The Town: Alternate Ending that might've lifted the movie up somewhat:

This:




is the Alternate ending of Ben Affleck's 2 year old movie, The Town. Imho, this is a much better ending than the ending in the theatrical version, where Doug magically escapes Charlestown for Florida and ends up in a little house overlooking a Florida bayou at sunset, hoping that lady Claire will come, after he's left her tons of dirty money to do what she wants with, as well as a tangerine to hint to her where he is; Tangerine, FL.

Frankly, I think that had this ending been left in the movie, The Town might've been a much better film. In this ending, the Dominican men whose C-Town Housing Project apartment that Doug and Jem broke into, wearing hockey masks, beat up and permanently crippled for having thrown bottles at Claire when she'd been stupid enough to walk through a housing project by herself on the way to work, ultimately got their revenge on Doug, who was trying to escape from Boston to Florida. As Doug's trying to get to his car, the two men who Doug and Jem had permanently crippled earlier in the film, are waiting for him. After afew words are exchanged, the Dominican man whose leg was permanently injured by Doug and Jem, unloads his pistol into Doug, killing him.

It's pretty obvious, in this ending, to me, that Alex, the Dominican man who Doug permanently crippled for throwing bottles at Claire, and his buddies, had also been working for "Fergie" the Florist, and, in addition to seeing Jem's face, not only knew how and where to track down Doug MacRay, but had two reasons for killing him:

A) Fergie didn't like Doug's response when Fergie asked him to participate in the Fenway Robbery, and set Doug up to be killed by the Dominican men that he and Jem beat up and permanently crippled earlier, and who were also working for Fergie.

B) Alex and the other two Dominican men who Doug and Jem beat up and injured earlier in The Town were only too happy to exact revenge on Doug for permanently crippling them. Like his buddies/accomplices in crime, Doug died playing his own game. Ever heard the quote "Those who live by the sword die by the sword"? That applies here, perfectly, imho.

Doug, like his buddies/accomplices in crime(s), got his comeuppance, and, hopefully, Claire won't be so stupid in the future. I still don't like the fact that Claire spent all that blood money on the restoration of the C-Town ice-hockey rink rather than anonymously turning over to the proper authorities with the help of FBI Agt. Adam Frawley and finding more honest ways to get funding for the hockey rink. Too bad that Claire got off scott-free and wasn't also criminally prosecuted, or at least given a suspended sentence for obstructing justice (helping Doug escape being caught by the Feds and jailed, by a "sunny days" code tip-off to him), and for receiving stolen goods. (Doug's dirty, stolen blood money)

I also think that the Alternate Ending to The Town provides a different message; that actions and behaviors have consequences, that people have to be held accountable for what they do, no matter what their walk of life or upbringing, and that escaping or attempting to escape a life of crime, as well as one's birthplace, parental and environmental upbringing, are much, much easier said than done.

Having this alternate ending and spending less time on the Doug/Claire romances, imho, might've saved The Town for me.

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"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)

I tried to embed the above-posted youtube video on here, but had no luck. Can anybody help me out?

VERY happy to see that you're still having a lot of fun with this, WSSlover.

I broke mine, but luckily the warranty was still active, so they sent me a brand new one!

I just can't watch The Town without it, ya know? Oohhhh, that Ben Affleck!

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I'd bother to read this and respond to it thoughtfully, if it weren't for the fact that the last time you laid into The Town you eventually flat-out refused to explain yourself when the complaints began to contradict one another.

So...no thanks. I'm interested in discussions about film, not monomaniacal monologues. At this point I'm just going to assume Ben Affleck ran over your dog or something and focus on conversations that go both ways.

Why would an unhappy ending make it a better film? I liked it fine how it was. I liked the characters, and I didn't want them to brutally be killed. Movies are a form of escapism, and that ending seems overly depressing and would have ruined the whole thing for me.

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Obviously this movie triggers something personal for you. There are tons of movies where people do "bad" things and get by with it, but The Town is striking some cord with you that you can't let go. Why is it so important for you that these pretend people come to justice? Don't you ever watch movies and root for the bad guy? You can and should be able to watch a movie and separate your real life morals from what is on screen. It's escapism. It has nothing to do with your real values. If I watch a slasher film I want people to get killed otherwise it's going to be a really boring movie. That doesn't mean I want to watch people being brutally murdered in real life.

If you can't separate the two, I'd start being more careful about the movies I watched. Why upset yourself so much?

Ha ha ha ha ha!

First of all, imho, the Alternate Ending of The Town had a much more concise, tighter ending, which, imho, made it better and gave the message that crime doesn't pay. Secondly, I think that Doug really deserved to pay a price for his criminal behavior, and, in the Alternate ending of The Town, like his buddies, he ultimately did.

This doesn't mean that I think that The Town was a great movie, because I don''t. The shoot-outs and car chases/crashes were way over the top, and the Doug-Claire romances rather tiresome. The stereotypes were also rather blatant...and sickening; the rabid, slobbering, Red-sox loving Bostonians, the Charlestown Townie as Bank robber or other criminal, and the princess-like bank manager of unattainable beauty and pureness of heart who captivates the good-hearted defacto ringleader of the group of bank robbing thugs and murderers. The Alternate Ending, to me, however, definitely provides a closure, which this movie should've had, to begin with.

First of all, Goddoggo, I don't watch slasher films, because they're not my cup of tea.

