M. Night Shyamalan Tells Us The ‘Provocative’ Alternate Ending He Shot For 'The Village' That Was ‘So Polarizing'

Cinema Blend

Director M. Night Shyamalan has become famous over the years for his twist endings, beginning with the shocking reveal at the end of "The Sixth Sense" and continuing through movies like "The Visit," "Glass," and "Split." When ranking the best M. Night Shyamalan movies, it’s impossible not to focus on the success or failure of his endings. One of my favorite twists in an M. Night Shyamalan movie occurs in the 2004 thriller "The Village," though during a recent appearance on CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast, the director informed us that he had a wildly different idea in mind, but it was too jarring on audiences.  The following is going to get into spoilers for "The Village," and a few more of M. Night Shyamalan’s movies, so proceed with caution if you prefer not to know story details for a 20 year old movie.

Transcript

00:00You know, that ending changed a bit.

00:02You know, I had shot a different ending for The Village.

00:06Can we ask what it is?

00:09Yeah, it was, it was, it's funny.

00:11I thought for a long time about putting it on the Blu-rays.

00:14I was just about to, I was like, I don't remember.

00:16No, and I intentionally didn't because it was so different and it would make such a,

00:20you would change your memory of the movie so much because it was so alternate paths.

00:24Basically, like, she came, she came out and everyone found out about it.

00:29Found out about the place and it kind of basically blows up, essentially.

00:34And it was, it was, there was something.

00:37And then, you know, literally like there, we were, the Jay-Z's song,

00:41like I was thinking about putting 99 Problems, like this is before it came out, the Black Album.

00:46And, and I was thinking of putting that as the thing because like she comes and literally like a car almost hits her,

00:51but the guy driving it, which was me, by the way.

00:53Yes.

00:53And it was, was, was listening to Jay-Z's 99 Problems.

00:57That was the ending of the movie.

00:58Like I almost hit her and like, you're hearing him, I got 99 Problems, but, and they went.

01:02So you basically, the value system just goes flip at the end.

01:06And what ended up happening, it was so, my wife loves that.

01:09And she saw it and was like, that was the end.

01:10Oh, you shot it.

01:11You didn't shoot it.

01:12Yeah, no, we shot it.

01:12Okay.

01:13Yeah.

01:13And it's so provocative that it was, it was so polarizing.

01:18And even because like people got like offended because like you're hearing cursing.

01:21And it's like immediately you went from like Little House on the Prairie to boom.

01:25Yeah, Jay-Z, so it was really exciting.

01:27So anyway, but the idea of the way it is now where they, they could, they make a decision

01:32to continue this way of life is, you know, was really powerful and pointing in that kind

01:39of, you know, tableau of them standing at the end and making the decision where we're

01:43all like, it's worth it for this.

01:46I mean, we'd all want that for our kids kind of like, if we could, could make a world where

01:50they were, where we think they're safer, you know?

01:52Yeah.

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