I just saw the film in NYC - -no boat scene at all. The yacht version, however, does seem to make more sense. I'm not sure the director's excuse makes any sense, about the distribution issue.
In this version, I just assumed that the hotel where the maid was speaking Spanish was somewhere in the Mediterranean as they prepared to do the satellite attack (as they had gone on quite a bit about television's pernicious anti-revolutinary influence). I didn't see anything in the subtitles about Nicaragua as an option.
The note in the apartment was NOT signed The Edukators as all the previous notes were (nice point of a poster above about the Wenders' reference). And I don't think it was done by press-on letters like Jan's had been. So maybe it was written by H the capitalist. Though I do think he was the '68 idealist (or as a poster pointed out, at least for the pot and sex he's nostalgic for) he lied to them about his salary and Jan compliments him on being a good liar and manipulating them, especially with the free love line. (I assume that a character is named Jule as a reference to that other famous three-some Jules et Jim.)
So it's confusing! I shudder to think how a Hollywood version would resolve it.

I saw a version without a boat too, I saw it tonight, in Los Angeles, CA. The boat seems like it could be crucial in understanding the movie, it sheds a different light on it. Since I thought that Hardenberg called the cops, but that Jan, Peter and Jule fled to Spain. I didn't think about where they got the cash for the hotel though.

I watched it today 26 March 2005 and I saw no boat

i saw the movie yesterday in an independant cinema in Bath in England. it did not have a boat scene in, there was the old guy in his car pretty obviously looking discomforted and had probably called the police guys in to sort it out. the message "some people never change" i thought was however many times he said he was some wild lefty in his youth, he was now a capitalist for life. that would not change like he said earlier in tyhe film where he is washing his clothes talking about how political beliefs change with age. what they did show at the credits was the silloutte of the tv satellite transmitters. this was obviously for you to interperet.

yeah that was the american version too i think.
so, my thought is, how are thay paying for all of this?
did they move and get jobs, are they stealing,
but the radar or radio towers at the end make it
clear that the kids are going to try to knock out
tv whoopee, big deal, so what.
maybe it is the kids that have to change, and
not hardenberger.

Check out the Alternate Versions at IMDB.
http://www.imdb.com/board/10408777/alternateversions
The international version misses the scene with the boat.

I saw the movie in Sweden too and at first I thought there was no boat in it, but then I remembered that in the ending when the three of them were lying in the bed, there was a sequence where you saw them taking off in a boat. They looked very happy and I assumed at first that this was some kind of a dream Jule had. It looked like a dream because the light was different and maybe in some kind of slow motion?, but now I realize it was just Jule thinking of them in the boat travelling to the island.
I don't know, maybe you also just have forgotten that piece from the film like I did at first? Or there is two versions of the movie.
Strange. But it's a great movie!

I just watched the movie in Sweden yesterday, 16/2/05, and I didn't see a boat either. In a way I could see how having the boat would make the ending more exciting because it becomes more ambigious, but at the same time I get the feeling that just seeing them in the hotel makes them seem more humble than if they were dressed nicely and riding along in a yacht, which is nice.
Also, concerning Hardenberg, I like interpreting the ending in the way where he goes back to being the selfish yuppie because then the ending isn't perfectly happy and more realistic (according to my opinion).

Hi people from Brasil:
Efexor
rodrigodl
pbarreirarj
abanhara
I also watched Edukators in Estao Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro and there was NO boat at all!!
Is there a chance that the director,editor or person from the crew tell us from the south part of the planet if there are different versions for this movie (what really seams to be)and why, thanks anyway!!
A luta continua

They were in Spain, yes, but not at all at the Mediterranean, but somewhere in the Basque Country, judging by the flag hanging from the boat (a German one, a French one and Basque one). I think I saw the Basque flag on at least another boat too. Not to mention that such an island with a broadcasting control centre doesn't exist in reality.

I thought they were in Spain because the maid in the hotel spoke Spanish (or with Spanish accent, I don't really remember).

Yes, that is what I thought too.
How do you know the hotel was in Spain? It seemed to me that they were at that Island that is the controlling center of several European satellites. Since I have no idea of how they got wherever they where and some people mentioned the boat, I thought that maybe it was used to get to their destination. I guess we'll have to wait for the DVD, and hope that it has the uncut movie.
I learned that the director was here some months ago, to present the movie in the 'Festival do Rio,' a movie festival. And that he aswered some questions the audience made. I wish I had know about that. Maybe I could have gone there, having the chance to clear those things out.
That's all.
Cheers, Aline.

Perhaps they made several versions of the film. I saw it in Luxembourg yesterday and there were no boats. They were sleeping in a hotel in Spain when their flat was stormed. There is no clue how they got there and what they were doing. We are led to believe that the old guy simply changed his mind and called the police.

