A final roll of the dice: 10 movies saved by last-minute decisions
Because movies require a cast and crew that numbers into the dozens, if not hundreds, and often take years from the conception of the idea to debuting on the screen, it stands to reason that the best way to run production as smoothly as possible is to ensure everything is meticulously planned out in advance.
Different people work in different ways, though, and directors aren’t above making hasty last-minute changes if they discover something isn’t working to their satisfaction. The same can be said of studios, too, but it doesn’t always mean a film is in trouble.
In fact, in many cases, it’s been much more beneficial to remedy a mistake at a late stage than gloss over it and hope for the best, with certain examples significantly improving the quality of the finished feature as a result.
It’s a method that doesn’t come recommended when there are definitely risks to go along with the potential reward, but the following ten movies all thrived by gambling on a roll of the dice that needed to be made.
10 movies saved by last-minute decisions:
10. Shrek (Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, 2001)
The inadvertent domino effect that ended up defining Shrek was tinged with both tragedy and triumph, with Mike Myers the catalyst behind a hasty last-minute call that worked out incredibly well for all parties.
Chris Farley was famously cast as the titular ogre but died before he could complete his dialogue recordings, with Myers drafted in to replace him. The comedian kept his natural Canadian brogue but decided after he’d finished his dialogue that it wasn’t working.
At the cost of millions of dollars less than a year before the movie was due to premiere and at the cost of even more work for the animators, Myers re-recorded his entire part, gave rise to a 21st-century pop culture favourite, and defined a $4 billion franchise with a Scottish lilt he hadn’t initially planned on using.
9. Scream 2 (Wes Craven, 1997)
There was already plenty of pressure on Wes Craven to follow up his influential original, but thanks to some subterfuge, he was able to refit the finale of Scream 2 and deliver a sequel that many will defend to the death as being superior to the original.
Principal photography had almost come to an end when the entire script for the metafictional slasher leaked online in its entirety, and because Craven knew there was no point forging ahead with a conclusion everybody would already know on opening night, he rewrote it and shot a new one instead.
The original ending would have seen Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott and Courteney Cox’s Gale Weathers killed off, too, so if it wasn’t for the leak, the franchise might have ended altogether at the second time of asking.
8. Clerks (Kevin Smith, 1994)
The success of Clerks served as the launchpad for not only the career of Kevin Smith but also a number of independent filmmakers who saw how the first-time filmmaker had put everything on the line to fund his debut and felt inspired to do much the same.
It also gave the writer and director the entry point to his signature View Askewniverse, which couldn’t have come to pass were he to forge ahead with having Brian O’Halloran’s Dante Hicks shot and killed by a robber.
Following a dismal response to the climactic scene at an early test screening, Smith was convinced that Clerks didn’t need to end on such a downbeat note, and he’s been dining out on it ever since.
7. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson, 2001)
Peter Jackson was already nearly a month into shooting The Lord of the Rings when he realised he’d made a horrible mistake, with Stuart Townsend proving woefully ill-suited to the role of Aragorn.
The director discovered to his detriment that the character should be someone older, more grizzled, and convincing as a sword-wielding hero with a prophetic destiny, which saw Townsend booted out and the part immediately offered to Daniel Day-Lewis for a second time.
He said no, Jackson panicked, Viggo Mortensen said yes at the urging of his son, and 72 hours after Townsend was handed his walking papers, there was a brand new Aragorn on set and a fantasy favourite in the making.
6. American History X (Tony Kaye, 1998)
The powerful drama was the subject of a bitter battle between director Tony Kaye, studio New Line Cinema, and star Edward Norton, with the latter two parties winning out over the former.
Kaye’s cut of American History X culminated in Edward Furlong’s Danny Vinyard being gunned down by a student whose brother had been killed by Norton’s Derek, as in the final version. However, the story was set to close on the reformed racist thug shaving his head and returning to his previous ways.
Bleak to the point of being nihilistic, it rendered everything that happened narratively obsolete when Derek ended up right back where he started in the first scene. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed very late in the day, with the Norton-endorsed cut closing on the haunting realisation that the people Derek loves are forced to pay for the sins of his past.
5. First Blood (Ted Kotcheff, 1982)
Sylvester Stallone spent four decades playing John Rambo, but he was far from the only one to benefit from the original ending of First Blood being changed in the face of studio pushback and disgruntled test audiences.
After his emotional monologue, the stoic protagonist was quite literally going to be put out of his misery and killed, which was a serious downer, to put it lightly. The studio had one eye on potential sequels, and Stallone hated the way First Blood ended anyway, so after much deliberation, it was decided he’d survive.
That process was no doubt expedited by the test crowds who abhorred Rambo going out of his way to survive the story just to have his request to be killed accepted, and it makes for a signficiantly more fitting redemption arc to have him make it to the credits in one piece.
4. Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977)
The final assault on the Death Star is a showstopping set piece on which to end the first entry in the Star Wars franchise, which was a result of George Lucas’ production and editing team politely letting him know his original vision wasn’t the best way to cut it together.
The trench run sequence was almost completely rebuilt from scratch by the film’s trio of editors, who trimmed the fat to inject it with a much-needed sense of urgency that had been sorely lacking when Lucas was the one calling the shots on how it unfolded.
It wasn’t until long after production wrapped and very shortly before Star Wars premiered that the Death Star even became an active participant in the third act climax. Initially, it just hovered around in space doing nothing while being attacked, with any sense of excitement or narrative propulsion apparently escaping Lucas’ mind entirely.
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981)
If there’s one scene that sums up the character of Indiana Jones in every way, shape, and form, then it’s when the knackered adventurer decides he doesn’t want to get into a swordfight.
Harrison Ford’s expressions and body language, coupled with Indy’s status as a relatable everyman who’d rather not spend too much time running for his life, was perfectly encapsulated by a single gunshot, which only came to pass because everybody had gotten the shits.
What was supposed to be an elaborately choreographed fight instead became not only a sight gag and a distillation of an iconic protagonist but one of the most iconic scenes in the history of blockbuster cinema.
2. Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985)
Good things come to those who wait, except when that person is Eric Stoltz and the person Robert Zemeckis wanted from the beginning suddenly became available.
It’s one of the most famous what-ifs in Hollywood history, with Stoltz having spent weeks shooting Back to the Future as Marty McFly and bizarrely deciding that adopting a method approach to the character was the obvious way to go about crafting his performance.
Five days after his self-serious and solemn Marty was declared persona non grata, Michael J Fox was on set, bringing to life the wide-eyed and enthusiastically endearing protagonist of a timeless time-travelling classic.
1. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
As one of the greatest directors to ever pick up the megaphone, Stanley Kubrick didn’t make a whole lot of mistakes. When he did he at least went out of his way to rectify them, which mercifully spared The Shining its nonsensical hospital-set epilogue.
The ending as it stands is one of great mystery that’s continued stirring debate and discussion for decades, and those conversations wouldn’t have happened if Kubrick stuck to his guns and kept in the final scene of Wendy Torrance recovering in a hospital bed.
Barry Nelson’s Mr Ullman shows up, informs her that Jack’s body was never found, and then hands young Danny a tennis ball in a surprisingly literal and happy ending. The Shining had already premiered and was a week into its theatrical run by the time Kubrick made the change, with projectionists having to send their prints back to Warner Bros so it could be forcibly removed.
