8 Movie Scenes That Should Have Happened Off-Screen

Australian Cinephile

We didn't need to see it.

Transcript

00:00One of the most important rules of filmmaking is show, don't tell, because audiences generally

00:05prefer to see rather than be told, film being a visual medium after all. But at the same

00:10time, not everything necessarily lends itself to the visual treatment, and as Hollywood

00:15has proven time and time again, it really loves to hit viewers over the head with its

00:20ideas. These ten movies, no matter how great they may have been, couldn't resist the

00:25urge to show audiences things which, if we're being honest with ourselves, we're probably

00:30better off just being left to our imaginations. By not only shooting these scenes, but including

00:35them in the final cut, these filmmakers showed a lack of faith in viewers to use their imaginations

00:41and think for themselves, in turn leaving them groaning, eye-rolling and maybe even close

00:46to vomiting at the end result. These films would have immediately become more interesting

00:51and less objectionable if these scenes were left on the cutting room floor, but sadly what

00:55what's been seen cannot be unseen. So with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture

01:00and here are eight movie scenes that should have happened off screen.

01:04Number 8. Zara's Death in Jurassic World

01:07Jurassic World is far from a great movie, but it at least delivered easily digestible blockbuster

01:12thrills for the masses, which only made the unnecessarily brutal death of Claire's assistant Zara

01:18that much more shocking. When all hell first breaks loose at the park, Zara is picked up

01:23by a Pteranodon and then dragged, screaming, into the Mosasaurus tank. At this point, she's

01:29then scooped out of the water by another Pteranodon before the Mosasaurus finally dives out of

01:34the water and gobbles them both. It's an oddly sadistic prolonged death scene for a character

01:38who didn't really do anything to earn it compared to, say, the douchebag lawyer in the original

01:43Jurassic Park. It's ugly enough to rather upset the movie's otherwise firmly escapist tone.

01:49Clearly, just showing her to be dropped in the tank was sufficient enough to get the message

01:53across.

01:54Writer-director Colin Trevorrow did later confirm that Zara was depicted as a bridezilla in scenes

02:00cut from the film, which might have made her savage death seem more like a justified comeuppance

02:05than it does in the final film. As it stands, it's a weirdly cruel death which does nothing

02:09for the story or to further audience satisfaction.

02:137. Fury loses an eye in Captain Marvel

02:16Just as most fans expected, Captain Marvel finally revealed the cause of Nick Fury's

02:22damaged eye. And in typical MCU fashion, it wasn't what anyone expected. Ultimately, it

02:28turns out that Fury's eye was scratched by the alien flerkin, Goose, who takes the form

02:32of a cat in the movie. Given that Fury previously implied he lost the eye as a result of serious

02:38deceit, saying,

02:39Last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye in Captain America the Winter Soldier, most

02:43fans were expecting him to suffer the ocular injury due to Squirrel shape-shifting shenanigans.

02:49Alas, fans got supremely trolled, and a potentially jaw-dropping origin story for Fury was turned

02:54into a one-note joke where Fury didn't even seem particularly bothered by his life-changing

02:59injury. Lame. As with Iron Man 3's Mandarin debacle, this was further proof that subverting expectations

03:06is itself not enough, and that if this is the best they could come up with, they were

03:09better off just keeping the event in fans' imaginations instead.

03:136. The Psychiatrist's Exposition Dump in Psycho

03:17Alfred Hitchcock's masterful horror film Psycho ends with the mind-melting revelation

03:22that the murders have been committed by motel owner Norman Bates, who has a split personality

03:28resembling his own dead mother. It's an all-timer as far as plot twists go, yet one undeniably

03:34undermined by the follow-up scene in which psychiatrist Dr. Richmond prosaically explains

03:39the full extent of Norman's illness in the most listless, unimaginative, and yes, clinical

03:44fashion possible. Though there's an argument to be made that audiences were less savvy to

03:49the particulars of mental illness in 1960, even so, as a piece of writing, the scene is

03:54flabbergastingly lazy. Viewed today, it can't be seen as anything other than an otherwise expertly

04:00crafted film telling the audience something they already know. In an ideal world, this

04:05scene would have been left on the cutting room floor, as we transition directly into

04:08the terrific, she-wouldn't-harm-a-fly ending.

04:125. Andy and Red's Reunion in The Shawshank Redemption

04:16It's time to get a little controversial now. The Shawshank Redemption is unquestionably one

04:20of the most crowd-pleasing, heart-warming movies of all time. Hinged on an extremely cathartic

04:26ending in which a paroled Red is reunited with escapee Andy on a beach in Zihuataneo, Mexico.

04:33As wonderful an ending as this is, it does also feel a tad excessive in giving the audience

04:37too much of a hard resolution to the story. Originally, writer-director Frank Darabont

04:43ended the movie with Red riding the bus to the Mexican border, but the studio insisted that he

04:48at least shoot the happier ending, despite the filmmaker having final cut privilege.

