The other day I was scrolling through YouTube Shorts, as one does, and came across an excerpt from The Drew Barrymore Show where she shared an alternate ending to the movie she made with Adam Sandler back in 2004, 50 First Dates.
Now, for those who haven’t seen the movie, the plot follows a man, Henry, who can’t commit to any woman for more than one weekend. He always makes up some excuse for why he can’t continue seeing them.
That is, until he meets Lucy in a restaurant one day. Their first meeting is great; they connect, but he soon realizes Lucy isn’t what she seems. She suffers from a severe brain injury that prevents her from making new memories. She sustained that injury from a car crash, and since then, both her father and her brother have gone to great lengths to recreate the last day she remembers.
Adam comes into her life and doesn’t agree with keeping her in the dark. But ironically, he keeps recreating the same day for her nonetheless. Except this time, it’s one where she meets him, finds out about her accident and is devastated all over again.
In the theatrical ending, Adam figures out a way to build a relationship with her. Every day, he prepares a tape for her where he recaps the big world events she’s missed, updates her on her close family, introduces himself as her husband, and adds whatever she missed in the last 24 hours. That ending sees her waking up in a boat. She watches the tape. Gets dressed, heads to the bow, and her daughter greets her. Her father is there, and she is both happy and overwhelmed. It’s supposed to be all lovey-dovey.
Except if we look more closely at this ending, it’s not really realistic. It’s actually a horrible ending! Imagine waking up in a place you don’t remember, married to a man you’ve never met, and with a daughter you don’t remember carrying or giving birth to! Can you imagine what it must have been like to wake up pregnant with no recollection of how, in your mind you went from not pregnant to pregnant, and now you have to deal with this huge belly? Or waking up to the sounds of a baby you don’t remember having? To a life you don’t remember agreeing to, and somehow everyone expects you to be ok with it because you watched the mandatory VHS as an introduction to your current situation? Are you freaking kidding me? That’s a nightmare of an ending if you really stop to think about it. Because wouldn’t you feel robbed of a life you don’t remember having, or worse, violated because you never remember agreeing to all of this?
And what of that little girl? Growing up with a mom who doesn’t remember you? Lucy may love her daughter deeply, but how can you build a bond with a mother who forgets you every time she goes to sleep? No, had I been the one writing this ending, I would have chosen the alternate ending Drew Barrymore revealed, and here it is.
According to Drew Barrymore, originally, it was supposed to be a drama set in Seattle, and it was supposed to be called 50 First Kisses. She said the alternate ending has her character, Lucy, telling Adam Sandler’s character, Henry, to leave and forget about her because he has no future with someone like her. Henry leaves. The next day, he comes back to the restaurant where they first met, knowing Lucy would be there as she always is. He walks over to her booth, sits down, extends his hand, and says, “Hi, I’m Henry.” And the movie ends there.
From a storytelling and character standpoint, that is the ending this movie should have had. But Drew Barrymore said they tested that ending with a test audience, and they much preferred the unrealistic one! Who are these people? Writers should stick with their guts and not rely on test audiences!
Now, I am no cinematographer, but if someone had poked me and asked me to write the final scene of that movie, this is how I would have imagined it:
Setting: A quiet, café-style restaurant in Seattle. It’s early morning. It’s raining. Lucy sits in her usual booth, building her waffle house. The waitress walks by and says hi. They know each other. Lucy is a regular. Then the little doorbell rings, announcing another customer. The POV shifts to this stranger’s shoulder as he walks toward Lucy. She’s not looking up, busy with her waffle house. We don’t see him yet, but we can guess who it is. The image changes to the empty seat in front of her. Then we see Henry sitting down. He smiles. He extends his hand and says, “Hi, I’m Henry.” The image cuts to her; she’s surprised by his boldness in taking a seat at her table. But something about his smile makes her smile back. The screen turns black. The end appears after 3 seconds, and the credits start rolling…
You leave the audience wondering whether Lucy recognized him. Whether or not they will make it as a couple. But also, our sentiment about Henry’s character is cemented in his decision to return to the restaurant, which had me thinking about the scene before this one. And this is how I imagined that scene. It’s the breakup scene.
She’s crying. She’s been through the whole: I was in an accident, my family has been re-creating the same day for a year, the doctor said there is nothing to do!… And he’s sad because this is not what he wants. And he may be crying too. Trying to tell her, they’ll find a way, but she’s having none of it. So she lowers her head, completely broken down, and he wants to hug her, but he hesitates, and instead, he runs his hands over his head, and looks at her. And as an audience member, you want him to hug her; maybe she’ll melt into his arms, and it will all be ok… But the fact that he doesn’t breaks us too, as the audience watching this unfold, because we’re there asking: ‘’Omg, no! Don’t give up! Don’t listen to her; her brain doesn’t work! Fight, Henry! Fight!’’… And then he walks away… Completely broken, too. But outside… He looks back… Maybe they were at her house… So maybe he looks back at her through a window, then stops crying, and something comes over his eyes… He made a decision, but he walks away… Now, we don’t know what that decision is. Not until the very next day!
When Henry returns to the restaurant the following morning, he carries all that heartbreak with him. He knows what’s happened; we know what’s happened, but Lucy? Lucy is oblivious. She has no memory of him at all. So as he enters that restaurant, he returns knowing full well this day can end like yesterday. He knows full well his heart could break again. It would be easy to walk away. Who would want to subject themselves to the possibility of heartache every day? But the fact that he doesn’t walk away reveals so much about Henry. A man who spent most of his adulthood dodging commitment has decided to pursue a woman who will forget all about him the very next day. A woman who could break his heart every single day. Yet here he is, resolute, smiling, hand extended, ready to try again.
Isn’t that the better ending?
