A while back I wrote about the movie "I Am Legend", saying it was really good right up until the last five minutes, which were a putrescent pile of gentle steaming waste matter.
Turns out an alternate ending was filmed. While it’s not perfect, it’s about a bazillion times better than what was released in the theater. It’s out on YouTube Gametrailers. Warning: may be a little intense for the kiddies.
I like this one better for many reasons. The ending that was released was way too mystical for no reason; it was added on as a feel-good Hollywood ending that ruined the entire movie. This one isn’t quite as grim as I would have liked, but it’s not a fairy tale ending. Also, the zombies’ intelligence was already established in the movie, so this isn’t too much of a deviation from that direction.
I think the movie-going public can handle ambiguous endings, scary endings, even depressing endings. This cut would have been a (baby) step in the right direction.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
WB had Youtube pull that. Ah, well – I would have liked to have seen it.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Talk about bad timing. *poof* Gone.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
That was damned quick.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/184699.html
March 5th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Oh men! I’d like to see that on the cinema. Any way seems the video you posted was removed.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
ouch!! too late… video removed… gotta check the torrent then…
March 5th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
There’s a mirror on GameTrailers, as well as several torrents of it out:
http://forums.gametrailers.com/showthread.php?t=329096
March 5th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Removed pretty fast.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Still not the book’s ending, so no sale.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Heh. Well, I can move pretty fast too. I updated the embed and link.
Why would WB want this pulled? Oh yeah, they’re dinosaur old media dummies. They don’t want free advertising for their movies going out to millions of people who might otherwise not buy their movie.
Feh. The sooner these corporations wither away, the better.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
[...] I’ve been hearing rumors of an alternate ending to I Am Legend for about a week or so now. A recent post over at BadAstronomy just reminded me to go see if anything has been posted. Sure enough there are tons of YouTube [...]
March 5th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
WB probably pulled the clip because it shows they had a much better, more gripping and realistic ending that they just chickened out on and threw away when a sample audience said they felt it could have been more ‘positive.’ I only really care for endings that can surprise me, like in the ‘Sixth Sense’ and ‘Fallen’ as these are sooo rare. The terrible travesty of Douglas Adams in the ending of the ‘Hitch-Hikers Guide’ film almost made me throw in my towel in disgust!
March 5th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Feh. The sooner these corporations wither away, the better.
I could not agree more.
Copyright protectionism has gone completely awry. I can only hope we look back on the current intellectual property scare as we do on prohibition or witch hunts.
But I suspect that as long as the type of people that used the ‘original’ ending are in charge nothing is about to change.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I’m glad this was’nt the ending – too innocent. Good ‘ol Will gets away with the woman and escapes the zombies??? No way!!! The emotional impact was huge on the normal ending. The zombies had to have that feral quality all the way through the film – they cant go all slushy and cutesy – just ridiculous! Sorry Phil , stand by you, Randi and Dawkins on all things but have to disagree with you on this one!! Keep up the good work and cant wait for your book.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
You know Europe and North America got different endings for “Butterfly Effect”, right?
March 5th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
This is the ending I was expecting. It felt like the whole movie was leading up to this conclusion, and then they just dropped it at the last second. I like this way much better, though I have to admit that Will Smith’s last stand in the original ending was pretty awesome.
March 5th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
[...] putrescent pile of gentle steaming waste matter. Turns out an alternate ending was filmed. … credit : [...]
March 5th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Way better than the lame ending on the theater ending, which did ruin the whole movie for me.
March 5th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Well, the original theatrical ending captured the anti-science, anti-medical establishment that the movie started with (i.e., modern medicine/science created this hellish, apocalyptic world). The happy little walled-in hamlet with the church being the first thing you see when the gates opened just clinched the message they seemed to be going for.
I can’t compare either ending to the book, as I haven’t read it. The movie did kinda make em not want to read it. What was the book ending, anyway? If it’s better, I might actually give it a read.
March 5th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Now that was a putrescent pile of gentle steaming waste matter.
Ah look.. the zombies are just misunderstood. They’re actually in love. It’s soo sweet. As Cartman would say, “Lame.”
