I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (Full Version)

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ManimalX -> I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (3/21/2008 7:24:51 PM)

I was just wondering if anyone has purchased the double-disc special edition of I Am Legend with the alternate scenes yet. Is the only difference the ending, or is there other new stuff throughout the rest of the movie?

I watched the alternate ending on a movie-review site, and I have to say I am really glad it wasn't used. Basically, instead of Neville sacrificing himself to save Anna and Ethan and the anti-virus, the lead zompire stops attacking the plexi-glass and instead makes the symbol of a butterfly on the glass, indicating a butterfly tattoo on the girl Neville is curing. Neville puts down his gun, unhooks the girl from the anti-viral IVs, opens the door and pushes the gurney and the girl out to the zompires. The others want to kill Neville, but the leader howls at them and they stop. The girl wakes up and she and the leader exchange a weird zompire embrace/kiss and then they all leave. The next scene is Robert, Anna, and Ethan driving down the highway smiling at each other with a voice over by Anna that says (paraphrased), "You are not alone. We are going to such-and-such a place where there are survivors. Keep your radio on. You are not alone. You are not alone."

As you can see, this ending is horrible. It just feels very awkward and clunky, and seems to severely jar what had been to that point a very smooth storyline. It completely take a 180 regarding the character development of Neville and the zompire leader. Neville has been working singularly for years on the cure he just accomplished. Plus, he is a trained, lifelong soldier. No way would he surrender so easily. The alt ending also completely destroys the very well done "He gave his life so that his blood could give others life" undertone.

Any thoughts?



Cinexcellence -> RE: I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (3/22/2008 2:50:53 PM)

I prefer the alternate ending to the theatrical ending myself. From what I've heard it fits more with that the book is about (Don't want to spoil anything).



gracescartwright -> RE: I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (3/22/2008 5:14:31 PM)

i am so glad they didn't use that, that would have been a very weird and depressing ending, rather than the redemptive one they used



Cinexcellence -> RE: I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (3/22/2008 6:41:12 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: gracescartwright

i am so glad they didn't use that, that would have been a very weird and depressing ending, rather than the redemptive one they used


How is it 'weird and depressing'?

If anyone hasn't seen the alternate ending yet, you can watch it here.



ManimalX -> RE: I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (3/23/2008 12:24:37 AM)

Because rather than a cure for the virus being delivered to the remnant of humanity via a spectacular example of self-sacrifice, humanity slinks off into the sunset with little hope of its continued existence while the zompires get the run of the planet.

As mentioned, more in line with the original book, but not in line with the entire movie up until the point of the alternate ending.



bryan24 -> RE: I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (3/23/2008 2:03:22 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: ManimalX

Because rather than a cure for the virus being delivered to the remnant of humanity via a spectacular example of self-sacrifice, humanity slinks off into the sunset with little hope of its continued existence while the zompires get the run of the planet.

As mentioned, more in line with the original book, but not in line with the entire movie up until the point of the alternate ending.


I felt like both endings were actually pretty good. The alternate ending was good because it showed that they werent actually brain dead and primative. Earlier in the movie it showed that they actually had the ability to think (the trap with the dummy), and in the ending it showed that those 2 actually had the ability to care for one-another. But I do agree with you that the first ending was good for his self-sacrifice to save humanity.

P.S. Thanks for use of the word zompires since they're sort of a mixture



danas_mom -> RE: I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (3/23/2008 5:43:25 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: ManimalX

As mentioned, more in line with the original book, but not in line with the entire movie up until the point of the alternate ending.


ITA. Hubby and I just saw this movie for the first time in a dollar theater the other day and reading over the alternate ending, that was my first thought as well. They made a point in the movie to show that the zompires (love the name!) had regressed emotionally and morally to the point of animals acting on nothing but the instinct to survive. To have them suddenly be capable of higher actions would have gone against the intent of the rest of the movie. They may have retained some of their reasoning and intelligence, but that's not enough to make them still human, even in part.

It also would have made Neville more of a bad guy by having been using the captured zompires in medical experiments. I don't remember how many pictures he had up of ones he had tested the different vaccines on, but it was quite a few.