04:52Darabont humoured them, and after a test screening of the studio ending was rapturously received,

04:57he agreed to include it. Even so, there's such a thing as giving audiences too much of what they

05:03want. Great art is often born from the anguish of restraint, and having Shawshank roll credits as

05:08Red takes a hopeful ride to Mexico, with that poetic monologue about the Pacific Ocean's blue sea,

05:14would have been a flawless heart-stopper of an ending. Instead, it overstepped on the crowd-pleasing

05:19front by a measure, even if it's still tough to rail against the ending too much,

05:23given the arduous journey these two men have been on. End the movie a minute earlier, though,

05:28and it's practically perfect. 4. Lincoln's Death in Lincoln

05:33Steven Spielberg's terrific Abraham Lincoln biopic reaches its natural conclusion about four minutes

05:39before the end credits actually roll, when Lincoln prepares to head to Ford's Theatre,

05:44where he meets his untimely end. The shot of Lincoln walking down the hallway of his home to leave for

05:49the theatre would have been a beautiful note on which to close things out, but Spielberg indulges

05:54himself by actually taking us to Lincoln's deathbed as he expires. Though the subsequent flashback to

05:59Lincoln delivering his second inaugural address makes for a stirring ending, showing Lincoln's actual

06:05death just feels totally unnecessary given how inevitable it is, though Spielberg at least stops

06:10short of showing the fatal gunshot itself. Nothing is gained from seeing Lincoln expire on screen,

06:16when fading from the hallway of Lincoln's home to his iconic speech would have made for a far more

06:20dignified ending. 3. Midichlorians in Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace

06:26Though some fans will argue that large swaths of the Star Wars prequels should have never been

06:31committed to film, most will agree that one of the prequel trilogy's major mistakes was in straining

06:36itself to explain the Force. In The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon Jinn explains to a young Anakin that the

06:42building blocks of life and therefore the Force are midichlorians, a sort of space bacteria naturally

06:47occurring in the universe. It was a blatant attempt to hand wave the inconsistencies in the Force from

06:53the original trilogy, yet beyond being rather silly only made things even more unnecessarily complex.

06:59Plus, there was much charm and intrigue in the mystery of how the Force worked, and lifting the veil on

07:04that was a major mistake. Granted, numerous references are made to the midichlorians throughout the

07:10prequel trilogy, but it's Qui-Gon's straight-up explanation which proves the most egregious.

07:15At least, if midichlorians as a concept weren't something so clearly defined by removing this

07:20scene from The Phantom Menace, fans would have one less thing to complain about.

07:242. The Epilogue in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

07:30Harry Potter mostly wrapped up in style with the thrilling two-hour finale that was

07:34The Deathly Hallows Part 2, except for that widely ridiculed epilogue sequence.

07:39The scene in question takes place 19 years after Voldemort's defeat, with Harry, Hermione,

07:45and Ron watching their own kids leaving for Hogwarts at King's Cross Station.

07:49It's a cute idea, and certainly gave J.K. Rowling's books an incredibly satisfying ending,

07:54but as with any big-screen adaptation, it's all about the execution.

07:59Ultimately, the inexplicably ropey makeup effects to try and make the principal actors look almost double

08:04their ages renders the scene unintentionally hilarious, more akin to a thrown-together

08:10SNL skit than the final scene in a $250 million blockbuster. If the effects weren't up to snuff,

08:16David Yates probably should have just nixed the scene and left it to the audience's imagination,

08:20but inevitably, Yates would have been raked over the coals by fans for excluding it,

08:25so he was certainly damned either way.

08:271. Bruce Lives in The Dark Knight Rises

08:31The ending of The Dark Knight Rises has been tirelessly dissected and debated by fans,

08:36especially the revelation that Bruce Wayne didn't die in Baines' fusion reactor explosion,

08:41but rather rejected himself to safety and started a new life in Florence with Selina Kyle.

08:46Many fans were miffed, quite understandably, that Christopher Nolan went as far as to show Bruce

08:51living it up in a Florence cafe when he's spotted by Alfred.

08:542. Alfred This obviously paid off an earlier scene in the film where Alfred expressed hope

08:58he might one day see such a sight, but given that we all knew what Alfred was going to look up and

09:03see, did we really need to actually see it? The visual of Bruce at the cafe just highlighted how

09:08absurd it would be for him to go anywhere without being recognised, while at least if Alfred simply

09:13nodded happily to another table, we'd know that Bruce lived without being invited to consider how

09:17daft it all was. You can argue that Nolan had earned such an indulgence after three

09:22largely terrific movies, but even so, an absence of Bruce would've been the more artistically

09:27watertight way to go. And that concludes our list. If you can think of any other examples,

09:32then do let us know in the comments below, and while you're there, don't forget to like,

09:36and subscribe, and tap that notification bell. Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there,

09:40and I can be found across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with

09:46WhatCulture. I hope you have a magical day, and I'll see you real soon.

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