Deleted Sci-Fi Scenes That Went Too Far

Science fiction allows storytellers to push past the expected limitations of the real world to create a more fantastical vision of the human condition. Of course, these leaps in logic and reason sometimes prove too much and need to be reeled back in, so as to not lose an audience. For movie projects, these creative compromises come with the addition of making a story not only work for an audience but the studio producing and distributing the films. In short, not every planned scene makes it into a final film, even for something as otherworldly as sci-fi movies.

Deleted scenes always hit the cutting room floor for a reason, whether they slow down a movie's pacing too much or give away details about the story too early. In some cases, more graphic content gets trimmed to secure a rating desired by the studio ahead of a wide release. With that in mind, here are deleted scenes from iconic sci-fi movies that were omitted for going too far.

2016's "Deadpool" ranks as one of the highlights in Fox's X-Men film series, and the 2018 sequel took its costumed mercenary in a harder science fiction direction. Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) faces off against a hardened, time-traveling soldier named Cable (Josh Brolin) who seeks to kill the man destined to murder his family in the future. Cable targets a young mutant named Russell, with Deadpool and his team of misfit heroes scrambling to stop the assassination of a child. After saving Russell and still preventing armageddon, Deadpool uses Cable's time-travel device to save his girlfriend and indulge in some fourth wall-breaking hijinks at actor Ryan Reynolds' expense.

One gag in the time-travel sequence involves Deadpool visiting Adolf Hitler when the future tyrant is still just an infant in his native Austria. Contemplating saving millions of lives by assassinating Hitler, Deadpool points out to the audience that he's not the type to kill any babies. Deleted from the theatrical cut, the scene ends with Deadpool planning to introduce baby Hitler to Cable, knowing his new friend does not harbor the same moral qualms. For as low-brow as Deadpool can go, baby-killing jokes — even if the baby is Hitler — aren't the easiest sell, and its omission from the theatrical cut of "Deadpool 2" is not only understandable but perhaps saved the movie. 

The 2002 film "Star Trek: Nemesis" introduces the Remans, a race subjugated by the Romulans and relegated to hard labor in their mines. Like Romulans, Remans possess telepathic abilities, which Shinzon (Tom Hardy) — Jean-Luc Picard's (Patrick Stewart) clone — uses to seize power over Romulus. After meeting the Enterprise crew, Shinzon develops an unhealthy obsession with Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) and menaces her with the help of his Reman Viceroy (Ron Perlman). This leads to Shinzon invading Troi's mind, starting with a moment when she's intimate with her husband Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes).

Shinzon's mental intrusions and harassment of Troi are the most uncomfortable moments in "Nemesis," with its frank depiction of sexual violence. An additional scene of Shinzon telepathically abusing Troi did not make the final cut. As Troi enters the turbolift, Shinzon invades her mind again, leaving her crying in pain at the violation. With these existing interactions between Troi and Shinzon already highly unsettling, the removal of a superfluous one is certainly appreciated.

2011's "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" effectively reboots the popular "Planet of the Apes" franchise, complete with a new origin for humanity being replaced by super-smart simians. The movie chronicles a deadly contagion decimating the human race as apes used for Alzheimer's medication testing have their intelligence significantly boosted. The medication is developed by the pharmaceutical giant Gen-Sys, with experiments overseen by immoral executive Steven Jacobs (David Oyelowo). Jacobs approves the widespread mistreatment of the captive apes and oversees the climactic battle with the escaped apes on the Golden Gate Bridge from a helicopter.

In the theatrical version of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," the gorilla Buck (Richard Ridings) sacrifices himself to destroy the helicopter and protect Caesar (Andy Serkis), the revolutionary chimpanzee leading the apes. A deleted scene puts Jacobs' death in a darker light and one that makes Caesar considerably less heroic. The deleted scene starts after Buck's sacrifice and depicts the helicopter hanging precariously on the edge of the Golden Age Bridge, with Jacobs still alive. As Jacobs pleads for mercy, a stone-faced Caesar pushes the helicopter off the bridge, sending Jacobs plummeting to his doom. The scene made Caesar a decidedly unsympathetic figure and thus was excised from the final cut.

The 2010 film "Predators" takes the premise from earlier "Predator" movies and effectively inverts it. Instead of extraterrestrial hunters coming to Earth to hunt humans for sport, "Predators" brings a group of humans to hunt on a remote hunting planet. To ensure a more challenging experience for the hunters, the humans selected are each noted killers back on Earth. Amidst all the displaced soldiers and criminals is Edwin (Topher Grace), a seemingly unassuming physician roped into the hunt.

By the end of the film, Edwin is revealed to be a secret serial killer back home, but an understandably deleted scene initially spoiled the twist far earlier in the movie. The scene sees the humans' de facto leader Royce (Adrien Brody) privately confront Edwin while the latter relieves himself, demanding to know why he's here. Edwin admits that during a drug-fueled bender while on the job he accidentally killed one of his patients. Though this scene doesn't give Edwin's full nature away, the twist of his murderous side is better preserved by removing the confrontation entirely.

After years of middling sequels and attempts at a full revival, the "Predator" franchise got a much-needed boost with 2022's "Prey." Set in 18th-century America, the movie follows a Comanche tribe that finds themselves squaring off with a Predator using Earth as its hunting ground. A young woman named Naru (Amber Midthunder), while trained as a healer, hopes to become a hunter like her older brother. With her natural talents and knowledge of the terrain, Naru is her tribe's best hope in surviving against this extraterrestrial menace.

A planned scene called for Naru to navigate treetops and discover the Predator's advanced weaponry as she retreats to safety. Filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg chose to remove the scene as he felt it hewed too closely to a Tarzan-esque sequence that would differ tonally from the rest of the movie. Other major factors for the scene's deletion included mounting costs and the time commitment needed to stage such an elaborate sequence. All that remains of the scene is a pre-visualization of it during the planning stages, available with the physical media release of "Prey."