Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story is about a team of misfits who, against the odds, win it all, but the ending writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber originally wanted would have completely changed the tone of the movie. Dodgeball Follows Vince Vaughn’s Peter LaFleur, who reluctantly captains a dodgeball team of underdogs to save their sanctuary, Average Joe’s Gym, from foreclosure by Ben Stiller’s White Goodman. Dodgeball One of Ben Stiller’s best movies. The movie is a classic”The story of David and Goliath“Where the figure of DodgeballS scrappy characters hit the soulless franchise Globo Gym in the climax.
Big summer comedies and sports movies traditionally have triumphant happy endings, however Thurber wanted Dodgeball to emphasize genre norms. Reactions to Thurber’s original ending for Dodgeball Made the studio nervous. Although Thurber didn’t get the exact ending he wanted, his version made it into the final cut Dodgeball in an unexpected way. Thurber got the final say on the studio’s decision Dodgeballs famous post-credit screen, at least until DodgeballThe sequel is coming out.
Director Rawson Marshall Thurber wanted Dodgeball to end in defeat
Fox forced Dodgeball to reshoot after test screenings
Dodgeball was Thurber’s directorial feature debut, and Turber wanted Goliath to beat David As a way to cut through the standard studio comedy formula. Vince Vaughn loved the big swing of a comedy with an unhappy ending when he read Thurber’s early draft of Dodgeball. The moment Thurber wanted Dodgeball To end is technically in the movie – it’s the moment when Globo Gym beats Average Joe’s in the finals. Ben Stiller’s White Goodman falls to his knees in celebration just before the umpire blows the whistle and calls sudden death where Thurber wanted to end. Dodgeball.
Thurber’s ending was shown at test screenings, and audiences reacted negatively to the downbeat ending for Dodgeball. Fox insisted on reshoots, which resulted in the traditional but still surprising ending that viewers expect in sports and comedy movies. Thurber feels that the lamenting ending watered down his vision for DodgeballBut Ben Stiller admitted that going with the more classic happy ending was the right call.
How Thurber’s original ending would have changed the overall tone of Dodgeball
Dodgeball gives Ben Stiller’s White Goodman the ending he deserves
At the end of DodgeballVaughn’s Peter finally starts to be proactive and think about the future. He literally bets on his underdog team to win, and the audience wants to see that kind of character growth rewarded. It’s cathartic to see Peter not only save Average Joe’s but take over the Globo Gym franchise. The rewatchability factor of Dodgeball Falls immediately if the last thing the audience sees is Globo Gym touching Average Joe’s.
Dodgeball is a celebration of the little guya”True underdog story.” The movie is an absurdist comedy, but if average Joes lose in the end, Dodgeball would assume a bitter tone. The lighthearted nature and endless quotability of Dodgeball Suffer if the ending is made cynical for the subverting genre.
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Perhaps in Thurber’s envisioned ending, individual characters may still have their happy endings, but it’s not satisfying if the group fails in their driving purpose. Dodgeball‘s ending is perfect, down to Peter’s winnings from betting on average Joe’s at 50:1 odds arriving in a treasure chest that has “Deus ex machina” Written on the side.
Every character in Dodgeball Get the wild ending they deserve. Steve is able to embrace his identity as a pirate when Peter says he needs someone to share his treasure chest. Peter gets Kate, as well as Kate’s girlfriend. As Peter warned Dwight at the beginning of DodgeballOwen finds not only his man, but two special employees. Just like that, Justin gets the girl, and in the average Joe’s business that ends the film, they are happily pregnant. White has lost everything, and after he treats his body like a temple, he breathes in a hot pig that he grabs out of a child’s hand.
Thurber expressed his frustration in Dodgeball’s famous post-credits scene
Ben Stiller’s speech after “Milkshake” lip sync take on a new meaning
yet Dodgeballs happy ending, there’s a post-credits scene where Stiller’s White Goodman, regaining all his poise, lip-syncs “Milkshake” directly to camera. The last thing Dodgeball Let the audience say with White:
“Hope you are happy. Good guy wins, bad guy loses. Big surprise surprise… that’s the problem with American cinema, it can’t handle any complexity in it. Don’t make me think! I just want to have fun!”
With the context of the happy ending being forced upon him by Fox, the post-credits scene now reads like Thurber’s final word to Fox about his disappointment in their ending. Thurber says bitterly that the public is confused by the simple, expected happy ending, proving Fox right. Stiller is so entertaining in his lip sync that Thurber’s message only becomes clear with the additional context of his desired ending for Dodgeball.