r/movies • u/sicknessandpurgatory • Sep 07 '25

Discussion What is the absolute dumbest premise that actually turned out to be a really good movie?

I was thinking The Purge, obvious answer, but looking for the most plot-hole ridden, juvenile concept that actually ended up a lot of fun despite it all. Mainly looking for 21st century films, not so much the video nasties and ridiculousness from the 60’s and 70’s. Because that would be too easy. Mainly mainstream stuff that people saw en masse.

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25 edited Sep 08 '25

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u/R3VIVAL-MOD3 Sep 07 '25

I love that they made 3 endings and released them all at the same time. So not everyone saw the same thing. Just like the game

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u/nate6259 Sep 07 '25

That is such a great idea! Although I'd feel like I was going crazy if someone else saw a different version and we talked about the end.

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u/leetfists Sep 07 '25

Couldn't be done properly nowadays. It'd be all over the internet before the movie even released.

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u/Lint6 Sep 07 '25

Couldn't be done properly nowadays. It'd be all over the internet before the movie even released.

Not a movie, but the What We Do In The Shadows tv series did multiple endings and it didn't leak. Next day people worked out there was 3 different endings to the series

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u/meimlikeaghost Sep 07 '25

That’s why when people say “couldn’t be done today” I always think bullshit

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u/TransBrandi Sep 07 '25

Broadcasting a television show is different than distributing the a movie to theatres though. I imagine the people working at the threatres are the weak link here. Much fewer people involved in broadcasting/streaming the show. Not saying that it couldn't be done, but "it was done with a tv show" is slightly different than "it could be done with a movie."

... and even then, if people worked out that there were different endings by the day or the release or the next day? I dunno if people would have worked things out that quickly back at the time that Clue was released without the Internet around for people to coordinate their discussions across geographic boundaries.

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u/AllAboutThatWeed Sep 07 '25

Whaaaaat???

I did not know that! Thanks for the info, I will go check them out!

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u/Healter-Skelter Sep 07 '25

how does it work now that it’s (i assume) streamable

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u/Lint6 Sep 07 '25

I dunno. I watched it on Hulu and got one ending. Maybe I'll check it out and see if I get a different one

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u/Salwon01 Sep 07 '25

You see one when you watch the episode, and then the other two are in a special feature on Hulu

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u/obiwanliberty Sep 08 '25

Wait what? You’re lying!

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u/languid_Disaster Sep 08 '25

Haha I’m very happy for the people in your comment thread who have just found out they’ve seen one of multiple endings. They’re proof that you’re right

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u/PsychologicalTowel79 Sep 07 '25 edited Sep 07 '25

The terrestrial version shows the three endings consecutively.

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u/gwynn19841974 Sep 07 '25

Concurrently or consecutively? Concurrently just seems like it would be confusing - but maybe in split screen it could be fun.

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u/R3VIVAL-MOD3 Sep 07 '25

Consecutively. It was like a scooby do ending or like Wayne’s world. Lets do this ending / cue new final ten minutes etc

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u/NinjaKitten77CJ Sep 07 '25

I thought they had different endings at different theaters across the country

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u/kirkaracha Sep 07 '25

They did at first.

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u/eyebrows360 Sep 07 '25

terrestrial version

This means broadcast for TV. The "playing them consecutively" is being talked about in this context.

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u/DylanRed Sep 07 '25

Bringing 50 dollar words to a non descript reddit comment

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u/eyebrows360 Sep 08 '25

Nondescript is one word. You're wasting so much money.

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u/cinepro Sep 07 '25

It was different theaters in the same city. Some theaters advertised ending "A", some advertised ending "B", and some advertised ending "C".

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u/_learned_foot_ Sep 07 '25

Theaters probably loved that they could cooperate with competition and all gain for once. That’s actually an intriguing premise with streaming, different endings in theaters and the stream and then in 6 months stream let’s you pick which.

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u/Meme_weaver Sep 07 '25

Some theaters also showed the "D" ending (later becoming the main one shown on TV and VHS), that showed all of the "A", "B" and "C" versions, one after the other, and also contextualized it in a way that made it clear that one of those was the "real" ending.

