8 Movie Scenes That Should Have Happened Off-Screen

WhatCulture

We didn't need to see it.

Transcript

00:00One of the most important rules of filmmaking is show, don't tell, because audiences generally

00:05prefer to see rather than be told, film being a visual medium after all. But at the same time,

00:11not everything necessarily lends itself to the visual treatment, and as Hollywood has proven

00:16time and time again, it really loves to hit viewers over the head with its ideas.

00:21These 10 movies, no matter how great they may have been, couldn't resist the urge to show

00:26audiences things which, if we're being honest with ourselves, we're probably better off just

00:30being left to our imaginations. By not only shooting these scenes, but including them in

00:36the final cut, these filmmakers showed a lack of faith in viewers to use their imaginations and

00:41think for themselves, in turn leaving them groaning, eye-rolling, and maybe even close

00:46to vomiting at the end result. These films would have immediately become more interesting and less

00:51objectionable if these scenes were left on the cutting room floor, but sadly what's been seen

00:56cannot be unseen. So with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture, and here are 8 movie

01:01scenes that should have happened off-screen. 8. Zara's Death in Jurassic World

01:07Jurassic World is far from a great movie, but it at least delivered easily digestible blockbuster

01:12thrills for the masses, which only made the unnecessarily brutal death of Claire's assistant

01:17Zara that much more shocking. When all hell first breaks loose at the park, Zara is picked up by a

01:23pteranodon and then dragged screaming into the Mosasaurus tank. At this point, she's then scooped

01:29out of the water by another pteranodon before the Mosasaurus finally dives out of the water and

01:34gobbles them both. It's an oddly sadistic prolonged death scene for a character who didn't really do

01:39anything to earn it compared to, say, the douchebag lawyer in the original Jurassic Park.

01:44It's ugly enough to rather upset the movie's otherwise firmly escapist tone. Clearly,

01:49just showing her to be dropped in the tank was sufficient enough to get the message across.

01:54Writer-director Colin Trevorrow did later confirm that Zara was depicted as a bridezilla in scenes

02:00cut from the film, which might have made her savage death seem more like a justified comeuppance than

02:05it does in the final film. As it stands, it's a weirdly cruel death which does nothing for the

02:10story or to further audience satisfaction. 7. Fury Loses an Eye in Captain Marvel

02:16Just as most fans expected, Captain Marvel finally revealed the cause of Nick Fury's damaged

02:22eye. And in typical MCU fashion, it wasn't what anyone expected. Ultimately, it turns out that

02:28Fury's eye was scratched by the alien Flurkin, Goose, who takes the form of a cat in the movie.

02:34Given that Fury previously implied he lost the eye as a result of serious deceit, saying,

02:39"'Last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye,' in Captain America The Winter Soldier,

02:43most fans were expecting him to suffer the ocular injury due to Skrull's shapeshifting shenanigans.

02:49Alas, fans got supremely trolled, and a potentially jaw-dropping origin story for

02:53Fury was turned into a one-note joke where Fury didn't even seem particularly bothered

02:58by his life-changing injury. Lame. As with Iron Man 3's Mandarin debacle, this was further proof

03:04that subverting expectations is itself not enough, and that if this is the best they could come up

03:09with, they were better off just keeping the event in fans' imaginations instead.

03:136. The Psychiatrist's Exposition Dump in Psycho

03:17Alfred Hitchcock's masterful horror film Psycho ends with the mind-melting revelation that the

03:22murders have been committed by motel owner Norman Bates, who has a split personality resembling his

03:28own dead mother. It's an all-timer as far as plot twists go, yet one undeniably undermined by the

03:35follow-up scene in which psychiatrist Dr. Richmond prosaically explains the full extent

03:40of Norman's illness in the most listless, unimaginative, and yes, clinical fashion

03:45possible. Though there's an argument to be made that audiences were less savvy to the particulars

03:50of mental illness in 1960, even so, as a piece of writing, the scene is flabbergastingly lazy.

03:56Viewed today, it can't be seen as anything other than an otherwise expertly crafted film telling

04:01the audience something they already know. In an ideal world, this scene would have been left on

04:06the cutting room floor, as we transition directly into the terrific, she-wouldn't-harm-a-fly ending.

04:115. Andy and Red's Reunion in The Shawshank Redemption

04:16It's time to get a little controversial now. The Shawshank Redemption is unquestionably one

04:20of the most crowd-pleasing, heartwarming movies of all time, hinged on an extremely cathartic

04:26ending in which a paroled Red is reunited with escapee Andy on a beach in Zawaterneo, Mexico.

04:33As wonderful an ending as this is, it does also feel a tad excessive in giving the audience too

04:38much of a hard resolution to the story. Originally, writer-director Frank Darabont ended the movie

04:43with Red riding the bus to the Mexican border, but the studio insisted that he at least shoot

04:48the happier ending, despite the filmmaker having final cut privilege. Darabont humoured them,

04:54and after a test screening of the studio ending was rapturously received, he agreed to include it.

