SPOILER ALERTS for ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ below:

‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ topped the box office in its opening weekend, and it’s shaping up to be more than just another blockbuster.  The reaction has been phenomenal with the movie scoring a 91% critic score and 93% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.  Look for this epic to have legs as strong word of mouth should attract even more viewers and possibly even see some repeat viewings.  The movie is widely being praised for its emotional and intelligent storyline, not to mention cutting edge motion capture technology and powerful performances.

But did you know there was originally an additional sequence that would have closed out the film?

Director Matt Reeves discusses the post-credit scene and why he chose to cut it. The movie proper ended with the final heartbreaking scene between Malcolm and Caesar, which set the stage for the upcoming war.  But the post-credit sequence would have actually depicted the start of the war, with military forces arriving in San Francisco.

According to Reeves, “We actually did have an ending that went one step further, and I realized late in the game I was like ‘Wait a minute, I don’t want us to be boxed in this way.’”

In addition to predetermining the events of the next film, the military sequence would have in some ways buried the emotional scene that actually ended the film.  “We all know war is coming, but the final sequence may have been too bombastic.”

Another clue, but one that not most people would know, is that the last song on the soundtrack is “That’s Some Stinger.”  In the industry a “stinger” means a post-credit sequence.  Some eagle-eyed views claim that some of the post credit footage actually appears in some of the trailers.  So if you go back and watch those you may notice, specifically a couple of shots of a military ship going under the Golden Gate bridge and of the apes on the Bridge itself.

At the very least, this clip will probably show up on the DVD/BluRay release.

What do you think?  Is the ending perfect as it is?  Or would you have liked to have seen a post-credit sequence?

Source: Cinema Blend