So what happened at the end?spoilers

The alternate ending was one of the many times during the movie when I had to turn the volume way up just to understand what the characters were saying. Stephanie tells Kayla that Travis and Ryan are both dead and that she has to get back home for dinner. I didn't think this ending was that bad, but I preferred the first, because my own prediction was that Ryan would show up and save her. The first ending played with predictability. The second was certainly shocking, but I didn't like it as much.

I think they wanted us to believe she was dead, but idk how that would work. If the box collapsed on her she should have been able to get out without much injury. That hole was maybe two feet down, a collapse wouldn't kill her in only a minute or two.

Back off man, I'm a scientist.

as far as i understand it, we're meant to believe that kayla died.

"The blurry guy in the WSS pic is the guy in the bar w/2face. You'll see, i'll show you."

There was no suicide plan in that manner. A couple of you have misunderstood that. Travis seems to either shoot himself, or, I think more plausibly, was perhaps over-powered by Ryan who proceeded to shoot him. You're right that it is REALLY hard to understand what's happening here (I'm not sure, I'm just inferring) as the camera doesn't really get it and the dialogue is unhelpful but it is definitely not per any pact. If it is suicide he just snaps, choosing to kill himself rather than Ryan or facing the potential consequences of Ryan rescuing Kayla and going to the authorities.

I also think we're probably expected to believe Kayla is dead, reinforcing some form of irony as one of her would-be murderers is also dead himself, due to the actions of another member of said group while he was actively trying to rescue her.

However, I prefer to believe that Kayla is NOT dead. I do not think it is explicitly stated as someone else claimed, and she is in fact liberated from the apparently collapsed...dirt and wood? mere moments later. I don't even really understand the logistics of how that would happen, or how it could kill you immediately if it did. I think the situation is open-ended enough that I can believe she was merely unconscious from the ordeal and was revived.

I need to believe this way, because my god was I invested in this character. I couldn't believe how worried I was for her; just another person in this film who seemed so very believable to me that I couldn't NOT react to them as if they were real people. If she were definitively dead I would be heartbroken. The film just put me through too much stress not to end on a happier note in my book. (I know, a "hollywood happy ending" is anathema to your average forum goer, but that's how I feel.)