Cover of the textbook Speakout Advanced Plus - Students' Book

The key answer of exercise 2

The key to exercise solutions in chapter 7.1 - Happy ending? for the textbook Speakout Advanced Plus - Students' Book with authors Frances Eales and Steve Oakes from Pearson Education

Question

  1. -
  2. Read the article. What choice did the creators of each of the four films make about the ending?
  3. Read the article again. Are the statements true (T) or false (F)? Underline the part of the article that helps you decide.

Answer

b)

  • Pretty Woman → the ending changed to a happy one (it was going to end with the female protagonist back on the street and dying).
  • Return of the Jedi → Han Solo was kept alive instead of dying (as was the original intent).
  • Thelma and Louise → instead of the audience seeing the car fall into the canyon the final shot is a freeze-frame of the car in mid-air.
  • Se7en → the creators chose the worst of several endings.

c)

  1. F → It is the studios rather than the director: 'the studios will try to find a way to turn a downbeat ending into an uplifting finale, since it is in their interest that the film be a financial success.'
  2. T → '... and it was only after much deliberation that the producers went ahead with the happy ending.'
  3. F → 'Apparently director George Lucas insisted that Han Solo not die, that he be kept alive ...'
  4. F → 'There is seemingly something about the freeze frame that immortalises whoever is caught in its eternal grip, and it's not surprising that it should now have become something of a cinematic cliché'
  5. T → '... the film's creators contemplated a whole range of endings ...'
  6. F → '... there is an epilogue complete with a quote from Ernest Hemingway ...'