The key answer of exercise 2

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 ...'