9 Deleted Movie Sub-Plots That Changed Everything
These background stories could've completely ruined our favourite films...
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00:00I imagine that when writing a screenplay it's difficult to strike the right balance between
00:04focusing on a storyline and keeping things tight, and giving too little outside information,
00:09leaving the world feeling a bit barren. This is usually where subplots come in handy,
00:14offering a bit of support without changing anything too much in the main storyline.
00:18But there are certain subplots out there that had way more power,
00:21and in this case, none of them survived.
00:24So I'm Amy from WhatCulture, and here are 9 deleted movie subplots that changed everything.
00:309. Nightcrawler – A Sympathetic Backstory
00:33Nightcrawler's protagonist Lou Bloom is a bad person. He's not likeable, he's not relatable,
00:38and as much as we may try, we don't really understand why he does the things he does
00:42to the extent he does them. It would have changed the film's entire tone, then,
00:46if we were to be given some deep Lou lore. For instance, if we were shown sequences from his
00:51childhood that explained why he was like this. Maybe that he developed an obsession with death
00:55from a young age after his whole family was murdered in a break-in gone wrong,
00:59or something like that. Maybe we could understand.
01:01The initial intention was to paint Lou as a damaged person,
01:04a survivor archetype who was just trying to get by day to day,
01:08his morals being pushed to the wayside by harsh reality.
01:11There'd be a whole subplot revealing Lou's traumatic past and showing how it relates
01:15to his current self, but alas, this was not to be.
01:18Director Dan Gilroy decided it would actually be more effective if he just went the opposite way,
01:23and made Lou unimaginably cold. He said it would detract from the experience if he had
01:28to set aside too much time to spend on Lou's past or give him any sympathetic scenes.
01:33And so, all of that was cut from the script, and the new Lou that we know today was born.
01:388. The Uninvited 1944
01:41The Missing Priest
01:42There is one line that remains in the final cut of this film today that betrays its earlier form,
01:47a line in which a character refers to a priest that we've never seen or heard of.
01:52Out of the blue and without much follow-up, it's a comment that's pretty easy to ignore,
01:56but if you know, then you know.
01:58Before the final cuts and touches,
02:00The Uninvited featured a whole subplot and additional character by way of Father Anson.
02:05In the book, the film is based on Uneasy Freehold by Dorothy McArdle.
02:09Father Anson is a local priest and a very big advocate for Mary's character.
02:13Worth noting here that Mary is of course the bad guy.
02:16He helped paint the picture, along with the other locals,
02:18of Mary being a beautiful, virtuous woman and her rival Carmel being ungodly.
02:24His input rooted the film's supernatural elements in more biblical origins,
02:28with heavier mentions of demons being the antithesis of angels,
02:31rather than just run-of-the-mill monsters.
02:33Much of his motivation in the novel was that he wanted to perform an exorcism on the haunted house,
02:38something that could have made for some nice, scary visuals if included in the film.
02:41Father Anson was however completely removed before the film ever reached audiences,
02:46taking with him his biblical brand of supernatural horror.
02:497. Love Actually
02:51A much sadder story.
02:53Depending on your feelings about rom-coms,
02:55you might either absolutely adore or totally detest Love Actually.
02:59It's a sickly sweet Christmas classic,
03:01intertwining stories of various couples across the UK to deliver one united message.
03:07Love is all you need.
03:08Merry Christmas.
03:09Well, originally, actually we were going to get a whole other couple included in this story,
03:13with this plot thread focusing on the school head teacher and her terminally ill partner.
03:18Not only would this have made for one overtly gay relationship in a film that's otherwise
03:22entirely straight, and don't try telling me that Bill Nighy's character is gay representation,
03:26it's very ambiguous at best, but at the same time,
03:28it also would have been the only one with an undebatably sad ending.
03:32We would have spent time with the couple in their home,
03:34the teacher caring for her partner as they come to terms with the inevitable,
03:38and then dealing with the aftermath when it happens.
