Alternate ending.

I really enjoyed this film; it's great to feel like our (Australian) culture is finally starting to be represented in a way that isn't quirky, ridiculous or embaressing. There's been a long drought in that department.

I'd like to present an alternative to the current ending, as I felt a little dissatisfied by the original ending, and felt that this was quite an obvious solution.

It's such a small change that it could almost be achieved by recutting the shots that exist in the final cut.

As it stands the final climax is found when Bryan Brown takes the young guy and the young girl around behind the shed when they refuse to board the plane. He gets them on the ground to execute them and we cut to John Goodmans (on plane) reaction, as the gunshots ring out. At this, Goodman exits the plane. We come back to the young couple opening their eyes, realising that Brown hasn't killed them. Brown proceeds to tell them they have to dissapear etc.
After Brown gives these instructions Goodman bursts around the corner and inturupts. Brown responds with a line like "well. you've buggered this up" to which goodman tells him that he can't go back either. You've seen it, you know what happens from here.

My alternative is that when we go to goodman in the plane we don't go back to find that they're alive until he does. i.e. we hear the gunshots, goodman leaves the plane, we follow Goodman until he comes around the corner, brown realises there's someone there, delivers the line: you've buggered this up, and NOW we see that the couple are still alive. Goodman reacts off this realisation to deliver: I can't go back either. Brown might turn back to the couple and delivers a line like: you've gotta dissapear etc. Then stand to fire final gunshot into the air.

The way it currently stands makes for an ending that lacks tension. We're not even given enough time to consider that the young couple are dead, because we're almost immediately told that they're alive. Because there's no tension or suspense, there's no surprise that they're alive. The saddest thing for me is that Brown was completely capable of using his line "You buggered that up" as the moment of humour that breaks the tension.

Instead of perfect comic timing, we're left with premature ejaculation. Caesar drops the ball on this way too early. It was supposed to be the most tense point in the movie and instead we weren't even given enough time to hold our breath.

I believe this moment is the primary reason why many of the reviews I've read have cried out claims of anticlimax and phrases like "it died in the arse at the end".

But what do I know?

Jonathan Davis
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