These 5 Movies Would Be Perfect if They Were 10 Minutes Shorter

These 5 Movies Would Be Perfect if They Were 10 Minutes Shorter A still from The Return of the King of Frodo, played by actor Elijah Wood, smiling as he departs for the Gray Havens.Image via New Line Cinema By  William Smith Published 14 minutes ago William Smith is a freelance writer currently living in the Midwest with his wife and daughter, where he spends too much time watching movies and then writing about them. He doesn't read your hurtful comments and doesn't have any social media, so any criticisms must be sent by carrier pigeon.   Sign in to your Collider account follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

Endings are important. They can often make or break a film, and there are plenty of examples of mediocre films improved by fantastic endings or, conversely, fantastic films that are brought down by their mediocre endings. That latter situation is particularly heartbreaking for those films that feel so close to perfection but completely stumble before reaching the finish line. In some cases, the endings cannot be salvaged, but other times, they can be fixed simply by cutting the runtime down by mere minutes.

While simply ending ten minutes earlier might seem like it would leave the plot unresolved, there are a few notable films where the method does seem to work fairly naturally. The quality of these endings is, of course, completely subjective, as some fans might think they work as is, and changing anything would actually ruin them. In all fairness, the endings discussed here have all been cited as being divisive, so this isn't just a singular opinion being expressed. Opinions be damned, though, it's arguable that these five movies would have been perfect if they had just ended ten minutes sooner.

5 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' (1956)

Close up of Kevin McCarthy as Dr. Miles J. Bennell, staring at the camera and looking terrified in Invasion of the Body SnatchersImage via Paramount Pictures

The original Invasion of the Body Snatchers presents an alien invasion, albeit one that doesn't occur with legions of flying saucers attacking landmarks, but instead through the quiet absorption of humanity by way of alien pods that can replicate individuals. The plot follows a small town doctor as he slowly becomes aware of this quiet invasion and attempts to avoid being replaced himself. It's a paranoid sci-fi classic of the '50s whose plot has alternatively been interpreted as an anti-Communist parable and as an allegory for McCarthyism. Either way, its themes of individualism against mass conformity remain potent, and would be even more so if the film had been allowed to stick to its original ending.

Near the end, the protagonist, Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy), has taken refuge in a mine with his love interest, Becky Driscoll (Dana Wynter), to avoid the now completely alien population of Santa Mira. The following morning, Miles awakens and discovers that Becky has been replaced by a pod person. He runs to a nearby highway and screams in desperation for help from the passing drivers. That would have been the ending had director Don Siegel and writer Daniel Mainwaring gotten their way, but the studio wasn't keen on it and forced the two to create a prologue and epilogue where Benell relates his story to a psychiatrist in a hospital who contacts authorities to thwart the invasion. It's a massive cop out that Siegel has gone on record as disliking, and it undercuts the paranoid pessimism of the film.

4 'Minority Report' (2002)

Tom Cruise and Tim Blake Nelson stand amidst a sprawling grid of prisoners in 'Minority Report'Image via 20th Century Studios

Minority Report is Steven Spielberg's big-budget adaptation of a novella by acclaimed sci-fi author Philip K. Dick. Although the film differs in a number of ways from its source material and adds a great deal of action, as would be expected for a collaboration between Spielberg and star Tom Cruise, both follow the same basic premise and explore similar themes of determinism. In both plots, John Anderton is a high-ranking official for Precrime, a law enforcement organization that uses three psychic individuals to predict and prevent future crimes. Anderton himself is predicted to commit a murder and must go on the run from his organization. Despite the plot divergences, Spielberg's film is still a very thematically faithful adaptation that has become acclaimed in its own right for its tech noir aesthetic and prescient depictions of technology. The ending, however, has not received the same level of acclaim.

In Dick's novella, Anderton is presented with the dilemma of committing his predicted murder and being imprisoned or diverting and thus destroying Precrime in the process. He fatefully decides to carry out the crime in a self-fulfilling prophecy to preserve the institution. It's a downbeat ending, and the film initially seems to be headed towards a similarly pessimistic finale after Cruise uncovers a conspiracy that could likewise dismantle Precrime, but he is captured and subsequently imprisoned alongside the many others he previously helped arrest. If that were the true ending, it would be more thematically faithful to the source material and the overall noir tone that the film has. However, the movie continues past that to a happier ending, where Cruise is freed from prison, the villain is vanquished, Precrime ends, and the psychic beings are given their freedom. It's, at best, incongruous with the rest of the film, and is typical of Spielberg's often too optimistic worldview.

