What movies would've been dramatically better if the main character died?

[charlie and algernon]

What movies would have been dramatically improved had the producers not taken the cheap way out and gone with a happy ending?


Castaway - I think the perfect ending would've been the scene where Wilson falls off the raft and Hanks swims after him, only after he loses grip with the rope, he doesn't get it back. Instead it fades to black as Hanks drowns chasing after his one friend and partner.


click - It should've ended with Sandler dying on the pavement instead of them pulling the stupid "it was all a dream" gimmick. He had finally realized that his family was more important than him and had sacrificed himself so that his son wouldn't follow the same path.

[rockymountaindem]

1. The entire "Rome" miniseries

The only person worth liking in that series was Pullo.

[Iggo]

14. Fuckin A right.

The best relationships on that show were between Pullo and whoever he was relating to. Pullo and Vorenus, Pullo and young Octavian, Pullo and Eirene...hell, even Pullo and Cicero was great for the five minutes it lasted.

[mcctatas]

2. Babe, Pig in the City

Would have been stellar had he ended up as bacon

[rug]

3. W.

[mitchum]

7. We have a winner!

[Deja Q]

4. "Eagle Eye" (I suspect I just made a spoiler gone public...)

Okay, he survives, it's a cliché, okey dokey. It's have been a lesser cliché to have let him die. :(

I liked the movie too... well handled, though at times it felt like a remake of "Enemy of the State", "The Fugitive", and bits of "2001: A Space Odyssey" for some reason.

[charlie and algernon]

6. i agree, i thought he had

until he suddenly showed up at the end.

[HopeHoops]

5. The last Batman with George Clooney - he could have taken a bullet or something.

[Symarip]

8. Any movie where Jennifer Aniston is the lead character

Preferably within the first five minutes of the movie.

[jobycom]

30. She's a fantastic actress, she'd have them weeping in the aisles.nt

[Tuesday Afternoon]

39. Next thing You know

You will be telling us that You are, in fact, a Necrophiliac ;)

[CreekDog]

9. Rocky which would have made Rocky's 2-5 vastly better

:think:

[MilesColtrane]

42. "Zombie Rocky"!

Oh hell yeah!

And, Stallone wouldn't have had to alter his delivery one bit.

[madinmaryland]

10. Rocky.

There would have been five more bad movies made!

[XemaSab]

11. Forrest Gump

I wanted him to get shanked in an alley.

[Danger Mouse]

31. Why do you hate America, you commie?

[Midlodemocrat]

12. Someone is watching Fx.

Shame, shame.

[charlie and algernon]

17. damn, you caught me

:hide:

[InternalDialogue]

13. My Dinner with Andre

Could have worked in a Heimlich Maneuver at the beginning ("Hoocha hoocha hoocha -- Lobster!") and spent the rest of the film filling out ER forms.

[AlCzervik]

15. All the other movies Julia Roberts has been in besides Steel Magnolias.

[blondeatlast]

18. Amen--but kudos to her for studying me in full-on insulin shock mode.

Not really, but according to my mom, she might as well have. Mom had to leave during that scene.

[motely36]

23. well, she does die in that one

[Richardo]

26. ...

:thumbsup:

[gmoney]

16. Citizen Kane

Oh, waitaminute... nevermind.

[City of Mills]

19. First Blood and Clerks

Both movies had 'alternate' endings where the the main characters die, and in both cases the alternate endings would've had a much larger impact, though I did enjoy 'Clerks II' and 'Rambo' somewhat.

[charlie and algernon]

20. You serious?

I can see what the alternate Rambo ending is, but I'm curious to know the alternate Clerks ending

[Starbucks Anarchist]

21. Here you go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAdBi8ghobs

[City of Mills]

22. It's here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAdBi8ghobs

Admittedly, it doesn't go with the rest of the movie at all, in that it's very un-comedylike, but it really ties up the irony of Dante working that day when he's 'not supposed to be there'. Not to mention it comes right after his major life epiphany. I guess it was supposed to be the original ending but it didn't go over so well with test audiences.

