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Scenes that change an entire Film


leeallen01

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I never liked when they broke the fourth wall and ended up in the real world in Blazing Saddles and Monty Python and the Holy Grail

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I'll give this a go...

 

The scene in First Blood (Rambo 1) where he steals the military truck and tells the driver to "keep your eyes on the road, that's how accidents happen".

 

That scene alone creates a character that could be turned into a franchise.

 

I'm not saying that line is out of place or John Rambo doesn't have it in him to be funny with a one liner. One could argue that that was his personality prior to the Vietnam war. Which could actually make the scene sadder and deeper. But that line is the ONLY comedy relief in the entire film.

 

I truly believe it's the line that spawned that franchise. Or a character that could "kick ass and take names". Far from the actual tragic character that is John Rambo. Not a good or bad thing. Just something I've always noticed.

 

Just wanna be clear though, I don't think it changed the entire film and I understand the need for comic relief. But it was extremely late in the movie to drop that type of line on us.

 

Also I never read the book...so keeping this film specific.

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I definitely prefer the Aliens extended cut, but I hate the Hadley's Hope scene w/Newt's family. I think it runs like 17 minutes, totally kills the pacing and undermines the suspense when the Marines finally reach LV-426.  It's for this reason that Aliens is the only "fan edit" I've done myself, in which I extricated that entire bit.

 

If you listen to the Alien's director's commentary, Cameron says he didn't want to cut the scene, but did so at the urging of his wife (who was an uncredited editor) because the movie was running long.

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1 hour ago, Disco Stu said:

Groundhog Day seems a good choice, the first time the day loops, if you didn't know the premise of the film going in.

 

The Psycho shower scene of course.

 

I think the mom reveal scene at the end is more in keeping with the idea of this thread. 

 

I think examples are films where at the end of the film, we might be told the events of the film might not have actually happened.  They might have been a dream.  Such as Wizard of Oz, and obviously Inception where you don't know if it was a dream, but might all have been.  Speaking of Nolan, what about Insomnia and Memento?  Obviously, Se7en and The Usual Suspects where we learn who Kaiser Sousse was and where the villain won.  Poltergeist Indian burial ground.  One could argue Raiders of the Lost Ark final scene where apparently there are millions of similar mysterious objects of powers that only the "top men" know about that Indy has no idea of.  Planet of the Apes ending.  Lost ending.  The Shining where we see Jack Nickolson in the final vintage image.  War of the Worlds virus...The Crying Game, there are a bazillion examples.  You're kind of asking us to name a movie. 

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Actually, the deleted village scene in The Last Jedi would help to clarify some stuff. When I first watched the film I was slightly confused as to why Rey was so upset and why would she wander on her own into the cave and trust Ren.

 

Plus that awesome statement of her theme. :)

 

Karol

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Not sure if this qualifies as 'change the whole film', but ... sure we hear about the 00 licence in Dr No before the 'That's a Smith and Wesson, and you've had your six' scene, but that scene in particular hammers home what it actually means; that Bond is quite prepared to cold-bloodedly kill if needs be. There was much 'Heroes don't shoot unarmed men!' horrified reaction at the time, apparently.    

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I guess it's a difficult idea to get across because every single film has a scene that changes the entire story for better or worse.

 

I guess the idea of this thread is a meta analysis about 1 particular scene that either severely effects a film for good or bad. Predator is an extreme example (you are immediately told the threat will be an alien.)

 

But scenes that are not as impactful, but still change an entire films story or intent are also acceptable to discuss.

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It's not a film, but in my mind it would be a masssive twist if it were ever made into one.

 

It's a book I read in a book club last year (The Familiars) where a young woman may or may not be a witch (it's kept ambiguous throughout) and is recruited to help another woman whose doctor has advised that if she bears a child, she will die. Said doctor's letter is hidden by the husband on the assumption that he's so desperate for a child that he's willing to take the risk.

 

The key part, right at the end, is that 

Spoiler

it turns out that the doctor's letter was about someone else entirely, but because everyone assumed that it was about the wife and the baby was delivered successfully, then it's strongly implied that they believe the other woman to be a witch. it was essentially about forming an opinion of a person based entirely on a belief that may be wrong, and in this case you go most of the book with a potentially entirely wrong impression of the 'witch' based one one piece of information.

 

In terms of a film, I'm going to have to mention Lincoln. It's not so much a particular scene, but reading up on the story afterwards revealed some American history which I think most of the cinema viewing I was in didn't know. My brother remarked it was one of the most boring films he'd ever seen, and it was entirely because we had no idea why Lincoln had to get his law passed by a particular point. SS really needed to do a bit more to explain things to non-US audiences.

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Another example could be the Phantom Menace, where Qui Gon tells Anakin about the Midichlorians. That scene fundamentally changes the entire message behind the force and arguably the entire spirit of Star Wars. It not only changes the Phantom Menace itself, but it changes the entire original trilogy.

