Do you roll with The Rock?
We’re going bananas over Rampage ending.
Spoiler alert! The following contains details about how Dwayne Johnson’s new movie, Rampage, ends. Stop reading now if you don’t want to know.
Dear Mr. Rock: You owe me one awesome, deeply emotional screen death.
You see, I got into the full-on destruction at the end of Rampage, Dwayne Johnson’s new action thriller, as three genetically altered predators beat the hell out of each other and Chicago skyscrapers.
Add Jeffrey Dean Morgan as a government agent, Johnson as your typical ex-special-forces dude turned primatologist Davis Okoye, all kinds of military, and it’s a battle. Things go boom fighting the giant wolf and giant crocodile while trying to protect Okoye’s raging albino gorilla buddy, George.
George heroically battles the other beasts to the end, King Kong style, first dispatching the wolf. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the final struggle sent the killer croc to that giant shoe factory in the sky while the gasping, battle-torn George collapsed in valiant death — his final act saving Okoye.
That was cool. Until George came back to life for one big happy ending. Bummer.
Originally, George was supposed to die boldly in Rampage. But it was The Rock himself, as a producer, who insisted on changing that.
“I don’t like a sad ending,” he told Rolling Stone. “Life brings that (stuff ) — I don’t want it in my movies. When the credits roll, I want to feel great.”
Director Brad Peyton told USA TODAY he had fought for the death. “I was definitely on that side, that it was more earned thematically that (George) would die.”
But he, too, changed his mind and insists it’s the right decision. “It was like, how do you get to a place where you earn it, and not feel cheated when George comes back? And ultimately, you do want him to be alive.”
The movie does have a reasonable explanation for George only appearing to be dead. But fundamentally, this happy ending is all wrong.
We robbed George of his screen-hero moment. You know who else people wanted to live? Han Solo. And Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor, Bodhi Rook and company from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. But Disney, of all people, wiped them all out.
They were sacrificed for better stories and memories made stronger with a little sadness.
Heroes dying is even a bigger deal in the primate screen world. Giant misunderstood gorillas are meant to die fantastically and tragically on film as a reflection of fearful, ignorant humans. It’s their shining, pathos-filled moment.
In the original 1933 King Kong, our besotted beast tumbled off the Empire State Building, but not before ensuring the safety of Fay Wray’s Ann Darrow. It’s an unforgettable moment that prompts the line “It was beauty killed the beast.”
In 1976’s King Kong, it’s Kong falling off the South Tower of the World Trade Center after a valiant battle against military helicopters. He draws his last breath while being comforted by Jessica Lange’s beautiful Dwan.
In Peter Jackson’s 2005 King Kong, Kong gives a final long look at Naomi Watts’ beautiful Darrow, and she’s crying over him! Then he takes a cinematic plunge down the skyscraper. Bravo!
Yes, in 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, Kong (sadly) sprang back to life, but that guy was already booked for a bunch of sequels.
Rampage features much more of a guardian bromance between Okoye and George. I’m not suggesting the line “It was The Rock killed the Beast,” however tempting.
But the gorilla should’ve died. Not just for my sake, but for his.