[charlie and algernon]

24. wow, yeah, that's quite the ending

I could see how test audiences would think it TOO jarring and not like it.

[jobycom]

32. First Blood, maybe. To symbolize that he could no longer live in the America

he fought for.

How they got the Rambo super-hero flicks out of First Blood, I'll never know. The first Rambo was decent as escapism, but it had no consistency with First Blood.

[TahitiNut]

25. Gone With The WInd

:shrug:

[begin_within]

27. The Sixth Sense

just kidding

[Pale Blue Dot]

29. SPOILER ALERT!

:rofl:

[Rabrrrrrr]

49. Ah, you beat me to it.

:rofl:

:thumbsup:

[TahitiNut]

28. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Oh... wait. Nevermind.

[jobycom]

33. Not Castaway. Most of the point was his return to the world.

It wasn't meant to be a movie about survival on an island, it was a "there and back again" theme where the hero journeyed out, conquered, and then returned to find he no longer fit in his old world. It was almost a reversal of the classic "Hero of a thousand faces" tale, where instead of returning triumphantly to conquer his old world, he found that he had lost it.

Him drowning at sea would have made the whole movie pointless.

[skygazer]

45. The whole movie was pointless

Unless you enjoy 2-hour Fed-Ex commercials.

[jobycom]

48. You've got a strong argument there.

:rofl:

[EastTennesseeDem]

53. Hell, I wouldn't touch FedEx after that

If I knew my ice skates would end up knocking some dude's tooth out, my videocassettes would be used to make a failed noose for him, and my soccer ball would turn into his best friend, it would be Brown for me.

[WCGreen]

34. Sound of Music....

[blue_onyx]

35. I completely disagree about Castaway

I love the scene between Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt at the end of the movie. It's the best part of the movie.

[DeepBlueC]

36. Any Arnold Schwarzenegger movie

where he bares his chest or opens his mouth to "speak".

[DarkTirade]

38. I can think of at least three where he died...

... and they all have the word 'Terminator' in the title. :P

[DeepBlueC]

43. wasn't once enough?

[DarkTirade]

57. Well really, let's be honest... who better to play an emotionless robot?

:P

[Tabasco_Dave]

37. Triumph of the Will n/t

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

52. You win teh internets. -nt

[hunter]

40. Anakin Skywalker.

Padme' should have quietly slit his throat and fed him to a sand worm very early on in Episode II. Then maybe she could have been Darth Vader. It makes a lot more sense.

"Luke, I am your Mother.... um... I mean Father!"

[hibbing]

41. Wonder Boys

Hi,
For some reason I always think that the Michael Douglas character was supposed to fall off the staircase. I have a feeling they do have a version of that somewhere.

Peace

[Tommy_Carcetti]

44. Nobody died, but some have criticized the movie version of "The Natural" for its happy ending.

In the book, Roy Hobbs strikes out, a la Casey at the Bat. In the movie, Roy Hobbs hits a monster shot home run into the stadium's light towers, causing a pyrotechnical spectacle as he rounds the bases.

I don't know. I think I prefer the happy movie ending.

[qb]

46. Mission Impossible

Mission Impossible II
Mission Impossible III
Minority Report
Top Gun

I'll stop there.

[jobycom]

51. Some of those were good, but nothing could have saved Top Gun.

Nuclear annihilation might have given it a much-needed metaphysical message, but other than that...

MI, MI3, and Minority Report were good films, though, even if some people think they got cool points for bashing Tom Cruise.

[Bake]

47. The Godfather.

Oh wait. Brando did die.

Nevermind.

Bake

[geardaddy]

50. Dude, Where's My Car. n/t

[LisaM]

54. Yentl.

Though I have to concur also with Forrest Gump. It might have been funny if it happened in The Ten Commandments, also.

[foxfeet]

55. King of Kings.

[LSdemocrat]

56. Even though it would completely go against the book: Frodo in LoTR:RotK

I was so hoping that Frodo would fall into the lava pit along with the ring.