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I'm not quite sure what this thread is about. The original post seems to be about scenes that were cut from a movie, and then reinstated, having a significant impact on how the film as a whole plays out. That's an interesting concept, but most follow up posts seem to be about key scenes in films that change the film's direction - for which basically every major plot twist is a candidate. Or is it about scenes that have a particular impact not so much because of what they do (e.g. a plot twist), but how they do it?

 

13 hours ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

I definitely prefer the Aliens extended cut, but I hate the Hadley's Hope scene w/Newt's family. I think it runs like 17 minutes, totally kills the pacing and undermines the suspense when the Marines finally reach LV-426.  It's for this reason that Aliens is the only "fan edit" I've done myself, in which I extricated that entire bit.

 

I've known Aliens for so long that I find it hard to judge this. I understand how the prologue (if you will) may be seen as anticlimactic, but I also do seem to remember that when I first saw it, and then I think watched the extended cut for my 2nd viewing, the Newt & parents stuff gave me a much better idea of the scope and concept of the settlement. I don't mind it, in any case, so it doesn't distract from my viewing; and (as has already been said), the stuff about Ripley's actual daughter is certainly essential.

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For me a typical example is Bladerunner.

Great movie. But then at the very end Deckard suddenly says something like "He was wrong. It was all completely different..." Just to enforce a happy end.

Then came the directors cut, which just cut off this weird ending and added more or less three short scenes, which now turned everything implying that Deckard is a replicant, which made no sense either.

 

The perfect version (director's cut without the unicorn and Deckard's replicant eyes) does not exist.

 

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1 hour ago, GerateWohl said:

Just to enforce a happy end.

 

 

'The Happy End'of the Theatrical Cut can be interpreted as Deckard and Rachael being the new Adam and Eve. While humans are leaving for Off-World destinations, replicants shall inherit the world. It would also explain why everything suddenly looks green and healthy. It's the Garden Of Eden. 

 

blade-runner.jpg

 

" You know what else I think? That you and I were made for each other." (alternate ending)

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"Gaff had been there, and let her live. Four years, he figured. He was wrong. Tyrell had told me: "Rachel was special: no termination date". I didn't know how long we'd have together. Who does?"

 

I'm not sure if this changes much.

It's hinted at earlier, by Bryant, when he tells Deckard that Rachel had disappeared from the Tyrell Corporation. "'Didn't even know she was a replicant"', says Tyrell".

Even before that you have:

"She's beginning to suspect, I think".

"'Suspect'? How can it not know what it is?".

 

Now, if Scott had left-in"You've done a man's job, sir, but are you sure you are a man? It's hard to tell who's who, around here", that would be interesting.

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12 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

 

How can it not know what it is?".

 

 

Yes, she's designed to be as human as possible ("More human than human", as Tyrell calls it) and completely unaware that she's a replicant. This implies that Deckard could be Nexus 7 as well. If they are basically indiscernible or no different from humans there's no need for them to have a built-in four-year lifespan.

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I can talk again about two personal experiences of movies I saw in a theater, and I knew since the very first scenes that the "tone" of the movie would be too much "lighter" than what I expected.

 

Batman Returns and The Phantom Menace.

 

Too theatrical.

 

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Thanks @leeallen01, finally someone else who puts the theatrical edition of Aliens above the director’s cut. I agree all the way!

 

For my pick, I give you Daredevil (2003) IMDb. Two scenes in particular come to mind:

 

1.

First, allow me to quote CBRIn the theatrical film, this scene is preceded by a violent fight, and Murdock is then invited to the ball. However, in the director's cut, the love scene comes before the fight, with Murdock leaving to stop a criminal and having an existential crisis.”

 

2.

I also seem to remember a scene not in the theatrical cut, where Matt Murdock - beat up, bruised and tired - is on his way to sleep in his sound proof coffin. As he’s about to close the lid he hears yet another crime. The curse of hearing everything. He pauses. He’s thinking he should help. But he’s tired. He’s only a man. With guilt all over his face he lies down and closes the lid to embrace the silence.

 

So, to sum up, I quote CBR again: “The director's cut of Daredevil, decentralizes Elektra in order to focus on Murdock's internal struggles, developing him as a lawyer, lover and vigilante, one who is torn up by the guilt and alienation that come with his crusade.

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@leeallen01 I absolutely agree with you on Aliens. I remember seeing it on opening night and I remember how disorienting the first scenes of the colony were. There were places where I couldn't even figure out the scale until a person or vehicle appeared. All of that would be gone with the original scenes included.

 

But are you asking about scenes that WOULD have changed a movie IF they had been included?

 

Otherwise I'm going with Psycho. Call it a plot twist if you will. Most plot twists are a surprise, or a character isn't who you think they are. But Psycho doesn't just change directions. It literally becomes a whole different movie at that point. The plot changes, the main character changes. You could argue the genre changes.

 

The Matrix is similar. Even how the movie was marketed, we only are shown the made-up world. We know it's some kind of action movie. Then Neo wakes up covered in goo.

 

But maybe that's not what you were asking. Then @rough cut has a much better answer.