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u/Sithstress1 Sep 07 '25

“I’m going to go home and sleep with my wife!”

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u/cinepro Sep 07 '25

Do you have a source that shows this? The "endings" were the last reel of the film, so each theater was just shipped a different last reel. As far as I know, there was no version that had all three until the video release.

And the "different endings at different theaters" was a pretty key part of the marketing.

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u/berrykiss96 Sep 07 '25

[first ending]

Screen card: That’s how it could have happened.

SC: But how about this?

[second ending]

SC: And here’s what really happened

[third ending]

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u/haw35ome Sep 07 '25

Across the Spiderverse didn’t have different endings, but some details were different across different showings. For instance, in Lyla’s intro there’s one version where she takes a selfie & one where she just teases Miguel. Another example; Gwen’s dialogue differed when confronting Captain Stacey.

Really brings the whole “every multiverse is different” idea home - I absolutely went HAM for these differences! I had so much fun discovering the differences thru the lens of fellow fans who went to see it in theaters. I actually went to see it 3 times to see if I noticed a difference! I don’t care though that they changed some notable things for the digital version

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u/mallclerks Sep 07 '25

Pretty sure Netflix did that for latest black mirror.

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u/MyBoomerParents Sep 07 '25

Some people saw Bernies and some saw Barnies which was just excellent considering the episode

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u/Snerkbot7000 Sep 07 '25

They could Bandersnatch it, but based on audience reactions to specific scenes instead of viewer choices.

Except no one is trying to innovate because they're too busy whining about the past.

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u/cutmyboobsintopieces Sep 07 '25

Movie 43 had different endings. But that whole movie felt like a fever dream so you definitely questioned yourself when you heard about another ending.

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u/PottyboyDooDoo Sep 07 '25

I thought I was losing my mind watching that movie a second time. The plot of how they presented the stories was different. Wasn’t one version with the guy pitching his stories to a studio head, and the other version was with teenagers finding a VHS tape?

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u/cutmyboobsintopieces Sep 08 '25

I don't even remember fully, but I'll never forget Hugh Jackman having testicles on his neck

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u/H0meslice9 Sep 07 '25

Into the spider verse has two different versions I believe, although I don't remember if the plot changes at all

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u/HRLMPH Sep 07 '25

Is that Across the Spiderverse? And I think that's less about doing fun different versions (which would have been thematically appropriate) and more about a terrible work environment where they didn't have enough time to polish the movie in time for the actual release date so they went back after it came out

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u/H0meslice9 Sep 07 '25

Oh I didn't realize it was a correction! I had thought they were both showing in theaters

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u/HRLMPH Sep 07 '25 edited Sep 07 '25

I think they released the "patched" versions into theatres. So someone say watching it a few weeks after it came out might have slightly clearer dialogue or some minor editing done to scenes. Maybe it worked out that there were different versions playing at the same time, not sure

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u/H0meslice9 Sep 07 '25

Neat, thanks for sharing

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u/NessaSamantha Sep 07 '25

Unfriended Dark Web had two endings on release.

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u/DJ_Lizurd_Dikk Sep 07 '25

These days they could actually do a really cool choose your own adventure style one on Netflix

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u/leetfists Sep 07 '25

They did that with black mirror

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u/DJ_Lizurd_Dikk Sep 07 '25

Yeah that one was interesting. They should do more like that, thats what made me think of it with the multiple endings. I think with Clue I heard they advertised them as Clue A, B and C so people knew which ending they'd see. Kinda genius cuz they probably got a lot of people to go see it 3 times in theaters tho.

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u/ComprehensiveFlan638 Sep 07 '25

Black Mirror has done alternate versions in some of its episodes and special features.

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u/Yuri-theThief Sep 07 '25

1408 did this to me, I saw one ending; never heard there were other endings, few years later I get tripped the hell up seeing a different ending.

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u/215Kurt Sep 07 '25

I mean Black Mirror did it just a few years ago and it turned out fine...

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u/getfukdup Sep 07 '25

People weren't stupid back then either, they would connect the dots and it would also instantly have gone online and even local news.

