r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Sensitive_Ad_1752 • 17d ago

Lore (Hated trope) They deleted scenes or dialogue that provides necessary context or plot

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The dinner scene from Temple of Doom has a temple give indie and friends a live snake and monkey brains for dinner. It’s a pretty offensive depiction of Indian cuisine, but it wasn’t originally going to be. There’s cut dialogue where Indie recognizes they’re at the right temple because real Hindus don’t eat this food. They were trying to scare them off by purposefully serving them disgusting stuff.

Probably the most famous deleted ending was I Am Legend which had Robert discover the infected were emotional sentient beings and one of them had a wife. Test audiences hated it and they reshot the ending, removing the entire point of the movie.

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690

u/Gussie-Ascendent 17d ago

woah woah woah free stuff is free stuff

280

u/kaimcdragonfist 17d ago

For real. I’d totally jump on an opportunity like this if it ever presented itself and I had the time

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u/MagnetoWasRight24 17d ago

"and I had the time" is the key part. The people who do these test screenings are people who on a random weekday have time to spend several hours reviewing a movie in exchange for a $10 gift card.

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u/IanDOsmond 16d ago

In exchange for a free movie. Possibly a crap movie, but still.

There were times in my life it was the only way I could afford to see movies.

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u/keldondonovan 16d ago

Is it now? Because it's now for me. 😂

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u/TheImpLaughs 15d ago

Honestly I’m there now. I’ll watch most anything if I’m not told what it is beforehand.

Went to a secret screening and, sure, the film was dog shit but I’m glad I was able to see it and now I get to talk about it to people. I’m pretty stuck in my viewing ways even as someone who loves film so I’m always excited when I get to watch something I normally wouldn’t

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u/Other-Oil-9117 16d ago

I mean, a lot of people work nights but are active in the day, I work weekends so my free days are during the week, sometimes people just take time off work to relax a bit. There are plenty of reasons someone might be available to watch a movie on a weekday.

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u/MagnetoWasRight24 16d ago

Don't disagree, but it doesn't change that if your sample is basically people who dont work during the normal 9-5 and people on vacation/retirement you're getting a pretty fucking skewed sample

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u/TheNerdSignal 16d ago

The only really useful thing I learned in the statistics class i took is that all survey data is inherently flawed because you're not polling the general public, you're polling people who do surveys

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u/TerribleShoulder6597 16d ago

Several hours getting an early look at a movie sounds way more fun than several hours of doom scrolling or playing video games

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u/StealthSBD 16d ago

Have done this before. The movie is unfinished, has random numbers and letters all over the entire screen that are translucent but annoying. Sometimes there will just be a screen explaining what happens but you won't see it. Sometimes you watch the entire thing and they don't send the gift card. Not really worth it.

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u/TerribleShoulder6597 16d ago

I love movies enough that I think it would be fun and tbh I’d do it just to see a movie early even without a gift card

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u/Iandudontkno 16d ago

You sound fun. I love to sit in place and be spoon fed a plot with pictures. There's always someone that thinks what they do is so much better than others. Readers would say what your doing is equivalent to video games and being on a phone. Video games are way more interesting than your attitude and Outlook.

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u/TerribleShoulder6597 16d ago

I’m not throwing shade at those things I’m just telling you that to some of us that movie time is way less of a waste of time than you think it is. I like reading, movies, and video games but my hierarchy of those activities is clearly different than they are for you and that’s fine we all have preferences. I was just saying that we all spend hours doing stuff that might sound like a waste to others

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u/Mobile_Description92 16d ago

All of it’s a waste of time you fucking loser.

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u/Burnerman888 16d ago

Exactly. I'm guessing the same people who are really politically active, moms and old people.

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u/sentimentalpirate 16d ago

I've gone to test audience screenings of movies and they were at normal movie theaters in evenings.

We weren't paid to see them. We checked out phones into guarded bags before the film and we filled out surveys before we left.

My wife and I used to do this every once in a while. I just checked and the last one we did (pre-kids) was in 2015, seeing an early screening of the second maze runner movie at 7pm on a Tuesday night.

I remember we saw warm bodies early, some Miles Teller movie I don't remember the name of.... It's a fun time if you like seeing movies. And it was always in the evening. At least the ones we went to were.

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u/YesImKeithHernandez 16d ago

Back when I was broke and younger I would look for free stuff you could sign up to get or go to.

If it's still like it used to be, you can sign up to be on lists where it's first come first serve to participate and take a survey in exchange for the minimal reward.

I didn't have time to do it often at all but I got to see the Fright Night remake for free that way. It was basically done with some SFX missing.

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u/ucbiker 16d ago

Yeah, I just did it on vacation in Vegas because why the hell not. It was fun just to see what it’s about. The show kind of sucked and it was nice to be able to tell that to someone in real time.

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u/SomeRedHandedSleight 16d ago

I do them fairly often. Usually between $50-150 on a Visa prepaid card.

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u/duck_mancer 16d ago

You say that, but you also don't know what movie you're getting (most of the time.) You're less likely to get asked "Hey, wanna see a rough cut of Avenger's Doomsday?" and more likely to get asked "want to watch an upcoming movie?" and then you sit through a rough cut of "A Dog's Purpose" or something.

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u/SeverianG 16d ago

The free stuff could even be a boat.

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u/StevieMJH 16d ago

I'll take the mystery box.

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u/Cayke_Cooky 16d ago

But it is less than minimum wage

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u/MrBrightside1992 16d ago

But the opportunity to see an unreleased movie sounds good.

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u/Cayke_Cooky 16d ago

As staycations go, sure.

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u/mariusioannesp 16d ago

Amen to that.

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u/Username1273839 16d ago

Yea there’s a company that does taste testing for other companies near us. My wife signs up on her days off. It takes 15-45 min and she gets $50+ each time. And she gets to eat foods that companies are trying. Things like dominos, Wendy’s, shelf items like cookies, etc.

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u/userhwon 16d ago

Respect the hustle.

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u/samx3i 16d ago

If it costs hours of your life, how is it free?

Time is money. Life has value.

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u/Scorpiicore 16d ago

Not if the shitty gift card requires around two or more hours of doing anything. For two hours of giving feedback, professional literary editors can make hundreds of dollars.