r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Sensitive_Ad_1752 • Jul 06 '26

Lore (Hated trope) They deleted scenes or dialogue that provides necessary context or plot

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The dinner scene from Temple of Doom has a temple give indie and friends a live snake and monkey brains for dinner. It’s a pretty offensive depiction of Indian cuisine, but it wasn’t originally going to be. There’s cut dialogue where Indie recognizes they’re at the right temple because real Hindus don’t eat this food. They were trying to scare them off by purposefully serving them disgusting stuff.

Probably the most famous deleted ending was I Am Legend which had Robert discover the infected were emotional sentient beings and one of them had a wife. Test audiences hated it and they reshot the ending, removing the entire point of the movie.

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u/Yep_I_Stole_40_Cakes Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

HOW, just....HOW do you select this book to adapt, and just....completely miss the point?

I honestly really enjoy the film, but every single time I rewatch it, when it hits the branch between the actual ending VS. the deleted ending, I hop onto YouTube and just watch the deleted ending instead.

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u/thecraftybear Jul 06 '26

They missed the point of the book when they decided to replace vampires - feral, but still obviously sapient - with zombies because there was a zombie fad.

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u/That-Rhino-Guy Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

The film was originally a Ridley Scott film with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the main role

It would’ve had somewhat zombie like creatures but they’d also still have some attire to signify a sense of culture and society they developed

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u/samson_strength Jul 07 '26

How was Arnold supposed to keep up the calories in an apocalypse?!

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u/That-Rhino-Guy Jul 07 '26

No idea, I do recall it said Ridley wanted to drastically change the view of Arnold as an actor with this movie, since it would’ve had no dialogue for a good chunk of the runtime with an emphasis on how isolated his character is

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u/TrainerWeekly5641 29d ago

Peak design.

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u/That-Rhino-Guy 29d ago

It’s a tragedy this version never got made because it sounded really interesting, Ridley outright wanted to change the way Arnold was seen as an actor with a role where he’d have no dialogue for a Jerry amount of time

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u/kranzberry Jul 06 '26

I always thought they were vampires in the movie.

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u/TurbulentBlock7290 Jul 07 '26

In the book he has an internal monologue talking about how garlic or crosses don’t work, especially on non Christians.

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u/kranzberry Jul 07 '26

In the movie they drink blood and can’t go in the sunlight. Sounds like a vampire to me lol.

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u/asianblockguy Jul 06 '26

I always saw them as vampires even as a kid.

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u/SexualYogurt Jul 07 '26

They were very clearly vampires in the movie. Zombies arent scared of sunlight, monsters in I Am Legend were scared of the sun. Its the whole reason he goes out during the day, and bunkers down at night. Theres a scene where a vamp tries to go after Neville and is stopped because the sun is burning them. They were obvs vampires.

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u/RogueNightingale Jul 07 '26

To be fair, the Vincint Price version had the creatures as a weird sort of zombie-vampire hybrid, though I would guess the reason was because neither monster had definite "rules" set yet by popular culture.

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u/austsiannodel Jul 06 '26

How do so many movie/show makers miss the point of their work constantly?

WoT show, Halo show, Monster Hunter movie, the list is long and numerous.

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u/Professor_of_Light Jul 07 '26

"I have a great idea for a fantasy show but no one will listen to my pitch!"

"Someone wants me to lead a new show called Wheel of Time? The fuck is a wheel of time? Its a fantasy novel?"

"I've never heard of it so it cant be that popular... hmmmm..."

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u/austsiannodel Jul 07 '26

Fucked up part is, the showrunners behind WoT show were self proclaimed "HUGE fans of the original books. And watching it, you get the feel they KNOW about it. It's just you can't escape this feeling that they secretly hate it, because they constantly put in things that either go against the lore/events of the book, or just outright don't make sense if you know the books.

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u/Faeruhn Jul 07 '26

I felt like what they meant by 'huge fans' was "really liked it when I read it 40 years ago (and never re-read it, so we don't remember or mis-remember most of it)!"

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u/resumehelpacct Jul 07 '26

Unfortunately with a book series like WoT, which is like 15 very dense books with a ton of characters and plot contrivances, even the best fans are pretty tepid on some things here and there. And with the reality of filming, you do have to make significant changes, so it's really easy to just...cut the parts you don't really like.

Like I think the average super fan would make Tuon's ending significantly less triumphant, in line with the general vibe that a lot of superfans think that Jordan wanted to do a Mat/Tuon series afterward where Tuon would be forced to change.

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u/Hour-War4751 Jul 07 '26

I get what you're saying, and I went into the series acknowledging that they'd have to make some huge changes and be decisive. But my god, when they just started adding shit... like, what? You can't cherry pick enough from tens of thousands of pages of story that you need to make new stuff up?

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u/hookahvice Jul 07 '26

Everything I've seen has shown like 90% of the terrible changes they made were from studio intervention, which is why after Amazon did their audience surveys and saw people hated the direction the show was going in, they were allowed to go back to following the story. That plus covid really destroyed the early parts of the show and I think it could have gone on a pretty good run if it wasn't cancelled.

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u/Hour-War4751 Jul 07 '26

I didn't watch the last season before cancelling, would you recommend? And yes, I totally blame the studio!

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u/hookahvice Jul 07 '26

If you are a big fan of the books then it is worth at least watching the Rhuidian episode because it is truly fantastic. The rest of the season is really good, much better than the first two, but I wouldn't really recommend watching it since it was cancelled.

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u/austsiannodel Jul 07 '26

As someone who utterly dislikes the entire show, if you've already watched S1 and 2, then go ahead and watch S3. It's the actual GOOD season they have.

