MovieChat Forums > Body Snatchers (1994) Discussion > The Ending...

The Ending...

posted 17 years ago by beckmen
20 replies | jump to latest

Does anybody else think the ending was tacked-on and probably the result of studio tomfoolery or something? It seems so last-minute. I was expecting the signature 'point and scream' from the guy waving them in when they exit the chopper. But instead it's just re-used (albeit effected) dialogue in the form of voice-over, as if they had a different ending and changed it in post-production at the very last minute without any re-shoots or ADR or anything.

-------
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Beckmen

[–] 666Night999 17 years ago

Prior to this there were many explosions and action. The ending is actually rather brilliant. It implies that the last 2 characters are doomed. I prefer this ending to some gratuitous scare at the end.

There is no night as deep as this
Inevitable mind's abyss
Where I now dwell with foes alone

[–] freudified_n_funkified 17 years ago

I figured that with Abel Ferrara at the helm there were two things modified from a version that would seem more like his signature stuff:

The blowing up of the trucks and base is one of them - but at least they got to keep the ambiguous ending.

The other is what seems like an insert shot of Marti's dad disintegrating after she shoots him and verifying that he was a pod person. Is it me or does it look like it's been added and that maybe in some original version he was actually still himself? The build up to that just seems too obvious that he would be a pod person - for him not to be would be the logical irony that would have made that scene sing.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] puirt-a-beul 17 years ago

Yeah, the ending seemed like it may have suffered from changes forced by negative preview-screening responses.

Whatever led to it, it made me groan, because it seemed like they tried to have things both ways -- the pod people get blasted apart with all the on-screen violence you could wish for, and then they still try to slip in the "you don't know who you can trust" spooky bit.

But it was all pretty contrived. I mean, really ... how likely was the army to blow up its own people and station and equipment just on the say-so of two wild-eyed kids with a story of pod people? Or they were really pod people blowing up other pod people as a ruse, why do that? Why not just kill the two of them, and go on with their takeover?

The ending just seemed to me like a lame tack-on that they never really thought through.

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

[–] adrian-long3 15 years ago

I do recall an interview in Sight and Sound with Ferrera prior to the film coming out and he said that the ending was going to be more like the original book than the other versions.

I haven't read the original book but apparently it goes along the lines of the aliens becoming bored with the human race and just giving up and going home.

I don't know whether this was actually filmed, but I hope it is of interest.

[–] Haywoods 15 years ago

In the books the pods do get bored and float back to space. The town starts getting run down by then as well. The pod people don't live as long as humans so they would be all dead in a few years anyway.

[–] thetheeyecreature 15 years ago

Book, singular. Jack Finney's book has an absolutely terrible ending -- the pods literally rise into the sky and float off into space, abandoning Earth. (Don't ask me how that's physically possible.)

"The truth 24 times a second."

[–] cannaganjabisweed 15 years ago

Yeah, the ending was rubbish. From what I recall, they just showed some slow motion footage of the hellicopter firing. And there was the girls voiceover saying stuff like "And we blew so many of those pod people away etc". It was like a really poor version of the Linda Hamilton voiceover at the end of The Terminator.

[–] supamanz_04 15 years ago

here's how i interpeted the ending and i guess you can take it or leave it. the movie opens with a girl narrating it so you know that she is going to survive and is still alive to tell the story. that said in the end there are no more pod people , then as the credits roll you here the voice say "where ya gonna go where ya gonna hide" but it's not tilley's voice it's a deeper mockery of it. i kinda took that as humans mocking them because now they are being hunted.. seems a far fetched but i like happy endings lol

WoW.. what a mansion - wesker

[–] silverr8c 15 years ago

If they did the point and scream it would have ruined the ending. Just about every horror movie has used one form or another of the surprise / shock ending where it is so over done it isn't a surprise / shock ending.

I thought it was a good ending that told you that they won the battle but will never win the war because it is hopeless in the fact that everyone needs to sleep.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] abajasds 14 years ago

The way the movie ended, I think it was to make your own guess.

Was the man directing to chopper a human or a pod person? Or did they distroy all the pod people, and were they safe?

Sad thing, but if this was true would you keep running forever or would you let it happen? Of course absent from the body, you may be dead, but you would probably be going to heaven.

[–] stellastey 14 years ago

I thought the ending was crap too,shame it was a good film.

[–] ricky_may1 11 years ago

im glad they didnt have the scream and point at the end. that would have copied the 1978 version too much. i think the point of the ending is that its left up in the air: is it over, or has the phenomenon already spread beyond the army base and to the rest of the world? the narration by the stepmother strongly implies the latter i think, and there is no real hope.

[–] AbesOddysee 11 years ago

it was a great ending that left it open for the viewer to make their mind of it.

Cool YouTube Videos
http://www.youtube.com/OcelotPlissken47

[–] koffeenkreame41-1 10 years ago

If they did the point and scream it would have ruined the ending. Just about every horror movie has used one form or another of the surprise / shock ending where it is so over done it isn't a surprise / shock ending.

I thought it was a good ending that told you that they won the battle but will never win the war because it is hopeless in the fact that everyone needs to sleep.

it was a great ending that left it open for the viewer to make their mind of it.

Agreed with these, the ending had an ominous feel to it, like one of the above posters said, they won the battle but chances are, since they are just two kids, they may not win the war.

"I am the ultimate badass, you do not wanna `*beep*` wit me!"- Hudson in Aliens.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Dark_Phoenix89 9 years ago

I rather liked the ending, myself; I liked that it didn't have the point and scream, because it would have felt too much like the ending of the 78 version. its an open, ambiguous ending that leaves the viewer to make up their own mind, which I love because it allows the audience the chance to fill in the blanks themselves (a tack that not many films have anymore). It can be taken one way or the other, but judging on the fact that the kids are practically outnumbered, the chances of them winning the overall war is slim to none, or as Marti states: "You can only stay awake so long."

"Speak of the Devil, and He shall appear."

[–] henrimaine 9 years ago

I got the impression that this movie was meant as a starter (pilot) for TV series. The brief scenes of shooting and explosions at the end were meant to show that the series would be about the war against pod people.

[–] crissttigaldames 8 years ago

What's the point of having the girl narrate though?. Doesn't that imply she survived?.