Re-Write a Movie Ending

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Beyond The Black Rainbow: Abrupt cut to black before the movie embarrasses itself.
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2001: A Space Odyssey

Next to the luminous Moon and Earth, the Cosmic Infant comes into view within his glowing embryonic sac, looking serene with hands semi-folded as the musical score containing "Thus Sprach Zarathustra" builds to a crescendo. Slowly the infant's mouth opens and an expression of pain forms on his lips. Suddenly there is blood splatter on the inside of the infant's embryonic sac as his sternum is ripped open, the infant gags and convulses uncontrollably, and the camera zooms in slowly on a Xenomorph chestburster that opens its jaws and screeches hideously. And the camera suddenly goes black!



Chief cook and bottlewasher
2001: A Space Odyssey

Next to the luminous Moon and Earth, the Cosmic Infant comes into view within his glowing embryonic sac, looking serene with hands semi-folded as the musical score containing "Thus Sprach Zarathustra" builds to a crescendo. Slowly the infant's mouth opens and an expression of pain forms on his lips. Suddenly there is blood splatter on the inside of the infant's embryonic sac as his sternum is ripped open, the infant gags and convulses uncontrollably, and the camera zooms in slowly on a Xenomorph chestburster that opens its jaws and screeches hideously. And the camera suddenly goes black!
:golfclap: Oh, well f'ing done!
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2001: A Space Odyssey

Next to the luminous Moon and Earth, the Cosmic Infant comes into view within his glowing embryonic sac, looking serene with hands semi-folded as the musical score containing "Thus Sprach Zarathustra" builds to a crescendo. Slowly the infant's mouth opens and an expression of pain forms on his lips. Suddenly there is blood splatter on the inside of the infant's embryonic sac as his sternum is ripped open, the infant gags and convulses uncontrollably, and the camera zooms in slowly on a Xenomorph chestburster that opens its jaws and screeches hideously. And the camera suddenly goes black!
It normally annoys me when movies allow sound in outer space, but in this case I'll let it slide!
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It normally annoys me when movies allow sound in outer space, but in this case I'll let it slide!
Well, the embryonic sac itself is still intact and it contains a Cosmic amniotic fluid, and we all know that fluid is sound conducive. So although the Alien's screech might have a slight underwater sound to our ears, it's still there and we're hearing the sound taking place inside the sac because movie are magic!



Beverly Hills Cop III.

Axel Foley snaps out of a dream, sweating. He picks up the phone, calls Taggart and gives him about 10 seconds of harried explanation before Taggart says "Axel just meet me at the club with Billy. I'm not a phone person." They meet up at the club, and what follows is the longest ending in movie history as the entire duration of the film starts from the time Axel arrives at the club. Everything up until the point where Aqcwell wakes up from the dream is compressed into a quick montage. Inspector Todd is still alive. John Landis is behind bars, and Bronson Pinchot is too busy to reprise his role because of a Perfect Strangers reunion special back to back with a Risky Business convention.



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
Can I rewrite the ending to Breaking Bad, or are we not counting that since it's a TV series?



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
I just finished the series on a binge watch not too long ago. It was really good, but I thought that a darker and more dramatic ending perhaps, would be this:

Episode 14 of season 5 was perfect. But I didn't like how at the end, Walter gets in the van to go in hiding for a few months.

I think it would have been better for Walt to not have his cancer come back and he would be cured. The reason why I think this is for the ending I have in mind, that requires him to live years longer, which I will get too.

I thought it would have been better if instead of going on the run for months, he got the money to his son sooner, and then killed off the other drug dealers, and rescued Jesse sooner, like in only a few days. It didn't do much for me to wait it out a few months. I feel that Walter should have just went through the character change sooner.

I also do not think that it did anything for the story for me, for the nazis to kill Jess's girlfriend, Andrea. It was dark for sure, but it didn't really add anything for me, cause of the darkness. It just kind of came off as a random death, with no real pay off. But since my version has Jesse being rescued right away, her death is not needed to keep Jesse at bay for very long. So keep Andrea alive.

A much darker death that would have more of a dramatic pay off would be to kill Skyler off. I think that when the nazis went to her house, to find out what she told the police, they should have then killed her to keep her from doing any possible talking in the future.

