Secret Sci-Fi Endings You Never Knew About

All movies need a solid, satisfying ending, but in science fiction it's doubly important. Whether it's due to a shocking twist, a stunning reveal or reversal, or just a clever and intriguing idea that ties up the mind-bending story or outer-space adventure, the ending can often make or break the movie.

For that reason, many makers of sci-fi classics have spent more time on making sure they stick the landing. As a result, they often write, storyboard, or even film alternate endings that never make it to the screen. Sometimes it's because the studio wants something different — often pushing back against a director's vision of a grim, depressing ending — and other times it's the filmmakers just testing out other ideas. Maybe they just aren't sure if they should kill off an important character or let them live to see a sequel. At any rate, these cut conclusions have given us plenty to chew on, so let's dive in for a rundown of secret sci-fi endings you never knew about.

"I Am Legend" is based on a story from Richard Matheson that tells the tale of Robert Neville, the last man on Earth, as he runs from a race of bloodthirsty monsters. The movie takes many liberties with the source material, turning the novel's vampires into zombies called Darkseekers. But when the film came to home video in 2008, it revealed an alternate ending that completely changed the final act, but followed the book more faithfully.

In the original ending, Neville's experiments in curing the zombie plague lead to an anti-serum that can save humanity, and he sacrifices himself in a struggle with a Darkseeker to ensure its survival. The alternate ending, however, is wildly different, revealing that the attacking Darkseeker only wanted to save his mate from Neville's experiments. Upon realizing that the Darkseekers aren't quite the villains he thought they were, Neville releases his test subject and abandons his search for a cure. Eventually, he leaves to start a new life with a new perspective and sense of hope.

More recently, news that Will Smith and Michael B. Jordan would team up for a sequel to "I Am Legend" has brought renewed attention to this alternate ending (per Deadline). Considering Neville's death in the theatrical cut of the original film, some have speculated that the sequel could make the deleted version the official conclusion, allowing Neville to return.

Before Will Smith was battling monsters in "I Am Legend" he was fighting monsters from outer space in "Independence Day." Smith stars as a gung-ho fighter pilot who becomes a key part of a plan to stop the tentacled invaders from obliterating mankind and claiming Earth as their own. But the multi-pronged assault also involves a kooky farmer named Russell (Randy Quaid) who is enlisted to pilot a fighter jet in the film's finale. Russell sacrifices his own life to get revenge on the aliens who he believes had once abducted him, destroying their attacking ship in the process and saving countless lives.

But that wasn't quite how it actually went down in the film's original, alternate ending. As first shot, Russell volunteers to join the group of pilots, but is denied when a military commander deems him unfit. Later however, when the initial attack fails, Russell saves the day out of the blue, showing up in the thick of the fight in his crop-dusting biplane with a missile strapped to its side. 

Though both versions are played for laughs, the producers of the film may have felt the sight of the biplane was a bit too over-the-top in terms of goofiness. As a result, in the finished cut Russell is allowed to fly alongside the military pilots, and new scenes were shot with him inside an F-18 fighter jet instead. 

Stanley Kubrick had already directed "Paths of Glory," "Spartacus," and the controversial classic "Lolita" when he cast comedian Peter Sellers to star in a Cold War sci-fi parable "Dr. Strangelove." A black comedy about the ludicrousness of military and politics, it culminates in all-out nuclear war that destroys the Earth. But Kubrick originally had another ending planned.

Over the years, stories have circulated about a lost ending that capped off the grim final act in which the world is destroyed in an atomic horror that drives home the futility of war. This alternate ending was said to close out the film on something far less serious. In this version, the final scene takes the film's comedy to its furthest extreme, with the surviving military and political leaders getting into an all-out pie fight in the War Room at the Pentagon.

Some may think this is just some wild rumor, an old wives' tale about a lost ending they wish they could have seen, but there is proof of its existence. Images of this lost ending have surfaced over the years, thanks to the work of Arthur Fellig, a press photographer who was hired by Kubrick to chronicle the making of the film. Not only did he capture incredible images of Kubrick in action, he also snapped what would be the only available evidence of the deleted ending. The footage does exist, reportedly sealed up in the studio vaults somewhere (via Slate).

In 2002, "Trainspotting" director Danny Boyle revived the zombie genre, which had been thought long dead by many, at least in the mainstream. He did it by flipping the idea on its head and mixing it with post-apocalyptic sci-fi, kicking off the zombie craze in movies and TV that continues today. The story centers on Jim, a bicycle courier who awakens from a coma to find Britain engulfed in a deadly plague that has turned unwitting victims into mindless flesh-eaters. 

The theatrical ending sees Jim escape the clutches of a group of power-hungry survivors, and the zombies dying of apparent starvation. It's implied that he will be rescued, closing out the story on a hopeful note. But when the movie came to DVD, it revealed multiple additional endings. In the first, which was fully filmed, Jim succumbs to a gunshot wound and dies at the close of the story. In an audio commentary for the sequence, writer Alex Garland described this ending as thematic closure, saying, "He ends up back in the hospital where it started ... it goes full circle. It ends as it begins." 

In second secret ending, which was only storyboarded, Jim sacrifices himself to save Frank, who has become infected with the virus. But another, more radical conclusion described in a report by Newsweek makes the shocking reveal that the entire movie was a dream.

Directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Edward Furlong, "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" is a sci-fi action masterpiece. At its heart is a powerful and timeless story of a mother looking to ensure a better future for her son, with the explosive action driven by Sarah Connor's fear of the coming Armageddon. In one critical scene, Connor (Hamilton) has a horrific nightmare in which she watches as a family on a playground is obliterated by an atomic blast. And in a deleted ending, we get a reprise of this moment from an entirely new perspective — and it's no dream. 

Set decades later, this alternate coda finds Connor (Hamilton in old age makeup) in the same park with her son John (now played by Michael Edwards), who is playing with his own child. In a voiceover, Sarah tells the audience that doomsday never came, and the future is bright with her son now a United States Senator. The scene is surprisingly optimistic and upbeat for such a grim story, far from the hopeful but appropriately ambiguous ending we actually got.

According to a report in Yahoo, this ending (included as an extra on some home releases of the film) was removed after a test screening. While many studio executives prefer more upbeat conclusions, producer Mario Kassar wasn't happy with the fact that it effectively ended the franchise, and was able to convince Cameron to leave it on the cutting room floor.

If you thought "The Thing" ended on a down note, it doesn't hold a candle to the final act of "The Mist" from director Frank Darabont ("The Walking Dead"). At the climax of the film, with the monster-filled mist engulfing them and death seemingly assured, David (Thomas Jane) gives up all hope and decides to use his last four bullets to kill the remaining survivors — including his own son Billy — to spare them a more horrific fate. But just after he does, the mist clears, and the military arrives to save him, leaving him with the heartbreaking realization that he's killed his son for nothing. 

Believe it or not, though, there was almost an even more gut-wrenching ending. In another version of the final scene, things play out mostly the same way, but are told from a different point of view that somehow cuts even deeper. "There was one [version of the ending] that I swear to God was even worse," producer Denise Huth told /Film in 2022. "It was, you ended on Billy waking up and saying 'Daddy?' and then it cuts to black and you hear a gunshot. And it was so awful. It was just so much worse."

Whether it was because the scene was more emotionally affecting than they wanted or because someone simply felt it played better from David's viewpoint, the scene as told from Billy's perspective was dropped.