History Main / AdaptationalAlternateEnding

* ''Franchise/{{Dracula}}'' has this happen in a few adaptations.
** ''Film/HorrorOfDracula'': In the book, Drac is killed in his coffin since Helsing states to the hunters they couldn't take him in a direct fight after tracking him down to Transylvania. Here, Helsing does directly fight Dracula and destroys him by forcing him into sunlight.
** ''Film/BramStokersDracula'': It does follow chasing the gypsies to stop Dracula. But Mina, through her partial vampirisim, creates storm clouds to block out the sun. Allowing Dracula to directly attack the hunters. He still gets stabbed and his throat slit as usual while mortally wounding Quincy. But rather than the hunters finishing him off. Mina stops them and allows Dracula to go into his castle. As he lays dying, Mina's sympathy and love help him gain redemption with God and undoes his vampire curse. Mina finishes him off by cutting off his head and it's implied Dracula was reunited with his beloved in the afterlife. Though the movie doesn't address how this will affect Mina's relationship with Johnathan after all this.
** ''Film/Dracula1979'': The film ends on the boat Dracula was using to flee back to Transylvania with Lucy (in this version, Mina is the one that gets turned into a vampire and staked). Helsing and Harker confront him where Helsing dies in the final battle against him, though they manage to kill Dracula but impaling him with the hook of a mast and hoisting him into sunlight. Lucy is saved though there's the implication that Dracula ''may'' return.

* ''Manga/{{MAR}}'': The manga originally ended with Ginta and his friends storming the Chess Piece base, killing Phantom (by his own wish), the Queen (who is revealed to be Dorothy's older sister who betrayed their homeland), and the King (which is revealed to be an orb containing the evils of MAR-Heaven and has been possessing the body of ''Ginta's father'') and ends with Ginta bidding his friends goodbye and returning home with his father after they beat the orb. However due to it's rushed pacing, it was considered very anti-climatic. So in the anime, the heroes have to get through a line of defense known as the Ghost Chess and rescue Alviss who nearly succumbs to the zombie tattoo, some extended fights with Cadence and Rolan, having to rescue Snow from a complex trap, and dealing with Phantom (though in a much more tearjerking fashion where he gets some last minute character development). From here however, Orb-Danna reveals himself much earlier and unlike the manga, he's no pushover as he actually ''kills'' nearly all the heroes when he confronts them save Jack and Ginta. After the queen is beaten as shown in the manga, though Dorothy is killed in a sneak attack, the Orb is pulled from Danna's body before going into the Earth world to try and take it over. This leads to a final battle in Tokyo where a last minute power-up from Snow allows Ginta to destroy the orb. In the end, the heroes are revived save Snow who merges with her Earth counterpart Koyuki to be with Ginta when he returns home with his father.

** The original book "Literature/TheBlobThatAteEveryone" ended with a bizarre twist ending that revealed the whole story to have been written by two blobs. In the [[Recap/GoosebumpsS2E23TheBlobThatAteEveryone episode based on that book]], this ending was simply left out, possibly out of fear that it would be too {{narm}}y on screen even by the goofy standards of the show.
** The book version of "Literature/BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor" had a sadder ending where Samantha undoes the negative effects of her wishes, but is then turned into a bird because of a wish made by the AlphaBitch in her class. In the [[Recap/GoosebumpsS2E1BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor TV version]], this just becomes straight LaserGuidedKarma when the AlphaBitch instead wishes to be "admired forever" and is turned into a park statue.
** The ending of ''Literature/NightOfTheLivingDummyIII'' is far more pleasant. The book ends with Trina and Dan getting GroundedForever for all the terrible things that Zane and Slappy framed them for, Trina giving Slappy to Zane as a present as revenge for getting them in trouble, and a strong implication that Slappy is going to make Zane's life just as much of a hell as he did for them. In the [[Recap/GoosebumpsS2E24E25NightOfTheLivingDummyIII TV version]], Zane's misdeeds are exposed to the parents (while Slappy does none himself here), clearing Trina and Dan's names. [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty Zane is punished with several hard chores for it]], but afterwards, he and his cousins admit both their faults to each other and reconcile. After a close encounter with Slappy the following night, Zane leaves with his Uncle on pleasant terms with his cousins, even expressing interest in having them come visit them on the holidays. All's well that ends well.
** "Literature/AShockerOnShockStreet" ends with Erin and Marty revealed to be robots that were meant to test out the horror theme park, who end up being shut down when the staff believes they might be malfunctioning due to their odd behavior. The [[Recap/GoosebumpsS3E1ShockerOnShockStreet TV Version]] adds in an extra scene where they reactivate by themselves and get revenge on their creator, who was in the middle of building their replacements.
** The ending to "[[Recap/GoosebumpsS3E15AwesomeAnts Awesome Ants]]" is mostly the same, with the protagonist waking up from his "nightmare" about [[BigCreepyCrawlies supersized ants]] to find that [[PersecutionFlip giant ants keep humans in town-sized vivaria]]. However, in the book this is explicitly meant to be karmic since it resulted from the food pellets that the boy gave them, and the ants kept growing until they took over. In the episode, it's more of a TomatoSurprise since it's indicated that ants have always been the dominant species on Earth, and he was really just dreaming about a role reversal.
** The story that "[[Recap/GoosebumpsS3E11E12PerfectSchool Perfect School]]" is based on had a DownerEnding, with Brian being betrayed by his "friend" and locked up to be replaced with a robot. In the episode, he switches places with the robot, pretending to be a model child to fool his parents while he plots to break out his classmates.