Then Marie and Walt Jr, would of course think that Walter, hired those men to kill Skyler as a consequence, and Walt would have even more guilt to deal with, for unintentionally making her a target. Him living with Hank's and Skyler's death would be a one-two punch, that would be more dramatic.

After Walt rescues Jesse and kills the nazis, him and Jesse say there good byes, but we see Jesse get in the van instead, and go live in Alaska.

Walt is later found and caught by the police, and arrested. The story then skips ahead about maybe 10 years later. Walt has been sentenced to death for Hank and Skyler's deaths after being found guilty, and years later now, the sentence is carried out. Walt Jr. and Marie come to watch him be executed and he says his final last words to them, to attempt to get some closure, just before he is executed.

That would be my idea of the best ending for the series, and thought it would be more darker and dramatic than what they went with. But also more closure for Jesse as well. Perhaps Jesse could bring Andrea and Brock to Alaska with him. What do you think?



Welcome to the human race...
Truth be told, I feel like genuinely trying to think of a "better" ending to a film is a fundamentally flawed way of looking at the film itself. I can understand finding fault with a film's ending (especially if it doesn't mesh well with the rest of the film), but thinking about it in terms of what the filmmakers should have done seems like it has the potential to go past merely criticising the film and into the realm of personal self-indulgence, hence why I would discourage it.

I just finished the series on a binge watch not too long ago. It was really good, but I thought that a darker and more dramatic ending perhaps, would be this:

Episode 14 of season 5 was perfect. But I didn't like how at the end, Walter gets in the van to go in hiding for a few months.

I think it would have been better for Walt to not have his cancer come back and he would be cured. The reason why I think this is for the ending I have in mind, that requires him to live years longer, which I will get too.

I thought it would have been better if instead of going on the run for months, he got the money to his son sooner, and then killed off the other drug dealers, and rescued Jesse sooner, like in only a few days. It didn't do much for me to wait it out a few months. I feel that Walter should have just went through the character change sooner.
Keep in mind that, by the time Walt gets into that van, he's lost virtually everything. Hank's dead, the rest of his family hates him, most of his cash is gone, and he's officially a wanted man - he's focused on his own survival more than anything and that means going underground as quickly as possible. It's only once he's had the time to recover from this massive ordeal (plus trying to heal from his worsening cancer - keep in mind that it was established as inoperable and/or terminal from the very first episode so it was never really going to stay gone) that he tries to set any new plans in motion. His original plan is to give away the money to his son; it's only once he finds out from Badger and Skinny Pete that the Nazis are making Jesse cook the blue meth that he starts planning to rescue Jesse (and take out Lydia and the Nazis in the process).

I also do not think that it did anything for the story for me, for the nazis to kill Jess's girlfriend, Andrea. It was dark for sure, but it didn't really add anything for me, cause of the darkness. It just kind of came off as a random death, with no real pay off. But since my version has Jesse being rescued right away, her death is not needed to keep Jesse at bay for very long. So keep Andrea alive.
The pay-off is that the Nazis were trying to break Jesse. Keep in mind the sequence of events that led to Andrea's death - it came after Jesse, having been captured by the Nazis and forced to be their cook, attempted to escape from their compound and got caught. Killing Andrea was their way of demonstrating their leverage over Jesse - they couldn't kill him because they needed him to cook, but they could kill his loved ones (with the implication being that they'd go after Brock next). The next time Jesse is seen after that, he's pretty much broken and obediently cooking for them because he's got no choice. It also feeds into the guilt he feels over all his actions across the series - he's had to lose a lot of people he cares about and also endangered lots of innocents, so for him to just give up and resign himself to his fate is especially tragic for him.

A much darker death that would have more of a dramatic pay off would be to kill Skyler off. I think that when the nazis went to her house, to find out what she told the police, they should have then killed her to keep her from doing any possible talking in the future.

Then Marie and Walt Jr, would of course think that Walter, hired those men to kill Skyler as a consequence, and Walt would have even more guilt to deal with, for unintentionally making her a target. Him living with Hank's and Skyler's death would be a one-two punch, that would be more dramatic.
That would be overkill. Skyler's more or less had to go along with Walt's crimes out of fear and necessity, plus by the time the Nazis show up at her house she's already had plenty of chances to tell the police anything and everything. Even they seem to realise that she doesn't pose a significant threat to their operation - at the end of the day, she's just a scared suburban housewife and can easily be intimidated into silence. Murdering her would just be unnecessary and would possibly draw unwanted attention to them.

