The "trivia" heading says there was an alternate ending(producers changed the end because of test audience reaction). Anyone know where/what the original was? The ending I saw in the theatrical version is exactly the same as the ending of the book.
shareAs the movie ends, Billy is about to give the doctor a slice of pie. In the book, he eats some himself instead.
shareI haven't read the book. In it, why would Billy want to do away with his wife, if he didn't suspect her of having an affair?
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Billy's wife, Heidi, is jerking him off when he runs over the gypsy. Her father punishes only the judge, the police chief, and Billy. In addition, while Billy is searching for Taduz Lemke, the father, his wife and Dr. Houston file the paperwork to have him committed. She also sends Linda to her aunt's. Billy is angry and feels betrayed. Since someone has to eat the pie, he feels Heidi deserves it. Unfortunately, Linda comes home early and eats some, too.
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In the book he goes to bed and unbeknown to him, his daughter comes home and she and his wife share the pie together. He wakes in the morning and discovers two plates, forks, and his daughters things. Realizing what happened, he gets a plate and sits down to eat a slice of his own pie.
One major difference between the book and the movie is that his wife wasn't having an affair in the book. The doctor was older and enjoyed snorting small amounts of coke in his doctors office. While he was a jerk, there was no real reason why he should eat the pie.
At the end of the movie he wakes the next morning and finds his wife decaying next to him in strawberry pie fashion. He goes downstairs, sees his daughters things, and then sees his daughter who tells him she just ate a slice of pie and is going to play soccer. Realizing what would happen to her he's about to dig into the pie himself when someone rings the doorbell. Low and behold its the doctor who was having an affair with his wife. Halleck insists he come in and join him in the pie.
Overall I think the book was way better but its Stephen King vs. some schmuck who turned it into a screenplay. What do you expect?
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From what I’ve read, I actually prefer the ending that was used. Most of the movie is about Billy trying to survive, if he was to die at the end I would have been disappointed. It would have just seemed pointless to me.
I got fonder of the Billy character as the movie went on; I put myself in his shoes. He gets so much *beep* from everyone, so I think in the end, we deserve to see him get his revenge. Also, the dark humour at the end made me chuckle.
“I warned him” – Jack Nicholson
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I am a big fan of the book, and I don't want to sound ungrateful for the posts; however my original question was; what was the original ending TO THE MOVIE. The "trivia" heading says there was another ending TO THE MOVIE that test audiences hated, so the studio changed it. Is it mentioned on the DVD extras?
shareYea, you're original question hasn't been answered. I'm plowing through the amazingly interesting commentary featuring one Joe Mantegna right now. We'll see if they say anything about the end when they get there...
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I, too, am surprised at the number of responses to a question you did not ask. Nothing in your first question was difficult to understand, so why all the misguided answers? Unfortunately, I'm wondering the same thing, so don't know the answer. Just voicing my frustration with the situation and bumping the topic. You know the saying "there are no stupid questions, just stupid answers."
shareOr as Mr. Garrison told Cartman; "There aren't any stupid questions; just stupid people".
I am not insinuating anything against the fellow fans who took time to post, I just love South Park. But I would love to know if there exists any record of the "original ending" that the Trivia folks say was changed by the studio execs. Did it just show Billy eating the pie and "fade to black", much like the book? Did it have a "happy Hollywood ending" (not likely, I'm sure). I'm sure Joe Mantegna or Robert John Burke could "weigh in" (no pun intended)
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Go to "http://www.stephenkingshortmovies.com";. Click on "directors" on the left. Go to Tom Holland. You will get the text of an interview with Tom Holland. Among other things, he says:
Tom Holland: "LOL (laughing out loud) Sometimes I thought I was cursed with Thinner, especially when I was going through the audience testing process after the movie had been shot. Every audience hated the ending of the movie where the lead character, Billy Hallaeck, lost in his struggle to avoid the curse. The original ending, which was removed by the production company, had Billie's daughter inadvertently eating the cursed pie. Knowing she was going to die, he, too, ate the pie, thereby committing suicide.
The moral of story, as Stephen King told, was that "moral jellyfish get crushed in the end." Unfortunately the audience hated the moral. The experience has made me very leery of ever doing an ending where the protagonist loses."
I guess that means that testing audiences are retarded. No wonder we get so many retarded movies with retarded endings.
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I actually assumed that Billy was going to kill himself, just after he finished off the doctor, anyway. I don't think it needed to be shown.
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I, too, assumed that Billy was going to kill himself (i.e., eat the pie) after the doctor ate it. Really, that only makes sense as he would still be as grief struck about his daughter...just a chance to take the lowlife doc with him. Maybe not, though???
shareFrom what I remember reading, the movie followed the book in the original ending. Ginelli was killed. The audience HATED that (as I did in the book) and the movie changed it to make it look like he lived.
shareI was going to post about that as well ... in the book, after Billy meets with the old gypsy and gets the pie with the instructions to feed it to someone else, he goes back to his car where Ginelli is supposed to be waiting. All he finds is a severed hand there on the passnger seat with ball bearings laying in it's palm (I think -- not 100% sure about the ball bearings ...), and he can plainly see Ginelli's ring on one of the fingers, so he knows it's his hand and he must be dead (and hot gypsy girl obviously killed him with the sling shot). There were at least two shots in the movie where Ginelli does something where you obviously see his ring on his hand -- and I mean all but hit-you-over-the-head-with-it obvious. So I wonder if they weren't planning on including that in the movie as well, and either decided against it or had test audiences reject that as well.
Also, I really got the impression in the movie that Billy was still going to eat the pie and kill himself. He just figured he'd take the doc out with him too. In fact I think he said "I was just about to have a piece of pie ... join me?" Also, again in the book, I think he was talking to Heidi at some point, maybe on the phone before he came home. And she said something about not being mad at the doctor, or not pressing charges or something, and he says to her "No, I won't ..." but then thinks Might feed him a piece of pie though ... So he was sort of thinking it, although he never had the chance to.
JP
"All he finds is a severed hand there on the passnger seat with ball bearings laying in it's palm (I think -- not 100% sure about the ball bearings ...)"
It says the hand is stuffed with them. I suppose this could mean the hand was holding them, but I pictured the severed stump part having ball bearings stuffed into the open flesh. Since the hand is dead, it seems like it would be hard for it to be grabbing a handful of small metal balls.
Still, the fact that Ginelli dies in the book sucks. I love his character in this movie. He's great.
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Yeah, I watched this last night on fearNet and I assumed that Ginelli would be killed off by the Gypsies at some point. That he survived was a cool twist. Usually when someone in story uses conventional force (guns, poison, technical know-how, etc.) against an unknonw alien force like Gypsies he gets killed. It's disappointing that the original novel followed the boring conventional narrative.
shareIn the original movie ending, the pie was blueberry. Due to audience dissatisfaction with that ending, the pie was changed to cherry.
If I remember it correctly, the original blueberry ending was so detested that fights broke out in the theater and the movie had to be withdrawn for re-editing.
At least that's what I recall...
Just watch the movie on television and the pie was strawberry. I think there are more endings to this movie that people know.
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If it don't have it, it isn't worth the watch.