* ''Series/{{Goosebumps}}'': The TV adaptation changed a few endings from [[Literature/{{Goosebumps}} the books]]:

* The original ending of ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'' was [[AudienceAlienatingEnding controversial]] to put it nicely. After [[ArcFatigue a 70-chapter mess]] of a final arc where the slice-of-life elements that made the series popular get replaced with a bad shonen battle imitation featuring a boring InvincibleVillain with no identifiable motivation to speak of, the series just ends with no resolution to anything the characters went through in the previous arc. However, of note are the "resolution" to the two main ships in the story, Legosi x Haru and Louis x Juno. After everything they went through, the end of Legosi and Haru's relationship arc is "Haru will openly acknowledge Legosi as her boyfriend in public now". Louis gets it even worse, with the way his relationship with Juno ends being actively antithetical to his character arc. He decides to break up with the only girl who ever made him happy to marry his fiance who makes him utterly miserable because that's what's expected of him by society, when his whole arc was supposed to be about not being a slave to others' expectations. While the official ''Creator/{{Viz}}'' translation can't completely fix the trainwreck of an ending they were handed, they did change up the dialogue somewhat so that the resolution to the ships doesn't leave a bad taste in peoples' mouths. Legosi and Haru get engaged in the final chapter instead of the series ending with Haru simply willing to acknowledge Legosi as her boyfriend. And rather than marrying Louis, Azuki caught the hint when trying to have sex with her caused Louis to vomit all over their hotel room, and breaks off the engagement leaving Louis free to pursue a relationship with Juno.

* 2007 Chinese Drama ''Fairy Couple'' essentially offers a happier ending to the [[Myth/ChineseMythology Chinese myth]] of Dong Yong and the Seventh Fairy. Depending on the version of the myth, the original story either ends in a BittersweetEnding where the Seventh Fairy ends her marriage to Dong Yong and returns to heaven herself once his debt is paid and his son is born, or, in the more commonly known version, an outright DownerEnding where the Seventh Fairy is yanked back to heaven by the Jade Emperor against her will. The 2007 adaptation on the other hand, ends with Dong Yong being given a choice by the Jade Emperor to cultivate and ascend to heaven be with the Seventh Fairy or to have her become mortal by having her immortal essence sucked out of her body, they both choose the latter and live HappilyEverAfter as mortals.

* 2007 Chinese Drama ''Fairy Couple'' essentially offers a happier ending to the [[Myth/ChineseMythology Chinese myth]] of Dong Yong and the Seventh Fairy. Depending on the version of the myth, the original story either ends in a BittersweetEnding where the Seventh Fairy ends her marriage to Dong Yong and returns to heaven herself once his debt is paid and his son is born, or, in the more commonly known version, an outright DownerEnding where the Seventh Fairy is yanked back to heaven by the Jade Emperor against her will. ''Tian Xian Pei'' on the other hand, ends with Dong Yong being given a choice by the Jade Emperor to cultivate and ascend to heaven be with the Seventh Fairy or to have her become mortal by having her immortal essence sucked out of her body, they both choose the latter and live HappilyEverAfter as mortals.

