I just watched the directors cut or the extended cut, not sure what to call it. It is supposedly completely different to the theatrical version, story wise. Different characters, different plot. Kinda wish I saw it in the cinema so I could compare the two.
shareDid you download a torrent?
sharewhat was the plot and the characters??
shareThe theatrical cut focuses on persuading Zoey to confront her fear of flying. After a session with a psychiatrist, she convinces Ben to drive to New York, getting back to the identical middle part. In the end Minos seems to get busted and Zoey is ready to fly, just to find out it was all just a trap to convince her into the real master escape room.
So the premise of the whole movie was just to get her on the plane, which was teased at the end of part 1
The Extended Cut basically skips the Zoey focus, she still has fear of flying, but directly goes from plane to car to New York. The main changes are the inclusion of the puzzle maker and his family. He kills off his wife, because she wants a divorce and keep his kid Claire hold in the basement to help him with the puzzles. Zoey is then back in the game, because she wants to expose the puzzle maker. In the end Zoey ends up in Claires room because the plans were "buggy" and she helps her to escape, stop the puzzle maker, bust Minos and free Ben. But as a twist, Claire is revealed as the true puzzle maker and she did all just to gain control over the game.
The plane got teased here too, but it feels much more like Zoey is done with the escape rooms. It's unlikely that Claire continues with her, but she wouldn't stop doing escape rooms.
We can just guess, why it was changed. I assume that the test audience (or the producer) liked the character Ben & Zoey too much, so they wanted to make them the "stars" of the franchise, while the extended cut is going the Jigsaw road with the puzzle maker as the franchise star.
From IMDB:
An extended cut featuring 8 minutes of additional footage, including an alternate opening and ending, will provide some insight into the identity of the mysterious GamesMaster.
This is an inaccurate breakdown.
The extended cut runtime might be 8 minutes longer, but it it's basically a half hour more footage.
The entire prologue and final acts are completely different to the point where the versions of the movie are canonically incomparable. The extended cut has additional characters that are not used or can even exist (in the way that they do) per the theatrical cut.
The Blu-ray (and maybe the DVD) has both versions, I rented it from Redbox.
shareI've only seen the extended cut.
I haven't seen the original theatrical cut. From what I've read Isabelle Fuhrman's character is not in the original at all. That's baffling as her wrap around story is huge to the plot and for possible future sequels. Strange to think the film can work without her.
I may check out the theatrical cut at some point to see which I prefer. I do wonder if the low rating on IMDB is partly due to a lesser theatrical cut which many people have seen. The extended cut is very good.
Well, I guess I'll have to check out the director's cut. Cause I just saw the theatrical one (which is the version that's on streaming) & was really letdown
I genuinely had no idea that Fuhrman was even supposed to be in the film. Her role was completely removed from the version I saw.
I honestly struggle to see how the film could work without Fuhrmans character. She's integral to the plot of the film and the 'lore' of the franchise going forward.
From what I've read there are characters in the theatrical cut that aren't in the directors/extended cut. So entire scenes and characters are being swapped out and replaced in the differing versions. Bizarre to say the least.
As I said, I haven't watched both so I can't list all the differences but honestly they must be pretty huge. I'd definitely encourage you to see the directors cut.
I really enjoyed the first one way more than I thought I would. This one (or the version) I watched felt so rushed & just mediocre as hell.
Just looked it up &Fuhrman's character sounds way more interesting than what they did in the other version.
Don't know if you wanna watch the other version, so I won't spoil it for ya but after the quicksand room, they (the writers)introduce such a dumb twist. And the ending is predictable af.
I'm curious as to what happened with this film behind the scenes.
It seems like reshoots were forced upon the director and the studio made the theatrical cut with the directors cut being the directors original vision.
Hard to say but something strange must have happened because it's uncommon for a film to have two different versions. We're not talking extended and deleted scenes but new characters integral to the plot and lore and also old characters removed (they must have been added as filler after the wrap around scenes with Fuhrman were cut).
Why the studio was against the directors cut is beyond me, I liked it and had no issue with it.
Does the extended cut wrap things up or end on a cliffhanger?
Cause the other version doesn't really reveal anything about Minos or answer anything. It just sets up the next one.
Also, it was super short. Like 80 minutes, I think. Probably what the studio wanted. A brisk movie that sets up the next one.
Kinda reminds me of sequels to the later Saw movies.
Eh...a bit of both. The story of the movie is sufficently wrapped up but it leaves it open for where the next one could possibly go. Minos is still a mysterious character in the extended cut, you don't learn too much about him.
This film was definitely made with the idea for further installments.