I don’t mind the not getting to the town and safe. But really. They’re zombies! They weren’t out to get Will just because he had that zombie woman. They’d have gotten the woman back and then turned everyone else into zombies. Just lame.
March 5th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
THIS was the ending that should have been. It follows with the book much more closely, where the main character ends up becoming a legend to the infected, a monster that would come during the day and steal their kind to perform horrible experiments on.
It’s playing on perspective difference between the humans and the infected and it’s a lot more satisfying than the theatrical “Durrr, he blowed em up real good” ending.
March 5th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
If you liked the movie, then you clearly haven’t read the novel Mr. BA.
March 5th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
thats was awful. Much worse than I though it would be. We need much more hard cleak ending in films.
March 5th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
that was quite a bit better. it was a good movie for the most part IMO. the ending p****d me off.
i thought they were mad at him for testing on the zombies and he wasn’t getting it –so this makes a lot more sense.
March 5th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
This needs to be the actual ending. Not only is it ten times better but I think it tracks better with the original story.
March 5th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
This ending was no better than the original one. The zombies/vampires really break character here. The book, however, was much better. Even though many find the ending of the book depressing, I think it’s much more upbeat than either of the movie endings.
March 5th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Haven’t seen the movie, but the trailer was interesting.
Why didn’t the zombies have teeth?
March 5th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Pulling a video that’s destined to be a good viral hit, and land many hits/watches/plays whatever… Typical knee jerk reaction.
Does WB not have a Youtube brand channel?
Was this alternate only on the DVD or not supposed to be released?
March 5th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
“What was the book ending, anyway? If it’s better, I might actually give it a read.”
SPOILER ALERT!
In the book, some of the vampires learn to control themselves and act rationally. They start destroying the more feral ones, and capture Neville who’s become something of a legend as he slaughters their kind. He’s injured in the process, and they take him to a hospital to keep him alive long enough to publicly execute him. A sympathetic vampire slips him some poison so he can kill himself, and the vampires presumably build a new society afterwards.
March 5th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
I do not understand why Hollywood needs to change entire endings. If you like the novel enough to spend a gajillion dollars on its film adaptation, then you must have liked the actual ending to the novel.
Furthermore, in this case, the novel’s title ties in directly with its ending. Oy.
March 5th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Although this ending still doesn’t do the book justice, I think that it at least is more similar to the book ending. When Neville glances at the wall realizing that he has killed so many thinking that they were just zombies when really they could think and learn and apparently even love. Its a better ending for sure, the original ending was far too Hollywood.
March 5th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
ps. I agree with you completely Carla, I never did understand how they could change the whole ending and keep the title, it just didn’t make sense.
March 5th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Seems to me that you’re on the right track with ambiguous endings, Phil. The public and even the Academy can handle them just fine; after all, No Country for Old Men won Best Picture and you can get any more ambiguous and complex (and fantastic) an ending than that.
March 5th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Yeah, much better – a little too “happy-clappy” for my nihilistic intincts perhaps, but a more rounded ending nonetheless
March 5th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I do like this ending a lot better though the book sounds even better. That whole mystical crap in the theatrical release just pissed me off. What did that have to do with the story?
March 5th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Would you guys stop saying zombies? They’re not zombies. I’m specifically referencing this post by Will S:
“I don’t mind the not getting to the town and safe. But really. They’re zombies! They weren’t out to get Will just because he had that zombie woman. They’d have gotten the woman back and then turned everyone else into zombies. Just lame.”
They’re VAMPIRES, not zombies. It makes a lot more sense when you think of it that way. You’re right, zombies aren’t intelligent, and this ending would make no sense if they were zombies, but they’re not. There’s no reason vampires can’t be intelligent.
Once you realize they’re vampires, the whole being allergic to light thing makes a lot more sense.
March 5th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
People are arguing about whether vampires or zombies are more intelligent. Yikes.
That said, I LOVE this ending! Much, MUCH better!!!!!!!
March 5th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
I liked this ending much better, and I agree with Cyde there, these “baddies” weren’t zombies, and did have some level of intelligence, that much was clear even in the film where one individual monster (vampire?) displayed clear foresight and planning, as well as emotion, when trapping Neville who had previously captured his mate.
