Alternate endings

One thing to note in that lab scene that we just passed, it was sort of the second kind of mile marker for our original ending, which was this idea that he had lost touch with any sort of emotional connection with these creatures as human beings, sick human beings. And this idea that he's testing his cure and the thing dies in front of him. And what he's upset about is that the cure didn't work. Not that this living creature has died right in front of his eyes. And we always...

38:17 · jump to transcript →

And our Wall of the Dead. Our Wall of the Dead, which is really more significant, although still significant in our current ending, was more significant in our original ending. In the original, right. Did all of them die? Yes. This is the theme which Francis and I have called Who's the Monster? Which is really a theme that's very consistent with the source material, the original novella. And our movie, although I think in its current form

1:13:33 · jump to transcript →

works with that theme in its original form, which we'll see when we talk about the alternate ending, really landed on it. Right. And you can feel it in this one, which is very interesting. You know, we sort of thought... It's the ham hock theory. Yeah, we created a new ending that we felt, you know, we really could put on this. And then, you know, when you watch it, you just see that working on a movie over time with a specific ending in mind, it's just built into the DNA of it. And a lot of that, you sort of feel the idea that these creatures are more intelligent than Neville thinks. Yeah.

1:14:00 · jump to transcript →

because we'll talk about the deleted scenes when we come onto those, which is that we did have a very different ending, which was a much bleaker ending. And I know a lot of people think you change things because of the influence of Hollywood or America on movies generally, and hopeful endings, happy endings, all that kind of stuff. But actually, the truth of it was that I think we all felt when we watched the film with an audience with our bleak ending on it,

1:48:14 · jump to transcript →

This whole thing was in the script. The first shot was exactly the way it was in the book, which was, it took place on an open beach. Right. I said, "Ted, I just feel like... "I don't know how to shoot suspense on an open beach. I just don't know." We changed the ending of the book, and everybody had a contribution. Dino and Martha said, "The boy has to be in more jeopardy. "The son has to be in more jeopardy, that's what will make this work." Brett said, "It has to be more claustrophobic. "Interiors are scarier than exteriors. "We have to have hallways with doors where he could appear from anywhere." And then this great, great moment with the mirror which is pure Brett Ratner. It was not in the screenplay originally. It was Brett's idea that the reveal to this character should be the broken mirror. It was wonderful. This sequence is an excellent example of how a screenplay evolves from the producers, from the director, and from the writer. And what I wanted, which was not in the original ending of the book, was for Will Graham to be more heroic. And then we added... In the ending of the book, he's injured by Dolarhyde on the beach. The kid hooks Dolarhyde with a fishing rod. Graham Is injured on the beach and runs away and hides, leaving his family to deal with the bad guy. And I wanted Graham to be more heroic at the end here. So we each had a shopping list for this sequence and got what we wanted. I also wanted Graham to show cleverness here. He can't overwhelm Dolarhyde physically. But he can outthink him. That's what he's good at. And taking all this, because Ted even said to me, "Brett, I don't write action. I don't really do that." And so I said, "Okay." I sat down with my stunt coordinator, Conny Palmisano. We went through beat by beat of what could possibly happen physically. We called Ted and went through it, and he came up with this whole thing... Where he stabs his leg with a... He's got a second knife hidden. But the whole thing about him using what he saw in the book, which is much more heroic than anything else he could do physically. This was where we took quite a leap. And tried to use things that the book suggested but didn't actually dramatize. And it really worked. And Tyler Patrick Jones who's... Wonderful little boy. Who did an amazing job and went through hours and hours of being thrown to the ground and being yelled at, berated. And very smart and... He's the sweetest little boy. We should have put at the end, "No children were harmed during the making of this." It's not his first movie. - Yeah. He actually worked with Spielberg on Minority Report. He had a small part. He said he actually liked me more than he did Spielberg. So I was happy about that. Don't cry at me, you little faggot! He said my beard wasn't as big as Spielberg's. Nor your bank account. "I'm a freak." Say it! No. - Say it! Dad! - Say it, or I will cut it off! "I'm a dirty little beast." Ralph did a great job here, and he was nervous about this. "Is this gonna work, Brett?" That was his question. And I said, "Let's shoot it and find out." - We won't know until we finish. Sound Dogs did a great job on the sound design here. They did Family Man with me, and they work... I love how you drove this whole sequence. This just goes like a freight train, this sequence. It's a classic. It's like the end of Psycho or something. It's just a great, great suspense sequence. Every shot selection and the pauses. Josh? - Mom? Will? Where are you guys? I thought I heard some kind of... Will? Great set. It was great. It was modeled after a real house that we saw in the Keys. It had very narrow hallways. These types of doors. Rattan louvered doors. We needed the doors to be louvered, because Molly has to be able to reach through the door here in order to unlock it.

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Clementine looked like because I had a specific person that I was physically basing her on. Here she's looking at the bruise she got from falling on the ice. That was part of the initial ending we had. They were mentioning, talking about her ass.

1:36:19 · jump to transcript →