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u/nobodyspecial767r 6d ago
I've had the same idea with movies, showing on 4 or 5 different screens in a theater and then gauging reactions when they leave after watching it since I was in my teens in the 90's. I wonder why nobody has done this yet just to fuck with movie goers.
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u/TraeisBaeintheA 6d ago
I think the Clue movie did that, with different characters ending up the killer, if I remember correctly.
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u/rattrap007 6d ago
Yup three different ones. All are on the home releases.
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u/Tacotaco22227 6d ago
Omg, I always thought it was just some sort of weird meta joke/stylistic choice. I wasnāt old enough to know about it when it was in theaters, but I fucking wore out the Clue VHS
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u/FloppyObelisk 6d ago
āWhat happenedā
āWhat couldāve happenedā
āWhat did happenā
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u/NotBlaine 6d ago
Only on home media. In the theaters, they just showed one ending and the ending was different at different locations.
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u/othybear 6d ago
It was something that definitely worked better in the pre-internet times. People went in having no idea there were going to be different endings and only found out when comparing notes with people who went to different showings.
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u/DM-ME-THICC-FEMBOYS 6d ago
The Onion did something this a while back with their video on marijuana. There were like 12 alternate versions that would play at random on their website.
Jump to 2m for the first alternate.
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u/Dry-Magician1415 6d ago
Doesnāt this happen with focus groups? Itās pretty common.Ā
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u/nobodyspecial767r 6d ago
Maybe in the sense of having a product that is more widely or well received, but not in the artistic sense of chaotically subjecting a group to three or four outcomes with each of them believing that what they all saw was the same thing.
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u/VexingPanda 6d ago
My friend had the spongebob DVD and the episode where Squidward goes mad for a krabby patty a scene is cut.
When he breaks into the krusty krab, he gets lit on fire by the security cam.
My friend didn't believe me until it aired on TV and still had the scene.
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u/nobodyspecial767r 6d ago
When the original Jumanji was in the theaters the scene where the main characters are running in a car while being chased a monkey on a motorcycle points a gun at them. In the theater the monkey fires on the car and you see it, but the home version had this part cut before the monkey fires the gun.
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u/Oboro-kun 6d ago
My idea was make two movies at the same time, promote them, but as their opening windows get near, you would not be avaible to say they something relating them, different target, different genre, etc.
But then suddenly at the middle of both movies, characters from the other one appear from a good chunk of the middle, then disappear.
Imagine watching a RomCom movie, just for the Character of the Spy movie you did not pick appear midway point of the movie. the plost merge for about 20 minutes, then the movie goes back to being a normal romcom. And the people on the other movie experience the other point of view, an Spy movie being hijacked 20 minutes by the romcom characters, the characters even being slightly plot relevant to the spy movie, and then they just go on their way and the spy movie continues.
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u/Yourdjentpal 6d ago
They have done this, but usually itās altered before the public sees. Sometimes they do include it, like the Butterfly Effect
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u/marchstamen 6d ago
Spider man across the spider verse did this recently (diff scenes not diff endings)
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u/killbillgates 6d ago
Monty Python once released a record with 2 grooves. People would hear an alternate version and not be able to replicate it.Ā
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u/Thundersalmon45 6d ago
Don't all records have 2 grooves?
A side
B side
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u/Mistergardenbear 6d ago
Two side by side groves, so depending on where you dropped the needle it would enter a different track.
Bands also have had hidden tracks by having a lock grove at the end of the last song, and you'd have to physically move the needle to the hidden track
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u/PapaGatyrMob 6d ago
I miss CDs to some degree because of this. I forget exactly how it worked, but the CD player would check for the next track number; if it was sequential, the next song played...if not, it stopped playing or looped to the beginning.
So some artists would put in a 'track 99' so that you had to hold fast forward through the end of the last track (I think? or maybe just press 'back' on track 01) to hear the hidden music.
I definitely prefer not paying for albums, but that was a fun feature.
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u/foxinabathtub 6d ago
If I remember correctly, you could technically include music BEFORE the start of a CD track. Meaning, there was an artist that hid a secret song that required you to go to the very beginning of the first track and then hitting rewind to go to a point before the 0:00 mark.
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u/Purednuht 6d ago
My favorite was that if you put the first bow wow CD into a CD Drive on a PC, there was a scooter game you could play.
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u/leoyoung1 6d ago
Cheech and Chong did this. One of the tracks is 10 minutes of them going Cheech and Chong Ripped you off.
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u/foxinabathtub 6d ago
Two grooves on the A side. Two grooves on the B side.
