Comments on: I Am Legend: Alternate Ending

by: Terminally Incoherent » Blog Archive » Potentially Awesome Movies Ruined Half Way Through

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:19:34 +0000

[…] Not to mention that this un-twisting of the ending seemed to be a last minute change. One likely done to dumb down the movie. An alternate ending that leaked out on the internet revealed that the movie was initially supposed to end on a similar note as the book - with Neville being the monster. […]

by: Garrick Anson

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:44:38 +0000

@ Luke - I know they showed the shorts on television (I think I saw one at a bar, since I don’t get cable, and don’t generally watch TV).
They had also had the shorts on the Apple Quicktime trailers site.
I found the pages, but it looks like the movies have been removed since then (try http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/iamlegendisolation/)

Do a search for “I am Legend: Awakening” and “I am Legend: Isolation”.
They were all animated by DC comics Vertigo.

by: Luke Maciak

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 04:21:06 +0000

@Garrick - forgot to comment on this earlier - have you seen these shorts on youtubes anywhere? I’d love to see them, but I don’t feel like buying (or even renting) the DVD for just that reason.

I wonder why they didn’t put this stuff in the actual movie. Do they really think so lowly about their target audience that they stripped it down out of anything that could be even remotely confusing?

@jambarama - Actually, I believe the original Neville was not a scientist. I think he worked in some factory - I vaguely remember parts of the book mentioning him carpooling with his neighbor or something.

This sort of made him more human. He did try to figure out what was causing the disease but he was struggling when reading the biology books he got from the library. I remember being frustrated with the character at that point. I was like “DUDE! It is not that hard!”

But you’re right. It would make for a much better movie. This ending by no means redeems the movie. It is still very flawed and has very little in common with the novel.

by: jambarama

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:50:57 +0000

This ending made the movie make much more sense. And it is also *closer* to the book I suppose. So I liked it better than the theatrical ending. However, had this been the ending in the theater, I’d have still been disappointed.

__SPOILER ALERT__

I loved the way Neville was in the book - a tanned blond bearded thor-god. Huge, muscular, and merciless in wiping out the vampires by day. Neville of this story was a scientist, like in the book (although probably of overblown importance in the movie) - but the vampires were much more fierce, and dangerous. This forced Neville to be a scaredy-pants who wet himself anytime the vampires were around. Rightfully so too. Book Neville was cautious, he knew they could kill him, but he was far more potent an opponent - which is why the twist was so much better. Book Neville was the “bad guy” coming in the day to murder loved ones, the way vampires are traditionally seen as the “bad guy” coming in the night to murder loved ones. There could be no such twist with movie Neville, who couldn’t have been all that scary to these uber-men.

I also missed the real human element in Neville some. Smith was very good, but I wanted him to have a vampire he knows, but doesn’t want to kill, like in the book. I wanted him to beg for the dog to come in to his garage, and be heart broken when the vampires get it & turn it. I wanted him to experiment with the vampires more than the disease. I wanted him to wilfully deceive himself when he meets another person, just to have some company. This wasn’t possible in the movie because the way they created the vampires.

Ah well, maybe in 30 years they’ll do a third remake.

by: Luke Maciak

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:13:46 +0000

Yup, and I was wrong. It’s all because of the silly theatrical ending.

by: Mack

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:56:56 +0000

THEY MOVED FRED

I was right dammnit

by: Matt`

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:46:37 +0000

Never read the original story, but I thought the alternate ending was better.

by: Erick

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:30:57 +0000

I haven’t read the book, but the alternate ending was way better than schmaltzy hollywood ending I sat through at the theatre.

by: Garrick Anson

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:48:55 +0000

Another note (since i am a fan of the original story, and the Vincent Price adaptation) was if you watched some of the animated shorts that came out before the movie was released (and are included in the DVD special features) you learn that the infected are still somewhat intelligent, but see their surroundings differently.
In the shorts, they view the immune and non-infected humans as being the monsters, and attack them to”protect” themselves.
They definitely butchered the theater version, but the alternate ending made watching it much more worthwhile IMO.