4

Back To The Future Part II Mined The First Movie's (Awful) First Draft For Ideas

Before we all found ourselves transported into its hellish alternate timeline, Back To The Future Part II was a damn fun movie, full of flying cars, hoverboards, and Pizza Hut products somehow even grosser than the real thing. Bizarrely, a lot of what we love about the sequel can be traced back to the very first draft of the original movie. And it's godawful.

3

The Mine Cart Scene From Temple Of Doom Was Originally The Goofy Finale Of Raiders Of The Lost Ark

The ending of Raiders Of The Lost Ark finds Indy and Marion tied up while the Nazis peek inside the Ark of the Covenant and get a face-full of skin-melting Old Testament magic. Our heroes survive because they simply close their eyes, which somehow works, even though that would be a terrible idea in 99 percent of life-threatening situations. It's pretty much a perfect ending, as long as you don't stop to wonder how the hell they get down from that giant pole afterwards.

Paramount PicturesThe mountain of Nazi goo solidified into a perfect stairwell.

The sequel, Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom, also featured a thrilling finale, the now-iconic mine cart chase:

How did something so fun end up in a movie otherwise filled with human sacrifice and child slavery? Well, the sequence first showed up in an early draft of Raiders -- one that predates the draft in which Indy has sex with a student by a year, if you were wondering. In the original ending, the Ark is unveiled inside a tent, and only Marion is tied up. As the Nazis are dealing with the flaming wrath of the almighty, Indy sneaks in and rescues her.

Daily ScriptThe most important parts of the scene were always "Nazis die" and "she's wearing a nightgown."

2

Parts Of Scream 3 Became The Fourth Movie (And A Kevin Bacon Show)

Until lawmakers in the Scream-verse decide to finally ban those Ghostface Halloween costumes, it seems like there's no end to possible murder-filled sequels. For 2011's Scream 4, original screenwriter Kevin Williamson returned to the series after taking a break on the third movie. Though Williamson had done work on Scream 3, but his ideas weren't used. You'll soon see why.

Williamson's version would have found heroine Sidney Prescott returning to her hometown of Woodsboro, where the next generation of teens are obsessed with the Stab movies instead of cellphones and sex. Soon they start being killed off by Ghostface, until the climactic ending reveals ... no one was murdered. All the kids faked their deaths in order to become famous, like some kind of meta-gory demo reel.

It gets weirder. The movie would also reveal that one of the original killers, Stu (the one played by Matthew Lillard), was somehow alive, even though he got a '90s-sized TV dropped on his head and was then electrocuted. Stu would have been in prison, "communicating with a very loyal fan base and orchestrating attacks on Sidney." Production on this idea progressed so far that Lillard was actually paid for a movie he appears nowhere in.

1

The Explanation For Darth Vader's Mask, And Other Iconic Star Wars Elements, Came From Scrapped Drafts

It's no secret that George Lucas' early stabs at the Star Wars scripts are pure insanity. From Han Solo being a giant green alien to Han Solo having sex with a Wookiee, to ... you know what, it's mostly gross Han Solo stuff. While Lucas eventually whittled his creation down to a sci-fi classic, a lot of the most cherished aspects of Star Wars only exist due to those nutty binned iterations.

Take Darth Vader's mask. What says Star Wars more than the sleek black helmet of the asthmatic villain? The only reason it exists is that an early draft has Vader jet-packing between ships, presumably because he was too whiny and impatient to wait for a shuttle. Since he needed a mask to breathe in space, concept artist Ralph McQuarrie drew this:

Star Wars"Excuse me, sir, do you know the exit to this space station?"
"Maybe if we point our flashlights in the same direction we'll see it."
"Good idea."

While Vader flying about between ships was eventually deleted, Lucas invented Vader's backstory, volcano planet and all, purely to accommodate the badass costume McQuarrie designed. And remember the Kyber crystals, those magical gems that power lightsabers? A Kyber necklace was a major plot point in Rogue One.

Disney/LucasfilmLeading to the tragic scene in which Jyn sneezes and decapitates herself.

Those too owe their existence to something that ended up in Lucas' trash can. His early drafts were much more fantasy-like, and like a 13-year-old Dungeon Master, he was obsessed with magic crystals. The original "Kiber" crystals were used by the Jedi to "intensify either side of the force a hundred fold" -- which he essentially stole from the Lensmen series of fantasy novels, in which a special crystal "tunes into the 'life force'" (with a small "f," so it's OK).

Even the trademark opening crawl, which sets the scene while lining John Williams' bulging, royalty-filled wallet, stemmed from the early premise that the Star Wars saga was taken from something called the "Journal Of The Whills":

George LucasNote that he originally started with "Saga I." Proof that he does know how to count.

The opening titles came from the story being narrated by R2-D2 a hundred after the fact. This does explain why R2 is present for nearly every scene, and sometimes gives himself inexplicable flying capabilities.

You (yes, you) should follow JM on Twitter, or check out the podcast Rewatchability.

Start writing your own insane first drafts with a beginner's guide to Celtx.

Support your favorite Cracked writers with a visit to our Contribution Page. Please and thank you.

For more, check out 6 Baffling First Drafts Of Famous Movies and 6 Ridiculous First Drafts Of Famous Movie Monsters.

Follow us on Facebook ... we hardly ever post half-formed jokes.