This doesn't pertain to the alternate ending, but can anyone clarify if Neville had been part of the team that was originally using the altered virus, or if he was just part of the team that was trying to find a cure after it had mutated? Hubby and I are having a bit of a disagreement on this point and I'm not sure if it was clear in the movie and we just missed it, or what.



ManimalX -> RE: I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (3/24/2008 7:09:00 PM)

From various flashes of magazine covers and Neville's recorded news broadcasts, I was under the impression that Col. Neville was brought in to clean up the mess that had been created (He is labeled "Savior" and other titles if I remember correctly). We just bought the DVD and when I watch it again I will let you know!



1love1God1way -> RE: I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (3/24/2008 7:28:19 PM)

I thought the original ending was just so horrible, any change could help.



figmentPez -> RE: I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (3/25/2008 12:38:10 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: danas_mom

It also would have made Neville more of a bad guy by having been using the captured zompires in medical experiments. I don't remember how many pictures he had up of ones he had tested the different vaccines on, but it was quite a few.


I haven't read the book, but from what I've been told:

*SPOILERS* highlight to read

I've been told that in the book, the main character hunts these creatures by day, going into their dens and killing them. I don't think he's working on a cure. However, the twist at the end, as I've been told, is that he discovers that not all the creatures as mindless beasts like he thought. Some retained their human minds, and he was a legend among them, the evil creature that would kill you while you slept. Thus, making Neville's actions turn out to be questionable would be more in line with the original story's twist.

*END SPOILERS*



danas_mom -> RE: I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (3/25/2008 1:54:59 PM)

Figment, I haven't read the book either but have read things from other people that alluded to the same thing you said.

Further conversation in highlight:

In that instance, then the alternate ending would fit and make sense. But that's just not how they portrayed Neville (or the zompires, for that matter) in the movie. The sudden switch would have been too jarring IMO.

VERY interesting that in the book, Neville was an evil legend to the zompires, especially since I have read elsewhere that his wife was a zompire and she knew that he was still alive. Adds a whole different twist to things.



A_crucified_man -> RE: I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (3/25/2008 6:18:39 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: expandeduniverse

quote:

ORIGINAL: gracescartwright

i am so glad they didn't use that, that would have been a very weird and depressing ending, rather than the redemptive one they used


How is it 'weird and depressing'?

If anyone hasn't seen the alternate ending yet, you can watch it here.


I agree, it wasn't depressing in the least bit.



S00N3R_FR3AK -> RE: I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (3/25/2008 6:43:51 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: expandeduniverse

I prefer the alternate ending to the theatrical ending myself. From what I've heard it fits more with that the book is about (Don't want to spoil anything).


Neither endings come close to the book.

*BOOK SPOLIER*

In the book the vampires(nothing zombie about them in book) come up with a cure themselves that controls the vampire side of them. Neviele is killed becuase he is the different one, he is feared becuase for years he was killing the vampires. When they try to arrest him they have orders to take him un harmed but he doesnt believe they will be followed so he shoots back and takes a mortal wound and dies in the prison with some pills given to him by a vampire he befriened.



ManimalX -> RE: I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (3/26/2008 1:42:18 AM)

quote:

In the book the vampires(nothing zombie about them in book)


Excellent point. The novel creatures are definitely your recognizable vampires.

I don't remember Neville being mortally wounded. I thought he was captured and facing hanging or beheading when he popped the cyanide pills.



S00N3R_FR3AK -> RE: I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (3/26/2008 5:36:05 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: ManimalX

quote:

In the book the vampires(nothing zombie about them in book)


Excellent point. The novel creatures are definitely your recognizable vampires.

I don't remember Neville being mortally wounded. I thought he was captured and facing hanging or beheading when he popped the cyanide pills.


He took a shot to the chest.



EJA -> RE: I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (3/31/2008 11:49:59 AM)

I like the alt ending.