04:59Even so, there's such a thing as giving audiences too much of what they want.

05:04Great art is often born from the anguish of restraint, and having Shawshank roll credits

05:08as Red takes a hopeful ride to Mexico, with that poetic monologue about the Pacific Ocean's blue

05:13sea, would have been a flawless heart-stopper of an ending. Instead, it overstepped on the

05:18crowd-pleasing front by a measure, even if it's still tough to rail against the ending too much,

05:23given the arduous journey these two men have been on. End the movie a minute earlier though,

05:28and it's practically perfect.

05:304. Lincoln's Death in Lincoln

05:33Steven Spielberg's terrific Abraham Lincoln biopic reaches its natural conclusion about

05:38four minutes before the end credits actually roll, when Lincoln prepares to head to Ford's

05:43Theatre where he meets his untimely end. The shot of Lincoln walking down the hallway of

05:48his home to leave for the theatre would have been a beautiful note on which to close things out,

05:52but Spielberg indulges himself by actually taking us to Lincoln's deathbed as he expires.

05:58Though the subsequent flashback to Lincoln delivering his second inaugural address makes

06:02for a stirring ending, showing Lincoln's actual death just feels totally unnecessary,

06:07given how inevitable it is, though Spielberg at least stops short of showing the fatal gunshot

06:12itself. Nothing is gained from seeing Lincoln expire on screen, when fading from the hallway

06:17of Lincoln's home to his iconic speech would have made for a far more dignified ending.

06:213. Midichlorians in Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace

06:26Though some fans will argue that large swathes of the Star Wars prequels should have never been

06:31committed to film, most will agree that one of the prequel trilogy's major mistakes was

06:35in straining itself to explain the Force. In The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon Jinn explains to

06:40a young Anakin that the building blocks of life and therefore the Force are midichlorians,

06:45a sort of space bacteria naturally occurring in the universe.

06:49It was a blatant attempt to hand wave the inconsistencies in the Force from the original

06:53trilogy, yet beyond being rather silly, only made things even more unnecessarily complex.

06:59Plus, there was much charm and intrigue in the mystery of how the Force worked,

07:03and lifting the veil on that was a major mistake.

07:06Granted, numerous references are made to the midichlorians throughout the prequel trilogy,

07:11but it's Qui-Gon's straight up explanation which proves the most egregious.

07:15At least if midichlorians as a concept weren't something so clearly defined,

07:19by removing this scene from The Phantom Menace, fans would have one less thing to complain about.

07:242. The Epilogue in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

07:30Harry Potter mostly wrapped up in style with the thrilling two-hour finale that

07:34was The Deathly Hallows Part 2, except for that widely ridiculed epilogue sequence.

07:39The scene in question takes place 19 years after Voldemort's defeat, with Harry,

07:44Hermione and Ron watching their own kids leaving for Hogwarts at King's Cross Station.

07:49It's a cute idea, and certainly gave J.K. Rowling's books an incredibly satisfying ending,

07:54but as with any big screen adaptation, it's all about the execution.

07:59Ultimately, the inexplicably ropey makeup effects to try and make the

08:02principal actors look almost double their ages renders the scene unintentionally hilarious,

08:08more akin to a thrown-together SNL skit than the final scene in a $250 million blockbuster.

08:14If the effects weren't up to snuff, David Yates probably should have just nixed the scene and left

08:18it to the audience's imagination, but inevitably Yates would have been raked over the coals by

08:23fans for excluding it, so he was certainly damned either way.

08:271. Bruce Lives in The Dark Knight Rises

08:31The ending of The Dark Knight Rises has been tirelessly dissected and debated by fans,

08:36especially the revelation that Bruce Wayne didn't die in Banes' fusion reactor explosion,

08:41but rather rejected himself to safety and started a new life in Florence with Selina Kyle.

08:46Many fans were miffed, quite understandably, that Christopher Nolan went as far as to show

08:50Bruce living it up in a Florence cafe when he's spotted by Alfred.

08:54This obviously paid off an earlier scene in the film where Alfred expressed hope he might one day

08:59see such a sight, but given that we all knew what Alfred was going to look up and see, did we really

09:04need to actually see it? The visual of Bruce at the cafe just highlighted how absurd it would be

09:09for him to go anywhere without being recognised, while at least if Alfred simply nodded happily to

09:14another table, we'd know that Bruce lived without being invited to consider how daft it all was.

09:19You can argue that Nolan had earned such an indulgence after three largely terrific movies,

09:24but even so, an absence of Bruce would have been the more artistically watertight way to go.

09:29And that concludes our list. If you can think of any other examples, then do let us know in

09:34the comments below, and while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap

09:37that notification bell. Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found

09:41across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with What

09:46Culture, I hope you have a magical day, and I'll see you real soon.

Category

Transcript

Recommended