THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (2004) ₊‧⁺
Dir. Joel Schumacher
Tick, Tick... Boom! (2021, Lin-Manuel Miranda)
03/09/2025
I’ve been thinking about it, and where I stand in terms of the ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ Movie Ending is, like… I do understand the arguments that the Director’s Cut is not actually the best and most thematically-fitting ending to the film version, that all the other little adaptational changes done throughout the movie made the original ending un-fitting and in need of its own adaptational change.
Stuff like Seymour’s misdeeds being more downplayed or implied in the film version. Like, I think the film version of Orin’s death is meant to imply Seymour could have helped but he’s intentionally letting him die. But that’s still quite a difference from the musical where almost literally sings out that he could've helped him but he’s intentionally letting him die.
And with Mushnik it’s a very similar situation but kinda more exaggerated, the film has a more subtle and maybe more ‘cinematic’ version of ‘Seymour sneakily leading Mushnik to the plant’ but also with the added element of Gun so that Seymour is under even more duress
And with Mushnik being played less sympathetically with the whole “I am basically using this murder accusation to blackmail you into giving me the Cash-Cow Plant”
AND with Seymour’s tiny little “...sir?” at the last moment implying that he had second thoughts and tried to save Mushnik at the last moment...
And it all comes together to really soften Seymour and absolve him of guilt at what should be his point of no return.
Plus any moment where Seymour could enjoy all that his Murderplant has given him has been either extremely downplayed or cut (except for ‘Suddenly Seymour’, I suppose). To the point where even before the Murderplanting has even begun the movie is juxtaposing a song about he’s having “Some Fun Now” with scenes of him miserable in his little basement feeding Twoey.
Seymour always seems miserable or tired or haunted by guilt, so it’s not like the audience feels the need to see him get ‘put in his place’ or ‘learn his lesson'. It seems like his guilty conscience is doing a pretty good job of making sure he would have never enjoyed his success either way.
And also there’s the way “The Meek Shall Inherit” has been almost totally cut out, when this is the song where Seymour himself highlights the fact that by agreeing to keep the plant and agreeing to all of these publicity stuff he is also implicitly agreeing to kill more people sooner or later.
And yet he still gives up on a plan to kill Twoey and instead agrees to keep going with the success which, as he says, require him to 'keep on doing bloody, awful, evil things'.
Albeit for sympathetic reasons (he doesn’t want to lose Audrey and he has such little self-worth that he can’t see what she sees in him without the money and the Murderplant), but well, if he wasn’t sympathetic it wouldn’t make for a very good Tragedy, would it?
Plus, the visuals in the scrapped film version of the scene highlight that Seymour does still feel like he unquestionably has Mushnik’s blood on hands and that is a terrible and damning thing
I think, like with Seymour’s culpability in Orin’s death, both things are still conveyed in the finished version of the movie. But obviously having a whole song + dream sequence dedicated to it would have emphasized the point.
And ALSO ALSO, there is the change to the ending itself with the addition of “Mean Green Mother From Outer Space”. Which, like, this is one of the best Villain Songs of all times. I would never want a version of the movie where that is removed, but… the original stage climax where Seymour leaps into Twoey in an attempt to cut it up from the inside is usually framed as… at least a little bit badass for Seymour, in kind of a dark way. A tragic culmination of his arc. The moment when he finally has enough confidence and determination and clarity to both do what’s right and be the master of his own destiny… only to fail miserably because it was too little too late.
But y’know, the fact that he finally found it in himself to try is still an Important Character Moment.
But “Mean Green Mother From Outer Space” plays down Seymour’s agency and character arc in favor of just having Twoey dunk on him for four minutes straight, playing up Seymour being a hapless loser way over his head just as he has been for the entire movie. So while he’s dead either way, the Original Film ending actually kinda feels even crueler to Seymour’s character than the Stage Version.
And of course, after “Mean Green Mother From Outer Space” still comes “Don’t Feed the Plants”, which in the film version already kinda has maybe too many long sequences of the plants ruining shit up and winning all the time. Put together it’s like ten whole minutes of just “HAHA THE BAD GUY WINS” and that might get exhausting to people who were emotionally invested in Seymour and Audrey and thus exacerbate their Problem with the ending.
And that’s not even getting into the stuff Frank Oz talked about with how the stylized nature of the stage makes death in musical theater less ‘real’ than death in cinema and thus Audrey and Seymour’s deaths hurt more on-screen and thus potentially create tone-whiplash for the audience.
