Thank Goodness for Meddling Producers – The Original Ending for ‘Dodgeball’

Between Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, piratic Alan Tudyk and a sports movie about a sport I’ve actually played, it was a pretty safe bet I was going to see ‘Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story’ in a theatre. I did, it was great fun, and I came away with fond memories. At the time, screenwriting listservs were filled with articles about writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber as a filmmaking underdog who was making it big. I’d seen his hilarious commercial ‘Terry Tate, Office Linebacker’ and after popcorn-munching my way through his first feature serving I was convinced Thurber could do no wrong. Now I’m a little less sure.

Last week I saw ‘Dodgeball’ again, this time on DVD. It was still hilarious and even some of the cut scenes were more entertaining than scenes that get left in many lesser comedies. But in the DVD extras was an alternate ending that was so surprising and confusing I watched it again with the commentary on, hoping for an explanation. Enter the voice of Thurber, stating that this was the original ending – an ending he believed in so strongly he walked off the project temporarily in a refusal to replace it. Stories of directors having to bow to test audiences and producers usually frustrate me (as do stories of writers having to bow to test audiences, producers, directors, pompous actors…) but in this case I have no idea what Thurber was thinking. The original ending wasn’t an artistic one, it simply wasn’t an ending at all.

***MINOR SPOILERS BELOW****

In this alternate ending, the Average Joe’s are knocked out when a throw by White (Stiller) takes out a distracted Peter (Vaughn). Then that’s it. Peter looks sad, White looks happy, credits role. If Thurber wanted to say this is how underdog stories really end, that’s one thing. I can’t help but wonder if that isn’t the whole reason he set about writing a sports movie – to finally make one where the unskilled but lovable ‘losers’ actually lose. His story wasn’t about a dodgeball final though, it was about the lives of the characters playing dodgeball. In the ending that was eventually put on the movie, the credits don’t roll after Peter’s winning throw. There’s the standard wrap-up of boy gets girl, bully gets what’s coming to him, and disheartened pirate friend gets affirmation in the form of a treasure chest¹. This, I think, is where Thurber’s original ending stumbled. Audience wouldn’t have needed to see Average Joe’s win if they’d seen where they were going next.

***END OF SPOLERS***

It’s a shame that the creative and comic geniuses who came together to make ‘Dodgeball’ didn’t find a happy medium in which an unhappy ending could still leave an audience satisfied. But between the two options that were filmed, the one that I saw on the big screen was by far the better choice. I’m still looking forward to more from Thurber, but I’ve removed him from the pedestal I had him on, which is probably more comfortable for everyone.



¹ I remember reading that they had to go back and film more material for ’28 Days’, another movie in which test audiences were unsatisfied with the ending, that time specifically related to Alan Tudyk’s character. The lesson here is if you’re going to put that man in a movie, you should be prepared to give him a good ending, or face an unhappy audience (*cough* Joss Whedon *cough*).