BIG QUESTION IS: How did Anna get on and off Manhattan island if the bridges were blown? And likewise, where are Anna and Neville going in the alt ending. They're smiling and happy, driving onto a bridge that was apparently BLOWN UP three years earlier.



reflexsoze -> RE: I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (4/4/2008 11:28:28 AM)

The alternate ending was better than the theatrical ending. As far as the alternate ending being closer to the book ending? No. Compared to the book, this movie was rubbish. An entertaining movie, but the movie should have been called, A Liberal portrayal of I Am Legend.



DaveW -> RE: I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (4/4/2008 12:38:43 PM)

Where did the term ZOMPIRE come from?

I assume it is some amalgam of Vampire and Zombie? The creatures in the movie were neither, as both vampires and zombies are "undead" creatures meaning that they have already died but the bodies are re-animated in some way.

Certainly there are some similarities like the avoidance of direct daylight and being canibalistic. But they are NOT undead which means they cannot be either.



ManimalX -> RE: I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (4/4/2008 8:01:34 PM)

As far as I know, I made the term up and it stuck. If anyone else wants to lay claim to it, feel free. I like it.

As far as your argument, dave, I really think you are picking invisible nits! The cool thing about the zombie and vampire mythos is that it is constantly being reinvented and tweaked. Your argument may have passed muster a few decades ago, but zombies and vampires are by no means relegated to the realm of the "undead" only.

Zombies may have gotten the biggest recent makeover with movies and stories like Resident Evil and especially 28 Days Later. No longer are zombies undead, but infected or otherwise.... impaired.

Movies like Underworld have also started moving vampire mythos away from the standard undead creatures of yore. The undead emphasis of the mythos is slowly being removed if recent movies are any indication.

Who knows, maybe there will be a retro movement in the vampire and zombie world back towards the classic undead Dracula and brain-eating grave monsters, but for now, and especially in I Am Legend, zompire is definitely 'where its at' (minus the two turntables and a microphone).



EJA -> RE: I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (4/22/2008 1:12:13 PM)

Alright, y'all....
Just saw the alternate ending of the movie again in the context to the entire film. (What's cool about the two disk dvd set is that it gives you the entire film with the alternate ending instead of just an alternate ending as a clip in the special features section.)

Have to admit, the new version is heavily 'Christian'.

1) The poster at the start of the film (the one with the butterfly pic and the words 'God Still Loves Us') plants the seed of compassion for the zompires that is harvested in the alt ending!

'God Still Loves Us' is a prophetic message to the zompires! Even though they're monsters because of the virus, God still loves them because they're HUMAN!

This is an allegory to what the 'virus' of sin has done to us! We all have become monsters, but God still loves us.

2) The butterfly theme is seen again, when we see Nevilles daughter make the sign of the butterfly and says to him 'Daddy look! A butterfly..."

We hear that child's voice in the alt ending before he decides to give up the female zompire to the male zompire.

3) Ana tells Neville God was speaking (He spoke to her to listen to the radio and to go to New York and find Neville at the right time in order to save his life). She tells Neville to 'listen..God is speaking'. Neville would have none of it: 'There is no God!' he yells in despair and unbelief.

4) The butterfly theme is so important because it is the sign made by the lead zompire that Neville had seen previously on the female zompires back. It symbolizes the mistake Neville had made in thinking the zompires were completely devoid of human consciousness and emotion. That's why it was so easy for him to kill them in the nightime pier scene. He had lost hope.

5) Upon seeing the sign of the butterfly, he remembers his daughter saying 'Daddy look...a butterfly.' Knowing this is no mere coincidence, he regains his faith in God and compassion in a lost humanity by having Ana open the plexi-glass door as he explains 'I'm listening...'

6) What was God showing him? Love. What was God saying to him? Love the zompires! When Neville saw the two zompires embrace in love, he knew he had made a terrible mistake. They were not devoid of caring and compassion for others. This blew his concept of them being unredeemable! Now there was hope!


7) The last line of the film was so evangelical, I wonder if that was the reason Hollywood strayed from it. Ana says 'We are not alone...Keep listening...' She was referencing God!
No matter how hopeless life may look, God still loves us! He is talking to us!



dejavuallovragain -> RE: I Am Legend alternate ending (spoilers) (4/22/2008 7:23:38 PM)

Great movie regardless of which ending.



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