But… like, the thing is… These are all good arguments. But these are arguments against the Director’s Cut and not arguments FOR the Theatrical Cuts.
Cause, yeah, I can see the reasons why the Director’s Cut is not the thematically and narratively perfect fit for the movie… but that doesn’t necessarily mean the Theatrical Cut is the perfect fit instead. Like, if the problem with the Director’s Cut is that small adaptational changes meant that the movie was accidentally not building up to the narrative climax they thought they were building up too… Then the Theatrical Cut was not an ending they were building up at all until the Test Audience Screenings started.
Like, there’s little things like how even with the movie making Seymour more sympathetic the shift from “you’re a monster and so am I” to “you’ll never get away with this, your kind never does” is probably too much of an overcorrection. But also the movie does still build up to the idea that Seymour is ‘gonna get what’s coming to him’
Which is a promise that’s just… entirely unfulfilled in the Theatrical Cut.
And “Somewhere That’s Green” is, I feel, the most clear moment of dissonance. Like, the framing of this song is very tongue-and-cheek and like… not entirely mocking Audrey, but definitely kinda sees her fantasy as overly naive and artificial. With the Lyrics emphasizing how all of her ideas come entirely from TV and Magazines and Advertising…
And the staging in the movie very much leans into the idea this is a goofy artificial fantasy.
Because, you know, this is a fantasy. On a wide scale, this imagery of the White Picket Fence Perfect Suburbia Middle-Class American Family is an extremely simplified and sanitized idea that dominates our concept of America and the 1950’s (and early 1960’s in Little Shop’s case I guess) and America in the 1950’s. Even most actual families living Somewhere That’s Green failed to truly live up to this packaged idea of American Happiness…
But for Audrey this is doubly a fantasy because both she and the man she loves are poor. Like, the very second song in the musical is about how they all feel stuck in poverty and there’s no way out.
Because getting the money that’s needed for them to actually leave Skid Row, to leave poverty, is basically impossible… Without participating in a horribly immoral, horribly exploitative system that is actually quite eager to exploit them and devour them whole.
And in the original ending, this is exactly what happens. Audrey never gets out of Skid Row. Not because she didn’t ‘deserve’ it (the way that Seymour might or might not deserve a karmic punishment), but because it’s just impossible in the world she lives in without the sudden windfall of Twoey’s success, but Twoey is inherently exploitative and Audrey’s selfless and trusting nature makes her very easy to get exploited.
(It’s a Capitalism metaphor is what I’m saying. Twoey is the same as the financial exploitation all the people of Skid Row live under, just horrifyingly more literal and also from outer space.)
So the sudden switch in the Theatrical Cut to ‘no, actually Audrey’s fantasy was totally really achievable all along and Seymour and Audrey get it and live happily ever after!’ is… messy. It’s dissonant with the irony and humor in “Somewhere That’s Green” and it messes with the whole “Twoey as a metaphor for the illusion of social mobility under capitalism״ angle. You know, it’s like… our hero ‘kills’ Capitalism and his reward is… the exact false consumerist fantasy used to ‘sell’ Capitalism to people at that exact era?
Plus, it also kinda does a disservice to Audrey as a character in my opinion. Like, the narrative very obviously points out that both Audrey and Seymour suffer from the same basic Fatal Flaw; a lack of self-esteem.
In the original ending, said Fatal Flaw bites back at both of them in different ways on their way to the same fate. Seymour’s belief that he’s worthless and unlovable if he’s not financially successful is what keeps him going on the Murderplant route long enough for Audrey to get pulled into the danger he’s been hiding from her. While Audrey’s belief that she’s worthless if someone does love her that means she exists to make that man happy is what leads her to think that Seymour should feed her to the Plant.
(Again, this is like Capitalism and the ‘American Dream’ family values as both what Twoey is a metaphor for and its also actively using this the system of exploitation as part of its scheme)
Which, since the Plant grows bigger and stronger with every person it consumes, means Audrey’s sacrifice just ended up strengthening the Plant for Seymour’s upcoming confrontation with it. Like, I think this is pretty much the implication in the stage version but is extremely obvious in the original film version when you compare Twoey’s energy and mobility before and after it gets to eat Audrey.
And on an emotional perspective, obviously Audrey’s death would’ve hit Seymour hard even if he got to bury her like a Normal Person (and it’s probably not productive to get into things like Sominex Theory right now since the movie version does not reinforce it) but feeding her to the Murderplant obviously made it worse. He is explicitly suicidal in the original film ending and I’d argue implicitly suicidal in most versions of the stage ending. And that probably contributed to the stupidly dangerous way he went on to confront Twoey.
