I just watched Basic Instinct 2 yesterday and re-ran the alternate ending twice... But I simply couldn't understand his mumbling (I'm kinda hard-of-hearing, too - which doesn't help. *LOL*) There aren't any captions for the 'extras' so I'm asking here... What the heck did Michael say in response to her??
He says something along the lines of "I could make a remarkable recovery." This statement is true to the original ending in a script I have dated 1998. It has the doctor (now a patient) unwrapping the mystery of the murders to Catherine. Drastically different than the film version which has Catherine further convulting the murders in his mind and the viewers - which actually I think pays off more and is far more interesting. Though, if they had kept with the ending in the script I think it would have appealed to general audiences more as it makes him triumphant over Catherine and her addiction to pathological lying, proving that HE is in control and that she may have finally met her match. In the movie itself, the director took on a more ambiguous ending that is striking and original - even though we think we know, it may just be as she says, or none of the above. What do those final images mean? Are they his mental reflection/creation on her narration? Or hers? Or perhaps that's just how it happened. Everything interesting begins in the mind...