interested to get some chat going about film that have multiple endings - whether it’s theatrical vs. directors cut, ones cut for different audience expectations (cough America cough), or just times where there’s a weird take hidden away as a fun DVD extra that only a handful of people might be aware of
please spoiler any actual plot details, want people to be able to avoid any big reveals they weren’t already aware of
inspired by seeing The Descent for the second time, and realising I’d seen the edited version originally, and this time getting the full version - Sarah escaping the cave and driving away, vs. that being a hallucination and she wakes up back inside the cave waiting for the monsters to get her
as I said in the horror thread, I prefer the edited one surprisingly as it feels darker and more twisted to me that she has to live with the things she’s seen and done, rather than just dying right away
The original Paranormal Activity had 3 endings and the best one was scrapped after one showing
The film Clue is obviously up there with this.
I watched one of the sequels and I feel like it followed a different ending to the one I’d seen, which was pretty confusing.
The original ending for the Little Shop of Horrors was that the plants were supposed to take over the world but it didn’t do well with test screenings. I do really like the film but I think I’d have really liked that ending.
One of the butterfly effect endings was good and one really naff if I remember from media studies
Yeah I think it will have. I guess its nice nostalgia to when something like a Friday the 13th would have Jason definitely dead and then hes back in the next film with no explanation
The burbs has an alternate ending on the DVD/now on youtube
The original ending for Red State was going to be something like an actual horde of angels coming down to rapture them up but they didn’t have the budget.
yeah this is a great example, and was very funny for me
had never seen it before last year, watched it over October - flatmate loves it as one of their fav childhood films. So we get say 2/3s in with me loving it and her glad to have me on side … and then I see her face drop in total confusion as the film goes off in a direction she’s never seen before! was such a fun experience for me to simultaneously see a (very good) film for the first time while also watching her lose her mind over this new ending she had no idea about 
if you haven’t seen it you absolutely should seek it out, great great fun. Also it’s sad in the theatrical cut because they get rid of all the animation work in the finale, so basically all the work of that team was cut out despite their time and the cost of millions of dollars for the ending alone
Seem to recall Superman Returns makes more sense if it follows the Donner Cut of Superman II
whichever one had the foetus strangling himself with the umbilical cord was certainly … memorable
Saw the version with that ending at the cinema a few years ago - it’s good, but you can’t really begrudge them the ending they gave Seymour/Audrey in the version they released
Blade Runner - director’s/final cut ending obviously miles better than the theatrical one
I had no idea you could even see the dark ending of Little Shop of Horrors.
IIRC they reckoned it played badly compared to the stage show because in the theatre all the actors come out and bow so the doom vibes are lessened.
Anyway I seem to recall there’s a stinger on the original showing a seedling which is good.
Duff film either way from what I remember.
The writer of the film Frequency has a bit in his commentary at the end where he talks about the ending not actually making any real logical sense with the time travel premise.
He says he wrote a better different ending but that the original version played so well with test audiences that no one wanted to film it.
Annoyingly he doesn’t explain it and I could never find it in the DVD extras. Alwats wondered what it was.
Die Hard with a Vengeance has the darker alt ending with the bazooka that isn’t really in the spirit of the series but is much better writing.
It’s funny because the service I streamed it on (paid, but still feel it’s not entirely legit) seems to often have the extended versions but doesn’t label them specifically
So we went into it expecting the normal version with no hints until the plot started diverging. So it must be out there but since I wasn’t looking for it I couldn’t say where to get it