5. Little Shop of Horrors
It’s possible that no two endings are as polar opposite as the two shot for this movie, which was adapted by director Frank Oz from a play. The first ending stayed loyal to the original production’s—Seymour feeds his love, Audrey, to the ravenous plant (Audrey II) and then tries to commit suicide. He decided to fight the plant, but Audrey II devours him, too. Then, spawns of the plant end up taking over and destroying the world. Viewers didn’t respond well to all the lead characters being eaten, so Oz was forced to put a happier spin on the situation. In the version we all know and love, Seymour kills the plant and marries Audrey.
6. Men in Black II
In this case, the ending was altered not because it tested poorly, but because of bad timing. The original conclusion included a shot of UFOs around the World Trade Center towers, but when the unfortunate events of September 11 occurred, the film’s release was delayed so the ending could be re-shot. The Chrysler building replaced the towers. Otherwise, the finale was basically the same.
7. Dawn of the Dead
George Romero’s zombie classic originally finished with what fans call the “suicide” ending. In the ending attached to the final version, one of the main characters, Peter, almost commits suicide before the zombies get to him, but then decides to fight them off and ends up escaping with his cohort, Fran. In the first version, he does kill himself and Fran, who manages to make it past the zombies and to the helicopter, decapitates herself with the helicopter blades. The camera then shows that there wasn’t sufficient fuel in the helicopter to escape, anyway.
8. The Break-Up
Look at any tabloid cover from, oh, I don’t know, the past five years or so and ask yourself whether or not America is rooting for Jennifer Aniston. Around the time this movie was made, it became public that not only were she and Brad Pitt divorcing, but that he cheated on her with Angelina Jolie—and Jolie was going to have his baby! Aniston became the representative for lonely, jilted women across the land and so the last thing anyone wanted to see was her losing her man on screen, too, as was depicted in the original ending of The Break-Up. Test audiences hated the ending, so it was revamped to a slightly more ambiguous, if not promising, conclusion.
