Grease 2s Ending Almost Copied The Original Movies Biggest Mistake

Grease 2’s Ending Almost Copied The Original Movie’s Biggest Mistake

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How Grease 2’s ending almost included an homage to the flying car ending of Grease and why cutting it avoided the original movie’s worst mistake.

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Grease 2s Ending Almost Copied The Original Movies Biggest Mistake

Grease 2’s originally planned ending was due to follow in the footsteps of the original Grease and have a fantastical ending that would have ruined it. The now-infamous final moments of the iconic 1978 high-school musical see Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) and Danny (John Travolta) flying away in the latter’s suped-up Ford De Luxe, Greased Lightnin’. Much has been speculated on the meaning of that final sequence, which is wildly at odds with the rest of the movie, given its sudden unprecedented swing into magic realism, but what isn’t up for debate is that it was a terrible decision and worse, the sequel almost copied it.

The much-maligned sequel to Grease, which was widely criticized on release for basically copy-catting the original without adding enough, followed next-generation Pink Lady Stephanie Zinone (Michelle Pfeiffer) and English exchange student (and Sandy’s cousin) Michael Carrington (Maxwell Caulfield). In an inversion of the original, Stephanie falls for clean-cut Michael, despite the Pink Ladies’ code restricting them from dating anyone but the T-Birds, while also falling for a mysterious motorcyclist who breezes into her life (also Michael). You can see why some had issues with the similarities.

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Criticism, though, is short-sighted and misses the fact that Grease 2 is great fun and a far better movie than it had any right to be, given the issues in production. Fans love it enough that the upcoming Grease prequel will have a guaranteed audience. The fact that shooting started without a completed script is no small issue and the sequel being any good at all is remarkable. There might not be quite the same affection for it, though, if director Patricia Birch had kept the original ending in.

Grease 2’s Original Ending Featured A Flying Motorcycle

Grease 2s Ending Almost Copied The Original Movies Biggest Mistake

Grease 2 had a number of scenes cut, including a fairly key sequence in which Frenchy helped Michael become his “Cool Rider” alter-ego, a distasteful bra-stuffing scene, and one character, Goose (Christopher MacDonald), accidentally slamming a door into his girlfriend’s nose. None would have had a huge impact on the narrative had they stayed in – particularly as the film simply forgot Frenchy existed halfway through – but the ending would have changed everything. As with Grease’s literal “riding off into the sunset” moment for Danny and Sandy, Grease 2’s final moments were supposed to see Michael and Stephanie flying into the sky on Michael’s motorcycle.

Why Grease’s Ending Was A Terrible Decision

The ending of Grease has inspired lots of theorizing, mostly along the lines of Sandy dying at the start and the end being her ascending to Heaven. The writer of the original book, Jim Jacobs shot that down some time ago, but not having that answer makes the decision to make them fly all the more confusing. The flying car is real and has no higher meaning, ruining the whole point of Grease that day-dreaming is all well and good, but actually following your dreams is better. You can’t stop being a “Beauty School Drop-Out” unless you stop fantasizing about Frankie Avalon and you can’t make Greased Lightnin’ if you stand around just talking about how fast it’s going to be. Grease, after all, is one long metaphor for the virtues of falling in line, throwing off your T-Birds jacket, and knuckling down. When you fly off at the end in your supercar, you fundamentally undermine that.

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On top of that, the ending already means nothing, but it almost meant even less thanks to some more abandoned plans for the sequel. The only positive that can be said of it is that the fly-away moment adds a more positive fantasy note to Grease than the likely realization by Danny or Sandy that they are horribly incompatible and basing a relationship on one person changing themselves entirely for the other’s happiness is an awful bedrock. When they fly off, you don’t see that ominous inevitability on the horizon but had Patricia Birch got her own way and Travolta and Newton-John had cameoed in Grease 2 as the now-married couple running a gas station, it would have been more difficult to ignore the disparity between their romantic hope and their middling reality.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/grease-2-movie-ending-mistake-copy-original-cut/

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