Different Ending

I was never entirely satisfied with the ending. Too Hollywood. Since it’s a studio film, it has to have the Hollywood ending, though (hero gets girl, villain gets his dues, villain’s cronies left dazed with the final fight’s results, hero’s best friend gets vindicated, etc.). I’d like to offer a... different ending.

To really give these kids—in the fictional world of the movie—what’s coming to them, whether it was the group of kids at the first fight at Ryan’s party rooting for some bruises and bloodshed, in the hallways at school watching on their various mobile devices, or at Club Zero’s Beatdown (and then in the parking lot), imagine each person, one by one, slowly being pushed feet first into the wood chipper in Fargo. The only people I can see being spared are Jake, Baja, and Eric (at the parking lot fight). Eric finally came to his senses in the parking lot: "Jake, just tap out, man." Jenny (the girl standing next to Eric in the final parking lot fight) would be my choice for the first to go in, after Ryan. The crowd might have been chanting "Jake! Jake! Jake!" after he won, but they just wanted some blood and a victor in the end, regardless of who it was. I don’t think they backed any one fighter.

(It's one thing for the filmmakers to "even the score" by denying Ryan his third Beatdown championship and loss to Jake in the parking lot, but Ryan did far worse to Jake by setting him up and lying to Baja about his intentions of simply sparring with Jake, disrespecting--to be polite--the death of Jake's father, trapping Jake at the party when Jake opted to take the high road and leave instead of fighting, and beating him within an inch of his life, leaving Max to drag him home.)

(One last note: even though Baja was playing "the hero's girl" which came to be by the end, she struck me as sweet but naive. If she tells Ryan in the parking lot at school that the only time he's happy is when he's hurting people (indicating a pattern), why would she believe that all Ryan wanted to do was spar with Jake at the party?)