The Scrapped Twist Ending That Could Have Destroyed Groundhog Day

Summary:

• Stephen Tobolowsky, who played Ned Ryerson in Groundhog Day, reveals that the filming process was hard and the actors were given pages of new scripts every day.
• The original script for the movie was very different from the final version. For example, Rita also had to be in a time loop.

There are comedies, there are great comedies, and then there is Groundhog Day. It seems that Harold Ramis' movie has always been with us. What second of February can go by without watching Groundhog Day at least once?

But in the early 1990s, the vast majority of movie buffs had no idea that such a holiday even existed. And the movie itself could have been different: a cheap auteur drama with a young protagonist, and a second time loop.

Actor Ned Ryerson Reveals How Hard It Was to Make Groundhog Day

Stephen Tobolowsky, who played Ned Ryerson, said in an interview with ComicBook.com that making the movie, which would later become a cult classic, was like "guerilla theater," with the actors getting pages of new scripts every day:

“I'm very proud of Groundhog Day […] because it wasn't easy. It was a battle to create the show that it was. […] So they started cutting out scenes right and left that were in the original script and reshaped it. We were getting new pages every day.”

The Original Version Was Almost Completely Different

The original version of Groundhog Day was very different from the final movie. The screenwriter Danny Rubin decided to start the action at the point where Phil has been in a time loop for a long time.

The overall tone was completely different. According to Rubin himself, he never intended to make a rom-com. His script contained some comedic scenes and elements of dark humor, but the main topic was loneliness.

Phil would take a book off the shelf and read a page a day, but eventually the books would run out and the viewers would realize that he had been in a loop for 70-80 years.

The protagonist also didn't really resemble Phil played by Bill Murray. The character was much younger and not very charming, and the supporting characters, like Rita, were much less developed than in the final movie.

But perhaps the most significant difference was the ending. In Rubin's original work, Phil eventually realized that he was no longer driven by the desire to win Rita's love, but by the desire to please her. He built an ice statue of her, after which the two held hands and left together.

The long-awaited third of February approached. Phil confessed his love to Rita... and she rejected him. After that, the viewers had to hear Rita's voice saying that she was not ready to love anyone, and understand that she was also in a time loop – just unfolding on a different day.

Source: ComicBook.com