MovieChat Forums > Soylent Green (1973) Discussion > Alternate ending?

Alternate ending?

posted 10 years ago by Edward_de_Vere
12 replies | jump to latest

I saw this film on DVD for the first time in almost 30 years, and the ending wasn't quite as I remembered it. Were there alternative endings for this film, or different cuts for TV vs. theater?

Specifically, the ending I just saw had Thorn seriously injured in a shoot-out and fight with the bodyguard at the Church, but with the strong implication that he (and his "Soylent Green is people!" message) would survive.

I remember seeing an ending where Thorn gets gunned down in the street shouting "Soylent Green is people!" with the strong implication that he dies and his message dies with him.

Is the second "version" just foggy memory, an alternate ending?

[–] ric-euteneuer-500-72550 10 years ago

I've only ever seen the former ending, and I have watched this on TV, got the video and the DVD.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] Edward_de_Vere 10 years ago

I first saw the film in the 70's, so when I watched it for the 2nd time on Ovation last night I thought I was seeing an alternate ending. I clearly remembered the scene as being outside in daylight with Thorn screaming out that message. I don't remember the church scene at all but can't find any mention of an alternate ending online.

It seems as though you remember it exactly as I do, but I can't find any information about director's cuts or alternate endings either. Though it often is the case that filmmakers preemptively make happy (or happier) alternative endings to downer films, in case audiences don't take to the original, darker cut.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] smith-nickp 10 years ago

I too remember a different ending. I saw the movie the other day on TCM, and the ending was in the church. I saw it in college (early 90s) and recall the ending happening outside at the market with Thorn screaming his line and everyone trampling him to get to a new shipment of soylent green (they had run out in an earlier scene, which had caused a riot). The implication was that Thorn's message was drowned out and lost.

[–] wmlopez 10 years ago

Sounds like INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.

[–] marty1968 9 years ago

I think these alternate endings are possibly more foggy memory or mixing up the events that led to Thorn being shot on the street and then goes into the church which was a very 'dark' scene [poorly lit] depending on what copy of the movie you may be watching...
Tab Fielding was the only one of the four baddies to survive the street shootout and shot Thorn in the back torso as he's running thru a small cemetery on his way to the church. In the church Tab tries to shoot him again but Thorn ducks under a sofa he flips over himself after a short fisticuff battle Tab punches thorn and he fall to the floor next to a knife that he uses to kill Tab.

The other police arrive and Thorn tells Chief Hatcher about Soylent Green and it ends with Thorn's bloody hand fading out as he says "Soylent Green is people"

[–] borg1005-1 8 years ago

Just saw this the other night and TCM's version has the widely accepted one of Heston raising his bloody arm and tipping everyone off.

Personally, the dark side of me likes your alternate ending. Possibly because I remember in Sinclair Upton's book "The Jungle" (an exposure of the working conditions in meat packing plants ca 1905) wherein he writes of a worker falling into a rendering vat and not making it out. People were outraged, not over the terrible working conditions, but that they might have spread said worker on their toast.

[–] skiptan71 9 years ago

I think it's a foggy memory.
I've seen it on TV, VHS and Laserdisc and the ending I always seem was the nighttime "Soylent Green is People" with the bloody hand raised.

[–] ghostfan 9 years ago

Same here. The church, night, bloody hand. First time in a theater, same.

[–] maxman-5 8 years ago

Someone else mentioned it. Sure you're not thinking of the ending to 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFe-p1gbKEc

[–] jim-85613 8 years ago

Foggy memory.