The Clue Movie Has One Last Ending That's Impossible To Watch Today

"Clue" from 1985 is arguably the single greatest movie adaptation of a game ever made, whether video, board, tabletop, or children's game. Even 40 years later, it remains not just a hilarious comedy film in its own right, one of the best detective movies of all time, or even just a fantastic way of taking a familiar product and translating the gameplay to the big screen without sacrificing a good narrative. It is also a rather cool and effective experiment.

It's not like this was some small indie film. There was plenty of reason for optimism when it was announced and made. Jonathan Lynn's "Clue" boasts one hell of a comedic cast that includes Michael McKean, Leslie Ann Warren, Eileen Brannan, Martin Mull, Christopher Lloyd, Madeline Kahn, and Tim Curry.

It follows the barebones premise of the board game: strangers arrive at a mansion and one of them commits a murder. The film expands this into a story where multiple murders are committed, the strangers' secrets are exposed, and blackmail comes to light. There are scandals, conspiracies, a bit of romance, and even some communism (though it's just a red herring). It's the kind of movie that is not supposed to work — and it technically didn't at first. "Clue" was a box office flop upon release, but it managed to charm audiences for decades, becoming a cult hit in the process.

Arguably the greatest achievement of "Clue" is its experimental endings. Yes, endings, plural. In case you haven't experienced this marvelous movie, you owe it to yourself to seek it out as soon as possible, because if the rest of the film wasn't funny enough, the multiple endings with different killer reveals make it even better. Some of the best lines in the movie happen in the last five minutes across the three endings.

Or at least, that's what made it to theaters and home video. In truth, there was a fourth ending, one that was written and reportedly shot, but never made it to any release of the film. 

"Clue" is famous for having three endings, each of which was shown in theaters with a different print of the movie — some theaters would even advertise which ending they were showing. In a 2023 interview with Empire, Tim Curry and director Jonathan Lynn talked about the physical demand of the monologue that leads into the end of the film: a wordy explanation of the murders wherein Wadsworth runs around the mansion delivering exposition at a rapid-fire pace. It was enough to make Curry seek medical attention for the exhaustion.

In that interview, Curry revealed there was a fourth ending to "Clue" that almost made it to the screen. "I ran around the house killing everybody," Curry recalled.

Indeed, that fourth ending is still in the script, which you can find online if you look hard enough. In it, Wadsworth reveals he was the true mastermind. Turns out, he just snapped. He was tired of being a perfectionist. He tried to be a perfect husband, yet his wife committed suicide. He tried being the perfect butler, but ended up killing his boss. So, he decided to commit the perfect murder, and gave himself an audience.

Wadsworth even poisoned all the surviving dinner guests so they'll die after he's done with his monologue. Before he can lock them inside the manor, the FBI arrives, but Wadsworth distracts them by retelling the whole story once more. Mesmerized, the cops don't realize that Wadsworth has locked them all inside the manor and he runs away, stealing a cop car and driving off into the horizon.

Of course, this is "Clue," and no one really gets away with it. The scene ends with Wadsworth hearing the angry growls of a German shepherd in the backseat. Cut to credits, cue "Shake, Rattle and Roll." Though the scene has never been released, it is still in the movie novelization, and shots of it have made their way online — as you can see here. According to the script, this was meant to be the third ending.

So what happened? Well, as Lynn told Empire, "It wasn't funny enough. It wasn't surprising enough. It ended the film on an anti-climax. So I just took it out. Three was enough."