The ending of Guardians of the Galaxy (*spoiler alert!*) was pretty much perfect, wrapping everything up in a super satisfying montage set to "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." But according to James Gunn, there was originally a bit more to that ending which was cut from the movie.
Director James Gunn discussed the scenes that were cut from the end of the movie with Slashfilm. He revealed that the original montage featured clips of The Collector, Nebula and, most surprisingly, Grandpa Quill.
Gunn said that Nebula and Collector were cut because "they're kind of bad guys in the first movie," and since the finale was such a joyous moment, Gunn decided to keep it to just the good guys. He said that Nebula's scene was his favorite, which showed her missing an arm and looking super pissed off while walking through a field with a busted Ravager behind her.
As Slashfilm points out, it's interesting to note here that Gunn describes Nebula and Collector as being bad guys "in the first movie," implying this might change in Guardians of the Galaxy 2.
Most surprising, though, is that the original ending actually returned to Earth to show Grandpa Quill, who we saw in the opening scene of the film and who Peter left behind when he was taken from Earth. The scene would have showed Grandpa Quill holding a photograph of Meredith and Peter as he looks up at the stars, implying that he saw Peter getting abducted and is still hoping that he will return one day.
According to The Telegraph, Gunn said this scene was cut both because the actor was in old age make up and they were afraid the audience wouldn't recognize him as the same character from the beginning of the movie, and just because "it was freaking sad."
For a movie with only one scene on Earth and where the fact that Peter Quill left the planet behind is such a big deal, it's pretty surprisingly that the movie almost returned to Earth in the original ending. It sounds like cutting this may have been a wise decision though. Aside from the scene being sad and distracting from the joy of the ending, it also seems like suddenly cutting back to Earth so casually in a montage would be kind of jarring.
Guardians of the Galaxy is currently the highest grossing film of the year, grossing $330 million in the United States and $768 million worldwide. It will be released on digital download on November 18th, and on DVD and blu-ray on December 9th.
Image courtesy of ACE/INFphoto.com