World War Z (2013) - Why The Ending Was Changed

Empire Magazine had the chance to talk with Marc Forster about that ending:

Let's get this out of the way at the start. What really happened with the third act rewrite of World War Z?

(Laughs) Basically, originally there was a third act that I thought didn't work. As we were shooting we were discussing it and rewriting and rewriting it.

Why did you think it didn't work?

Because it was the same story outline that is now in the movie, the same story device. The only difference was that the WHO...

Not the rock band The Who?

No, The World Health Organisation, they went into Russia for a big battle [with the zombies]. The reason I felt it wouldn't work is that by that time you have a certain battle fatigue after Israel. After Israel and the plane crash, trying to trump that and make it even bigger wasn't working in our favour. The problem with a lot of these big movies is you start production and the script isn't finished; we had the same problem with Quantum [Of Solace]. The third act wasn't fully fleshed out, but we had to rush in to meet the release date.

Were you happy with the way it turned out?

Yes. Very, very happy. I was very happy that we didn't finish the third act with visual effects and everything, because that would've been a huge number, and we used that money to shoot a much simpler ending.