Original Ending
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — General Discussion
derek-mercury — 13 years ago(March 18, 2013 07:36 PM)
I'll first start off by saying I'm a fan of this film. I know it got a lot of critics' disapproval back in 1999, and the handful of people who actually saw the film in theaters weren't very impressed by it. I liked it. I saw it when I was on vacation in 7th grade in Las Vegas for a wedding; if anything, I enjoy the film as a nostalgic piece. Then came October, 1999 and I picked up the DVD with $19.99 of 12 year old allowance in 1999 dollars (so damn straight I'm emotionally invested in this film haha) and the first thing I noticed was the trailer had clips of a handful of scenes not in the film itself; which was REALLY common back in then and still is to some point. Douglas in a concrete, undefined room with Getchen Mol and the wall suddenly opening up to reveal a great blinding light. It was an indicator of something pretty extensive that wasn't just a trimmed scene. There is also a clip of the two (Bierko and Mol) on a roof top at night time. Of course there's no deleted scenes on the DVD.
Now to the point of my part nostalgic post: I was browsing youtube and found the original ending to 'The Thirteenth Floor'. This is what I saw in the trailer some 13 years ago that wasn't in the film; listening to the audio commentary you'll find out that they did at least one series of reshoots including the ending. So here it is. Ambiguous, I can see why the theatrical ending was eventually made. It fits the film and some of it's themes fine, but the theatrical ending more clearly gives the film closure not to mention is much more visually pleasing/uplifting. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB17_peD96w -
frankenstyrene-372-219584 — 12 years ago(July 07, 2013 04:41 PM)
Didn't know this existed until now. I like the movie enough to own it but this ending makes the theatrical ending look like the tacked-on shiny/happy ending of Blade Runner, which that movie did not need. I now see that 13th Floor didn't need the ending it has, either. Doug's different hairstyle should be enough to tell most audiences, if they paid attention, what just happened here. This is a happy ending but doesn't club you over the head with it. I like it.
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stephaniesanderson67 — 8 months ago(July 07, 2025 06:54 AM)
Was there ever a version of this movie that aired with this ending? I vaguely remember the movie having this ending when i first watched it. Except in the version i saw we got to see the city he saw which had big buildings and flying cars.