Yahoo News 10 alternate movie endings so dark they never got released
Note: contains spoilers, obviously
Some of us love a grim and grisly ending to take the shine off a seemingly happy ending, but what happens when Tinseltown takes it too far? From animated kids movies to hardcore horrors, sometimes that ultra-bleak ending just doesn’t fit well with audiences, the studio, or even the director.
If you’re ready to feel a little down in the dumps, let’s take a look at ten alternate endings that either got rewritten or reshot before release.
1. Ripley loses her head – Alien
If you thought the sombre ending of Aliens was depressing enough, that’s nothing compared to Ridley Scott’s proposed finale for Alien in 1979. Although Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley was the sole survivor of the Nostromo, Scott revealed to Entertainment Weekly that he had planned on killing her off.
After a gory last stand where it looks like Ripley has bested the Xenomorph with a harpoon, the alien then slams her into a wall and rips her head off. In a last twist, the Xenomorph mimics the voice of Tom Skerritt’s Captain Dallas and signs off.
2. Hancock tries to rape Mary – Hancock
Moving away from your standard superhero fodder, Peter Berg’s Hancock broke with tradition and featured Will Smith as a disgruntled vigilante. One draft featured Charlize Theron’s Mary as just a normal member of society instead of another superbeing.
In this twisted world, Hancock kidnaps Mary and attempts to rape her. While Hancock manages to stop himself, he still goes on an angry rampage and kills a squad of police officers.
Eventually realising what he’s done, Hancock can't live with himself and promptly tries to commit suicide via headshot. Hardly the family-friendly movie where the jackass hero repents to become a better person.
3. Scar’s gruesome goodbye – The Lion King
As good tends to triumph in the world of Disney movies, even the House of Mouse can lean a little too hard on the darker side of its stories. Whether the bad guy is crushed by a rock (Snow White), plunges to his death (most of them), or gets hanged (Tarzan), they tend to get their comeuppance.
One of the most gruesome goodbyes belongs to Scar from The Lion King as he plummets into the abyss and is left to the ravenous clan of hyenas. A darker version was originally planned, where Scar gets engulfed in the flames surrounding Pride Rock and burns to death.
Okay kids, who's for ice cream?
4. Lydia burns to death – Beetlejuice
Keeping with flaming farewells, Tim Burton nearly offed Winona Ryder’s Lydia Deetz in the closing act of Beetlejuice. The kooky 1988 movie is one of Burton’s most beloved movies, with fans still clamouring for a sequel.
Producer Larry Wilson told Yahoo how the first draft included Lydia perishing in a fatal fire. It meant that Lydia would have been able to join Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara (Geena Davis) in the afterlife, but it was deemed the wrong message to send to teens. Also, Lydia’s death meant we’d never have seen that wonderful ending with Harry Belafonte’s 'Jump in the Line'.
5. Mr Ullman the villain – The Shining
The Shining is undeniably one of the most chilling horror movies out there. Despite this, Stephen King wasn’t a fan of Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 masterpiece and criticised the differences from his 1977 novel of the same name. Entertainment Weekly confirms that Kubrick wanted to go really off-piste with an out-there ending featuring hotel manager Stuart Ullman.
In a scene set in a hospital after the film's climax, Ullman assures Wendy that there was no evidence for anything supernatural happening at the Overlook. He then hands Danny the same tennis ball that had mysteriously rolled toward him at the hotel, implying that he was the de facto villain of the movie.
It makes sense when you think about it, who else leaves a disturbed writer alone in a remote hotel when the previous caretaker butchered his family? Kubrick was famously cutthroat when it came to The Shining, and after changing his mind on the Ullman ending, he sent all copies to be destroyed.
6. Han dies – Return of the Jedi
In that galaxy far, far away, the trio of Hamill, Fisher, and Ford led George Lucas’ original Star Wars trilogy to greatness. Returning for Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015, Han Solo was front and centre as he tried to right the wrongs of his nerf-herding past and save his wayward son.
Things would have been very different if Lucas (and Ford) had had their way in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. As well as killing Han, Return was going to see Luke abandon his cause and leave Leia to lead a tattered Rebel Alliance.
Harrison Ford told audiences on Conan that he’d agreed with the twist, but let’s not forget that it would’ve left The Force Awakens without one of its biggest players and missing that big Kylo/Han scene.
7. Alex frames Dan – Fatal Attraction
As thrillers go, they don’t come much better than Fatal Attraction. The brilliant pairing of Glenn Close and Michael Douglas kept us all captivated back in 1987 and has stood the test of time thanks to its “bunny boiler” legacy. Whether Close’s unhinged Alex Forrest was completely in the wrong or not, the alternate ending would have seen her get some revenge and frame Douglas’ cheating Dan for her murder.
The Hollywood Reporter revealed Alex’s plan to slash her own throat while poetically listening to Madame Butterfly, implicating Dan (a later draft had him exonerated). Instead, the powers decided that audiences wanted to “terminate the bitch with extreme prejudice”. Which is… less dark?
8. Chris gets arrested – Get Out
Jordan Peele’s Get Out was more than just a twisted horror, rightfully earning an Academy Award. There was a fist-bump moment as Daniel Kaluuya’s Chris got revenge on his racist girlfriend and her monstrous family just before the credits rolled.
Peele’s DVD release shows an alternate ending that sees Chris fall victim to a racist police system. In this darker finale, Chris is arrested by two white police officers and incarcerated for the murders he committed in self-defence. The last scene features Chris’ best friend visiting him behind bars. Thankfully, racism didn’t win this one!
9. Ash wakes up in a dystopian future – Army of Darkness
Showing that it wasn’t afraid to move with the times, the third Evil Dead movie had everyone thinking 'WTF?' Taking Bruce Campbell’s chainsaw-wielding Ash Williams to the Middle Ages, it was everything you'd expect from Sam Raimi. (ie The unexpected.)
Army of Darkness had all the gross-out kills and gratuitous violence you could want from an Evil Dead movie, but even the original ending was deemed too bleak. After finding the right amount of potion, Ash makes his way back to the future but finds he’s overshot to a dystopian future.
Arriving in the ruins of London where humanity has been destroyed, Ash is left screaming into the abyss as the screen cuts to black.
10. Somerset kills John Doe and Mills shoots Somerset – Se7en
Teaching everyone the morality of the seven deadly sins, Se7en was pretty dark as it was. And while the infamous ending of “What’s in the box?” was grim enough, David Fincher’s terrifying thriller went through a variety of different endings.
As well as one ending where Morgan Freeman’s Somerset shoots Kevin Spacey’s sadistic serial killer and another where Mills goes off his nut and kills both Doe and Somerset, there was an even bleaker ending drafted.
Rounding off with a Kill Bill-esque shootout in a church, Brad Pitt’s Mills has a cross carved on his chest and is strung up before being executed. Somerset takes revenge on Doe and leaves his body to burn alongside a tableaux of the seven deadly sins.
The only sunshine from this one is that Gwyneth Paltrow’s Tracy gets to live.
Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Instagram and Twitter account.
('You Might Also Like',)