Secondly, it's my right not to root for the bad guy(s), and, as a general rule, I don't root for the bad guy(s) in movies that I watch. I was rooting for FBI Agt. Adam Frawley, the FBI and SWAT teams, rather than the bad guys, in The Town. I really wanted Doug and his men to be caught and sent to a Federal penitentiary to do long, hard time, but this ending was okay for me, because I think that Doug and Jem should've thought twice before breaking into someone's apartment and beating the crap out of them to the point of injuring them permanently.

Thirdly, when one plays with fire, they're bound to get burned. It served Doug and his friends/accomplices in crime right that they died playing with Fergie's fire, not to mention their own.

I also might add that just because movies are a form of entertainment and escapism doesn't mean that they can't or don't carry a message, and that they can't be or shouldn't be analyzed.

It was analogy. I guess you didn't pick that up.

Only watch movies with messages you like then. You know maybe stick to Lifetime where the victims are blameless and the bad guys go to jail.

You probably won't answer this honestly, but don't you think your obsession with this movie is a tad odd and that maybe this really is more about you than the movie? I mean it's a very common occurrence in movies where the main character does something illegal and gets away with it. It doesn't seem that normal to me to be overly bothered by that.

Well, Goddoggo, as a rule, I do watch movies with messages that I do like, where people's actions and behaviors have consequences, people are held accountable for what they do. With extremely rare exceptions, I also prefer films whose endings have more of a closure to them, and where people are held accountable in some way or other for their actions. What's wrong with preferring that the bad guys suffer consequences of their criminal behavior by going to jail, reform school, or whatever?

Here's another thing, Goddogo; I've never heard of, let alone seen Lifetime, so I can't compare it with other films. I also might add, while I never saw either the Extended Cut or the whole movie with the Alternate Ending of or to The Town, I thought that the theatrical version was not only too fast-paced, but it left certain dots unconnected that, from what I understand, were connected in both the other versions of this particular film.

Okay, I have a different opinion of The Town, overall, but yeh, that is me. I also resent the fact that the theatrical version of The Town makes heroes out of Doug and his friends (especially Doug), who are armed felons who not only steal and rob for a living, resulting in traumatization, serious injury or worse for innocent people, but who also physically assault and kill people with no provocation.

Also, to say that Doug MacRay wasn't responsible for the fact that his crazy right-hand man, "Jem" seriously injured and/or killed innocent people isn't true, either, imho. Doug not only chose to be around "Jem", but the things that "Jem" did happened on Doug's watch; inotherwords, Doug was an accomplice to Jem's assaults/killings.

I don't think they ever actually considered this ending, it's so, so bad.

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Frankly, I like the Alternate Ending to The Town far better than the ending in the theatrical version of this film. Imho, it made more sense, provided definite closure to this film, and gave The Town a different, better message. Some people may claim that my attitude is too "1950's-ish" for their liking, which may be, but that's their problem, not mine.

Also, from what I understand, this particular was considered, but was cut from the theatrical version of The Town, because most people supposedly didn't like it, but the Ultimate Collector's Edition of The Town with the Alternate Ending, and the ordinary Extended version of this film are both only available on Blu-Ray DVD, which is pretty screwed up, imho.

How do these bozos find Ben Affleck while he evades every cop in the city ?

All of his friends got gunned down.

Death is too easy for his character. It's harder for him to have to spend the rest of his life alive and evading the police. And seriously, it's not like his character is one of the most awful people you could encounter. I thought Jeremy Renner's character was a bigger ******* and he got killed, yeah?

Also, did nobody find my The Town vibrator funny? That saddens me. I put a lot of work in that.

Like a lot of professional career criminals, Doug MacRay was extremely skilled at coming across as a nice guy and putting on the charm to manipulate and control his victim(s) (which, in this case, was Claire), but, in reality, like his pal and righthand man, "Jem", Doug MacRay, too was a man of unprovoked violence, and more like his father than he was willing to admit. Doug may not be crazy like "Jem", but he wasn't a nice guy, either.

Granted, it's tougher for Doug to have to be in sort of an exile and hide out for the rest of his life from the police, which would've more than likely been the case, but I think that, in the theatrical version, Doug's days of hiding out in a little bungalow down on a Florida Bayou are definitely numbered. Sooner or later, Doug would've been hunted down by the law, caught, and either gunned down like his friends, or sent to a Federal penitentiary for a long time, if not for life.

As I pointed out, the Alternate Ending had a definite closure to it, which I preferred over the ending to the Theatrical version of The Town, which is why I liked it better. I admittedly liked that Doug finally got his comeuppance...at the hands of the Dominican guys who he and "Jem" had beat up and permanently injured earlier in this film.

Oh, btw, I'm not sure how your wand works. Or is this just a snarky joke?

You mean the Dominican guys who Doug and Jem beat up and permanently crippled for throwing bottles at Claire, who hadn't had enough common sense to avoid walking through a housing project by herself on the way to work to begin with?

Like Doug and his accomplices in crime, the Dominican men who Doug and Jem beat up and permanently injured after breaking into their apartments had also been working for Fergie (something that was revealed when Doug said to the Dominicans "If Fergie promised you money to dump me, you better take it up with him."), who had set Doug up to be gunned down by them. It was a combo of that and the Dominican men wanting to even the score with Doug, which was also obvious when Doug tried to find a way out of being killed by Alex, who said "You should've thought of that s**t when you ran into my crib." It was clear that Doug was going to get his comeuppance. In the theatrical version, in the end, Doug gets away with much too much, imho.

Which you just unintentionally made a whole lot funnier.

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You should watch The Devil's Rejects. It's really cool.