Prisoners: Why The Alternate Ending Wasn’t Right For The Film

Director Denis Villeneuve filmed two endings for his 2013 thriller Prisoners—however, the Prisoners alternate ending would have undermined the film’s core identity. After Keller Dover’s (Hugh Jackman) daughter and her friend disappear in a small Pennsylvania town, the two investigate their whereabouts, each by their own means. Dover takes matters into his own hands by abducting a local unstable man, Alex Jones (Paul Dano). In Prisoners’ original ending, Dover finds his daughter and the real kidnapper, but while it leaves his own fate ambiguous, the Prisoners alternate ending tells a different story.