Superior Alternate ending for I am Legend.

[MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT!!!]



To anyone who saw the film in theaters:

Wasn't that a really good ending?

In the re-shot ending, Will Smith whips out a grenade, tells the woman and child to hide in some sort of bomb shelter, and detinates the grenade which somehow has the power to blow up the entire room. Grenades don't do that!!! And even if some people might never have gotten the original ending, I have yet to meet one person who enjoyed the finale we got in theaters.

See for yourself:



It really makes you wonder what the Warner execs were thinking when they not only decided to replace that ending, but to replace it with that ridiculous 'magic grenade' finale which completely ruined an otherwise decent mainstream zombie flick.

The original ending is actually supported by clues dropped throughout the entire film. More importantly, it carries home the thematic wallop that all of the mutants Smith's character killed in his pursuit to find a cure were still people - an idea that has been simmering throughout the entire film up to that point. That wall of polaroids Smith looks at were not failed attempts to find a cure, they were victims, making Smith's character no better than the deadly mutants he was so eager to destroy.

The Warner execs had were given a choice between a halfway thoughtful statement on mankind's inability to empathize with that which they deem a terror or a threat, or a big stupid explosion that blew stuff up real good. I guess for studio heads, blowing stuff up real good beats out a thoughtful, well-meaning conclusion every time.

Now considering that these are the same people who hold the destiny of Where the Wild Things Are in the palm of their hands, it's a safe bet to say Spike Jonze is doomed.