After Walt rescues Jesse and kills the nazis, him and Jesse say there good byes, but we see Jesse get in the van instead, and go live in Alaska.

Walt is later found and caught by the police, and arrested. The story then skips ahead about maybe 10 years later. Walt has been sentenced to death for Hank and Skyler's deaths after being found guilty, and years later now, the sentence is carried out. Walt Jr. and Marie come to watch him be executed and he says his final last words to them, to attempt to get some closure, just before he is executed.
This makes it seem too drawn-out. At least having him die in the Nazi compound in a final redemptive act neatly punctuates his hero-to-villain journey. Plus, what closure (or attempt at closure) is there to be had with either Walt Jr or Marie? They both unequivocally hate him and it's hard to see them mellowing out at all over the course of 10 years, so what point would there be in having him trying (and almost certainly failing) to get closure with either of them? Having him get captured, survive 10 years on death row, and then get executed is just one big anti-climax - it just doesn't work.

That would be my idea of the best ending for the series, and thought it would be more darker and dramatic than what they went with. But also more closure for Jesse as well. Perhaps Jesse could bring Andrea and Brock to Alaska with him. What do you think?
It's not good.
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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0



“I was cured, all right!”
Law Abiding Citizen
Clyde Shelton kills Nick Rice with a knife and complete his plan!
F*ck the original ending, ruined the entire movie!

Capitain America: Civil War
The punisher shows up and kill all that stupid f****rs in the airport with a pencil.



Don't look Now. can't believe he let that dwarf stab him. he should have picked him up,and thrown him in the canal. Dwarf is run down and killed by passing vaporetta. sutherland and Christie go off in a gondola together.



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
Basically for Breaking Bad, I didn't think that Walt needed that long to recover. A few weeks would have done it I think, at least for him to rescue Jesse and come up with a way to give the money to his son, by using Grey Matter.

Sure Walt doesn't KNOW that Jesse is cooking Meth for them, but Jesse is too valuable to them as a cook to just kill off. He is smart enough to figure it out.

And as for Skyler's death being overkill, I don't think it would be. I mean Michael Corleone, lost Sonny, and Apolena, and no one complains of that being overkill to drive him to do become who he is, and Dr. Frankenstein lost more than one family member as a result of his actions...

So why is Walt looking more than one family member overkill compared to other fictional stories, where a protagonist has tragic consequences of his actions. I think it would have been dark and in a good way.

As for Andrea, I think keeping her alive would have been a good thing, for something for Jesse to come to, after he is freed. As for Jesse living with guilt cause of Andrea's death, he is already living with the guilt of other people such as Gail Betticker and Drew Sharp, so I think Jesse's guilt of his actions, has already been covered numerous times before, and we didn't need another one.

I don't really see how Walt being executed would be an anti-climax. It would be the bad guy being punished for his actions which we have seen many times before, but I always love those kind of endings in movies, so maybe I'm just being classic about it.

As for wanting to end with Walt doing something redeeming like rescue Jesse, my ending already has that but with the added punishment closing of the execution. I guess that's just my kind of ending. It's not a climax, it's a resolution. The climax would be Walt rescuing Jesse, and killing the nazis. So you would still have that, but with the added different resolution later on, after he arrested and sentenced.

As for Law Abiding Citizen, I agree Clyde should have come out on top perhaps.



Welcome to the human race...
Basically for Breaking Bad, I didn't think that Walt needed that long to recover. A few weeks would have done it I think, at least for him to rescue Jesse and come up with a way to give the money to his son, by using Grey Matter.
I guess you can think that, but I guess the specific amount of time isn't too relevant compared to your other points.

Sure Walt doesn't KNOW that Jesse is cooking Meth for them, but Jesse is too valuable to them as a cook to just kill off. He is smart enough to figure it out.
Perhaps, but that doesn't mean it's a top priority for him - if anything, he probably wasn't thinking straight after having to watch Hank die and just thought the Nazis would get rid of Jesse for him and that would be that. His main concern after going into hiding is to give away his money, and it's only after that that he learns about the blue meth coming back, which he immediately figures out is because of Jesse and the Nazis.

