Great film endings can elevate solid movies, while a bad conclusion can reduce an otherwise great picture to being an underwhelming viewing experience. As such, it is an undeniable fact that a film’s ending is one of the most important elements to get right, which makes it astounding that there have been so many occasions when major movies have been released with completely different endings.
The reasons for such changes to movie endings can vary, be it due to negative responses from test audiences, production companies opting to re-edit or even film a new ending, or because the content of the original picture is deemed too confronting or bleak for some nations as opposed to others. From modern horror hits to epic crime classics, these 10 noteworthy films have all had very different versions released.
10 ‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’ (2018)
Directed by David Slade
An enticing experiment as an interactive Netflix film that allowed audiences to plot the course of the story by giving them choices to make, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch was released with multiple different endings available by design. Set in 1984, the film centers on a young programmer trying to develop a dark fantasy novel as an interactive video game only to find his perspective on reality muddying into a dream-like state, with his personal relationships suffering amid his descent.
Stefan Butler’s (Fionn Whitehead) fate depends entirely on the decisions made by the viewer, with as many as five different endings to the story being achievable. However, in addition to the five conclusions with the many different decisions to be made and the fact that the same scene can pop up in different stages depending on what the audiences’ decisions are, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch has over one trillion possible permutations in totality.
Watch on Netflix
9 ‘Unfriended: Dark Web’ (2018)
Directed by Stephen Susco
A stand-alone sequel to 2014’s webcam horror movie Unfriended, Unfriended: Dark Web runs with much the same gimmick of following people as they interact through webcams while conversing over Skype. It follows Matias (Colin Woodell), a teen who finds a laptop in the lost-and-found at a cybercafé and takes it home, only then discovering that the previous owner of the device had access to the dark web and is monitoring him, desperate to get it back.
The film was split with two alternate endings seemingly being released to cinemas at random in such a way that not even the theaters were aware of which version of the film they had. With the torment the characters endure part of a twisted spectacle for thousands of sadistic viewers, the first ending sees Matias run over by a van when the dark web users vote for his death, whereas the alternate ending sees him buried alive in a coffin trying to communicate with his deaf girlfriend Amaya (Stephanie Nogueras) over the phone with his ultimate fate left ambiguous.
Unfriended 2
- Release Date
- July 19, 2018
- Director
- Stephen Susco
- Rating
- R
- Runtime
- 88
Rent on Apple TV
8 ‘1408’ (2007)
Directed by Mikael Håfström
Adapted from the Stephen King novel of the same name, 1408 is a horror film that follows cynical author Mike Enslin (John Cusack), who debunks supernatural events. Upon receiving an anonymous postcard with a picture of The Dolphin hotel stating, “Don’t enter 1408.” Mike becomes intrigued and decides to pay the hotel a visit. Little did he know that his time before arriving at The Dolphin Hotel would be the last of his cynicism about supernatural phenomena.
While the original ending (the director’s cut) of the film showed Mike being burnt alive inside the hotel room, the ending of the theatrical release showed Mike surviving the experience and believing that everything had been a dream, and later hearing the voice of his dead daughter through the tape recorder he had been using. Though the original ending is now the default version shown on streaming platforms across the US and Canada, other countries such as Holland, Japan, and Australia received the alternative ending.
1408
- Release Date
- June 22, 2007
- Rating
- PG-13
- Runtime
- 94
Rent on Apple TV
7 ‘The Descent’ (2005)
Directed by Neil Marshall
A British horror movie, The Descent follows Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) and her friends as they celebrate an annual reunion by venturing across the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, even deciding to explore a cave they discover only to find themselves lost and being hunted by haunting humanoid creatures. While simplistic in its plot, The Descent was celebrated as a creepy claustrophobic horror, one which interestingly had two different endings.
In the original version, Sarah finally escapes the bloodthirsty predators only to wake up in the cave again, thinking it was all a dream before the distinct sound of the crawlers echoes out before the film cuts to black. The U.S. version of The Descent, however, saw Sarah successfully escape and drive away with the film closing as she hallucinates her late daughter sitting beside her. Both conclusions were impactful, and horror fans have debated which of the two endings was better ever since the film was released.
The Descent
- Release Date
- July 8, 2005
- Director
- Neil Marshall
- Cast
- Shauna Macdonald , Natalie Jackson Mendoza , Alex Reid , Saskia Mulder , MyAnna Buring , Nora-Jane Noone
- Rating
- R
- Runtime
- 99
Rent on Apple TV
6 ’28 Days Later’ (2002)
Directed by Danny Boyle
Despite now being over 20 years old, 28 Days Later remains an effective, unsettling highlight of zombie horror, following a small group of survivors as they trek across a post-apocalyptic England to reach a military safe zone. However, when the group do finally arrive, they soon learn that the lawlessness of the world has seen humans deteriorate into savages in more ways than one, as the soldiers broadcast their message of hope to lure women in and keep them as sex slaves to repopulate the world.