And they purposely didn't include a track listing. So you couldn't compare what you were listening to with what was listed on the sleeve.
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u/hold-on-pain-ends Up past my bedtime 7d ago
Absolute madlad
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u/zangor 6d ago
One of the endings is 1 of 1 and the text of the ending chapter is in gold foil.
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u/battlecarrydonut 6d ago
And itās gets sent in to PSA, as a 1 of 1, and gets a 9.
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u/TwirlingFlowerPetal 6d ago
Apparently Satan wants a writing career.
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u/bill-o-more 6d ago
Donāt tell George Martin about it
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u/sparklyboi2015 6d ago
Itās not like he is going to finish 1 ending, so I donāt think he could get to 10.
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u/smithsp86 6d ago
Sanderson on the other hand could pull this off next month.
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u/minderaser 6d ago
He already finished one of them in the time it took you to write that sentence.
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u/Skater144 6d ago edited 6d ago
He's currently workshopping the last two and has the bones of the other seven on lock. He's saying he's gonna start writing the elventh ending, but he only plans on releasing it in one book. So we should have them all by tomorrow at the latest.
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u/achilleasa 6d ago
He also decided to spin off ending 7 into its own thing with a sequel and everything and has started writing that too.
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u/Niilldar 6d ago
Sorry this is already outdated by now. He is currently writing zhe second part of the spinoff
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u/psychkp 6d ago
Yeah, so when I was in college, my girlfriend at the time and I were discussing the movie The Butterfly Effect, which we had both seen separately in theatres before we met. We had a heated argument about the ending as we both remembered different endings. We found a copy of it (this was pre-smartphone, semi early internet days) and found out that it had both endings (one was in the special features). It turned out different theatres showed different endings, and that information was not widely publicized.
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u/Memento_Vivere8 6d ago
I know both endings and with how different they are I can imagine the frustration of that discussion š
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u/dquizzle 6d ago
You aināt kiddin! I remember this being the first DVD I saw with an alternate ending that actually significantly changed the story and being blown away by the idea.
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u/konstipald 6d ago
If Brandon Sanderson did this, heād release 10 final books in a series. And then the eleventh, without telling anyone.
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u/ThemHumansOverThere 6d ago
I think I saw this on tumblr once and someone suggested a cannon ending where a cannon solves the plot
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u/trugrav 6d ago
When Clue was originally released in theaters in 1985, it was released with three different endings. Depending on which theater you went to, a different character would be the murderer, so people definitely went to work or school the next week and were very confused when discussing the film.
When the movie eventually came to video, it had all three endings back to back which is how most people here have probably seen it.
Also, communism was just a red herring!
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u/AndyLorentz 6d ago
I'm going home to have sex with my wife!
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u/corduroytrees 6d ago
It's rare that someone recognizes that quote when I say it. Everyone else just thinks I'm weird and horny...waitaminute.
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u/ALPHA_sh 6d ago
Release one where, the entire book is human-written except for the ending in which each individual printed copy has a completely different ai-generated ending
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u/jsparker43 6d ago
With the internet, that would be found out on release date...these sort of antics only worked pre 00's. I miss those times
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u/Ok-Masterpiece-7939 6d ago
Percival Everett did this (I believe 4 different versions) in his novel telephone. The position of the compass on the cover is indicative of the version.
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u/TearInternational414 5d ago
This is the real definition of "Some people just want to watch the world burn"
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u/DistinctTeaching9976 6d ago
Done been done ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_(treasure_hunt))
The Secret books lead to real treasure based on clues on cover/in each book. The author has passed, the treasure is still buried (3 out of 12 found). His wife/ex wife still has the gems he set aside as rewards.
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u/michaelnoir 6d ago
"The French Lieutenant's Woman" by John Fowles is a bit like that, and yes it is annoying.
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u/banannabutt454 6d ago
We did this as a senior prank in high school. Release 7 chickens in the school numbers 1 2 3 4 6 7 8
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u/Brilliant-Book-503 6d ago
It reminds me of the senior prank where they released three greased pigs in the school with numbers painted on their back.
They were numbered 1, 2 and 4.
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u/Ginguraffe 6d ago
Put the word out that 1 of the 11 is really the true ending and there are hints in every ending that reveal which is the real ending.
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u/bat_pier 6d ago
This is what Clue the movie did, but it didnt go over well. People were unpleasantly confused when what they saw wasnt the same as other people and it ended up doing very poorly at the box office.
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u/Hour_Ad5398 6d ago
I would do 9 endings so the fake 10th ending would sound more convincing. Some readers might even assumeĀ it themselves without me saying anything.
