MovieChat Forums > Source Code (2011) Discussion > The Original Ending

The Original Ending

posted 8 years ago by avortac
10 replies | jump to latest

Ah, the original ending. Audiences never like "non-happy" endings, so they OF COURSE had to hollyweirdize it. Sigh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YKwXQBmGgg

This is much better. It's clean, it explains everything, there's a proper closure, and no nonsense about parallel realities. Had they used THIS ending, I would probably like this movie, at least a bit.

But no, because of this effect:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckb3BxJEkAY

.. and wanting to give women those happy (or should it be 'sappy') endings, we got the vomit-garbage instead.

Oh well, such is life in THIS reality..

[–] jasonhardesty-06121 8 years ago

Nice sexist point of view....

The ending makes much more sense than the original. It explains how he was able to walk around and do/know things that Sean Fentress had no knowledge of. How would Sean know where the bomb was or that the bomber left his ID on the train on purpose or that he knew the license plate of the van? Also, what's the point of sending an email if it's only a simulation?

[–] Dr_Sagan 8 years ago

I agree with the Original Poster. The original "sad" ending is the Best.
I hate the alternate reality/parallel universes BullSiit ending.

And about the second poster.

It explains how he was able to walk around and do/know things that Sean Fentress had no knowledge of. How would Sean know where the bomb was or that the bomber left his ID on the train on purpose or that he knew the license plate of the van? Also, what's the point of sending an email if it's only a simulation?

I could think a lot of ways, including gather all the footage from securities cameras, cell phones, satellites whatever, and interpolate the rest of it from there.
That was supposed to be the premise of Deja Vu with Denzel Washington (before the twist). You have to show some suspension of disbelief but itsn't more than you have to have for the actual "Source code".

The "good ending" is preposterous. Someone builds a software to communicate with a dead man's brain and that could ...change reality for everyone? A piece of software NOT DESIGNED to do any of that. No code, no commands other than to pass data to the synapses of the brain of a common man. Laughable to say the least.

Cosmos hates Google.

[–] chrichrichri (184) 7 years ago

"original"

[–] screenwriter (111) 5 years ago

I struggled with the parallel reality thing myself. Think about the time he got her off the train and she lived. How could she be in an alternate reality? That version of her was still part of the "reality-reality" of the people sending him back. Yet, they told him that she had been killed in the blast even though they insisted that she died. In the "alternate reality" ending he proved that people in the alternate reality can communicate with the reality-reality. Email is capable of travel from one reality to another? Way too much of a stretch without any bother of an explanation how it is accomplished - or at least an acknowledgement that the laws of physics would somehow permit it. Without an explanation the two realities would be running concurrent to each other. To me this meant there were now two copies of her walking around and they would both try to conduct the one life.

It's a little like the remake of Stepford Wives. The wives flip flopped from being robots to being real women with brain implants. In one scene they would be doing total robot things such as the ATM and boob inflation scene. Then they ended up being still alive without so much as a modicum of attempt to explain it.

Fatal Attraction is another movie with a changed ending based on test audience reaction ... why? Because, originally, he was arrested for the murder of Alex and everyone thinks the poor man has already been through enough already. So, they shot another ending where Beth gets to blow Alex away.

[–] moogie (205) 5 years ago

Yes I have a difficult time accepting that a parallel universe was created out of this with two Christina's, etc. as where would it end since Beleaguered Castle is already promising 8 or more Source Code's up and running in the near future. And I can dream - but sending email's across realities just was not making it for me.

Actually I wasn't as concerned about there being two Christina's as I was about what was going to happen to Goodwin's job after the door got opened lol. Plus reading another post that proposed if Sean's mind traded with Colter's and Source Code continued this path, poor Goodwin would have to remember who she was talking to: a pilot, a teacher, etc. etc. which also becomes just too hard to accept.

Certainly makes fun food for thought though. I have not seen 'Stepford Wives' or 'Deja Vu' so will put them on my watch list.

[–] ExTechOp (2770) 2 years ago

The email didn’t “cross realities.”

The “8 more source code” dialogue was in the prime reality, where they’d stopped the SECOND bomb.

The email was received in the source code universe where Rutledge was talking about BOTH bombs having been stopped as if it were a “lost opportunity.”

Rutledge, jerk that he is, wanted the bomber to be stopped by the source code project, not knowing that he’s actually IN a source code universe as he’s whining about it.

[–] acidraindrop (3055) 3 years ago

That's disappointing. I was so annoyed with the ending of the film, and now it feels even shittier than they had this better ending beforehand.

I wish when studios were pressured like this, they wouldn't be come up with something so absurd or saccharine or both. Reminds me of how at least when 28 Days Later was pressured into making a happier ending, at least the ending still fit in with the film (and still had an edge to it).

[–] ExTechOp (2770) 2 years ago

This was just a fan-edit, like the alternate "Dodgeball" ending where the bad guys win:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX1zEY0LIXQ

(although the "Dodgeball" fan was Stiller himself)

The original screenplay always had Colter survive his body's death:

https://www.actorpoint.com/movie-scripts/scripts/source-code.html

No “alternate” about it.

Besides which, as other posters have pointed out, it’s not just a “happy ending.” It’s a plot-critical confirmation that source code DOES create alternate realities, which is the ONLY way to explain how Colter can explore places that Sean never visited.

[–] UncleRuckis (2627) 2 years ago

It's amazing how many people don't get that the movie would make no damn sense without the alternate reality part. How the hell would Cole be able to get the bombers plate number within the source code if Sean never even saw the van?

Computers can simulate and run probabilities, but they aren't magic. They can't just pull data from the ether and have it be accurate.

[–] KutWrite (1302) 8 months ago

Strongest point here.