It’s fair to say that, across the years, reshoots have developed a pretty terrible reputation. The moment audiences hear that a blockbuster is bringing its cast back together, the assumption is usually that something has gone seriously wrong behind the scenes, and sometimes that is absolutely the case, but additional photography can also be the difference between a movie ending on an interesting idea and ending on exactly the emotional note its audience needs.
During Collider’s Producers on Producing panel at San Diego Comic-Con, The Martian producer Simon Kinbergrevealed that the RidleyScott sci-fi hit originally ended without Mark Watney’s inspirational speech to a new class of astronaut candidates. In fact, Scott initially had “no interest” in shooting the scene at all.
Kinberg explained that the original version ended more quietly, with Watney noticing a leaf before heading into his classroom. Test audiences, however, wanted more closure after following the astronaut’s fight to survive on Mars. Kinberg said:
“Not the most exciting clip from the movie. I picked it because it’s a reshoot, and I think that one of the things I would say is a slight misconception is that reshoots mean that a movie’s in trouble or it’s not good. Sometimes that’s true, and sometimes movies that don’t have reshoots are in trouble and not good. But I do think that if you have the luxury of having time to reshoot, and I think that luxury is probably true for the cheapest movies and the most expensive movies, because it’s cheap to reshoot if it’s a cheap crew and cast to get together.”
Kinberg elaborated, explaining that the film would offer the audience a grace note upon which to end, and that was exactly how it needed to conclude.
“I brought it up because the original ending of the movie as shot and tested didn’t have that speech in it. Matt [Damon] sees a little leaf on the ground and gets up and heads to class, and the audience felt like they needed closure with the character, and I think maybe needed to get a sense of why they had been on this journey. It’s an exciting enough movie, obviously, and there’s so many wonderful things about it, but what’s the larger lesson?”
He went on to say, “I brought it up because Ridley Scott, the director, who’s a formidable force and obviously one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, had no interest in doing that scene because it’s not an exciting scene, and it’s less poetic than ending on a flower blooming. A big part of our job as producers is sometimes to convince really formidable — whether they’re formidable because they have an amazing filmography or they’re formidable just because that’s their personality — filmmakers to do things against their will for the benefit of the movie.”
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
Ridley Scott Had Final Cut on ‘The Martian’
The scene ultimately added through reshoots shows Watney teaching aspiring astronauts and explaining that, when confronted with overwhelming odds, survival comes down to solving one problem and then the next. It gives the character’s ordeal a broader meaning while showing how his experience on Mars shaped the rest of his life.Kinberg said the revised ending caused the movie to test “significantly better,” although convincing Scott to return and film it was hardly straightforward.
“But that ending, I brought it up, it’s not exciting, but it is the right ending for the movie. The movie tested significantly better with just that ending in it, and it was a heavy part of producing, being in a room with someone who was more powerful than you, and should be more powerful than you, but trying to help them see that this might be the best thing for them too.”
When Brad Fuller asked whether Scott eventually admitted that Kinberg had been right, the producer offered a beautifully diplomatic response: “He kept it in the movie.”
Kinberg then confirmed that Scott possessed final-cut authority, meaning the director could have removed the scene had he remained unconvinced. For Kinberg, its survival in the finished movie was acknowledgment enough.