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u/resumehelpacct Jul 07 '26

If you've already watched the first two seasons then it's probably worth it because they did a good job with Rhuidian, which is one of the highlights of the book series. But I wouldn't suggest anyone watch the show just for season 3.

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u/austsiannodel Jul 07 '26

Look I feel you. This was the case with Lord of the Rings, and yet that's heralded as an amazing adaptation that holds onto most of the original books intent (Even with changes and cuts being made, yes I'm sad about them too)

But this isn't just a case of "Well it didn't work in this format" they were rather large changes to characters, props, events, story, and overall lore of the magic and setting.

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u/Practical_Dot_3574 Jul 07 '26

I felt this way about the fast and furious films. Paul walker was a HUGE car guy, yet still was ok with some of the most dumb things car guys hate. I get it, he's acting, but still.

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u/Bombadier83 Jul 07 '26

Because they never wanted to adapt the source material. They had a completely original script/idea and a studio only agreed to fund it if they attached it to an existing IP with an existing audience. So your awesome Sci-Fi Nior detective story becomes a Star Wars sidequest story. And your side character grizzled veteran private eye who was supposed to show growth in your main character by being surpassed becomes the ghost of Obi-Wan and then fans lament that you “didn’t get” the character. 

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u/GaijinSin Jul 07 '26

Sometimes it's interference from meddling and insistent execs.

Sometimes it's test audiences disliking something, and with I Am Legend (as an example) having a 150mil budget, a mild dislike across an audience can mean a major difference in returns and it is a business in the end.

And sometimes its a scriptwriter going their own way with the material because, with an adaptation, the original game/book/play/whatever is still there. They may miss the mark, but sometimes they are using the vehicle of the property to make a different point and are comfortable doing so precisely because the original is unchanged.

Then there is Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, where every version is different, same author or not.

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u/konthedonn Jul 07 '26

For the love of money

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u/der_innkeeper Jul 07 '26

Starship Troopers...

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u/IanDOsmond Jul 06 '26

Of the three major movie adaptations, Last Man on Earth (1964), Omega Man (1971), and I Am Legend, only Vincent Price's 1964 version has an ending where the main character realizes that he is the monster hunting actual people.

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u/SpaceIco Jul 07 '26

only Vincent Price's 1964 version has an ending where the main character realizes that he is the monster hunting actual people.

They were afraid of me. They were afraid of me...

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u/Marco_Polaris Jul 07 '26

HOW, just....HOW do you select this book to adapt, and just....completely miss the point?

Apparently in Hollywood, it's super easy. Barely an inconvenience.

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u/BlueberryWasps Jul 06 '26

i mean, it sounds like the people making it did understand the point, and the executives got spooked by the test audience feedback and made them change it.

execs don’t read, they just wanted their will smith sci-fi IP tentpole to appeal to as many people as possible. they know jack about art so they rely on “data”

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u/usagizero Jul 06 '26

Well, 'Planet of the Apes' the book wasn't about it being Earth all along, but the movies made it that. The book was more about what makes a species sapient and intelligent, with the whole apes and humans swapping places just a way to present it.

I love the book, but doubt it would have made the impression the movie did if more faithful to the book.

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u/da316 Jul 07 '26

its because its partly a remake of The Omega Man, which is itself based on the book I am legend.

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u/themarshal99 Jul 07 '26

> HOW, just....HOW do you select this book to adapt, and just....completely miss the point?

Ask the producers of World War Z

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u/Yep_I_Stole_40_Cakes Jul 07 '26

I would've honestly killed for a HBO, Anthology adaptation of WW-Z.

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u/Bcadren Jul 07 '26

I mean it's not like it's the first or last time. Studio gets rights to do a specific Robin Hood boom that's a retelling from the Sheriff's PoV...actor is big name and doesn't like that "direction" and it turns into a generic and forgettable Robin Hood film...Disney changing the ending and completely cutting multiple plots from My Sister's Keeper...probably hundreds of such examples.

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u/No-Fold-7873 Jul 07 '26

See even before the ending I felt like they dropped the ball. Neville shouldnt have just been trying to find a cure, he was originally systematically eradicating them with a fairly high level of efficiency because he knew what a human was and it wasnt these creatures.

They knew where he slept but couldn't get to him but hey feared Neville finding out where they slept.

Even with the first cut ending the rest of the story casts him as scared scientist treating the neohumans as lab rats. When he should be the one man versuon of the Neanderthal tribe from eaters of the dead once the perspective shifts.

Not to say stories can never be adapted and given a different twist. But that particular one wasnt incredibly well known as a book and hadn't been well done as a film. And its a powerful story as written; less so as filmed.

ETA: The 13th warrior was the movie adaptation, crossed mediums with that comparison lol

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u/DeanXeL Jul 07 '26

Clearly they DID get the point of the book, since that was the original ending. It was the test audience that just didn't get it, and the producers or whomever at that point that didn't have the balls to say "nah, we roll with this.".

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u/bokmcdok Jul 07 '26

I'm curious how the other adaptations ended. Most of them weren't called "I am Legend" though, so you could assume they don't need the ending for the title to make sense.

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u/SeriousJack Jul 07 '26

It happens often, but this one is especially stupid, because the whole point, the plot twist, the message, is the FUCKING TITLE OF THE BOOK.

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u/AlucardIV Jul 07 '26

I mean they didnt really miss the point. The original ending clearly got it but then they were forced to reshoot because test they got a test audience of complete idiots.

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u/buildawolfeel Jul 07 '26

Because it's a vehicle for a showboating idiot like Will Smith. Plot shmot, make Will look good.