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M. Night Shyamalan's new ending was underwhelming (spoilers)

posted 2 years ago by JakeSWITCH (504)
8 replies | jump to latest

From memory, in the French comic that 'Old' is based on, everyone dies, leaving the baby (now an old man) alone on the beach. The actual cause of the rapid aging is never revealed, the focus of the story is on how people of various ages and walks of life would react if they were suddenly faced with their own mortality as it rushed towards them.

For some reason, M. Night was attracted to this story ... but had to tack on a schlocky mad scientist ending that explains, in explicit detail, what is going on. Don't get me started on the two kids managing to escape the beach (which was under surveillance) and alert the police.

I thought it was a really blunt, crudely constructed way to end the film. It's like M. Night knew he couldn't deliver the downbeat ending of the comic in an artful or satisfying way, and tacked on something he thought a mainstream audience would accept.

[–] Ajclem123 (2) 2 years ago

That would have been a much better ending! I watched this last night and thought the ending was really rushed and just wrapped everything up too neatly. I expected the helicopter to crash as they were leaving.

I didn’t mind the kid’s escape too much, as the surveillance was just M Night up on the cliff and he left after monitoring the water for a couple of minutes as he was sure they couldn’t have survived.

It almost felt as if he ran out of time for the ending.

[–] Maya (116) 2 years ago

You would think if they were running this highly successful pharmaceutical company there would be more surveillance being done than just one dude with some binoculars and a stopwatch. That felt like a plot hole to me.

[–] xergan (849) 4 months ago

I bet it was just a reshoot for the scenes of M Night. Someone said, it was ridiculous that no one is observing them live, so he filmed a few scenes with him as the star to explain why no one checked on them.

[–] LennyNero (474) 2 years ago

Yeah, I think the movie would have been more interesting if it simply focused on the psychology of rapid aging.

However, I have doubts that he would have gotten the money to make the movie in such a manner. After “Lady in the Water”, I think M. Night lost the Hollywood freedom to do whatever he wants.

[–] acidraindrop (3055) 2 years ago

I found the original graphic novel to be a bit bland, and underwhelming due its open-ended ending, although the image of the grown baby was quite compelling, I have to admit.

I like the hollywood-ified version, and the ending is still very much downbeat. Despite the way that they managed to reach out to the police (which I thought was cutely set up), the movie left me cold.

[–] FootOfDavros (6734) 8 months ago

The actual cause of the rapid aging is never revealed...

I turned to Mrs FootOfDavros whilst watching this and said "So what do you think the twist is going to be? Wouldn't it be something if there was no twist and we just saw the kids grow old and die and then the film just finished..."

Now THAT for M. Night Shyamalan would have been a twist! It's funny to read that that was indeed the story's original ending, which he then chose to go against.

[–] roger_dat (1082) 4 months ago

I thought the ending was quite satisfactory, gave us the viewers closure (a good one too)

[–] agentalbert (2323) 4 months ago

The original ending is a better story ending, but not necessarily a better movie ending. I don't need closure on anything, but most audiences do and a movie strictly adhering to the source comic wouldn't have had a budget and name actors or had a wide release.