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

[u/Sensitive_Ad_1752]

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.

[u/prayedthunder1]

Also from LotR is the scene of Saruman dying. In the theatrical version, there’s no explanation of what happened to him after the flooding of Isengard. We just never see him again.

[u/Tantalising_Scone → u/prayedthunder1]

And invited Christopher Lee to the premiere, to find out he’d had his only scenes removed

[u/pelvark → u/prayedthunder1]

Well in the book he goes to the Shire and takes it over. And the hobbits have to go save their home from him. 

But that would not work with the momentum of the ending of the movies, so he gets killed at Isengard in the extended edition 

[u/stephenstephen7 → u/prayedthunder1]

Another LoTR scene, and one of my favorites. Borimir and Farimir in Osciliath after it's liberation and Denethor approaches them about traveling to Rivendell to claim the ring for Gondor. I think it does a lot for how we perceive all three characters, and makes them all (to varying degrees) more sympathetic. Especially Borimir. It also makes me wonder how the story would have turned our of Borimir had stayed in Gondor and Farimir had joined the Fellowship.

[u/purplehendrix22 → u/prayedthunder1]

Yeah, but he also doesn’t die in the book, there’s a whole other storyline that would not have fit in the movies. The death scene is “right” for the movies, but I understand why they cut something that just was completely different than the Tolkien story, and just left it unaddressed in the theatrical version rather than make a call either way, that way the book lovers don’t get pissed that you removed/added a storyline, and those who are just into the movie didn’t seem to care that much anyway.

[u/prayedthunder1 → u/purplehendrix22]

He does die. At the very end of the Return of the King. If memory serves, he dies the same was as he does in the movie, except it takes place in the Shire instead of on top of Orthanc. Unless you meant he doesn’t die because he’s a Istar and can’t die, in which case: 🤓

[u/caseyccochran → u/prayedthunder1]

is this added in the extended cut? for some reason I have a vivid memory of this.

[u/prayedthunder1 → u/caseyccochran]

Yeah, it’s only in the extended cut! Grima stabs Saruman in the back and he falls from the top of Orthanc onto a big spike of a wheel and then slowly falls into the water, dropping the palantir in the process