.
With the nasty virus that's doing the rounds - and Colner's evening at Swan Lake with it's many different endings - I was reminded of a Film....I am Legend (2007) the latest/modern adaption of the Omega Man (1971) starring Charlton Heston.
I am Legend - - - a post-apocalyptic scifi horror in which a virus created as a cure for cancer wipes out the majority of mankind - the remaining survivors being either mutated nocturnal superhuman predators, or the the lucky few who were immune...one being a Dr Neville (Will Smith) who lives in New York - alone with his dog, and continuing his experimentation in quest for a cure.
I saw the film in 2008, not long after it's release...but not at the cinema, it was a pirated copy that'd been released in Poland, in english with polish subtitles - but it wasn't until I saw it again, some years later, on u.k tv...that I got the shock, and it was all in the ending.
The film released in the U.K and most other countries, has Dr Neville under siege...trapped in his laboratory behind a protective reinforced glass wall, with the leader of the Mutants/Darkseekers throwing himself at the glass wall which is slowly cracking under the strain, behind it and with Neville is a couple more recently arrived immune survivors(mother & son) and a Mutant lady strapped to a stretcher...and it's her who they want back....in short, it reaches a point that with one more bash against the glass - it'll go through, so Neville gets out a hand grenade, throws himself against the glass at the same time as does the mutant leader, and boom, up they all go....the mother/son are safe btw, and have, the then found cure etc etc.....But in the original Polish release that I first saw - they used the alternate ending, the mutant stops his attack on the glass, makes a signal to identify his connection to the mutant female, Neville realises their intelligence...he opens the door, and returns the lady mutant to her partner whils also coming to the realization that to them - it's he who is the monster.... .
why some peoples/nations were chosen to see one version of the ending and others another - I couldn't exactly say, a sociological exercise ?...but anyway - I know which one I prefer.
Cheers.
![]()