Alternate ending
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Alternate ending is a term used (usually in movies) to describe the ending of a story that was planned or debated but ultimately unused in favor of the actual ending. Generally, alternate endings are considered to have no bearing on the canonical narrative.
[edit] Examples in Film
In movies, alternate endings are often filmed before being scrapped, and may be subsequently included as a special feature in the film's DVD release. These alternate endings are a special type of deleted scene. In other cases, ideas that were presented but discarded early on are alluded to by the production team in commentary or interviews.
The following are examples of known alternate endings to movies:
- The Butterfly Effect: Evan watches a home video of his mother pregnant with him and returns to the memory of himself as a fetus. Convinced that his very existence has ruined the lives of those around him, he strangles himself with his umbilical cord and dies, stillborn. This is much darker than the true ending, where he simply stops himself from becoming friends with Kayleigh.
- Clerks.: Dante is still inside the Quick Stop after it closes. A customer enters and, without saying a word, shoots Dante and empties the cash register. The credits then roll, and when they are over a customer comes in and sees the counter empty without noticing Dante's body on the ground behind the counter.
- Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story: The Average Joes lose the game when White Goodman hits Peter with the ball. According to the DVD commentary, this was the writer's original intention for the movie, but the studio insisted it be changed - hence the "real" ending - when test audiences reacted poorly to the unhappy ending.
- Final Destination: Alex is killed when he grabs the downed telephone line to save Clear, ending Death's pattern. In the final scene it turns out that Clear is pregnant with Alex's baby.
- Final Destination 3: The final scene of the movie, with the subway train accident, is real (not a vision). The movie ends with the second train bearing down on Wendy. Additionally, the DVD release of the film has an interactive feature where the viewer controls certain actions the characters take, resulting in several other possible alternate endings.
- 28 Days Later: several darker alternate endings (filmed, available on the DVD release).
- Little Shop of Horrors: In one of the most famous changed endings, the original conclusion to the off-Broadway musical was filmed and preferred by Frank Oz the director and the majority of the actors. However, test audiences disliked how Audrey and Seymour, the main protagonists, were both killed by the evil alien plant, and the ending had to be reshot so that their deaths were removed.