While the film ends on a high with Jim (Cillian Murphy), Selena (Naomie Harris), and Hannah (Megan Burns) escaping the compound and optimistic about being saved by other countries, three alternate endings for 28 Days Later were also planned. One was virtually identical to the original ending, only with Jim (presumably dead) not present with the two women, the second depicted Jim dying from a gunshot wound in hospital, while the third (which would have necessitated wholesale changes to the plot) showed Jim sacrificing himself by undergoing a blood transfusion to cure Frank’s (Brendan Gleeson) infection.
28 Days Later
- Release Date
- October 31, 2002
- Cast
- Alex Palmer , Bindu De Stoppani , Jukka Hiltunen , David Schneider , Cillian Murphy , Toby Sedgwick
- Rating
- R
- Runtime
- 113
Buy on Amazon
5 ‘Fatal Attraction’ (1987)
Directed by Adrian Lyne
A hallmark of the 1980s’ infatuation with erotic thrillers, Fatal Attraction follows successful lawyer Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) as he engages in an affair with Alex Forrest (Glenn Close), a woman who soon becomes obsessed with him and actively works to ruin his marriage. The theatrical ending sees Alex attack Dan and his wife with a kitchen knife, only for Dan to drown her in the bathtub before his wife shoots her dead when she re-emerges.
However, the Japanese release of the film came with an intriguing alternate conclusion (which was actually the original ending to Fatal Attraction) linked to Dan and Alex’s discussion earlier in the film about ‘Madame Butterfly’, an opera that ends with its protagonist’s suicide. Mimicking that somewhat, the Japanese version ends with Dan being framed for Alex’s murder before being acquitted when evidence determines he didn’t kill her, prompting a final flashback to Alex taking her own life with a knife while listening to ‘Madame Butterfly’.
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4 ‘Brazil’ (1985)
Directed by Terry Gilliam
From the wonderfully erratic mind of Terry Gilliam, Brazil functioned both as a dystopian sci-fi thriller and an absurd surrealist comedy. It follows Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce), a ministry clerk in a hyper-consumerist world who escapes his monotonous life by imagining himself as a winged warrior investigating the wrongful arrest and death of an innocent man mistaken for a terrorist, but he finds himself getting sidetracked when he meets the woman of his dreams.
The film’s original ending saw Sam escaping the government with his lover and happily flying off into the clouds before it was revealed that he had actually been captured and everything was in his imagination. As Universal Pictures deemed the ending too dark for American audiences, it was re-edited without Gilliam’s approval, to be a triumphant and happy ending, something the director fought hard against. While Gilliam eventually won out and his original vision was released internationally, the re-edited version of the film can still be seen on television networks in different parts of the world.
Brazil
- Release Date
- December 18, 1985
- Director
- Terry Gilliam
- Rating
- R
- Runtime
- 132 minutes
Rent on Apple TV+
3 ‘Once Upon a Time in America’ (1984)
Directed by Sergio Leone
As Sergio Leone‘s final film, Once Upon a Time in America is revered as a quintessential crime classic, running as a sweeping epic as it depicts the lives of a group of boys from the Jewish ghettos in New York who become gangsters. Leone’s vision for the film spanned over 229 minutes – and that was cut down from his original idea of a 269-minute feature – and the European release honored that ambition, but the American distributors were skeptical of such an enormous duration and cut the film down, without Leone’s involvement, to be just 139 minutes long.
As a result, much of the movie was changed, with the original film’s back-and-forth narrative, rich with nostalgia and tragedy as it leapt between the characters’ childhoods and their violent adult lives, instead replaced with a chronological arrangement of the scenes. It also compromised the film’s ending, which was initially intended to leave Max’s (James Woods) fate ambiguous, but opted instead to show him dying after giving his testimony to Noodles (Robert De Niro). Leone himself disowned the much-maligned American release of the film.
Once Upon a Time in America
- Release Date
- May 23, 1984
- Director
- Sergio Leone
- Rating
- R
- Runtime
- 139
Watch on Tubi
2 ‘Blade Runner’ (1982)
Directed by Ridley Scott
With heavy-handed studio interference and an overactive response to mixed audience response, there have been as many as seven different versions of Blade Runner released to the public. The Ridley Scott classic follows Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a police officer who specializes in issues concerning android slaves known as «replicants» who must hunt down several rogue escapees who have returned to Earth in search of longer lifespans from their creator.
While the original version was well-received internationally, American test audiences reacted poorly to Blade Runner‘s bleak tone, prompting Warner Bros. to re-edit the film with a happier ending which featured Rick and Rachael (Sean Young) driving into the sunset as Deckard’s narration (which was also a result of studio interference) stated Rachael had a longer lifespan than the other replicants. Thankfully, 2007’s «The Final Cut» now serves as the ultimate display of the film and has rendered many of the other cuts obsolete as it has amassed critical acclaim and audience approval, and serves as Scott’s true vision for the film.
Blade Runner
- Release Date
- June 25, 1982
- Rating
- R
- Runtime
- 117 minutes
Rent on Amazon
1 ‘The Sound of Music’ (1965)
Directed by Robert Wise
As one of the defining classics of the 1960s, The Sound of Music is a quintessential classic and a true global sensation, with fans of all ages all over the world practically knowing the feel-good flick by heart. The…