Why the Unfilmed Inglourious Basterds Ending Is More Heroic

The ending of Inglourious Basterds (IB) is not the same ending written in the screenplay. I’m talking about the explosive ending of the fiery Theater scene. Though the ending that everybody saw is more controversial and direct, the original ending is more emotional and heroic.

I’ve been waiting for IB for a long, long, long ass time. When the script was leaked in summertime 2008, I stopped whatever lame thing I was doing and searched frantically for it until I found it.

I read the script. It felt like authentic Tarantino. I was excited. But at this point, Brad Pitt wasn’t even cast as Aldo Raine. At least I had the script, I thought. I read the script couple more times and played out the scenes in my head the way I imagined them. And every scene was EPIC. I imagined the conclusion of the movie in the forest between Aldo and Landa as if it was a scene straight out of 300, with a monstrous, fiery storm brewing behind our heroes in a sullen, hellish emptiness.

TONIGHT....WE DINE....IN...NAZI-OCCUPIED FRANCE!

But back to the Theater scene.

The Film Ending.

In the film, the bomb-strapped Basterds, the Bear Jew and Pfc. Ulmer, step out of the theater, go to the men’s restroom, load their pistols, head over to Hitler’s box seating, and riddle Hitler, and a bunch of Nazis, with burning bullets. Their ankle bombs explode, finishing off the two Basterds and whoever else was still alive.

I liked this ending. I liked the fact that Hitler was finished off at the hands of our very own Basterds. This provides us with a more cathartic conclusion. Not just a tease. If you’re gonna break the rules, you might as well go all the way and blast Hitler’s brain with a pair of machine guns. And that’s just what QT did.

But that’s not what took place in the original script.

The Script Ending.

In the script, the Bear Jew heads out to the restroom alone to activate his ankle bomb in the stall. He walks out of the stall and heads calmly towards the exit. But there’s a Nazi soldier in there washing his hands. The Nazi turns casually towards the Bear Jew, and his face begins to scream. The Bear Jew sees the Nazi’s exasperated facial expression and notices the swastika scar on his forehead. The two have crossed paths before.

Both the Bear Jew and the Nazi, who are only a couple feet away from each other, pull out their pistols and blast each other away until they empty their chambers. Both fall dead.

When I first read this, I imagined this whole scene in slow motion. It also reminded me of the close up gunfight in the gun fu movie the girl in True Romance watches in Christian Slater’s apartment.

Meanwhile, Pfc. Hirschberg, is still sitting in his theater seat. After Shosanna’s message is delivered and the theater is bursting in flames, Hirschberg tries to get out of the theater, but can’t since everybody is stampeding madly. He knows he won’t be able to get out on time and accepts his fate right before the bomb explodes.

This is what was originally in the script. The fate of both Basterds is unique and their reactions are more human. Hirschberg still tries to get out. He doesn’t wanna die. But at the end, he wrestles with his emotions and accepts his fate, unlike the rest of the Nazi theatergoers. It’s admirable. It’s human to do whatever you can to survive. It’s heroic to accept the dire circumstances with a heads up.

In the script, the emotional conflict the Bear Jew undergoes is evident when he faces the Nazi soldier. When he looks into the eyes of the Nazi, time freezes. It is the point of no return. If he doesn’t dive for cover, the Nazi will blow him away. What is he going to do? He decides to go down fighting. This ending is as QT described it in the script, “romantic.”

In the film, you completely lose this sense of urgency and human need for survival. The Basterds completely ignored the bombs strapped to their ankles. They didn’t care they were gonna die. It’s hard to sympathize with them when it doesn’t seem like they were overcoming any emotional conflict when deciding to bombard Hitler’s theater box until their bombs exploded.

The biggest obstacle heroes face is the most prevalent obstacle that people can relate to: overcoming one’s emotions. Bitchslapping your instinct for survival, and knowing that if you’re gonna go down, at least you’ll go down like a man. This scene in the film missed the first half of this equation and without it the result is a little less human and a little more robotic.

I loved the film. I watched it twice and I can’t wait to see it a dozen more times when it comes out on DVD. I just couldn’t help but feel as I walked out of the theater how much more awesome it would have been to have seen the “romantic” end I had replayed in my head so many times over the past year.