Ending choice...???

D

dr stilly

hi, im at the point where i need to choose an ending but things seemed to have split off down two possible choice both oth which give the film an entirely different dynamic...i'll try to explain...

my film builds up with a guy who is obsessed with researching a secret cult of aliens believing they run the world.

we then realize (toward the end) that he was a 7/7 bomb victim in a terrorist attack and he is suffering psychosis cause by trauma...

now...

the original idea (script) was that the wife enters and she reveals all about how he was in the bombing and that he is traumatized and that he needs to come back to earth. he listens, crys...goes to sleep...but then we find out the she, his wife, is 'one of them'...an alien. okay, it works quite well and has an impact leaving the film on a weird sci-fi/horror vibe. but then again i feel somewhat immoral and i feel that maybe this ending may be trivializing the bombings...

so...

another ending is that she reveals that he was in the bombings, we realize he is traumatized, he breaks down and cry's...fade out...

this ending is more dramatic and real and tackles the seriousness of what happened.

my actors dont get the dilemma and feel that the scary 'she's and alien scene' has to stay. im not sure...any advise? any winner in your mind?
 
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First, are these Reptilians or something else?

Second, if something else then your 7/7 bombings can also be something else to the point where your bombings trivialize nothing. Fabricate your own bombing "news" event.

Third, since the crux of most dramas center on human self-loathing guilt I'd initially go with the second scenario where he discovers he's been responsible all along and perhaps has been using his crazy search for the "responsible" aliens as his coping mechanism until he can deal with his own culpability.

Now, here's the b1tch of it: I loathe, LOATHE! L O A T H E!!! bait-and-switch genres.
It's pure BS.
Don't market me a SciFi film only to have it all turn out the searching nutty nut bag was crazy and all his hog wash was in his mind.
There are toooooo GD many of those.
However, most people like 'em, so I'm guessing that's why they keep making them.

So, here's the catch 22:
- Make your "It was all just a dream/delusion" SciFi classic because there's a strong precedent, so it must be good! (Bah!)
- At risk of your own filmmaker success peril, shun the precedent already set and go ahead with the first route of the actual bombing+alien wife scenario. But you're going to be held to a higher standard.

With the first it's a "Twist" oriented film.
Once the twist is revealed does anyone ever care about watching it again?
Would you want to watch the film more than once if you already knew what the twist was?
A one-off.

For this reason I'd bias my decision more toward the first scenario, the actual alien scifi premise, while incorporating guilt aspects into it.
Maybe he's been defending his wife all along, eventually he succeeds only to realize he's been played a pawn by her and her alien organization.
And of course he must now make a decision to either be her b!tch or kill her.
I'd kill her.

GL!

Ray
 
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Wow dude....I just watcht Jacobs ladder.....

I would go for ending 2....BUT.....remember the ending in inception.......Jou dont ow a real explenation in the end to the audience. Jou can always keep it unanswered. A unanswered ending keeps jou longer in the movie.
It wil make jou remember it long after jou have seen it........
 
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I wouldn't go with the alien one...seems too Twilight Zone-ish (actually, REALLY reminds me of the tv series Amazing Stories). It's not that it's bad, or that "it's been done" is the reason not to do it (let's face it...EVERYTHING has been done, and there's always room for things to be done again). It just seems sorta hokey in context. Possibly the same feeling that makes you think it it's trivializing. It's sort of a twist for the sake of a twist.

The other direction leans closer to how trauma is actually dealt with. I wouldn't describe it as "bait and switch" as ray would (of course, Jacob's Ladder is one of my favorite films ever), because the "twist" explains the movie, rather than coming out of left field. It's not the same as "it was all a dream" (an ending I dislike less as I've aged, being part of the "journey is more important than the destination" school). I'd call it a perspective shift more than a twist. For further reading, as it were, I'd recommend Stay, Franklyn and Taxi Driver (or at least, that's one interpretation of the film). Oh, and good call with Angel Heart, Feutus! Another of my favorites!

The question that I would ask is do you want your character to realize what's happening at the end (happy ending, personal growth, etc) or lose himself to his delusions, becoming a complete casualty of the bombing. There are merits to either, and both could be done well.
 
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Feutus Lapdance said:
Jou can always keep it unanswered.
Click to expand...

i forgot to tell you about the unanwered end. i went halfway and left her suspicious but didnt show her as an alien, just left it with a maybe...this ending was okay with me but seemed to confuse a few friends, their question was 'so was she good or bad?, i dont get it.' i didnt like this reaction but maybe i should show it to more.
 
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Josh makes some sound arguments against doing the (agreed) potentially hokey scifi twist/B&S.

Maybe go with the "it was all in my mind" and just eliminate any suggestion of scifi elements.
Go the Beautiful Mind route and just keep the figments "less than science fictiony".
Government agents.
Men in black.
Girl scouts.
Whatever.
 
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after reading all comments ive decided that i really do not want to just end on his trauma, i want to at least raise the question to challenge the audience without being far fetched, agressive or offensive (or hokey)...i think as it stands its a bit hokey... (she looks up and her eyes are black)
 
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No more weird twists! Shamalanananayanana destroyed it with Lady in the Water and the followups. Go with the second ending. Maybe he wakes up in the hospital or something and its revealed to him that he's suffering delusions.

edit: here's a thought. Maybe he wakes up in a secret government facility and as he's being explained something about the reality of his trauma, it starts to sink in, and as he's wheeled out, a reptilian villain of corrupt official he thought was a reptile is in a another room being strapped down while transforming to his real identity and your protag sees it as he's wheeled by his wife, as doctors slowly close the door. Or maybe you could flip it and he's wheeled out passed the doctors kitchen water cooler area whatever you call it, and as the door is closing he can see that some of teh doctors don't look quite human. If you do it in a open ended kind of way you could probably get rewatches simply because thety'd wanna have some closer. I knwo I watched Inception a couple times and Shutter Island
 
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