3 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' (2003)

Image via New Line Cinema

For The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Peter Jackson's epic conclusion to his adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's acclaimed fantasy trilogy, there isn't just one earlier ending that occurs in the film that feels more appropriate than the official one; there are several. Jackson's film infamously features multiple endings, trying to give proper resolutions to its massive cast of characters after they have successfully defeated Sauron and his legions of evil. While it could be argued that Jackson was simply attempting to remain faithful to the source material, that argument doesn't really hold water, since the director had already seen fit to remove a significant section of the novel's ending. In Tolkien's book, the hobbits return home only to find the Shire has come under the control of Saruman and must fight to take it back from the wizard.

Jackson rightfully realized this ending wouldn't work for the film's pacing and never even included it in the script. He should've taken this same approach when it came to the half dozen other endings that he decided to include. It's debatable what the best ending of the film would be, whether it's Frodo awakening to find the Fellowship at his bedside, the hobbits returning home, or even Frodo leaving Middle-earth for the Undying Lands. The best, or most satisfying, might actually be the ceremony where Aragorn is crowned as king of Gondor and, in an act of humility and recognition of their heroism, bows to the four hobbits, and the entire kingdom follows suit. It may leave Tolkien purists wanting more, but no ending could possibly top the emotional climax of that moment.

2 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2' (2011)

Another climactic entry to a beloved fantasy film franchise that also felt the need to include the canonical ending from the novel. In the case of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, however, there is almost zero debate that including the years later epilogue was a bad idea. The decision by J.K. Rowling, an author who seems intent on destroying her legacy in every way possible, to end the Harry Potter series with a flashforward to Harry, Ron and Hermione as adults sending their own children off to Hogwarts was debatable at best. To be charitable, the epilogue has a few interesting tidbits of character information, and, given the medium, fans are able to imagine how the characters might look nineteen years later.

For the movie, the filmmakers were faced with the decision to either use different age-appropriate actors to replace those that audiences had come to love over the course of a decade or use makeup to age Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson. They went with the latter, and the effects are less than convincing, bringing to mind something more akin to a high school production with teens playing middle-aged adults rather than anything even remotely convincing. It's awkward at best, and narratively unnecessary. The much better option would have been to remove the epilogue entirely and end the film with the leads, the three emotional anchors of the franchise, standing together outside the ruins of Hogwarts, reflecting on their collective journey together and the unbreakable bonds they've formed. It's emotional, satisfying, and doesn't involve making up the three actors to look like people who wouldn't be allowed within a hundred yards of a school.

1 '10 Cloverfield Lane' (2016)

Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Godoman in 10 Cloverfield LaneImage via Paramount Pictures

10 Cloverfield Lane is a taut, intense and contained thriller. It stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead as a woman who, after fleeing from a toxic relationship and getting into a car accident, awakens in the underground bunker of a crazed man who tells her that there has been an attack and the outside is no longer safe. What follows is an escalating thriller of white-knuckle tension as Winstead tries to discover the truth about her purported savior/captor. It's an incredibly well-executed film that put director Dan Trachtenberg on the map and features a terrifying performance from John Goodman. It also has a jarring ending that was, and remains, incredibly divisive. After finally escaping the bunker, Winstead steps out into the fresh air and discovers it isn't toxic. There is, however, an alien spaceship floating nearby that proceeds to attack her in a large-scale action scene that completely changes the entire tone of the movie.

10 Cloverfield Lane began production as an original film, but it was eventually turned into a spiritual successor to Cloverfield by producer J.J. Abrams. It's never been officially confirmed if the film's ending was changed to adapt to this new franchise, and the alien threat itself doesn't derail the movie, but the action scene sticks out like a sore thumb. Some have argued that the final fight between Winstead and the alien ship is an important moment of character development, signifying her refusal to be a victim, as is the final moment where she drives off towards a broadcast to help in the fight against the aliens, but all of that is implicit in the character's escape from the bunker. Cutting the movie before the explosive action, with the mere appearance of the aliens, would have been a more appropriate Twilight Zone-esque twist and a better, more disquieting ending to the film.

10-cloverfield-lane-poster.jpeg 10 Cloverfield Lane PG-13 Drama Horror Mystery Sci-Fi Thriller Release Date March 10, 2016 Runtime 103 Minutes Director Dan Trachtenberg

Cast John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Gallagher Jr., Douglas M. Griffin, Suzanne Cryer, Bradley Cooper Writers Josh Campbell, Matthew Stuecken, Damien Chazelle Genres Drama, Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller Powered by Expand Collapse

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• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
• Minority Report

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