03:40The story would have had a totally different tone than even the saddest other ones we know
03:45from the film today, and overall it would have shaped the movie to be slightly different,
03:48less perfect.
03:50Taking off some of the Christmas sparkle and the perfect happy ending could have actually
03:54been quite an interesting, good thing.
03:56But then again, not everyone wants sadness in their rom-coms,
03:59definitely not in the festive season either.
04:01Six.
04:02Hannibal.
04:03Another serial killer.
04:05You may have noticed when watching the sequel to the infamous Silence of the Land,
04:08that at one point, a whole other serial killer is mentioned.
04:12A killer by the name of Il Mostro.
04:14In real life, Il Mostro refers to the monster of Florence,
04:17who murdered 14 people over the 70s and 80s.
04:20In fiction, Il Mostro has been firmly cemented into the story of Hannibal.
04:24First in the 1999 novel, where an investigator is left in disgrace
04:28after arresting the wrong man accused of being Il Mostro,
04:31and in the TV adaptation, whereby Hannibal and Il Mostro are alleged to be the same person.
04:36Finally, when it comes to this film, they almost met face-to-face.
04:40Well, that was until that whole bit was chopped out with Hannibal's own surgical precision.
04:44After referencing Il Mostro,
04:46he actually makes an appearance as Hannibal murders Chief Inspector Pazzi.
04:49Working as a janitor in Florence,
04:51he encounters the titular cannibal mid-murder, but manages to escape with his life,
04:55soon afterwards fleeing the city.
04:57The subplot relating to Il Mostro's similarly horrible crimes,
05:00culminating in his appearance and fleeing,
05:02certainly wasn't the top of the priority list.
05:05It's kind of a shame, really, because it was included in the book and the TV show for a reason.
05:09It's quite compelling.
05:11So you really would have hoped that here,
05:12it would be treated with more significance and not just cut.
05:155. Me Before You
05:17Lu's Tragic Past
05:192016's Me Before You tells the unlikely love story of a small-town girl
05:24and a recently paralyzed billionaire.
05:26Based on the novel of the same name by Jojo Moyes,
05:28it stays fairly faithful to its source material, but one big detail is missing.
05:33In the novel, the explanation for why protagonist Lu is so scared to expand her horizons
05:38is that she experienced huge trauma as a teenager.
05:41We find out that at a party, Lu was sexually assaulted by a group of older boys,
05:45and following this, she shuts her entire life down.
05:48Author and screenwriter Moyes explained that she chose to leave it out
05:51as there was no way she could comfortably translate it to scream.
05:54In the book, she explains, the rape is covered in an almost throwaway manner,
05:58as if Lu hasn't processed it fully and instead keeps it tucked away in her mind.
06:03She explains it would have totally changed the tone of the story
06:06and done a disservice both to the character and the important subject matter.
06:10So Moyes made the smart decision to just call it quits.
06:134. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
06:15Mary Jane almost appeared.
06:17It seems unthinkable now that they would have crammed another character into this film,
06:21especially considering how well-known it is for its overabundance of characters.
06:25But this wasn't just any old throwaway that they were going to chuck in there,
06:28it was the ever-iconic Mary Jane Watson.
06:31Shailene Woodley was cast in the role of Mary Jane and had filmed all of her scenes.
06:35The scenes weren't huge and her part wasn't going to be groundbreaking,
06:38but the goal was to lay some of the groundwork for her presence later in the future.
06:42With Gwen Stacy's death happening at the end of the film,
06:45I must say it would have felt a bit preemptive and calculated
06:48to start shoehorning in MJ in the very same picture.
06:50In the end, the decision to cut out MJ worked for the best.
06:53Gwen's death wasn't sullied by a rival romance,
06:56and the cast didn't burst at its seams, close as it was.
06:593. World War Z
07:01Jerry's wife goes rogue.