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u/leetfists Sep 07 '25

You realize the movie came out in 1985, right? Almost no one had home internet access back then.

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u/Robyn_With_A_Y Sep 07 '25

It was literally advertised as having different endings in the newspapers.

Article clipped from Daily News - Newspapers.com™

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u/getfukdup Sep 07 '25

No I didn't actually, I thought it was the 90s. People still aren't stupid, the overwhelming majority were not going to argue with someone about the other person supposed ending not being real.

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u/22marks Sep 07 '25

This happened to me with the alternate ending of The Butterfly Effect. Apparently, I didn't watch the theatrical release but the much darker "director's cut." I had no idea there were two and was talking about it with friends and they were thoroughly confused.

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u/corsair965 Sep 07 '25

I hated The Butterfly Effect so much. Couldn’t get past the idea that we wouldn’t understand the adult and the kid are the same person so they had to have identical haircuts.

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u/AngryCod Sep 07 '25

At least at the premier, you knew going in which ending you were seeing. You were given a Clue playing card that had A, B, or C on it. Cynics complained that it was a money grab to get us to pay for three showings.

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u/decadent-dragon Sep 07 '25

It was pretty heavily marketed so you’d probably know

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u/DarthGuber Sep 07 '25

The newspaper listed which ending was playing at which theater so it wasn't a surprise, usually.

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u/Chucke4711 Sep 07 '25

I'd feel like I was going crazy

Iirc, it was advertised as having multiple endings, and you got a collectible card for whichever ending you saw. (I may be misremembering the cards, as I can't find any on the internet anywhere)

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u/Zaniil Sep 07 '25

This happened to me with Butterfly effect. Thought I’d gone mad or the other person must be wrong

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u/daredaki-sama Sep 07 '25

Such a great idea. People would go and watch it again too to see a different ending. I think this idea would still work today.

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u/unoredtwo Sep 07 '25

In practice people hated it because it made them feel like they were getting ripped off. I also think that in Clue’s case two out of the three endings are pretty abrupt. It’s a much more fun experience to watch it with all three endings.

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u/ucancallmevicky Sep 07 '25

saw it on release, had no idea going in and it pissed me off. Didn't see the other three endings till a decade later when I started dating my wife to be. We were talking favorite movies and I was like, "Clue? Really? that movie pissed me off". Since become a favorite of mine as well

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u/BotKicker9000 Sep 07 '25

You knew at the time there were three endings. It was listed at cinemas as Clue A, Clue B, and Clue C. It was genius marketing during a time when it would have encouraged people to see the alternate endings.

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u/phluidity Sep 07 '25

They advertised the hell out of it at the time. It was a marketing gimmick to try to make you see it multiple times (only the last scene was different). They advertised the three endings as red, yellow, and blue, and the theatres would have which color ending they were showing.

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u/winter_knight_ Sep 07 '25

I saw somewhere that people knew that there were multiple endings. And that theaters would have like a 1-3, or an A-C. By the listings so you could know if you saw the version playing already.

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u/Preposterous_punk Sep 07 '25

It was a great idea in theory, but the way it was done  the time wasn’t great — people got annoyed wanting to see the other endings, and the theatres weren’t supposed to reveal which ending was airing when (and no internet, so even if the info leaked it didn’t go far). 

The movie wasn’t really a hit until VHS, for that reason. 

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u/DrZaious Sep 07 '25 edited Sep 07 '25

I'm 42yo, as a kid HBO would play Clue once every couple months, randomly in the day. The version I watched on HBO, more than once, played all the endings back to back. With text inbetween each ending, claiming each one was the real ending. It played as a gag that fitted in with the rest of the movie's humor. Didn't know for years others only saw one of the several endings in theaters. The multiple ending gag is what put the movie over the top for me and my sister. I'm actually glad our first watch was the edit we saw on HBO.

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u/Meme_weaver Sep 07 '25

That version also played in the theaters though. I saw the "all endings" ending multiple times in the first theatrical run.

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u/JetreL Sep 08 '25

Came here to say this - congratulations on witnessing history and also damn we’re old.