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This topic has become more exploratory than my original post, which is great. It creates new ideas and conversations. I was going for a more, "wow, imagine if that scene was kept in the theatrical cut. The movie would have been radically different" type thing. Or even "I think that scene completely ruins the story. Imagine if it was cut out, then the film would be so much better." But these examples brought up are still very interesting.

 

I guess to explore this random and confusing concept further, going outside of a single scene, to perhaps just a writing concept itself; the entire concept of an elderly Rose telling the story of the Titanic, immediately tells us she survived, and therefore all tension or fear of her survival is removed, and by extention, we may be able to infer the death of Jack, as her granddaughter doesn't know him.

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I think @Tallguy is on to something interesting.
 

Not so much just a scene, but rather rearranging information given to the audience, but I’d love to see this version of the movie Passangers (2016) IMDb. (Warning: spoilers.)

 

 

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58 minutes ago, rough cut said:

I think @Tallguy is on to something interesting.
 

Not so much just a scene, but rather rearranging information given to the audience, but I’d love to see this version of the movie Passangers (2016) IMDb. (Warning: spoilers.)

 

 

That is indeed such a cool video and something I have always wondered with this film.

 

And how cool would it have been for Pratt's character to die and that after some time Lawrence's character does the same to someone else. And that the final shot of the film would be this new person meeting Lawrence like she did before with Pratt.

 

This is the movie that I wish happened, but alas.

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Another common internet thing involving Passengers is to swap its cast with Valerian and the City of One Thousand Planets, so Pratt and Lawrence are the spy/hero/love interests in that, and Dehaan is the creep who wakes up Delivigne in Passengers

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19 hours ago, leeallen01 said:

I was going for a more, "wow, imagine if that scene was kept in the theatrical cut. The movie would have been radically different" type thing.

 

In that case, I have to bring up The Two Towers. I think FOTR is often considered the best film and best expansion of the "trilogy", because it's comparatively tight, and the extra scenes flesh out what's there without changing much.

 

But TTT is where I think the extended edition is essential. Many people have complained about how Faramir's character is handled in the film, but I understand the motivation for it (Philippa Boyens explains it in the appendices), and I think it's handled really well - but only in the EE. The theatrical cut strips away so many of Faramir's scenes that not much of an arc remains, and what is a compelling character in the EE is in the shortened version reduced to a shallow and rather annoying one who also seems too far removed from his book counterpart.

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I still agree with their reasoning that the problem with the Saruman scene is that it was conceived as an ending to the Two Towers so it has this really climactic quality, but it would have felt tacked on after Helm's Deep. At the same time, I guess they tried to save it because they did do pickups for it summer 2003 but it doesn't really work as the beginning of Return of the King either because it's pitched so high dramatically and the rest of the movie creates a calm before the storm. I'm still so in love with the opening of the theatrical ROTK as a mood piece.

 

So it's kind of a stepchild scene, even though it obviously is a missing piece, it kills the vibe and I've always found it in a no man's land tonally. It works as part of the three EE's where you have all these intermissions anyway over 12 hours and you're usually gonna break it up, it's irrelevant how well each movie plays on its own, the storytelling can stand to be more erratic. Somehow it makes the most sense to me as the opening of Episode 5 in a six-part miniseries, which is basically how those things play on disc. 

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On 12/1/2023 at 5:56 PM, leeallen01 said:

The obvious is Predator. The inclusion of the spaceship in the opening is a terrible idea in my opinion. It immediately tells you there's an alien, instead of discovering that along with the characters. Not knowing what the hell is hunting them is far more powerful, but we already know it's an alien, and the removal of that scene would improve the film for me.

This, but for John Carpenter’s The Thing. 

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I'm not sure I have understood correctly the topic, but in The Prince of Egypt, I can't stand the scenes with the priests. Because they add a comedic element, to an otherwise serious religious film. Even if it is a musical animation.

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9 hours ago, leeallen01 said:

Staying with LOTR. The removal of Saruman from ROTK in the theatrical cut is insane to me. The entire summation of his character and setting up the rest of the film is lost.

 

I agree that the scene should be somewhere in the films. Removing it doesn't really have much of an impact on the rest of ROTK though - it's an essential piece of the story, but it doesn't make the rest of the story feel significantly different.

 

All in all, ROTK is certainly the most uneven of the EEs. Lots of stuff in there I love, but also some of the worst moments from these films (including the ending of the otherwise quite wonderful Mouth of Sauron sequence).

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Not exactly in line with the thread idea, but I often think about how much better Shutter Island ends up as a film versus the book because of one additional line of dialogue. 

 

The book is fantastic, but it ends with

Spoiler

Leo’s character relapsing into being a detective with Mark Ruffalo as his partner.

 

The movie ends the exact same way, except they added one more line of dialogue.

Spoiler

Leo says, “Which would be worse, to live as a monster, or to die as a good man?” telegraphing that he didn’t relapse and is voluntarily lobotomizing himself

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