How many times have you watched a movie and was disappointed with the ending? Well, you aren’t the only one. Plenty of fans have left the theaters frustrated or even angry over the fate of their favorite character. The ending director chose isn’t always what we were hoping for, but sometimes an alternative finish can make the whole movie far better.
The fans have decided to take the matter into their own hands and rewrite history by giving their favorite movies the endings they feel are much better than those that made it into the final cut. They are convinced that their version improves the whole thing and occasionally they are right. Here are 17 of our favorite alternate movie endings that are better than the original. Some are fan-made, while others were versions discarded by the director in favor or something else.
17.Ronin
In the film, Robert De Niro waits for Deidre in a cafe, but she doesn’t show up and we are left to guess why. Alternatively, she could have come, only to be abducted by a group of men in a black van. It would be far more brutal ending, leaving us wondering was it IRA or CIA who got the last word in.
16.The Lion King
The death of Scar at the end of The Lion King was a much-anticipated event during the movie, but the original version would have Scar burned alive. The director decided that was too grim an ending, even for Scar, so we are left with the scene where hyenas kill him.
15.The First Blood
In the original, Rambo is taken away by the police, as Colonel Truman watches. An alternative ending has Rambo forcing Truman to shot him, ending the movie in his death, which is more fitting, but then we would miss out on all those sequels.
14.Paranormal Activity
The movie ends with Katie killing Micah and throwing the body down the stairs. The more grisly version would be if she would, after killing him, approached the camera and slowly slit her own throat.
13.The Birds
Even the master himself isn’t above having his masterpiece receive an alternate ending. His idea is to end the movie by showing us the entire Golden Gate Bridge covered in birds, but the technology of the time couldn’t match his desires.
12.Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
After ending the fight with Graves, Scot decides to stay with Knives after all. Somehow, that ending feels more natural that the one in the original movie.
11.Interstellar
Many fans have complained that the ending to Interstellar is too corny. The alternative would be Matthew McConaughey’s character going into the black hole and dying while sending the data back.
10.Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
This isn’t the most popular ending in the world, but we feel it would improve on the movie. It would end in White Goodman’s victory over Peter La Fleur and would be a more fitting end for an underdog story.
9.28 Days Later
In this version, Jim wouldn’t survive the gunshot wound and would die on the operating table, leaving two women to face the zombies on their own.
8.Brazil
Sid Sheinberg, one of the movie producers, didn’t really like Terry Gilliam’s ending, so he had the movie re-cut to give Sam a happy ending. Gilliam explained that Sam was lobotomized and that happy end is, in fact, an illusion.
7. I Am Legend
The book has a much different ending, which really helps you see the vampires for what they are. In it, they only want to free one of their own who was captured by Robert Neville for experiments.
6.Blade Runner
Deckard and Rachael driving off into the sunset is one of the most iconic movie endings of all times. It is also a much-used cliche. The director’s cut version have Decker have a vision of a unicorn after touching the origami before joining Rachael in the elevator.
5.Alien
Ridley Scot, the director of the cult movie Alien, wanted Ripley to die at the end, with the final scene of the ship approaching Earth and the alien mimicking Captain Dallas’s voice. It may not be better per se, but it would surely be more interesting ending.
4.Clerks
Maybe not better, but certainly more memorable ending would be Dante getting shot by the robber and left to bleed out on the floor.
3.Pretty Woman
The script originally envisioned quite a different and darker ending for this movie. In it, Edward drops off the money and drives away, while Vivian yells at him. The director decided to give it a more of a Hollywood ending, though.
2.Terminator 2
The best movie of the franchise by far could have had an ending that could have spared us all the bad sequels. In it, the threat of Skynet is finally over and John has a daughter.
1.Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Instead of ending in a perfect photo op for the rebellion leadership, the proposed ending would see Han Solo dead, Luke never recovering from the trauma of his encounter with Darth Vader and Leila becoming the leader of the new Republic. George Lucas didn’t like it and thus we got the soap opera ending.
