If you’re one of the kajillion people who saw X-Men: The Last Stand this past weekend and the smaller percentage of them those who stayed all the way through the end credits for the secret last scene, than you might be interested in knowing more about it.
If not, then MAJOR SPOILERS!
Of course, that ending gives an update on the status of one of the primary characters who died during the movie, that being Professor Charles Xavier, as played by Patrick Stewart, and director Brett Ratner told Superhero Hype! how that bit came about and how they were able to be keep it such a big secret:
“Yeah, the studio didn’t even know I did it,” Ratner chortled. “I didn’t even put it on the schedule. I shot in between set-ups, just went over there and shot it, and then I showed it to the studio and they went ‘Oh My God, we love that!’ because it keeps Xavier. Look, in the last one, Jean Grey died and then I saw her on the first day of shooting X3, so nobody dies in these movies? What the hell are they talking about?”
“I was aware of three endings for this movie, all under different circumstances,” confirmed Patrick Stewart when asked about it. “There was the ending in the script, which we all saw. There was a scene, which I shot in the hospital bed, in the first days of filming. It never appeared on paper, there was no call for it, it was never documented, this scene. It never got shot. In other words, we sneaked it in after lunch one day and there were not many people on the set. It was a cut-down crew, and it was all done very hurriedly because they stuck a beard on me over lunch and we shot it. Then Ian called me a few weeks ago and said, ‘You won’t believe this but they’re coming to London and they’re going to shoot the final scene of the movie,’ which is of course is of interest to me. He said, ‘I’m playing chess’ and of course I wanted to know, ‘Who with?’ and he said, ‘They won’t tell me’ but of course there’s no one there at all. Last night, when I sat down to watch the movie for the first time I had no idea how this was going to be resolved. We were all on our feet leaving during the credits when someone from Fox said, ‘You should sit down. It’s not over yet.’ I couldn’t imagine what that meant and then sure enough, there was this little hospital scene, which is hinted at in the video I play in the class, about a man who had terminal cancer and you can transfer somebody’s consciousness into him. Something I missed last night is that Olivia Williams, who plays Moira [McTaggert], is in the memorial scene. I missed her, but in fact she is.”
Unfortunately, a lot of people might have missed this scene or couldn’t wait until the end of the credits. “Let them come back and see the movie again,” Ratner said in his usual “no bullsh*t” manner.
X-Men: The Last Stand is still playing in theatres everywhere.
Source: Edward Douglas