* [[WesternAnimation/AnimalFarm1954 The 1954 Halas & Batchelor animated adaptation]] of ''Literature/AnimalFarm'' is a LighterAndSofter adaptation of Creator/GeorgeOrwell's hard edged allegory, so the ending is inevitably made more uplifting. The book was a {{Satire}} of the Russian Revolution, [[DownerEnding so things do not end well in it]] and [[FullCircleRevolution the pigs become the new tyrants]]. The animated movie has a slightly more upbeat ending in which the farm animals rise up against their new overlords and put a decisive end to them.

* [[Film/AnimalFarm1999 1999 Live action version]] of Literature/AnimalFarm ends with some animals escaping the farm after they realise what tyranny they are living under. Movie cuts to few years later as farm is destroyed by [[BigBad Napoleon’s]] incompetence, with surviving animals watching as the new human family moves in.

** ''Film/FourteenOhEight'': The [[Literature/FourteenOhEight short story]] ends on a far more cynical note than the movie, with Mike Enslin setting ''[[ManOnFire himself]]'' on fire rather than the room to escape its horrible influence. He survives with extensive third degree burns, but [[ShellshockedVeteran he lives the rest of his life alone and in fear]]. His tapes are also completely worthless and don't convince anyone of anything. [[ShaggyDogStory Everything indicates that the evil room will simply continue to claim victims despite Mr. Olin's efforts to contain it]]. The film has multiple endings, both of them different: The theatrical version has Mike setting the room on fire to destroy it, getting saved by firemen and finding a tape recorder with his dead daughter's voice on it as proof that the room is supernatural. The director's cut has Mike setting the room on fire as well, but [[HeroicSacrifice dying alongside it]]. Instead his wife finds the tape after his death.

* The manga adaptation of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' ends on a ''much'' more upbeat note, with humanity and the Earth shown restored after the events of ''End of Evangelion''.

** The original book "Literature/TheBlobThatAteEveryone" ended with a bizarre twist ending that revealed the whole story to have been written by two blobs. In the episode based on that book, this ending was simply left out, possibly out of fear that it would be too {{narm}}y on screen even by the goofy standards of the show.
** The book version of "Literature/BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor" had a sadder ending where Samantha undoes the negative effects of her wishes, but is then turned into a bird because of a wish made by the AlphaBitch in her class. In the TV version this just becomes straight LaserGuidedKarma when the AlphaBitch instead wishes to be "admired forever" and is turned into a park statue.
** The ending of ''Literature/NightOfTheLivingDummy III'' is far more pleasant. The book ends with Trina and Dan getting GroundedForever for all the terrible things that Zane and Slappy framed them for, Trina giving Slappy to Zane as a present as revenge for getting them in trouble, and a strong implication that Slappy is going to make Zane's life just as much of a hell as he did for them. In the tv version, Zane's misdeeds are exposed to the parents (while Slappy does none himself here), clearing Trina and Dan's names. [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty Zane is punished with several hard chores for it]], but afterwards, he and his cousins admit both their faults to each other and reconcile. After a close encounter with Slappy the following night, Zane leaves with his Uncle on pleasant terms with his cousins, even expressing interest in having them come visit them on the holidays. All's well that ends well.
** "Literature/AShockerOnShockStreet" ends with Erin and Marty revealed to be robots that were meant to test out the horror theme park, who end up being shut down when the staff believes they might be malfunctioning due to their odd behavior. The TV Version adds in an extra scene where they reactivate by themselves and get revenge on their creator, who was in the middle of building their replacements.
** The ending to "Awesome Ants" is mostly the same, with the protagonist waking up from his "nightmare" about [[BigCreepyCrawlies supersized ants]] to find that [[PersecutionFlip giant ants keep humans in town-sized vivaria]]. However, in the book this is explicitly meant to be karmic since it resulted from the food pellets that the boy gave them, and the ants kept growing until they took over. In the episode, it's more of a TomatoSurprise since it's indicated that ants have always been the dominant species on Earth, and he was really just dreaming about a role reversal.
** The story that "Perfect School" is based on had a DownerEnding, with Brian being betrayed by his "friend" and locked up to be replaced with a robot. In the episode, he switches places with the robot, pretending to be a model child to fool his parents while he plots to break out his classmates.

