Anybody seen the alternate ending from "I Am Legend" (spoilers)

[NewJeffCT]

It's on the DVD - the supposedly controversial alternate ending. I actually think the alternate ending was better than the original where Smith blows himself & the hemocytes up to allow the woman and the boy to escape to Vermont with the cure.

In the alternate version, the lead hemocyte stops and indicates he wants the girl back and Smith listens to them and gives them the girl and then gets her blood, and it ends with Smith, Anna & Ethan all driving to Vermont. But, it gave the hemocytes a bit more intelligence, rather than just having them as rabid animals.

[vi5]

1. I liked the ending they used better...

..I prefer downbeat endings. I thought the alternate ending was hokey and completely out of step with the rest of the movie.

However, most people who've seen both prefer the alternate ending so I know I'm in the minority on that one.

[NewJeffCT]

3. the original ending was fairly positive as well

Smith sacrificed himself to save Anna & Ethan, who then drive up to Vermont and get to the survivors' place.

[vi5]

16. Yeah, but I think it goes without saying...

..an ending where the protaganist who has been the focus of the entire movie kills himself is decidedly more downbeat than the one where he makes happy peace with the creatures and then goes about his merry way with his new female companion.

[NewJeffCT]

17. yes, definitely

the original ending was more downbeat.

[JTG of the PRB]

2. I haven't read the book, but the alternate ending sounds closer to the way the book ended.

Not exactly, of course, but it gives the hemocytes a hint at the intelligence they truly displayed in the book, where they had formed a society of their own. "I Am Legend" doesn't refer to the legend of the man who cured the disease, but rather the legend of the man who was viewed as a murderer and a monster in hemocyte society for how he ruthlessly killed them.

So the alternate ending sounds closer, but still not quite close enough... :shrug:

[NewJeffCT]

6. I found the "Last Man of Earth" DVD at a dollar store the other day

I still have to watch it, though. Do you know if that is closer to the book at all? Vincent Price in the starring role.

It's a double feature with "Last Woman on Earth"

[JTG of the PRB]

21. I believe I heard that "The Omega Man" with Charlton Heston was the closest to the book.

"Last Man on Earth" was a little further away, and the latest incarnation is more or less the furthest away from the actual ending of the book.

At least, that's what the Intertubes tell me.

[raccoon]

4. I don't like that alternate ending.

Every time they showed the zombies in the movie, they didn't seem to have the intelligence or self-control to act like that, any more than a mad dog would.

[NewJeffCT]

5. they did set the trap for him, though

by moving the mannequins... so, they had some intelligence in the original movie, too.

[raccoon]

7. That was them? I wasn't sure if it was them or not.

I guess it was...although it sure didn't jibe with how they acted the rest of the time. Maybe they had their lucid intervals.

[NewJeffCT]

8. I wasn't 100% sure it was them

I mean, he certainly could have been crazy/insane and did it himself, only forgot or blocked it out?

[raccoon]

9. Could have. Going through what he did would drive anybody around the bend. nt

[charlie and algernon]

15. yeah, they may not have jerry-rigged the wires

but moving the mannequin is within their abilities.

[Connonym]

10. I've been wondering about that

of course there was nothing like it in the book to be sure but when he trapped the woman and the one vamp stood in the sun for a moment, which he took as an indication that they had lost all higher function, I thought it seemed more like he was pining the loss of the woman and not that he was so blood thirsty that he was having trouble resisting the urge to go eat Will despite burning.

The mannequin trap came out of nowhere and they never gave any kind of satisfactory explanation to allude that he set it himself and forgot it or whether it was a trap meant for him. I read the book after the movie hoping that it would help it make sense. All that did was confuse me more because the two stories were so dissimilar;however, the mannequin trick seems like something that fit more with the way the vamps (hemocytes did you say?) behaved in the book. I had hoped that the extended DVD would make that more clear. I've still not seen it on DVD but I do want to see the alternate ending.

[NewJeffCT]

11. I watched the alternate ending late last night

so, had the volume low and the subtitles on since I'm a fast reader - and, they had things like <hemocytes growling> or <hemocyte roars>

[Connonym]

14. I do that a lot because my hearing sucks

and especially with DVDs the volume can change so dramatically. I suppose in the theater it being in surround sound makes it easier to hear but at home I find myself having a hard time hearing.

[NewJeffCT]

18. I know what you mean

My daughter had a bit of a fever last night, so I didn't want to wake her up. I've kind of grown used to do it that way for the last few years...

[charlie and algernon]

13. the problem was, we were seeing the zombies through Neville's eyes

He percieved them to be savage monsters. But the ending shows how off he was, the ending shows that the alpha wasn't losing his humanity when he exposed himself to sunlight after neville took his girlfriend. Instead, it shows his humanity was still very much there, if less than before the virus. I haven't read the book, but from what I gather they're supposed to be somewhat intelligent and have begun forming their own society. The original ending showed them as a pack of savage animals, the new ending shows hierarchy and order, with the alpha male able to control the rest, all while showing real emotion.

[unpossibles]

12. I thought the movie would have been better if done as the book

I loved the beginning, but it lost me somewhere, and I ended up thinking it was hokey.

[NewJeffCT]

19. never read the book

I may try to watch the "Last Man on Earth" DVD I got at a dollar store this weekend, though. Just to see the differences.

[unpossibles]

20. Omega Man is fun too

although it's been a long time since I've seen it.