Re-writing Deep Blue Sea.

If you're in the original ending camp, I think you'll agree. Deep Blue Sea is regarded as a cheap 90s popcorn film, but I read the script and discovered that they didn't just change the ending, they were forced to go back and cut so many elements in the story we didn't even notice, some of this extra deleted content wasn't included on the DVD or the 2010 Blu-Ray release of the film. I know these scenes were shot because there are stills floating around and some of this unseen content is in one of the TV spots. They cut so many scenes involving Susan McCallister (Saffron Burrows) after the ending was re-shot for the sole purpose of making you feel less sympathetic toward her so her death would feel less tragic and more deserved. They did this because the test audiences hated her, viewed her as the villain for causing the movie's conflict and felt that she deserved to die. They didn't have enough time to go back and re-shoot all of Susan's other scenes, which in my opinion would include changing her personality to make her more villainous or give her a more sinister motive. They just took the easy way out instead. I feel like the test audiences ruined her character and the story by killing her off. Just cutting half of her scenes to make you feel "Meh" toward her just made Susan a bland and uninteresting character opposed to what she was supposed to be. She was the main character and it was her story in a way. She was the only character with a story arc. I never saw her as a true villain because she never acted like one. She didn't have the motive of a villain. I know she screwed up and was the brainchild of the shark experiments but the deaths were all accidental and unintentional. She didn't want any of this to happen. The experiments with the sharks just went wrong, there wasn’t anything inherently malicious with her actions. She didn't know that a helicopter winch would break off causing Jim Whitlock (Stellan Skarsgard) to fall into the water for the shark to grab.

I would change this movie by adding in all of this deleted content that was cut from the theatrical version thanks to the test audiences negative reaction to Susan redeeming herself by killing her own creation. I want to add all deleted content, not just featured on the Blu-Ray, but featured in the script too.

I would add in one more detail about Susan's backstory aside from her dad dying from Alzheimer's and her mom dying in a car crash. In the script, it's revealed that Susan was the youngest scientist to win a MacArthur grant and had a brilliant mind. Show things from her perspective so the audience can understand her point of view and humanize her more.

I would also add in an explanation for why Carter Blake (Thomas Jane) ended up at Aquatica. In the script, it's revealed that Carter took the job because he needed work but stayed because he really liked Susan.

Elaborate a bit more about Russell Franklin (Samuel L. Jackson) and his avalanche backstory. Franklin was on a hike in the alps with a group when they were hit by an avalanche and resorted to killing and eating two in their group to survive.

In the scene where she threatens Carter about his job, the script notes she's embarrassed because of how it sounds and tries to soften things up with Carter in the next few lines when he walks off because he is upset with her. In the scene, you'll notice she turns back to him. They cut away before she delivers her next bit of lines, embarrassed about what she said in the heat of the moment. But in the script, Carter ignores her and won't answer so she turns and walks off embarrassed.

I would change the scene where the shark breaks the window with Jim Whitlock's corpse. I would have Susan, Carter, Franklin, Tom Scoggins (Michael Rapaport) and Janice Higgins (Jacqueline Mackenzie) start running to the door as soon as the glass starts cracking. It's better than just staring at the glass like idiots.

In the theatrical cut, Janice berates her for what happened to Jim. Even though Jim was equally responsible. But they actually made up before Janice was killed. Initially, Susan tries comforting her, but Janice rejects her because she blames Susan for everything. There's also another deleted scene where Janice is berating Susan and Susan tells Janice that Jim was her best friend. Janice asks "Really? When was his birthday and what did he like on his pizza?" Susan is a wreck and doesn't answer which makes you think Janice is correct while Susan is wrong. That made the deleted scenes because it made Susan look bad. But there was a scene that followed (which didn't make the deleted scenes). Janice is sitting by herself and Susan sneaks up and quietly says Jim's birthday, which takes Janice by surprise. Janice starts to cry and Susan names off Jim's favorite pizza toppings. Janice realizes Susan really did care about him and forgives her. Susan even gives her a heartfelt apology in a different scene. When Carter loses all hope on the ladder after Janice is eaten, you'll notice in the scene, Susan climbs over beside him. But there was actually dialogue that followed which was cut. She comforts Carter because he expresses guilt. He's also hopeless but she fills him with hope. And then Sherman Preacher Dudley (LL Cool J) shows up to save Susan, Carter and Scoggins, proving her optimism to be true. She even talks to Preacher about Janice and Jim, asking if he knew they were in love, after Janice's death while holding a picture of her. I appreciated this because, when your friends die, you aren't just going to move on like it's nothing. I know you can't drag the grief out in these films but little scenes like this make it so much more believable.