So I do think that this ending was kind of a logical extension of the picture of some intelligence and motive beyond pure mindless hunger that was given to the vampires earlier on. I also liked how this ending was open ended, and left questions hanging there to tease the imagination of the viewer.
March 5th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
The ending that showed in the theater made no sense at all. I mean, what good is a “cure” for the virus? The people who are already immune don’t need it, and they sure as heck aren’t going to start an innoculation program for the zombies. This alternate ending is a little better, but still pretty lame.
March 5th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
So, is it just my eyes playing tricks or did the “mutant” draw a butterfly on the glass or is it just a random smear from his hand?
March 5th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Who would win in a fight? Zombies or Vampires? Oddly enough, no one gives a Bad word deleted. Is the ending in the book better? Isn’t it always?
Geek-fights aside, I might actually buy this movie on DVD — if it comes with this ending. Like you, Phil, I was rather Bad word deleted when they took the easy road out. Not from the trip down Spirituality Lane, but because they totally glossed over the obvious intelligence and organization required by the infected to emulate Wil’s trap.
This is better. Heads and shoulders better. Granted, it would have been cooler if the infected took a look at Wil’s Wall-of-Death and decided to dish out a little vigilante justice, infected-style, even after he gave the female back. But that’s just my dystopian side coming out.
E.
March 5th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Great post!
I like this end better!
March 5th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
MarkA: The survivors could use the cure to distill a gas or aerosol spray to mass dis-infect the mutants.
Markus: Yes, the mutant drew a butterfly. You’re supposed to notice it. It’s the clinchpin of the entire scene.
March 5th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
“I think the movie-going public can handle ambiguous endings, scary endings, even depressing endings.”
Film school, decades of studio research and major film critics will likely tell you this is just not true. Only a non-profitable minority can handle it, not the movie-going public in general. Without major approval convincing the punters, No Country For Old Men would be hated. It was boo’d in the early showing I attended for this very reason. Ain’t no thang – this is why arthouse theaters exist, for the minority that can handle it.
March 5th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
The original ending would have been better if it ended immediately after Neville suicided himself with the grenade and maybe a quick clip of Anna looking for the survivor’s compound, buy you don’t know if she actually finds it.
The alternate ending is okay, though it seemed like there were a lot more infected in the lab when they broke in.
As for a version closer to the book, maybe they can film it as a Sci-Fi Channel original.
March 5th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
I should dig out my copy of the book, and run The Last Man On Earth (the better of the two previous adaptations). Eventually, I will probably get the DVD via NetFlix, and it BETTER have both endings for me to check.
J/P=?
March 5th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
WB pulled the ending I don’t think because it shows their cowardice, as someone else suggested above. Most probably (hopefully) they will be including it on the extras of the DVD and (sigh) blu-ray release.
By the way I do hate WB for being a major player in getting us stuck with blu-ray instead of the much less consumer-antagonistic HD-
DVD, but that’s for another forum.
March 5th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
…
” Feh. The sooner these corporations wither away, the better. ”
Be careful what you wish for . . ..
…tom…
.
March 5th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
While I do agree with the posters who bemoan the deviation from the book this ending is almost as unsatisfying as the release. Perhaps a combination of the two endings? It should be remembered that the film is not only drawing from the book but from the two previous films as well as more contemporary “zombie” films and it may be that in order to sell the film to the market these other sources were deemed more accessible (as is proven by ticket sales). It must be difficult to adhere strictly to the book when there is such a wide range of sources to pull from, many of which have equally interesting aesthetics and narrative structures to play with.
March 5th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
I much preferred the version where Will Smith becomes chunky salsa on the walls of the basement. Well, not _Will Smith_, mind you, but you get the idea. However, the feel-good ending with the compound was too much.
Still, I like a good zombie picture as much as the next guy.
March 5th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
My disappointment with the original ending was that, in rejecting the ending from the novel, they clearly struggled to force the plot to fit the movie’s title.
The contrived nature is clear from the fact that they ended up with the female lead saying “He is a legend” or something like that, when all of us were really waiting for the payout of the hero realising that he is, to the vampires, the monster, and a closing with Will Smith saying “I am legend” as he is led to the gallows.
