Movies/books/comics/etc with multiple endings

I rewatched Clue the other day, and it got me thinking, are there many movies/books/etc out there with multiple alternative endings? Besides Clue, the only other example I could think of Wayne's World. I'm not talking about "choose your own adventure" type of books here, or director cuts/author revisions where the ending is changed in later versions of the story, or horror movies where a happy ending is followed by an "unhappy" twist, rather than otherwise linear stories that provide the audience with multiple endings that exclude each other, so the audience can choose the one they prefer.

Maybe this sort of technique is simply too postmodern and alienating to be in popular use?

There was that famous Batman storyline of the 80s where the readers could vote whether or not Robin will die. Of course DC only printed the winning alternative, but I wonder if they'd also produced a story where Robin lives, even if it was never published?

Ah, according to Wikipedia they did:

An uncoloured alternate version of Batman #428 was created in the event that the readers voted to let Jason live. One famous panel is a variation on the iconic scene depicting Batman holding Jason's body in which a jubilant Batman exclaims "He's alive! Thank God!" (A variation of that panel would be used in The Batman Annual #25 story The Return of Jason Todd).

blazing saddles?

Run Lola Run? Each story is kind of meant to be watched sequentially, but it is the only example I can think of.

Sliding Doors, I think, is like that as well, although I haven't actually seen it myself.

Ayn Rand's 1934 play Night of January 16th allowed the audience to affect the ending by acting as the "Jury" and voting the defendant "innocent" or "guilty".

But yeah video games are probably the most common type of fiction to have multiple, independent endings.

It doesn't exactly fit, but I thought of Funny Games. Whatsisname rewinds to get the ending he wants.

that funny games bit was pretty obnoxious, as far as fourth-wall smashing goes

Sliding Doors, I think, is like that as well, although I haven't actually seen it myself.

Sliding Doors has two alternative storylines that follow from the same premise, but since they take up most of the movie, they're not really "endings". It's a good example of what I was thinking of anyway.

There is an episode of the X files (it must be season 6), where Mulder has to stop a bank robbery in order for a loop in the space-time continuum to be fixed. He keeps reliving the same episode over and over until the right ending is achieved. Only one character in the episode is aware that time is caught in a loop and tries to remind him of what is happening in each run through. This episode has multiple endings for the same events, but ultimately there is only one canonical ending. Still in the right ball park I think.

I'm pretty sure there are many Star Trek episodes like this as well.

A quick check on Wikipedia reveals that the episode is entitled 'Monday' and it is based on a Twilight Zone episode:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Play_(1961_The_Twilight_Zone_episode)

Ayn Rand's 1934 play Night of January 16th allowed the audience to affect the ending by acting as the "Jury" and voting the defendant "innocent" or "guilty".

cool! :)

Oh and obviously Groundhog Day for "time loop" themed stuff, although again I haven't seen it myself.

My step-father played a policeman in that play once, and they held the play inside a real county courtroom (after hours) with the audience seated in the wooden pew seats.

Superman!

okay not really

Lost sometimes films multiple endings of their season finales to subvert spoilers. They only broadcast the real one, but leak the others.

The musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood (written by Rupert Holmes!) had the audience vote for any of a number of possible endings.

they had two endings for I Am Legend

haha at this / wikipedia:

When it was first shown in theatres in 1961, horror film Mr. Sardonicus featured a "punishment poll", in which audiences could vote (with glow-in-the-dark thumbs-up-or-down cards) on whether the evil lead character should die at the end of the picture. Naturally, audiences always voted for Sardonicus' death, which was fortunate, as producer William Castle didn't actually film a scene where Sardonicus lived[1]

(spoiler alert.)

should differentiate between multiple endings and alternate endings. The I Am Legend film (and Se7en too iirc) has an alternate ending but the one that was shown in theatres is ultimately the "right" one. There's no right ending in Clue.

REturn of the King and the new Battlestar Galactica each ended about 12 times before they finally fucking rolled the credits. Not really what you mean, though.

The French Lieutenant's Woman (the novel not the film, where they resolve the two endings by using a framing device).

Minority Report amirite lol

MR SARDONICUS

(Just wanted to type that, in lieu of making it my screenname.)

It's been years since I saw Superman and I don't remember anything about it, what kind of multiple endings did it have?

i was kidding really, referring to superman spinning the world in reverse to go back in time so that miss lane didn't actually become deaded.

Alan Ayckbourn's play 'Sisterly Feelings' has various pathways it can go with different outcomes, depending on how the actors feel on the night: http://sisterlyfeelings.alanayckbourn.net/SisterlyFeelingsSynopsis.htm

"In the normal course of events, during a performance of Sisterly Feelings, you’ll be watching a sequence of scenes selected from the two scripts, Abigail and Dorcas, which comprise the play. Since the decisions as to how the evening proceeds are made actually on stage, partly by chance and partly by the performers during the action, no one at the outset (least of all myself) can predict with certainty which of the four possible permutations will be played."

Didn't the US version of 28 Days Later have two endings? One where the main character lives and one where he doesn't? Or maybe I am just thinking of some bonus feature on the DVD.

yeah, it was something on the dvd. similar to the i am legend situation

You're right, it did. They actually tacked on the second, unhappy ending to the end of the reel during it's theatrical run.

^^response to vicar

see also: "The Descent"