Establish Susan's relationship with Carter. She tells him she wants to take him up on that beer (which he offered at her birthday party) as she nurses his arm in the bathroom. In the theatrical cut, they cut away before she takes the gauze from him and starts wrapping his arm up. That's when the conversation gets deeper and personal between the two. Carter also talks to her about his time in prison. Carter served two years in prison for smuggling. I know it's implied he had a rough past, but I never knew it was prison. Before Carter and Scoggins leave for the control panels, Susan gives Carter a scuba knife for protection and Carter mocked her over the knife's size because it's small and won't work on a shark. But he keeps it in his leg strap. I would have Susan become a voice of reason in some scenes. In the script, she tries to talk Carter and Scoggins out of going to the control panels, warning them how dangerous it is and likely to fail... and she was correct, as Carter escaped after Scoggins was eaten.

Last but not least, I want to change the ending by adding in the original ending cause it's a much better ending. Preacher survives too. Everyone thinks he dies in the original ending for some reason but he still lives. The difference is, in the original ending, when he passes out after Susan nurses his leg, that's it. You don't see him again until the end. I prefer this because there's no way Preacher could have miraculously found the strength to hop up and save the day, as badly as he was wounded. Plus how did he know the plan? How was he able to also find the harpoon gun and battery he didn't even know existed and as quickly as he did at that? That's one of the reasons I hate the theatrical ending. In the original ending, Susan and Carter are looking at the ocean, admiring it's beauty, Susan expresses regret for what her actions caused, saying that all she wanted was to save people, not slaughter them. Carter realizes that the sharks were using them to flood the facility so it would sink and the sharks would escape out into open water and be free. Susan gave a monologue about how the shark can't escape because it will breed, take over the ocean and kill everyone and everything that it comes across. That's when Susan and Carter decide that they must kill it. While they're setting up the explosives, Carter tells Susan he learned how to rig explosives in prison. When Susan jumps into the water after cutting her hand, Carter rescues her unlike the theatrical ending where he gets there a second too late and she's eaten. In the original ending, he has her climb over him. She hops onto his shoulders and uses the other rungs to pull herself up. But she's not strong enough to pull Carter up despite her best efforts. Carter looks back at the shark, he lets go, falls into the water and rides the shark by clinging onto its fin. Susan climbs the tower and aims the harpoon at the shark. She fires and the harpoon hits the shark but penetrates Carter's leg. He yells at Susan to detonate the explosives, but she's hesitant because she knows it will kill him. When the cable is close to running out she realizes she has to do it. She blows the shark up. She has an emotional breakdown and starts crying believing she's killed Carter. Carter's head appears and she rushes over to pull him up. He reveals that he freed himself by using the scuba knife she gave him earlier, telling her that the knife came in handy after all. He teases her a bit about trying to blow him up and then they kiss. Susan, Carter and Preacher get on a raft and use it to leave Aquatica. While on the raft, Susan finds a bottle floating in the ocean, inside that bottle is a tape. It's the videotape Preacher made when he thought he was going to die. She gives the tape to Preacher since he lived. Then they see the next crew approaching on the boat.

And this is how I would fix Deep Blue Sea. I know people being picked off by sharks is more exciting, but there's nothing wrong with appreciating a good, deep story with more realistic and relatable characters from time to time too and I really believe this version was far superior to the theatrical cut. Plus, there's no way with this extra content, Carter and Preacher would have been able to carry on like she never existed. Carter would’ve been utterly gutted by Susan’s death as they grew close throughout the film. I mean, this was originally her story so naturally she should have lived alongside Carter and Preacher. The theatrical version sucked majorly compared to the original version. Thomas Jane and director Renny Harlin are both supporting the original ending petition. Hopefully Warner Bros will finally release all deleted content.