March 5th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
locksmyth said:The sooner these corporations wither away, the better.
Quite a few people were happy to shell out their money to see this movie. Quite a few will shell out even more to buy it on DVD and BD. (Is the alternate ending there?) I wonder how happy these people will be to see these corporations wither away?
It’s all fun and ludditesque to long for the collapse of major media producers, to hate on the companies that create the music and movies that so many folks then trip over themselves to download for free from pirate sites. These companies contribute a lot to the economy, and employ a lot of people at all different levels – including me. Yay, let’s collapse them because they didn’t give us precisely what we wanted. And then what? Whatever shall you do for entertainment without expensive, slickly produced music and special effects extravaganza movies?
Will you read the book? (It’s actually a short story – or is it a novella? – but I’m on a rant, work with me here.) Will you go out and buy a copy? Or maybe download the text for free, putting no coin in Richard Matheson’s pocket?
It’s all well and good to spout off about undermining other people’s livelihoods. When someone tries to do the same to yours, how will you feel?
March 5th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
The original ending didn’t work for me mostly because it seemed pointless. I don’t understand why Neville suicided like he did, as it didn’t accomplish anything and, thus, made his months of survival pointless.
If the bolthole he shoved the others into was good enough to save them, there’s no reason he couldn’t have gone as well. You can’t tell me someone of his intelligence couldn’t have come up with a way to delay the grenade going off. If he even needed to; open door, get in, lob grenade, close door.
I don’t know I buy the alternate ending, but at least it didn’t feel pointless.
March 5th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
The ending is crucial to the title of the novel, in which the infected people become vampires (infected by a natural virus that is the origin of vampire legends and all of a sudden becomes orders of magnitude more infectious) and this uninfected guy searches and kills the vampires, who now are a majority and regard him as a monster (the way they were regarded when they were a minority), so now this guy is a legend, specially after they execute him and destroy the last remaining “normal” human being. Hence the title of the novel. The ending is far better than either cinematographic option.
March 5th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Oh, sorry locksmyth. I guess my ire should have been directed at our host.
Phil, I’m a little shocked at your attitude. Which corporations do you have in mind? Just “dinosaur old media dummies” like the major movie studios? Or maybe big publishing houses like Wiley? Or bloated beauracracies like NASA?
March 5th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Drat. I misspelled “beauracracies.” I guess I forget how to spell when someone is calling for the collapse of the source of my meager income.
March 5th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
The movie has no write to be called I am Legend. It should be called Will Smith Zombie movie. It doesn’t even portray the sentiment of the book. At the end of the book it explains the title of the book. In the book the they are vampires, not zombies. This alternative ending is a bit better though, you are right.
March 6th, 2008 at 12:31 am
Wow, that was a hell of a lot better ending then the initial release of the movie had. Made more sense and it actually tied up the hints throughout the entire movie that the bad guys were actually intelligent, had a leader, and that he was pissed that the Doc kidnapped that one female. Whatever studio head (perhaps a producer?) decided to substitute that ending showed poor judgment, very poor judgment. When I saw this movie I enjoyed it but felt the ending went off the rails. Walking out of the theater most of the people had a “WTF?” look on their faces too. If only they’d gone with the directors original vision and used his original ending. So sad.
March 6th, 2008 at 2:34 am
That was much better! Maybe a future DVD will have the “director’s cut” with this better ending.
I liked “Apocalypse Now Redux” as much as the original and the director’s cut of “Blade Runner” is superb without that goofy ending.
On the other hand, the director’s cut of “Das Boot” is awful compared to the shorter, tighter original theatrical release. Just my rambling opinions.
March 6th, 2008 at 2:45 am
[...] – bis auf einige Logikfehler – spannend, aber das Ende war mehr als dämlich. Heute habe ich auf Bad Astronomy gelesen, dass ein alternatives Ende des Filmes existiert. Mit diesem Ende wäre der Kinofilm [...]
March 6th, 2008 at 2:58 am
Well after watching that, they both sucked. After being all feral and horrible, they suddenly turn all cutesy and cuddly? No way – right on Disneydave – I agree.
