leave the city, and all three survive.

8. Pineapple Express: I sit, I smoke

• USA, 2008.
• Action, comedy, crime.
• Duration: 114 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 9.

A couple of weed lovers accidentally cross the path of the mafia, and the criminals intend to deal with bystanders. The guys are trying to escape from the city, but, naturally, everything must go wrong with such gouges … However, in the end, friends are saved.

The alternate version released on DVD isn't all that fun. Believing that they are safe, the friends decide to light a joint. Suddenly they notice a man approaching them - and they are shot on the spot. The Mafia still managed to deal with the unlucky witnesses, no happy ending.

This ending was completely inappropriate for a frivolous comedy, so fans of the film assume that it was added to the extended version as a joke.

9. Child of darkness

• USA, Canada, Germany, 2009.
• Horror, thriller, detective, drama.
• Duration: 123 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 9.

The original version of this thriller ends with the main character Kate managing, albeit at the cost of numerous injuries, to deal with Esther, a vicious psychopath dwarf who successfully pretends to be a little girl. Esther drowns in an icy lake and remains at the bottom forever. And Kate with her deaf-and-dumb daughter meets the policemen who have arrived, and the film ends happily.

But in the director's cut, Esther didn't die. There was no scene on the frozen lake. The dwarf wakes up in a greenhouse, cut by broken glass. She rises into the room and, singing the signature creepy song, treats the wounds she has received and puts on her dress and ribbons. Then the killer goes down to the policemen who entered the house and cutely introduces himself, again pretending to be an ordinary girl.

Considering how cruel and skillful Esther is a manipulator and how cleverly she has previously made herself an innocent victim, it is safe to say that the misadventures of the Coleman family did not end there.

10. 1408

• USA, 2007.
• Horror, thriller.
• Duration: 104 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 8.

Another film adaptation of Stephen King. Writer Mike Enslin lost his daughter, on this basis he moves away from his wife Lily. Mike moves into damn room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel to write another book about poltergeist and paranormal activity.

Naturally, Mike does not believe in spirits, and in vain: soon he is attacked by ghosts. The ill-fated number tries to push him to commit suicide by showing him his deceased daughter. As a result, Mike manages to escape, betraying the ill-fated room on fire. The only thing that remained in his memory of this terrible event was a dictaphone with the voice of his ghostly daughter.

In the alternative version, Mike is killed in a fire. He is buried, and at the funeral Lily mourns for him. The hotel manager tries to give her the remaining things from Mike, but she cannot accept them. The box contains the same ill-fated voice recorder. Meanwhile, Mike's ghost appears on the ashes in the cursed room. His dead daughter calls out to him from the next room, and he heads towards her.

As you can see, this is a much less happy ending.

11. Destination

• USA, 2000.
• Horror, fantasy, thriller, detective.
• Duration: 98 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 7.

In the rental version of the film, Alex and Claire are friends, although sparks of sympathy slip between them. When the girl finds herself in a desperate situation, Alex pulls her out, once again confusing the plans for death. Then, six months later, the young men and their friend Carter finally arrive in Paris. And there death overtakes Carter …

The original version of the film was different from what we were eventually shown. Alex and Claire were much closer and even made love on the beach. Then, in a scene with Claire locked in a car ready to explode, Alex sacrifices her life to save her beloved. In the finale, the girl gives birth to a child from him, and she herself acquires the opportunity to anticipate the approach of trouble.

This ending looks somewhat more logical in conjunction with the second part of "Destination", which says that death has to be crossed out of the list of women who have given birth to a child, and the list is rebuilt, because "new life conquers death." True, in this case, it is not clear why death did not spare Alex as well, because he also took part in the creation of a new life.

12. The Amazing Spider-Man: High Voltage

• USA, 2014.
• Science fiction, action, adventure.
• Duration: 142 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 6.

Peter's parents, scientist Richard Parker and his wife, are killed at the beginning of the film, becoming the victims of an assassin. And the private jet they were on board falls into the ocean. Therefore, the future Spider-Man is raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben.

But in the alternate version of the film, Peter's father manages to escape, and at the end he meets his son. He explains why he had to pretend to be dead: Richard was trying to protect Peter, because he believed that otherwise those who sent assassins for him would inevitably go to his son. It is Richard Parker who persuades his son to put on the Spider-Man costume again, pronouncing the catchphrase of the comic series: "The more strength, the more responsibility."

13. Mr and Mrs Smith

• USA, 2005.
• Action, comedy, thriller, crime.
• Duration: 120 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 5.

In the original ending, a couple of killers, as in the beginning of the film, again find themselves at the reception of a family psychologist. The film ends with literally nothing: despite the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Smith tried to kill each other, in their relationship, in fact, nothing has changed. This is the same problem family.

An alternative scene shows the future of the couple: they live in Italy, get along better with each other, and they have a daughter. Moreover, the girl, already at her very young age, demonstrates the makings of a hired killer.

14. Paranormal activity

• USA, 2007.
• Horror, thriller, detective.
• Duration: 86 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 3.

This horror movie has three endings. The first is the one played in cinemas. In it, the main character Katie disappears without a trace, and Mika's body is found in the house. The most mysterious option that does not explain anything to the viewer.

The second ending is available on licensed DVD and Blu-ray. She tells a little more about what happened on the unfortunate night. Katie slits her own throat here after killing Mika off-screen. A much more unpleasant scene.

The third ending is the longest. Obsessed with Katie, killing Miku, spends a day in a somnambulistic state, and then tries to attack the arriving policemen, who kill her.

Alternative endings are much more creepy and work better for the atmosphere of the "Paranormal", but it was decided to abandon them in order to show the heroine Katie Featherston in the sequels.

15. Hostel

• USA, Czech Republic, 2005.
• Horror, thriller, detective.
• Duration: 94 minutes.
• IMDb: 5, 9.

Paxton, a survivor of torture in a terrible "hunting club", leaves by train away from ill-fated Slovakia. By chance, he meets at the train station one of his tormentors, a Dutch businessman. Paxton tracks down the maniac and takes revenge on him by killing him in a public toilet.

In the alternate ending, Paxton's revenge looks much worse. He leaves the businessman alive, but steals his little daughter. As a result, the scene was abandoned so as not to turn the martyr and positive hero Paxton into a kidnapper. Although the very idea that a person who has survived monstrous suffering becomes the same as his tormentors looks very suitable for such a dark and cruel film.