What was the original ending? **SPOILER**

Rating: 10/10 (13 August 2004)

**SPOILERS AHEAD**
I loved the movie and have seen it twice. And yet I can't help feeling that the film is filled with a kind of melancholy foreboding that the ending seems to negate. I love a happy ending as much as anyone, and after adjusting to this one, it makes for a satisfying finale, especially with its Graduate-like intimation that they hardly know each other, really, and there may be some rocky times ahead for both of them.
But think about it: They meet at a neurologist's office and she lies about her condition. Over and over it seems the film is intimating that she is headed for some tragic end or is hiding some tragic secret. And the film opens with his own premonition of death by plane crash.

So here's what I'm wondering: wouldn't it have made a more interesting and thought provoking film if his foolish departure from her resulted in his death in the plane crash he'd dreamed about? How fleeting are our opportunities for happiness, and how easily we can miss them if we don't recognize them. Not commercial, but I wonder if some such ending was originally conceived. Was it changed to the one we have now, a cliched sad ending tease/happy ending turnabout? One that will result in the film earning many more millions than it otherwise would have.

I love the film, every minute of it. Natalie Portman is glorious. I love the film's humor and humanity, the music, and the sweet melancholy mood, so evocative of that period of our lives Braff calls the quarter-life crisis. But I think a stupid tragic denouement would have been more in keeping with the tone of the rest of the film.