The original ending pandered to a religious audience, and this one pandered to an audience that couldn’t handle watching the lead character get his beans for being a monster.
My better ending would have been – the infected corner Will Smith, use cohesive arguments to make him understand that Scientology is a bunch of crap, and they all run off to Tom Cruise’s house to do an intervention. Theeeeeetaaaaaannnnssss!
Or maybe not – but that proves I can write an ending on a par with those two for I Am (not) Legend.
March 6th, 2008 at 3:48 am
Haha, this was the ending I had in mind all along! Why didn’t they pick this ending instead?
Some of the things I noted during the film:
* When Will’s character captured the female zombie/vampire, the male vampire looks out of the door, not caring that he was putting his life at risk. Will noted that this is an unusual behavior.
* Throughout the rest of the film, the male vampire was going after Will’s character with vendetta-like zeal.
* In the final encounter, when the male zombie was head-butting the door, he seemed to have a look of concern and not anger, as if he wanted something real bad.
The original ending seemed contrived and artificial. This ending fits the movie better.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:51 am
The video was probably pulled because of contracts with advertising agencies. If you you’re an ad agency, wouldn’t you be against someone doing your job for free? So it only makes sense that they’d stipulate in their contracts with studios that only they have rights to advertise and things like YouTube clips get pulled. The movie studios want someone to advertise on TV and in print, so they agree to the internet side of it too.
If more studios had their own advertising departments, then you might less of this type of action, as it stands I would bet that they would be in breach of a contract agreement if they didn’t pull videos like this. That said, it sucks.
March 6th, 2008 at 6:01 am
I am Legend was generally good. The bad thing is, the ending sucked so much that basically it went back to the past and made the rest of the movie sucked.
This ending is not flawless (In fact, it’s quite hard to understand), and, in my personal opinion, is a little better than “brb, gonna sacrifice for salvation of mankind lol”.
March 6th, 2008 at 7:01 am
Harold, the sentiment is not directed at the industry, merely at the short sighted, small minded, corporations that have far more power and influence then vision. Ideally, and I dare say inevitably, they would be usurped by fresh blood as other more rationally run organization fill the vacuum.
Not only will I buy the book, I’ll more then likely buy the DVD. My wife and I have an extensive library, (mostly for my part it contains work by English authors) I also have over 500 DVD’s (that’s Authentic DVD’s not ‘pirated’) I pay for work that is worthy of payment.
“It’s all well and good to spout off about undermining other people’s livelihoods. When someone tries to do the same to yours, how will you feel?” I’ve lived through that, I am a software engineer, my career is likely to be limited by social prejudices I have been aware for some time now that I will be, unduly, viewed as redundant by the age of 35. I also lived through Australia’s wholesale export of IT jobs to India in the early 2000’s. My industry went from booming, to bust over night. I was fine but, as I said previously, there is no desire for the industry to die, only the waste, the sad, scared giants that are confused about the future of entertainment in the digital age that post copy right claims on you tube for a 5 min clip that can only result in further sales of the DVD. I hope that corporations that are run by irrational people with eyes on the past will give way to new corporations that will take full advantage of emerging technologies.
March 6th, 2008 at 8:11 am
[...] playing the last man in New York. The ending, however, was cheesy, sentimental and illogical. Now a different and more plausible ending is available on the Web. Apparently “Hollywood” insisted on the syrupy and unsatisfying [...]
March 6th, 2008 at 9:19 am
I haven’t seen the movie (my wife has no interest in what looks like a horror film), but if you’re into Hong Kong films, you should check out BioZombie. It also had an alternate ending, and I believe both were actually shown on the big screen. Audiences like one over the other and eventually that’s what ended up in the video release.
You can check it out on IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0277605/
You can also check it out at the HKMDB:
http://hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?id=8362&display_set=eng
There are more reviews of the movie in the left column.
March 6th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Ribozyme, et al. — no, you missed the actual reason for the title of the original story.