So in the original ending, Audrey’s selfless lack of self-esteem ends up leading to the death of the man she loves (which mirrors the fact Seymour’s selfish lack of self-esteem led to her death) both in the literal physical sense that she made the plant stronger and harder to kill and in the emotional sense she didn’t fully internalize how much she meant for Seymour and how much her death would affect him mentally.
And in the Theatrical Cut it’s just… a flaw that is never really fully-confronted. Like, the fact that Seymour’s lack of self-worth is what keeps him involved with the plant and therefore puts blood on his hands and puts Audrey’s life in danger is still part of the narrative, even if Audrey survives the Plant Attack. But Audrey’s lack of self-worth… without her decision to sacrifice herself to the plant… I guess the closest thing would be her self-loathing rationale for staying with Orin and therefore giving Seymour motivation to start murderplanting in the first place.
But, like, she had other reasons too…
And she’s not necessarily wrong there! Getting out of an abusive relationship can be legitimately life-threatening and a lot of women are forced to stay because they have no support system that could protect them. It doesn’t feel right to just frame it as just a problem of self-esteem on Audrey's part.
And so, Audrey’s central flaw in the Theatrical Cut doesn’t Culminate in an ironically tragic way like in the original ending or gets resolved like Seymour’s does in the Theatrical Cut. I... guess 'Suddenly Seymour' now counts as the way her arc is resolved?
So, like, neither ending really ‘ruins’ the movie outright, the movie is still immensely enjoyable to me either way and both endings have some things you can really enjoy and appreciate about them - but neither can really be said to be 100% thematically appropriate for the movie version either. They both have some element of dissonance about them. I guess it’s really just a matter of personal preference of which dissonant elements are most bothersome to you personally.
And like, it is interesting to think about what would be the perfect ending for the movie. Something bittersweet like Seymour and Audrey both surviving and the plant still being destroyed (or… is it?) but losing all the money Seymour made and thus any chance of ever leaving Skid Row would work thematically with the whole the Plant is Predatory Capitalism but Literally Predatory angle while still giving both of these two a chance to fulfil their character arcs and get some semblance of a happy ending (cause, hey, they’ve still got each other, right?) but…
It will be pretty hard to make sure the narrative implications aren’t that it was wrong for Seymour and Audrey to want something better than life on Skid Row and you should always be happy with where you are and never try for a better life. And make it clear that their desires for a better life financially were entirely valid and it’s just the world is sucky and unfair by not giving them any not-Murderplant options for a better life. It’s just a bit of a tough balancing act to pull off.
Then there’s this one early script leak where apparently Audrey still dies but Seymour survives his confrontation with Twoey and takes an active part at the futile attempts to stop it in “Don’t Feed the Plants”. Which would at least give Seymour’s character a better resolution and completes his character arc (by showing him take proactive actions against Twoey, but again, probably too little too late).
…Or, and this is just my random idea, what about an ending that goes in the other direction? Where Seymour dies while taking Twoey down with him but Audrey survives. Like, Seymour gets to complete his character arc by dying a hero… but now Audrey is still stuck in Skid Row alone (since no one but them knew of their engagement there will be no way for her to inherit Seymour’s money), but at least Orin’s still gone from her life and Seymour did teach her she’s capable of being loved - so it kinda ends on a note of ambiguity of whatever Audrey can retain that lesson and resolve her unhealthy selflessness on her own.
But as Interesting as those possible endings are, I am also aware most of these would have never been alternative endings for the movie from a purely practical perspective. These would have probably been too long or too complicated or too expensive for the reshoots they needed. Probably required at least one new song to sell the new emotional note the story goes out on. Like, the Theatrical Ending has two new/reshot scenes, one new special effect, one new set of Chorus Girls outfit and otherwise reuses as much of the sets, props, music and costuming as they possibly could - they probably couldn’t budget anymore. It maybe sucks a little, but sometimes filmmaking, especially mainstream filmmaking, is just as much a matter of practicality and budget as it is art.
…I don’t really have a concrete conclusion to this whole conundrum. This is more a bunch of my semi-connected thoughts about the matter than any sort of definite statement. It’s something I think about a lot because I just don’t know what the real ‘answer’ is!
TOM BLYTH & EMILY BADER | PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION
trailer on December 2nd!