Before he moved on to big-budget arthouse blockbusters like “Blade Runner 2049” and his upcoming “Dune,” Denis Villeneuve made a big first impression with his English-language debut “Prisoners.” The film was exquisitely shot, and managed to maintain suspense throughout its runtime, leaving the audience with an ambiguous ending. But it seems like we could have got a different ending to the film, as Villeneuve reveals he shot two endings to “Prisoners.”
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Speaking with frequent collaborator Roger Deakins in the latest episode of his Team Deakins podcast, the two revisited their inaugural collaboration on “Prisoners.” Despite this being the first time Villeneuve worked with Hollywood studios, the director said he didn’t feel constricted at all. On the contrary, he decided to shoot two endings alongside Roger Deakins, an unusual move for a director making his studio debut. According to James Ellis Deakins, the producers decided to pick whichever ending tested higher and put it in the movie.
“It’s true. They didn’t shape the edit, but there were two endings because they felt my idea, which was closer to the screenplay, was maybe too much depressing and not commercial enough,” Villeneuve said. “I remember we tested both, and they came to me saying they scored equally and that maybe mine was better so they went with mine. It was a beautiful experience.”
In “Prisoners,” we follow Jake Gyllenhaal‘s Loki, a detective investigating the abduction of two young girls, and what happens when one of the girls’ fathers (played by Hugh Jackman) takes matters into his own hands. In the original ending, Jackman’s character, Dover, is imprisoned in a hidden pit, and we fade to black as Loki hears Dover blowing a whistle —but it is heavily Loki saves him. We see that Detective Loki hears the whistle and given the character is absolutely tenacious with uncovering all details, we know he will eventually find and save Dover.
In a 2013 interview with Buzzfeed, screenwriter Aaron Guzikowski shines a light on what was in the alternate ending. “They move the car. They see [Hugh Jackman] down there. You know he’s going to be taken out of the hole. I like it much better being ambiguous. Even though you assume that’s what’s probably going to happen, I like that there’s a small chance that he’s not going to get him out of there for whatever reason.”