In the *original* story, the dr. came to realise that, in fact, HE was THEIR bogeyman. To him, they were the monsters who came in the night. To them…he was the monster who came when they slept. He was the one to threaten their children with. He controlled areas they couldn’t penetrate, and used these as a base to set traps for them. He was the monster who destroyed them while they were helpless. This was what came with his realisation that they weren’t just animals, that they had retained AN intelligence, if not their original personalities, and had rebuilt a culture.
Even though this ending isn’t perfect, it is one heck of a lot more true to the original.
March 6th, 2008 at 11:23 am
DVD update:
There are apparently two DVD’s, I have put both on NetFlix (release date: March 18th). The Bonus disc has ‘an alternate theatrical cut of the film’ (the alternate ending, most likely)
J/P=?
March 6th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
This ending was a big improvement in my opinion. The two things that really bugged me in the theater version of the movie was the ending, and also how did Will Smith get running water in his bathtub to give his dog a bath?
One thing corrected (sort of), now all I want is an explanation for the water…
March 6th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
If I hadn’t been so busy trying to work out the performance issues with our BD presses, I could have watched the heck out of the disc for y’all two weeks ago. All I know for sure is that the BD has a boatload of extras, AND it looks gorgeous.
Any standard DVDs you get that are absolutely perfect and pristine…well, odds are they came off my press, back when I was running a DVD press in January before I became a floating Data Analyst.
So…be kind, don’t pirate. Pay retail for these things and keep DVD and BD manufacturing jobs in America!
March 6th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Luna-the-Cat: That’s what I meant to say. Sorry, but English isn’t my first language. I also wanted to stress the moral part, that while “normal” humans, the infected/vampires were monsters(bogeymen), and now that the majority of/only humans were vampires, the last few “normals” that killed them became the new monsters and the new society’s legends.
March 6th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
I meant to say “while “normal” humans were a majority”… (this site needs a “Preview” button)
March 6th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I just went to get the link to the clip to send to someone who saw the movie last night in the dollar theater. The videos gone!!!
March 6th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Well, neither ending was as good as the book’s but this one is definitely better. It seems strange to have Neville surviving, but maybe they can build a new society not burdened with the dead flesh of religion.
It looks like the gametrailer link is gone, but I just watched it here:
http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/03/05/must-watch-i-am-legends-original-ending-this-is-amazing/
March 6th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Meant to add — if you have any interest at all in science fiction, fantasy, horror, or the macabre and outre in general, and you haven’t read Matheson’s novel, your education is incomplete and you owe it to yourself to pick up one of the nice new paperback copies issued when the movie came out. Written half a century ago; still very affecting; and the wellspring for a host of images and themes that have been used heavily in novels and movies ever since.
March 6th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
[...] sent this awesome link my way today. Apparently they did film an alternate ending to the movie. And, while I still [...]
March 7th, 2008 at 1:58 am
Ribozyme — I apologise too, I can see that is what you actually meant. I should know better than to read & type when I’m tired and cranky. :-/ But yeah.
March 17th, 2008 at 12:09 am
I don’t understand why everyone is complaining about how it deviates from the book. When you went to the theater you knew you were not going to read text on a screen, you were going to see a theatrical interpretation of the written word. When you go see a live play is it always EXACTLY like the original work? No. If you read a book and ten other people read a book do all of them agree on the same interpretation? No, that’s why there are book groups who discuss different points of view.
Now I think the movie was fantastic, except for the original ending, because it showed just how fragile Robert’s mind was during this time. The only thing keeping him sane was his “work”, companion, and routine When he lost his companion you can see that he lost his sanity, which I felt was portrayed very well.
You also see how he strives to hold onto the normality of life before the event when he constantly visits the video store and makes “friends” with the mannequins.
However, I thought the original ending of the movie was complete crap and the writers simply needed to end the movie. What better way to simply end a movie than by killing all the main characters? (Robert and the alpha-male).
This ending shows how Robert’s perception of the infected changed, as though he finally saw the light. He finally understood that HE was the villain and that the zombies were simply trying to live their lives. It was him that was invading their space, and not them invading his space. The alternate ending to this movie shows a much better view of how Robert’s attempts at a cure were to him an attempt to save humanity while in the infected’s point of view they were attempts at murder and destruction of their society.
