'Assassin's Creed' Alternate Ending: Michael Fassbender Faces A Bleaker Conclusion

For a movie with such a fantastical concept, the long-awaited video game adaptation, Assassin's Creed, ultimately plays it safe. Justin Kurzel's (Macbeth) film is a gloomy and moody video game adaptation that doesn't make a man reliving an ancestor's memories, as he fights in 15th Century Spain, as entertaining as it sounds. When the film was released last December, audiences didn't take to the world of Assassins and Templars, and the alternate ending likely wouldn't have changed many of their minds about the movie.

Below, watch the Assassin's Creed alternate ending (SPOILERS below).

Cal Lynch (Michael Fassbender) was originally the last assassin standing in Kurzel's film. After assassinating Rikkin (Jeremy Irons) and inexplicably turning Sofia (Marion Cotillard) — who up until this point was the movie's most believable character — into a villain, then Cal and his new friends, the assassins, stand around on a roof and wait for future adventures in sequels that'll never happen.

That's not how the events unfolded in Assassin's Creed's deleted ending, which shows Lynch's fellow assassins, including Moussa (Michael Kenneth Williams), getting killed during their uprising. The clip intercuts with Kurzel and editor Christopher Tellefsen explaining the original ending (Source: Collider):

Assassin's Creed Alternate Ending

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

The bleaker ending wouldn't have been out of place in Assassin's Creed. The assassins' deaths wouldn't have made for such a downer, either. It's the more enjoyable of the endings, at least conceptually, considering it takes a chance killing off some supporting players. Admittedly, they're supporting characters we know almost nothing about. The characters in Assassin's Creed aren't allotted much time to develop any real personality.

All the exposition and focus on the McGuffin leaves little room for Cal and his friends to actually get to know one another. By the end, we should care more about the Assassins, especially Cal, but we don't. A movie like Assassin's Creed, which tries to position itself as a movie about life, shouldn't be this cold and emotionless.

Here's the synopsis for the film:

Through a revolutionary technology that unlocks his genetic memories, Callum Lynch (Michael Fassbender) experiences the adventures of his ancestor, Aguilar, in 15th Century Spain. Callum discovers he is descended from a mysterious secret society, the Assassins, and amasses incredible knowledge and skills to take on the oppressive and powerful Templar organization in the present day.

Assassin's Creed is available on DVD and Blu-Ray on March 21, 2017. The Blu-Ray isn't loaded with features, but it has a five-part doc and more deleted scenes discussed by Kurzel and Tellefsen. Maybe we'll see another deleted scene featuring Brendan Gleeson, who's mostly wasted in a supporting role but has one more memorable moment in the film.