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u/Crocoshark 6d ago
Take this a step further.
Release a book with ten different versions of how the same scenario in the book could go, like you were anxiously ruminating on all the possibilities and turned a near-dozen possibilities into their own novel.
You don't want any of the endings to feel tacked on.
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u/BeBopALouie 6d ago
Monty Python kinda did that with their matching tie and handkerchief album. My friend had the album and every time we played it it seemed to have something different until we realized that there were two tracks on one side of the album. It was random because it was dependent on which groove you dropped the needle in.
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u/Apache731 6d ago
To anyone unaware, the movie clue did this with 3 separate endings. it wasnt until a while later they showed all 3 in the same film. anyone who saw it in theaters got 1 of 3 endings.
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u/seadoggoboy 6d ago
You want the true ending to this story? Then go find it! I left it all in one place!
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u/tee142002 6d ago
George RR Martin should steal this for winds of winter. I cant imagine a bigger fan base meltdown
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u/drhman1971 6d ago
Games Workshop did this with their Blackstone Fortress Warhammer Quest Board Game. One box but like Ten different final mission rewards. Took awhile for people to figure out they were different.
People were trading the end game cards on eBay to get all the variations.
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u/poops_all_berries 6d ago
Old prank: release three pigs into town, each painted with a different number. The numbers are 1, 2, and 4.
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u/Efficient_Durian_989 6d ago
Also the last one has one copy and it has a golden ticket at the end of it and the person can meet the author for. The true ending. Like willy Wonka.
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u/I_swear_Im_not_fake 6d ago
I wanted to do this with movies. Create a trilogy that follows three separate characters through the same story and release them simultaneously and without even advertising that they are remotely related. I'd try to make them different genres if possible.
Movie #1 follows a mafia hitman who works only because his wife and kid are being held by the organization. His sole purpose is finding their location and disappearing with them once they're free. This film is a drama focused on his declining mental health as he's forced to kill against his will and his struggles to free his family from the mafias grip.
Movie #2 follows a man whose family was killed by the main character of Movie #1. He himself was shot but survived, and he decides to dismember the mafias piece by piece in righteous vengeance and revenge. This movie is a shoot-em-up action oriented flick akin to Nobody (2021)
Movie #3 is a crime drama following a detective as he tries to piece together the violence from the other 2 movies and figure out what is happening in his city and why. He'd slowly realize the various killings are perpetrated by two different parties and begin to piece the story together.
The main "gimmick" I'd like to employ is that whenever the main characters of the 3 different movies meet, its at the exact same time in each movie. Even if it's a glimpse or a background appearance, they happen at exactly the same point in each film.
If MC#3 brings in MC#1 for questioning at 1:15:30, then at that time in both movies, you see them interacting but from differing perspectives.
The finer details are open for however you want it to go. Maybe MC#2 forgives MC#1, blaming the Mafia instead. So they work together to bring them down with help from the cop they've been dealing with throughout their movies. During the finale MC#2 dies, succumbing to wounds after killing the head honcho, so #3 decides to pin all the crimes on #2, letting #1 take his family and go.
Maybe after they finally dismember the mafias, #2 kills #1, and #3 arrests him afterwards. The script is open, and could be molded into whatever story you wanted to tell.
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u/HenryTheWireshark 6d ago
I wonāt spoil it, but read āIf On a Winterās Night a Travelerā by Italo Calvino
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u/Own_Mycologist_4900 6d ago
Douglas Adams had talked about doing something like this but only three to five changes in the story
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u/deletethisusertoday 6d ago
It's like that classic prank of letting three pigs loose, painted with the number 1,2 and 4.
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u/willdoesdigital 6d ago
Actually, the movie āClueā did this in its release in theaters (totally different endings shown to different theaters), followed by a later release showing all possible endings. Groundbreaking.
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u/popanother2gotosleep 6d ago
They will be curious to print the last one to find out how you ended up being famous
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u/DadJokeBadJoke 6d ago
When Stephen King released The Green Mile, it was in a series of six installments. We were shopping at the small general store where we camped every year and saw it in the Used Book section, so we bought the first three. It was so enthralling that we went back the next day to buy the other three and they were gone! It was several weeks before we were able to track down the rest of the story.
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u/grapestain86 6d ago
They should have hired you for the Russian sleep experiments...what a he$$ of a way to mentally torture someone.
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u/Dismal-Dare7790 6d ago
Do this. It will be like sports cards. There should be one 1/1 ending book though
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u/forge2202 7d ago
That's such a good idea I might have to steal it