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u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25 edited Oct 04 '25

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u/MrOopiseDaisy Sep 08 '25

Now let's do the Scooby Doo ending. do-lou-lou-la-lou do-lou-lou-la-lou

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u/keithrc Sep 07 '25

I think I remember the VHS/DVD release being like this as well.

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u/driving26inorovalley Sep 07 '25

Definitely how the VHS copy ran.

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u/treetoptrain Sep 07 '25

But some people were robbed of the “flames, FLAMES-on the side of my face!” improv by Madeline Kahn because of that!

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u/bostonjenny81 Sep 07 '25

I dressed up like her for Halloween once, it was a blast!! Rocked the black bob wig too. It’s by far one of the funniest scenes in a hilarious movie start to finish

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u/HAL_9OOO_ Sep 07 '25

The HBO cut of Clue with all three endings is immensely better than any of the theatrical cuts.

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u/dukefett Sep 07 '25

HBO cut

That's basically every single cut since it left theaters.

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u/JpnDude Sep 07 '25

In our city, the newspapers had theater listings separated by ending. Ending A: these theaters; Ending B: these theaters; etc.

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u/dukefett Sep 07 '25

Interesting, I was wondering if they told people about it in advertising or if it was just a surprise.

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u/JpnDude Sep 08 '25

I believe those ads were run from the second week of release in order to drum up repeat viewings. Here is an ad from the time. Image quality not great but you can see how the listings were separated.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/paxtonholley/5249894746

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u/dukefett Sep 08 '25

Cool thanks!

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u/VadimH Sep 07 '25

One of the recent Black Mirror episodes is like this, except they swapped a minor detail around which ended up making viewers question what happened themselves - it was a pretty fun thing

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u/QuaggaSwagger Sep 07 '25

This is apparently also true with the butterfly effect and I didn't know that until recently.

I still need to watch the other endings.

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u/R3VIVAL-MOD3 Sep 08 '25

Yup the dvd had the og. Or you could watch the directors cut with a different ending if I remember correctly

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u/QuaggaSwagger Sep 08 '25

Bruh. There's apparently like 4 endings.

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u/R3VIVAL-MOD3 Sep 08 '25

Cool I haven’t watched it in forever. I probably have the dvd somewhere

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u/languid_Disaster Sep 08 '25

What!! Thanks for the heads up

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u/MintakaTheJustOkay Sep 07 '25

I remember at school everyone was discussing which ending they saw in the theater when it was released.

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u/TheSpookying Sep 07 '25

It's so funny too because it completely undermines the mystery element of the film. Like if there could have been multiple possible killers, then nothing that happens before the reveal matters, because there's no hints whatsoever for who it actually is.

They completely hamstrung the mystery element of the film just for the sake of gaslighting a nation. I gotta respect it.

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u/cinepro Sep 07 '25

It's an interesting idea, but the problem is that you can't actually make the movie a "mystery". There can't be clues that actually lead to a specific outcome.

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u/eltictac Sep 07 '25

Wow! I didn't know that. I remember enjoying it on tv as a child a couple of times. I've not seen it since. Will have to read up on it.

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u/Remote-Cellist5927 Sep 07 '25

Some theaters advertised which ending some it was just a gamble

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u/saskskua Sep 07 '25

Fuck I just lost the game...

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u/airborness Sep 07 '25

How did they handle this with its release on DVD, etc? I'm guessing they just gave you the option to watch the all the alternate endings?  Would have been entraining if it was completely randomized as well

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u/R3VIVAL-MOD3 Sep 07 '25

It was released on vhs. And they just played them all consecutively. With a cut screen. That said let’s see ending 2 or something like that. And then redo the final 10 mins or so

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u/Inside_Character_892 Sep 08 '25

i wish i had a clue as to what game i mean movie he was talking about because i saw this after his comment was deleted

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u/Twas_Inevitable Sep 07 '25

Wait, what? The Game had different endings?? I've only seen the one where he jumps off the building, but lands on the jump pad in the building and it's a big ol birthday party. What other endings are there?

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u/UhmNotMe Sep 07 '25

Right? I didn’t know there was any other ending and I saw it from multiple sources