G'day TMA,
Here's the original UK ending for
the movie. Click-and-drag over to read the following:
After Sarah has fronted Juno, fought with her, crippled her and left her to die at the hands of the Crawlers, she chances on a way out of the cave. She claws her way to the surface, bursting out into daylight. In terror, she runs back to the cars and drives desperately away, fleeing past the lake. Finally, overcome with exhaustion and emotion, she pulls the car to the side of the road, shaking and bleeding. With a great whoosh that shakes the car, a massive cargo truck zooms past, close and very fast. Sarah jumps in fright, vomits, then realises she's safe, leans back in her seat ... and Juno lunges at her, bloody and torn, from the passenger side of the vehicle.
That's where -- as I understand it -- the US version of the movie ends.
In the original, as Sarah recoils from Juno's attack in the car, she blinks and looks around ... and she's home, and there in front of her is her daughter, calling to her, and lighting the candles on the cake. Sarah reaches out her arms to her, feeling the love and family she thought she'd lost ...
... and the camera pulls back, to find Sarah still in the cave, on her knees and staring at open space in front of her. We see the flaming stick she used as a torch lying abandoned, still burning, on the ground, where Sarah now sees the birthday cake. She hasn't made it out of the cave at all. She's lost in a descent of her own, deep inside the cave of her own mind, all alone. As the torch gutters, the pitch black is closing in around her. And you know from the sounds that the Crawlers aren't very far away ...
And that's the end.
I can well understand folk saying the closing isn't as strong as the opening in the US version, but I think you'll agree the UK version has a serious kick. (I understand the UK ending will be included on the R1 DVD, but only as a separate extra, not grafted back into the movie.)
Anyhow, there it is, for what it's worth.
And now, I'm off to bed, to start reading "Hosts" for the first time.
Can't wait !!
dùrachdan,
MacEachaidh