** The original book "The Blob That Ate Everyone" ended with a bizarre twist ending that revealed the whole story to have been written by two blobs. In the episode based on that book, this ending was simply left out, possibly out of fear that it would be too {{narm}}y on screen even by the goofy standards of the show.
** The book version of "BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor" had a sadder ending where Samantha undoes the negative effects of her wishes, but is then turned into a bird because of a wish made by the AlphaBitch in her class. In the TV version this just becomes straight LaserGuidedKarma when the AlphaBitch instead wishes to be "admired forever" and is turned into a park statue.
** The ending of ''Night Of The Living Dummy III'' is far more pleasant. The book ends with Trina and Dan getting GroundedForever for all the terrible things that Zane and Slappy framed them for, Trina giving Slappy to Zane as a present as revenge for getting them in trouble, and a strong implication that Slappy is going to make Zane's life just as much of a hell as he did for them. In the tv version, Zane's misdeeds are exposed to the parents (while Slappy does none himself here), clearing Trina and Dan's names. [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty Zane is punished with several hard chores for it]], but afterwards, he and his cousins admit both their faults to each other and reconcile. After a close encounter with Slappy the following night, Zane leaves with his Uncle on pleasant terms with his cousins, even expressing interest in having them come visit them on the holidays. All's well that ends well.
** "A Shocker On Shock Street" ends with Erin and Marty revealed to be robots that were meant to test out the horror theme park, who end up being shut down when the staff believes they might be malfunctioning due to their odd behavior. The TV Version adds in an extra scene where they reactivate by themselves and get revenge on their creator, who was in the middle of building their replacements.

** The live-action film, ''Film/DeathNoteTheLastName'', veers even farther away from the source material while simultaneously retaining the sequence of Light asking Ryuk to kill his captors. Rather than being killed by Rem, L instead immunizes himself from the Death Note's effects by writing his own name in it ahead of time with the condition that he won't die until twenty-three days later. Having proven to the Task Force that Light is Kira and with himself unable to die from Light writing his name, Light tries to get Ryuk to kill everyone else with the hope that he and Misa can physically overpower L so long as he has no other backup. Like the manga, Ryuk instead writes Light's own name, though at least in this version Soichoro is alive to share Light's final moments.

** ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'': The original novel and play end with Captain Hook getting eaten by the crocodile, the Lost Boys come to London to live with Wendy, John and Michael and there is a TimeSkip to Wendy as a mother with a daughter, Jane, who flies to Never Land with Peter. In the Disney adaptation, Captain Hook survives, the Lost Boys stay in Never Land, and there is no time skip.

* Youtuber [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgomwpDU--0ucNCVTvX4scQ The Green Azumarill]] has made alternate endings of several episodes of WebAnimation/DeathBattle for those who weren't satisfied with the actual endings. These videos are mostly just the fight sequences of the episodes that are edited so that the loser of the fight looks like they won, often by cutting away from an attack that seems like it could kill the opponent, unlike in the actual episodes where the opponent survives and eventually wins. Of what reception these videos have, it seems to be mostly positive, with even some comments claiming that some of the alternate endings should be [[BetterThanCanon "the real ending"]].

** Another sketch is an alternate ending to ''Film/{Titanic}}'', showing host Creator/BillPaxton, reprising the role of Brock Lovett, and the deep sea diving team beating the crap out of old Rose (Creator/CheriOteri) out of annoyance with her story, with ''Titanic'' director Creator/JamesCameron appears at the end explaining why he scrapped this ending.

* The original ending of ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'' was [[AudienceAlienatingEnding controversial]] to put it nicely. After [[ArcFatigue 70-chapter mess]] of a final arc where the slice-of-life elements that made the series popular get replaced with a bad shonen battle imitation featuring a boring InvincibleVillain with no identifiable motivation to speak of, the series just ends with no resolution to anything the characters went through in the previous arc. However, of note are the "resolution" to the two main ships in the story, Legosi x Haru and Louis x Juno. After everything they went through, the end of Legosi and Haru's relationship arc is "Haru will openly acknowledge Legosi as her boyfriend in public now". Louis gets it even worse, with the way his relationship with Juno ends being actively antithetical to his character arc. He decides to break up with the only girl who ever made him happy to marry his fiance who makes him utterly miserable because that's what's expected of him by society, when his whole arc was supposed to be about not being a slave to others' expectations. While the official ''Creator/{{Viz}}'' translation can't completely fix the trainwreck of an ending they were handed, they did change up the dialogue somewhat so that the resolution to the ships doesn't leave a bad taste in peoples' mouths. Legosi and Haru get engaged in the final chapter instead of the series ending with Haru simply willing to acknowledge Legosi as her boyfriend. And rather than marrying Louis, Azuki caught the hint when trying to have sex with her caused Louis to vomit all over their hotel room, and breaks off the engagement leaving Louis free to pursue a relationship with Juno.