07:03It's a heartwarming moment at the end of World War Z when Jerry reunites with his family,
07:07embraced happily by his adoring wife and children.
07:10It seems that a huge part of his motivation throughout
07:13is the thought of them being back together again,
07:15the drive to keep his family safe and get things back to a stage
07:18where they can live there happily ever afters.
07:20Well, there was almost a rather sour undertone to all of this,
07:24as initially there was going to be a subplot in which
07:26Jerry's wife begins an affair with a paratrooper.
07:29Oh yeah, sorry buddy, I know you're off saving the world,
07:32but I gotta get me some while you're away.
07:34This subplot would have led the film to dedicate more time
07:36to Jerry's family in his absence,
07:38and also change the family's dynamic on his return,
07:41in turn influencing the whole tone of the film's ending.
07:44In the end, it was decided that this little storyline
07:46wasn't worth the time it would eat up, and it was just deleted.
07:48In some ways, I think it almost could have improved the film,
07:51you know, giving it less of a textbook happy ending.
07:53However, with everything being as miserable as it is these days,
07:57having a bland happy ending isn't the worst thing in the world.
08:002. Prometheus
08:02Alien Jesus
08:03Now, in a very sharp change of tone, I introduce you to Alien Jesus,
08:08a genuine real idea that was almost an important subplot in a genuine real movie.
08:13And not just any old movie, in 2012's already controversial Prometheus.
08:18If in doubt, just add Alien Jesus, that's what I've always said,
08:21and there's probably a reason I'm not a screenwriter,
08:23because apparently that would never work,
08:25hence why the explicit stating of
08:27Jesus was an alien sent to save you and you killed him,
08:30thus bringing about your own doom,
08:32being removed from Prometheus' plot.
08:34Ridley Scott, in an interview with the since-closed-down-movies.com,
08:37did not shy away from stating the film's biblical links.
08:40There are a number of scenes that mirror biblical and mythical events,
08:43but after deliberation, the filmmakers stopped short of
08:46actually making an official plot point of us finding out that Jesus was an engineer.
08:50The biblical stuff is super hinted at,
08:52but it's never actually explored as it was once intended.
08:55At one point, Scott even deliberated having us meet God,
08:58another engineer, of course, in a potential sequel.
09:00Thankfully, though, they backed down.
09:021. Halloween – The Curse of Michael Myers – Loomis' Possession
09:06Test audiences did the heavy lifting for us on this one,
09:09and managed to get one terrible Halloween subplot
09:12kicked to the curb late on in production.
09:14The test cut of the sixth Halloween film, known as the Producer's Cut,
09:17varies quite markedly from the version we know today.
09:20The end of the Producer's Cut sets up a subplot to carry on even into the next film,
09:24meaning that had it not been removed,
09:26then the impact would be felt beyond this movie.
09:29Originally, Dr. Loomis was intended to become possessed by the Mark of the Thorn,
09:33you know, the kili-kili curse thing that makes Michael do bad things,
09:36and it was going to be passed to him by the now-dead cult leader.
09:39The film would have ended with his desperate cry as he acknowledged his fate,
09:42but alas, the fate was removed.
09:44Audience members at the test screening despised the idea of Loomis
09:48becoming involved in the cult, and they vocally opposed it.
09:51And, as a result, the whole thing was rethought.
09:53When it came time for reshoots, Loomis actor Donald Pleasence had sadly already passed away,
09:58so the whole concept of passing on the curse to him was scrapped,
10:01and instead Dr. Loomis simply meets his demise in an off-screen death.
10:05It's far less than he deserved, but, you know, you gotta work with what you've got.
10:09And on that note, we've reached the end of this list of
10:1110 Deleted Movie Subplots That Changed Everything.
10:14If you know any more really interesting ones,
10:16then let us know about them in the comments down below.
10:19And remember to check out WhatCulture.com for more lists and articles like this every single day.
10:23As always, I've been Amy from WhatCulture, and I'll catch you next time.