Alternate Endings: 10 Movies That Should Have Ended Differently
#1 Gone Girl
This 2014 movie is nearly vomit-inducing it has such an unrealistic ending. True, the reality is constantly questionable when psycho girl, Amy (Rosamund Pike) gets away with so much for so long. Her husband Nick (Ben Affleck) is on public trial and faces charges for murdering her after her disappearance, but once that witch comes home, it's time for Nicky to ghost. Get the hell out of there, dude! Amy is a maniac, killer, psychopath and worse. Don't make any sudden moves. Once she goes to sleep though, leave town! Get out of Dodge. She can wake up wondering where you went this time. Let the ending go full circle with the beginning. Taking her back as a wife? Never.
#2 Roman Holiday
This is a classic 1953 film, and the mother of all amnesia-plotted romantic comedies. Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn) gets all messed up, and then sneaks out of her ritzy hotel and lands in the arms of a journalist, Joe (Gregory Peck). Ann joyrides around town, takes in the sights of Rome and befriends Joe. After a few days, she finally remembers who she is and goes home. But in the end, the princess and reporter face each other at a press conference and act like they don't even know each other. What? That girl should give him a kiss or a reward, put him in jail, do something, anything. Don't let it just slide. Talk about anti-climactic.
#3 Cast Away
This 2000 movie is somehow deeply entertaining even though its just Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) and a volleyball named Wilson for over two hours. He's marooned on a desert island after a FedEx plane crashes into the ocean. The shocker is when Chuck gets home and finds his fiancée has moved on very quickly. Not only has she found another husband, but she also has a child, and the kid looks pretty old. If Chuck was only on that island for 4 years, then old girl got busy in a hurry. Mourned him for a week, tops. Another thing Chuck never opened that one package! He kept it sealed the whole time he was marooned and after getting home. The audience deserves to know what's in that package! In 2003, a hilarious FedEx Super Bowl commercial spoofed the mystery contents, which included a satellite phone, GPS locator, fishing rod, water purifier and seeds. Perfect ending.
#4 American History X
This is a heavy 1998 flick about race relations in America, and a very hopeless one. Ed Norton plays Derek, a brutally racist Neo-Nazi who commits a hate crime and ends up in prison. Soon he learns the error of his ways, repents, gets home and shuns the evil dude who taught him to hate. Then after all that, his little bro, Danny (Edward Furlong), still has to die? Wouldn't it have been a more positive message if Derek got to the school just in time, saved his bro, and then Danny could apologize to his would-be killer, or maybe even befriend him, and at least tolerate each other? A little shimmer of hope here, please. The film makes out like there's hardly any chance of things ever getting any better. Sadly the movie's message is way too relevant today.
#5 Casablanca
Here's looking at you, kid. Ever hear grandpa say that and have no idea what he's talking about? Well it's a quote from this 1942 war flick when Rick, (Humphrey Bogart) lets his true love, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), slip through his fingers. Wouldn't it have been great if Ilsa never got on that plane with her husband and stayed with Rick forever? Or they could have hopped in a car and rolled off into the fog. SNL parodied this classic ending in Feb 2015. Kate McKinnon cleverly plays Ilsa, as wanting to get the hell out of that Nazi infested country as soon as possible. Not a bad idea either. Casablanca is so perfectly sad, it's legendary, arguably inventing the sad romantic ending.
#6 Saving Private Ryan
Come on! You've got to kill old Captain Miller (Tom Hanks)? And killed by the bad guy that he let live? Really? Isn't it sad enough that the 1998 film opens with dudes dropping left and right on Normandy, and that Private Ryan (Matt Damon) already lost all his brothers? Sure Spielberg, WW2 flicks are brutal, but it would have been easy to keep Captain Miller alive. He was still alive when the allied tank-buster planes rolled in and the battle was over. And in the flash forward finale, old-man Ryan can still salute the other men that died to save him, and then he looks over his shoulder and there's old Miller, saluting too. That'd be great, right? The film was frightening realistic at times, but Ryan is a composite character based on numerous stories. It's not factual. Let the captain live.
#7 The Graduate
This 1967 flick includes the arguably most awkward ending in cinematic history. It's not good, it's not bad, just kind of weird. Ben (Dustin Hoffman) sprints all the way to the church, pounds on the glass, steals the bride and bars the door. Then he hops on a bus? Why don't they just run back to his car? Is the bus even going in the direction of his car? And what in the world is so terribly wrong with the groom that the bride ditches him for the guy that screwed her mom like a bazillion times. You've got to be in true love to do something that stupid, but then you're not even going to make out on the bus? Everybody makes out on the bus. What is going on here? Not really sure what should be done with this ending, but it does feel like the film never finished.
#8 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Jack Nicholson is perfect in this acclaimed 1975 drama, until his character blows it in the end. Here's this awesome guy, R.P. McMurphy, who is mischievous but clearly not insane like the rest of the nuts in the nuthouse. He shows his fellow patients a good time, befriends them, and then throws a huge bash with booze and hookers. He also has his escape plan worked out. The window is literally open. He's ready to walk towards the freedom he deserves. Then he goes back inside to see about Billy Bibbit, and ends up strangling that evil Nurse Ratched. Ultimately R.P. becomes a lobotomized zombie, and is put out of his misery, suffocated by big Chief Bromden. But the plot should never have gone that far. Just hop out of the window, buddy, please! Or at least kill Nurse Ratched. Don't just die for nothing.
#9 Titanic
Okay, everyone who knows this 1997 flick knows that the stupid floating door was big enough for two people! Move over bacon, here comes something leaner. It's just that simplescoot over, girl! And if that door doesn't fit, there is a ton more wreckage, find a bigger one. There is no way that after all those death-defying stunts that the lovely couple is going to let a floating door be the death of Jack. No way. And another thingwhy did the old lady toss that priceless necklace in the sea? After keeping it secret all those years? Don't chuck it! Come on. Cash that thing in, grandma, or at least put it in your will.
#10 It’s a Wonderful Life
Everyone knows this 1946 classic Christmas movie that's been rehashed a hundred times. Thanks to an angel, George Bailey gets to see the world as if he had never existed, and it sucks. Then he's magically returned to normalcy, where he is in financial peril, but well loved so everything works out. The problem with the ending is that Mr. Potter, who found Bailey's money and basically stole it, is the whole reason why Bailey was in trouble to begin with. So the ending should have grumpy old Potter getting his just desserts. How about a shot of him having a massive heart attack? Or being beaten with bats by an angry mob? SNL did a spoof of the latter ending idea with the classic 1986 cast including Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, Jon Lovitz, and a stuffed mannequin body double.
