This goes without saying, but the following article contains some fairly robust spoliers so if you haven’t seen ‘Get Out‘ yet, a) what’s wrong with you, b) fix that immediately, and c) you might want to casually back out now if you’re keen to keep the film’s plot from being ruined.
It’s fair to say that Jordan Peele has scored himself a proper, bonafide hit with ‘Get Out.’
The film currently holds a hefty 99% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it’s managed to haul in an insane US$214.7 million at the box office, despite the film itself only having a budget of US$4.5 million.
Those of you who have seen the flick will be familiar with the plot twists and, more specifically, how the film ends.
The original ending sees things wrap up when Chris (played by Daniel Kaluuya) manages to escape the estate of the Armitage family who were trying to trying to hypnotically enslave him and use his body as a vessel of immortality for their rich, older friends. After a car crash, Chris is confronted by Walter (Marcus Henderson) and Rose (Allison Williams) who attempt to capture him. Chris frees Walter from his hypnotic trance with the flash on his camera, and Walter then subsequently shoots Rose in the stomach before killing himself.
Chris, preventing a wounded Rose from grabbing the fallen rifle, then tries to strangle her, but cannot bring himself to do it. As he lets go, police sirens arrive and Chris surrenders. However instead of the real cops, it turns out to be Chris’ airport security friend Rod (Lil Rel Howery) who then whisks Chris away to safety as Rose dies on the road behind.
That’s a solid ending, and it’s been largely praised in amongst the ocean of critical acclaim the film has attracted.
But with the DVD of the film being released in the US, fans are just now finding out a bunch of interesting little titbits about the film, including the fact that the crew actually shot an alternate ending.
The new ending has a much bleaker result in mind for Chris, with actual cops showing up instead of the saviour Rod. And given that Chris is… y’know… black, things don’t exactly end well for him.
Peele, in the DVD commentary, explains the original ending that he had in mind, and hints at the fact that a certain bloviating racist orange testicle man necessitated a last-minute pivot.
“The house and all the evidence has burned down, and this is a system that values the rich white people and takes their side. So my feeling is what would happen in this movie is Chris would end up in jail, just because of how it looks. By the time I was shooting this, it was clear the world had shifted.”
Bloody hell, that is some bleak shit. ‘Course it’s easy to see that that’s probably how things would’ve ended up had the film occurred for real, but even still…
Thankfully, the happy (happier?) ending was put in and the film has since done gangbusters on all fronts.
If you’re keen to relive it, the OG ending is now floating about on YouTube.
Much ah… better.
‘Get Out‘ is still in cinemas across Australia as we speak.
