MovieChat Forums > Snake Eyes (1998) Discussion > Alternate Ending wasn't much better

Alternate Ending wasn't much better

posted 19 years ago by lcrespo-1
7 replies | jump to latest

I read somewhere that in the original ending the globe sends Sinise into the big steel harpoon which made audiences laugh. There was some sort of tidal surge that flooded the tunnel at some point. That doesn't sound much better.

Commander Kevin Dunne discusses 1)his memories that men don't drown quietly, 2)he hasn't been on a sub since "the insident", and 3)the song playing during the closing credits mentions "drowning men don't die quietly". So why didn't Dunne just get trapped in a flooded tunnel while Officer Rick Santoro has to hear him drown as a result of his choice? Wouldn't that have been dramatic?

Perhaps this is why DePalma voiced irritation at the influence of the studio system on this film. I read somewhere that he said, "everyone has an idea of what should be in the script."

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] k_zero453 19 years ago

Um the ending I saw was when the police had cornered the main bad guy after a strom ripped open a room or something. Bad guy trys to run or somethinga nd gets shot.

Sorry if that makes no sense but my memory is a little hazy

[–] speccyboy 19 years ago

Not quite.

Commander Kevin Dunne knows that he is done for, so he decides to commit suicide by shooting himself in the heart, and you can tell by the look on his face that he is trying to say "Damn you, Rick!" and then kills himself.

[–] questortapes-1 19 years ago

I attended a test screening of the film and it did have a different ending. A tidal wave whipped up by the storm washes down the tunnel, Nic Cage and the girl hold their breath and survive and Sinise is crushed by the ball. I don't remember it making people laugh in the particular test screening that I attended, but it was pretty anticlimactic.

Oddly enough they left in a reference to it at the end of the picture as it currently stands: When Nic and the girl are standing on the boardwalk at the end of the film, he mentions something about dreaming he was back in the tunnel again drowning. That sticks out like a sore thumb.

[–] Roby78 18 years ago

That's exactly right Questortapes - at the end when Ricky Santoro is on the boardwalk talking to the hot brunette he says he's gonna be going upstate he definitely says something about drowning in a tunnel - that was obviously the alternate ending. They should have reshot that last scene and changed that line as it didn't make sense in the context of the new ending.

I saw this movie at the theatre and just watched it again - a very disappointing movie, the worst I've seen by De Palma.

[–] lcrespo-1 18 years ago

"I saw this movie at the theatre and just watched it again - a very disappointing movie, the worst I've seen by De Palma." -Roby78

My point exactly. All those other references that I listed in my initial post and DePalma's own comments suggest an unfilmed ending in the original screenplay of...Commander Kevin Dunne drowning and Rick Santoro being forced to make the choice that causes his drowning.

[–] gorgsharpy 18 years ago

De Palma was trying to stage a rebirth theme with the water scene. Now we only have Ricky's dream to support the rebirth theme.