And as for Skyler's death being overkill, I don't think it would be. I mean Michael Corleone, lost Sonny, and Apolena, and no one complains of that being overkill to drive him to do become who he is, and Dr. Frankenstein lost more than one family member as a result of his actions...

So why is Walt looking more than one family member overkill compared to other fictional stories, where a protagonist has tragic consequences of his actions. I think it would have been dark and in a good way.
Because you need to consider what a character's death means for the story as a whole, and timing is a major factor in creating that meaning. Michael losing Sonny and Appollonia comes in the middle of The Godfather, highlighting the difference between him and the beginning and him at the end. Before, he's a goodhearted war hero who commits a single desperate act in order to do right by his family and avenge his father. Afterwards, he becomes the cold and calculating don who will have entire crime families wiped out in revenge for what they have done to his loved ones. You even said it yourself - it's an event that changes him.

If Skyler died at the point in the story that you suggested, it would not make a significant difference. Everything that you say would happen - Walt feeling guilty about his actions having consequences, Walt Jr and Marie hating him for his actions - already happened once Hank died. Hank's death was already a shocking and game-changing development, so having Skyler die immediately after that would not have anywhere near the same impact on the story or characters, hence why I said it was unnecessary. You haven't explained how it would actually benefit the story beyond some vague claim that it would be "dark in a good way". Besides, if Skyler had died then it wouldn't have given us that final scene between her and Walt where he goes "I did it for me", which is an actual moment of closure for both of them as he admits to what he has become in his originally noble goal of providing for his family (which also negates the need for your suggested execution ending).

As for Andrea, I think keeping her alive would have been a good thing, for something for Jesse to come to, after he is freed. As for Jesse living with guilt cause of Andrea's death, he is already living with the guilt of other people such as Gail Betticker and Drew Sharp, so I think Jesse's guilt of his actions, has already been covered numerous times before, and we didn't need another one.
It's not about the guilt, it's about the leverage that the Nazis have over him. Without it, Jesse would keep trying to escape - he doesn't care what happens to him, but he cares what happens to Andrea and Brock, so the Nazis use that to their advantage.

I don't really see how Walt being executed would be an anti-climax. It would be the bad guy being punished for his actions which we have seen many times before, but I always love those kind of endings in movies, so maybe I'm just being classic about it.

As for wanting to end with Walt doing something redeeming like rescue Jesse, my ending already has that but with the added punishment closing of the execution. I guess that's just my kind of ending. It's not a climax, it's a resolution. The climax would be Walt rescuing Jesse, and killing the nazis. So you would still have that, but with the added different resolution later on, after he arrested and sentenced.
I can understand if that's your preference, but I'm still saying that it wouldn't be the best ending for this particular story. Walt has always had worse fears than dying - his original motivation is fear for his family's financial well-being in the aftermath of his death, and he even says that he would have been fine with dying once he'd hit his original target. The tragedy comes from the fact that his attempts to do right by his family ultimately lead to him losing them - that right there is more than enough punishment for his actions, and everything he does in the finale (giving away the money, the lottery ticket, killing Lydia and the Nazis, and freeing Jesse) is his last best shot at trying to make things right regardless of whether he is caught or killed. If anything, "Ozymandias" is the climax of the whole series and "Felina" is the resolution. Again, it becomes a question of what is necessary.



The Crying Game

Man fishes for fishnet and instead of pulling out a sausage pepperoni (of the miniature persuasion), a perfectly V'd quadrangle is exposed with fresh pruning.

The man proceeds to obsess over it for the remainder of the credits in still frame with hurt and despair in his eyes.



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
Okay I sees your points Iroquois, as well. I know Walt wouldn't have as big of fear of dying when being executed. I thought maybe he could go out semi-peacefully in his execution, and would have maybe some closure for himself. I didn't mean to imply he would be totally 100% afraid, if I did. I guess for me Skyler's death, followed right after Hank's would have had a bigger impact, for me. But that's just me, and how I feel.



I had no idea this would turn into yet another Breaking Bad thread (too bad I've never seen it)!
Don't get me wrong, I welcome finally having a thread bumped for ANY reason!
Carry on!