DVD edition for I AM LEGEND(2008).
© Warner Bros. Home Video

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Alternate Endings

We have had a week now to digest and dissect the Warner Brothers DVD release of I am Legend.  Depending on which version you bought you may or may not have seen the alternate “controversial” ending.  In case you haven’t seen it by now it is available on YouTube. 

What I thought was interesting, if not mind blowing, was that Warner Brothers and the powers that be decided to go with the darker ending where Robert Neville (Will Smith) gives Anna (Alice Braga) the cure and remains behind to take care of the infected (by taking care of I mean a grenade with its pin pulled out). I have conflicted feelings between the theatrical cut and this new alternate ending. At first I wanted to applaud Warner Brothers for going this route. I should applaud them because, in this era of mass marketing and prepackaged trilogies and spin offs, Warner Brothers didn’t use this alternate ending. The alternate ending guaranteed a sequel with one of the biggest stars in the world. For me, the original ending of I am Legend felt shallow and weak. After going on this emotional journey of one man’s fight against the world to stay alive both physically and emotionally he dies and we are handed two throw away characters who complete his journey of I am Legend.

I’m sure many of you feel the same was as I do. I heard many people grumbling about the ending as I walked out of the theater and now hear others grumbling at the water cooler because of the original ending on DVD. Why did they keep the original ending in the theatrical cut? Why not have Robert make it to some sort of sanctuary? His self sacrifice for Anna and Ethan (Charlie Tahan) felt meaningless. This alternate ending had Robert reach a kind of peace an understanding towards the infected that wasn’t accomplished in the theatrical cut. 

A sequel as been spoken about but without Will Smith the story is really going to have to be phenomenal (Check out Mania’s article). Of course, the alternate ending is, in essence, meaningless. Has any film ever made a sequel where the main character, who died, now survives in alternate ending then gets a sequel with him alive in it? No. 

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