Movies Ruined Because Of Test Audiences

"Fatal Attraction" is a classic example of an alternate movie ending much better than the theatrical ending. In the film's climax, Alex (Glenn Close) was originally meant to kill herself and frame her lover Dan (Michael Douglas) for her murder. Instead, the theatrical version had Alex become totally unhinged and attack Dan with a knife. You have test audiences to thank for that. Michael Douglas told The New York Times, "The audience viscerally wanted to kill Alex, not allow her to kill herself."

Glenn Close shared that she was outraged when she learned the filmmakers wanted to change the ending. She told The New York Times, "It was going to make a character I loved into a murdering psychopath," adding, "I loved the original ending. I always felt Alex was more suicidal than psychotic." 

This is certainly more in line with how Alex acts in the rest of the movie. Although she does pour acid on Dan's car and boil a rabbit alive, all of these actions come from a desperate need to be loved, and this shows in Close's performance. Yet when Alex picks up the knife and starts slashing, she becomes a monster instead of a character. Many would argue that portraying Alex as a hysterical killer in this ending only reinforces stereotypes about women and mental illness. Plus, it conveniently sidesteps Dan's partial culpability in the affair. The original version would have ended the movie on a more bittersweet and realistic note.

According to David Ayer, the director of 2016's "Suicide Squad," Warner Bros. was wary of doing a dark and edgy movie after "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" disappointed fans, especially since they saw the more lighthearted "Deadpool" performing extremely well. Ayer told the "Real Ones" podcast that the studio decided, "Okay, we're going to turn David Ayer's dark, soulful movie into a f***ing comedy now." So Warner Bros. held screenings for two versions: the Ayer cut and the studio's safer version. As producer Charles Roven explained to The Hollywood Reporter, "We tested both versions. They tested exactly the same ... [so] we all sat in a room and tried to come up with what would be the best of both versions." By trying to please everybody, however, the studio ended up pleasing no one.

It seems like the best parts of the movie got lost along the way. In Ayer's original plans, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) wouldn't have joined the Joker (Jared Leto) on his plane, still head-over-heels for him. Instead, "Harley stood up to him and refused to betray her new friends," Ayer wrote on X (formerly called Twitter). This would have been a welcome turn, giving the highly underutilized Harley much more agency. What's more, remarks from Ayer suggest she would have escaped her abusive relationship with the Joker by the end. This is a far cry from the final film, where Harley comes running back to him in the final scene.

Focus groups weren't happy with the original climax of "A Perfect Murder," resulting in a new ending for the final film. In both versions, Emily (Gwyneth Paltrow) reveals to her husband Steven (Michael Douglas) that she has evidence proving that he hired a man to kill her. In the theatrical version, Steven physically attacks Emily to make sure his secret doesn't get out, and she shoots him in self-defense. In the alternate ending, Steven only verbally threatens Emily before she shoots him, yet afterward she tells the police she shot him because he was attacking her. Detective Karaman (David Suchet) seems to suspect that Emily isn't telling the whole story, but he simply assures her, "What else could you do?"

In other words, Emily killing Steven is a bit more premeditated, so there is some moral ambiguity surrounding her character. "I liked that ending," director Andrew Davis told Yahoo! "But test audiences felt she was more empathetic if she killed her husband [in self-defense]."

It's only a slight change, but it makes a world of difference. The theatrical ending, with its shouting match between Steven and Emily and cliché ankle-drag shot, is anything but subtle. In contrast, the director's preferred ending would have given the heroine more shades of complexity. In the safer ending, Emily is just a victim. In the alternate ending, she's a victim who is willing to do anything to escape her abusive husband.

Brian de Palma's thriller "Snake Eyes" originally ended with a giant tidal wave wiping out the bad guy (Gary Sinise). However, thanks to a test screening, de Palma had to come up with a rather underwhelming alternate ending. Instead of narrowly escaping a wave of Biblical proportions, protagonist Rick (Nicolas Cage) ducks almost comically to the ground to pass underneath a speeding vehicle, after which Sinise's character shoots himself.

Describing his original vision for the ending to Indiewire, Brian de Palma explained, "We were dealing with such a corrupt world that the only way to solve the problem is to have a hurricane come through and wipe it all away ... But it didn't work in the previews so we did this other ending which I don't think is as effective."

The theatrical cut is still fun, but not nearly as subversive. The religious imagery of Hurricane Jezebel would have added a whole new layer of meaning. The ending is anticlimactic, not least because there's plenty of foreshadowing for the hurricane in the film that never amounts to anything. In fact, the filmmakers didn't quite remove all references to the old version before releasing it in theaters. In the final scene, Rick says, "I keep dreaming I'm back in that tunnel, underwater. Only in my dream, I drowned" — no matter that he was never underwater. De Palma told Indiewire that if he was ever invited to do a director's cut of "Snake Eyes," he'd want to put that scene back in.

Focus groups aren't solely to blame for the mess that is "Last Action Hero." The problems with this movie began as early as pre-production, but test audiences were the final nails in the coffin, since their feedback (and the subsequent changes to the movie) exemplifies everything that went wrong with this film. Producer and star Arnold Schwarzenegger explained to Roger Ebert, "Our movie was a big hit with the test screenings, but there was one thing that was very clear: The audience did not like to see my vulnerability ... They wanted me to kick in gear and get the action going."

Yet by giving audiences what they wanted (more action), the filmmakers may have undermined the whole point of the movie. "Last Action Hero" was originally meant to be a satire of action movies. The original version would have put more emphasis on how young Danny Madigan (Austin O'Brien) loses himself in action movies with lots of gratuitous violence to avoid dealing with the grief of losing his father. However, between the page and the screen, that concept played an increasingly smaller role in the movie.

In fact, test audiences may have impacted the poor box office of "Last Action Hero." The movie's reputation preceded it, sinking it before it could even launch. "You can't have people just like your movie, you need them to be passionate," Schwarzenegger told We Minored in Film. "Word of mouth is what makes movies big."

The original ending of "Little Shop of Horrors' is tragic and absolutely bonkers. The hero Seymour (Rick Moranis) gets swallowed by a man-eating plant, which then proceeds to germinate until the entire world is consumed by carnivorous plants. But focus groups didn't take kindly to that ending. Director Frank Oz told Entertainment Weekly, "For every musical number there was applause, they loved it, it was just fantastic ... until we killed our two leads. And then the theater became a refrigerator, an ice box." Reluctantly, Oz agreed to shoot a happy ending, even though it meant discarding a sequence that had cost nearly 20 percent of the movie's budget.

This last-minute change arguably ruined the movie. After all, the original stage musical killed off the hero, and really it's hard to imagine the story ending any other way. "Little Shop of Horrors" is meant to be a cautionary tale, complete with an ending song that warns audiences, "Don't feed the plants!" Seymour keeps feeding the plant human flesh, and along the way Seymour feeds his own ego, so it's a fitting end for Seymour to be eaten himself. What else would you expect from a movie where one character is trapped in a toxic relationship and another feeds his boss to a man-eating plant?

Thankfully for fans, test audiences didn't completely ruin "Little Shop of Horrors." The long-lost original ending was later restored and shown in theaters.

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• Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org
• Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
• Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.