It's been more than 25 years since Juice hit theaters (you're old; oh wait, so am I). That means we've had to wait a very long time to see an alternate ending to the quarter-century old flick. In honor of the movie's big anniversary, director Ernest R. Dickerson unveiled the ending that they didn't go with when the picture came out all the way back in 1992.
*Spoiler alert—though, frankly, if you wanted to see it by now, you would have gotten around to it*
In the original, Bishop (2Pac's character) gets into a fight with his former friend Q (played by Omar Epps). The two engage in a scuffle on a rooftop. Bishop eventually falls over the side and Q is unable to save him, because in real life holding onto somebody with one arm has got to be pretty damned hard.
In the alternate version a lot of the same stuff happens, except Bishop intentionally wrangles away from his friend's grip because he hears police sirens and doesn't want to go to prison. Dickerson explains that Bishop feels this way because he's seen the traumatic impact that being locked up has had on his father. "He hears the cops coming and he stops struggling and he looks in Q's eyes and he says 'I'm not going to jail,'" said Dickerson. "He'd rather die than go to jail. It was just an attitude that showed that Bishop wasn't a punk. He was a force that really had to be reckoned with in the right way."
While the filmmakers preferred their original idea, it didn't sit well with test audiences, who wanted Q to best Bishop. The producers didn't like it either, and threatened to withhold "support" (i.e. money for advertising) unless the ending was changed.
You can watch the video above. We're sure it makes a lot more sense if you've seen the film.
Also, on a very related note, the 25th anniversary edition of Juice was released on both Blu-Ray and DVD on Tuesday. So go ahead and check that out if you're interested.