March 19th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
I think that the original ending was very depressing and that the alternate was much better. But, i understand why he would want to commit suicide in the original. His wife, daughter, and even his dog died. So, he was probably very depressed and i wouldve done the same thing. But, i dont understand, in the alternate version why did Robert apologize to the zombie/vampire? Robert tried to help the woman.
March 19th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
I hated the film’s original ending because of a careless error. The grenade explosion, and the resulting inferno, would have sucked all of the oxygen from the coal chute. Anna would have suffocated in her hiding place.
Human beings can’t survive without oxygen. Science fiction loses its appeal with it disregards something so, well, scientific.
March 19th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I hated the film’s original ending because of a careless error. The grenade explosion, and the resulting inferno, would have sucked all of the oxygen from the coal chute. Anna would have suffocated in her hiding place.
Human beings can’t survive without oxygen. Science fiction loses its appeal when it disregards something so, well, scientific.
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Just go to youtube and search for I am legend ending, it is still there.
March 25th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
This is undoubtedly the proper ending. I like the way Neville becomes the pseudo antagonist at the end and that the infected were only trying to get back their friend (and they didn’t even kill him or at least beat him up for killing their other members).
March 26th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Does anyone else think the infected zombie woman could have been the wife? The scene where Neville, his wife and the daughter were driving in the car, the kid wouldn’t stop talking about butterflies. Not enough time would’ve passed for it to have been her, but it could’ve been the wife. That could be why Neville was hesitant to let her go. He knew he could’ve saved her.
March 29th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
I thought the alternate ending was awful. As a playwright and an actor, I did not see the ending fit with the themes in the rest of the film. The ending certainly fit better with the theme of the book, but here’s a secret, the movie wasn’t a book…
That being said I do have to agree that overall the script was not a great adaptation of the book because it did not follow the theme, mood, and message of the novel, but you can’t change that in the last five minutes. The alternate ending took every theme that had been building up the entire film and said, “No, we were wrong.” It wasn’t just the character realizing he was wrong, but it was the film makers announcing that they weren’t on the right path.
I can see how someone would like the alternate ending better, I personally prefer the original ending as a spiritual person. Isolated, the alternate is fine, but included with the rest of the theme packed film it doesn’t fit at all.
I think a huge part of that is because it seems like Will Smith was acting toward the theatrical ending and not the alternate. Robert Neville in the book became a cold man who hunted down vampires just because they were evil. Though we are rooting for him the whole time, we realize in the end that he was blind and callus. In the film however, Nevile was a man who wanted nothing more to save the world from the pain and torment he and his family had to feel. Ending the book with Neville becoming the Legendary monster fit perfectly with the book, but a more fitting ending for the film was Neville becoming a Legendary hero.
April 28th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
A lot of you are saying that the alternate ending was more satisfying because it showed who the “real” bad guy was, Neville. I agree only to a point – it shows that the situation was more complex then Human-good guy Vampires-bad guys. It showed Neville as not the singular bad guy, so much as a good man who made a big mistake, overlooked something huge, and regrets his course in life because of it. This is a complex and satisfying point of growth for the character, one I think people identifying with (maybe without even knowing). I love a movie that can present a complex problem and show two sides – this is the kind of ending that has you thinking about it for days and weeks afterwords.
Also, as others have said, the movie does lead you to this ending – it is foreshadowed by Neville sparing the Lioness’s kill (something he wanted, some fresh steak, giving way to another creatures needs). Now recall that all throughout the movie he is talking about his “need” to “Make this right”….”I can fix this”. It always rang as sort of self-serving, despite the fact that you sympathize with his agonizing plight. His personal need to fix the problem blinded him to even the possibility that the vampires could feel love, loss, or mourning. The shot of Neville looking over at his wall of photos, after the Alpha male / female depart the lab, is the “Money shot” of the whole picture. In the end he “gave way to another creature’s need”, and it seems, gave up the quest to save mankind (which was already saved via the Compound he learns about, and which he resists, again to protect his selfish “need” to fix everything).
I know this is a long rehash, but I think the alternative ending ties everything together better then most people are even saying.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:37 am
the whole movie sucked it was really boring.
even this ending couldn’t have made it better.