The ending of 'Cast Away' had a second option nobody talks about

I was rewatching Cast Away last week with my buddy and we got into this argument about the ending. You know how Wilson floats away and Chuck eventually makes it back to find Kelly married with kids. My friend said the movie should have ended with Chuck staying on the island after he sees the rescue plane fly past, like he chose to stay behind for good. I thought that was too dark, I always figured he should have found Kelly waiting for him in some small town near the rescue site. We talked about it for like an hour and I ended up picking the version where Kelly leaves her husband to be with Chuck. It felt like the whole journey deserved a happy payoff. But man, my friend still thinks the sad ending gives the movie more weight. Has anyone else thought about a different way that movie could have wrapped up?

2 comments

2 Comments

angelab621mo ago

That thing about him staying behind on purpose is a real stretch, isn't it? But I guess the "Kelly leaves her husband" idea feels more like a rom-com twist than the raw survival story we sat through for two hours. The whole point was that he lost everything, and sometimes life doesn't give you a happy payoff just because you earned it.

lisa82027d ago

Oh man, I gotta say I totally see where you're coming from, @angelab62... but I actually read an interview with the director the other day where he talked about how the ending was almost completely different. He said they shot a version where he made it home and everything was fine, but they scrapped it because it felt too easy. So the "staying behind" theory might not be that crazy after all, maybe it was his way of finally letting go after losing everything else. I mean, sometimes the raw truth is that people give up when they've got nothing left to fight for, and that's not a rom-com, that's just life being brutal. Still, I can't blame folks for wanting that happier twist, we all need a little hope sometimes...