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I like this movie enough to say that I wished Hell that Oliver Stone had chosen the alternate ending instead of the "nice ending".


For the uninitiated, the theatrical ending shows Mickey & Mallory escaping prison scott free, and raising a family.

The alternate ending shows Mickey, Mallory, and Owen, the inmate who helped them escape on the condition that he can ride with them, riding in a van. Owen says that he'd love to have sex with Mallory, and Mallory gets mad and demands that Mickey drop him off. Owen then shoots an insanely grinning Mickey in the face with a shotgun, and then Mallory pleads that Owen not shoot her, but he does anyway. Credits roll.

Should Mickey & Mallory have escaped and be allowed to live a "normal" life, or should they have paid for their crimes by dying?

Any comments?

i like them both, but i think the alternate ending works better for the tone of the movie

My point, exactly.

I think the alternate is too forced imo although it makes sense in the fact like killers getting killed, endless cycle, death part of life etc. etc. points and message being made in the actual movie during the Wayne Gail interview.

But the whole Owen thing would of been a cheap cop-out adding a 'divine' your actions are acountable to a higher force tone to the movie right at the end after everything that's gone on would of been just forced and sucked in my opinion especially after making the allusions to them being creations of society and obviously 'natural born killers'.

But you grow to like Mickey and Mallory so much you do want them to live happily ever or something even though they've commited such terrible acts.

This reminds me so much of The Great Silence. The audience wants the bad guys to pay for their crimes. But life isn't fair at all the time. Sure, I hate it when the bad guys win. You have keep in mind that good doesn't always triumph. Evil will eventually win.

In this case I prefer the ending in which the bad guys win.

Films that make you angry because the bad guys win....are great films. Remenber that quote from Brian de Palma's film Body Double:

"Sometimes even heroes come to tragic ends..."

NBK is truly a great film.