The Original Ending of National Lampoon's Vacation: What Could Have Been

The Original Ending

In 1983, National Lampoon's Vacation became a major box office hit, and spawned one of the most iconic comedy franchises of all time. However, the movie did not always have the ending audiences know and love, and in fact, the film's original ending would have been terrible.

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National Lampoon's Vacation is a roadtrip comedy following the fictional Griswold family as they take a cross-country roadtrip to Walley World. On the way, they get into a variety of hijinks, which prevent them from having their perfect vacation. At the end of the movie, the Griswolds finally make it to Wally World, only to find that it is closed for the next two weeks for repairs. Rather than accepting this fate, Clark Griswold decides that his family will get to see Walley World, no matter what.

National Lampoon's Vacation_1

In the original version of National Lampoon's Vacation, the Griswolds do not actually get to visit Walley World. At first glance, the endings start out the same. After encountering a variety of mishaps and obstacles, the Griswolds make it to Walley World, only to find that the amusement park is closed. However, unlike in the final cut of the film, the original ending does not see them eventually get into Walley World. Though Clark and his family go to Roy Walley's house and confront him, the owner does not show the family mercy, and in the end, the Griswolds do not get to go into Walley World.

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One major detail that makes the original ending so different is that Clark Griswold does not demand that he and his family get into Walley World. Instead, his ultimate goal is to find Roy Walley and demand that he entertain the Griswold family. Clearly, this is a massively different motive from what audiences ended up seeing. So, the original ending not only changed the Griswolds' fate, but also what their intentions were. It is unclear what the thought process was when writing this original ending, but it did end up changing for the better.

Griswold's car going off the road and into the snow

National Lampoon's Vacation is based on a short story written by John Hughes called 'Vacation 58'. In the original story, the family goes to Disney World.

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The Reason for Change

The original ending of National Lampoon's Vacation was clearly less exciting than how the movie eventually ended, and in the end, this is the reason why it changed. According to an article from Entertainment Weekly, the movie was shown to a test audience before the film truly came out. When shown the original ending, this test audience was highly disappointed by what they saw. They wanted to see the Griswolds get to Walley World, not just fail completely at their mission like the original ending depicts.

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In a quote from movie director Harold Ramis, he said, 'It occurred to me that they'd now invested about, oh, 70 minutes, 75 minutes, on the way to Walley World. And they really expected to get to Walley World. And here we were denying them the payoff to the whole trip.' Ultimately, this is the reason why National Lampoon's Vacation had to change its original ending. Audiences were unhappy with not seeing Walley World, and the film needed to have a better payoff after promising one specific event for the entire film.

Walley World is closed in National Lampoon's Vacation

The Outcome

Ultimately, Harold Ramis and the test audience were right. If National Lampoon's Vacation had used its original ending, it would have been unsatisfying for viewers. While it is funny to see the Griswolds face trial after trial throughout the movie, to have them truly fail at their vacation by the end is too unfair. It turns the comedic aspects of the film into something more unfortunate and depressing. Without the Griswolds seeing Walley World at the end, Clark Griswold's reaction is simply violent and overdramatic. In this way, the movie would have ended on a negative note that didn't suit a comedy.

So, in the end, it is a good thing that National Lampoon's Vacation changed its ending. The original ending was too negative to keep around, and would have left audiences feeling just as duped as the Griswolds were. By having the family see Walley World, even in an unorthodox way, makes the movie much more enjoyable, and attuned to its comedy genre. Therefore, it is lucky that the movie's original ending is just a silly story now, rather than the true ending.