I'm also in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, and watched the film on the same theatre Estao Botafogo). I too saw no boat at all. I've even watched the movie twice to make sure I was not mistaken.
That's really weird. And a pity that we didn't see the whole stuff. I wonder if there is anything we have seen here and they haven't. Maybe they could have changed parts, who knows?

Hey, Im also a Rio de Janeiro, Brazil inhabitant and I also saw NO BOAT AT ALL. Whats that ? Could you please explain me what is that all about ? Ive seen it on 4/Jan/2004. Please let me know the deal about this boat stuff: how it happens, what goes on after the rich guy is left home by the edukators. Thanks in advance.
Eu assisti a esse filme no Estao Botafogo. Por que ser que o filme est editado ?

watched it yesterday in Germany and it definitely had the yacht an all in it. Theres first someone knockin on their door and one then sees they are in some hotel somewhere non-german speaking. Then one can see them very nicely dressed walkin through a yacht harbor and takin a yacht where they know where the key is. Then they start of to seemingly disprupt Europe's TV-Broadcasts.And while going there one can also see that the boat belongs to Hardenberg.

I also watched the Brazilian version and there's no boat at all.
After the edukators left him in his house there are a few scenes. The "Alleluya" song keeps playing - they show the man on his house, looking through a window (thinking). Then there's a shot of the edukators in a bad. And them there's the sequence with the police, knocking in the door of the empty apartment (while a maid knocks the room of the edukators, in a hotel). And it ends with the cops reading the paper in the wall (but yeah, we see in the sequence the man in the car, outside of teh building invaded by the police).

This message has been deleted.

I saw it in Germany on the 12th of December and in Switzerland a week later, it had the yacht both times.

Oh, thanks for bringing that up. I also watched a version with no boat. In this version it is quite clear that it was Hardenberg who called the cops, and the message on the wall was a sad conclusion by the edukators that they could not turn him into a better man.
Hey people, please post where and when did you watch the movie so we can find out when it got cut.
-I watched it yesterday (12/28/2004) in Rio, Brazil.

Thanks for explaining the differences in the movie.
They showed this on an airline flight? That's interesting.
That is funny though that the "kids" which is what I call
them thought they are doing something useful by knocking
out the transmitters.
Obviously that would be temporary, and just point out to
the system where it is vulnerable and needs to spend money
to protect itself. The system we have is pretty good at
that.
I think the real problem is not the system, or the people
like Hardenberger who know right from wrong but are too
busy or have no way to change anything, it is certain entities
at the top that have the power to fix or change things and
eliminate some options because subconsciously they know it
will remove some of their power, or add other options because
they know it will increase their power.
The drive of human nature is always to have more, as was
mentioned in the movie, so when a certain or coordinated number
of people gets power, then the society shifts into getting
that elite more and more power.
Hardenberger was rich, yes, but he was hardly an elite, I think.
Just because someone owns a yacht they are ruling the world?
Hardly.
The real people who have to influenced are the society's real
leaders, maybe in some cases not even the political leaders, but
the people with the economic or military power. No one even knows
who they are. This is why terrorism is used and seems to work.
Once there is enough pressure on the people below it brings
pressure onto the leaders of the society because it threatens
their means of control and stability.
Knocking out TV, what would it do? People would go rent videos
or listen to the radio, or use their cable, or the Internet.
So, they are just trying to nudge people by annoying them.
A gay group "act up" here in california USA tries this by tying
up the golden gate bridge, and all it did was to turn people
against them, at least that is what the media said? Who knows?

I watched to movie once in German cinema and once on an
Singapore Airlines flight.
The airlines version did not have the boat.
With the boat the film ends pretty different.
It says that the 3 continue on their struggle to
fight against what they see are the "inhuman excesses
of capitalism" and less by annoying people with
rearranging their furniture but rather by
destroying the means of the system to
"opiate the minds people." Note: I am using the terminology
that the 3 charackters would have used.

Thank you mntblue.
I didn't see any boat either! I was thinking I've lost some part of the movie, but I'm sure I didn't. I saw the same thing as you..
Great movie, anyway.
I left the theatre thinking Hardenberg didn't change, and was still the same yuppie, and told about'em to the cops. And they didn't change either, and kept doing the same old things. BUT The hypothesis that someone (sorry, I can't remember) told here is very very acceptable That they made a deal, or something like that.
Now I'm confused. Gotta watch it again and look for a boat, lol.

Did I watch a different version? I did not see the boat. But did see Hardenberg all dressed up in a car when the cop raided the appartment.
Pretty good movie.