What was the original scrapped ending of Marty Supreme?

In early drafts, the film jumped forward to 1987: Marty is wealthy from building a shoe-business empire and attends a Tears for Fears concert with his granddaughter. Milton Rockwell appears, hasn’t aged, and bites Marty’s neck—paying off the earlier ‘vampire’ line literally.

Did the final movie still keep the vampire idea?

The final cut keeps the vampire language as a provocative, metaphor-leaning monologue, but removes the literal supernatural payoff. The ending instead resolves on Marty returning to Rachel and the newborn, shifting the emphasis to consequence, responsibility, and adulthood.

Why did A24 and Safdie change the ending?

Safdie has said the studio reacted strongly to the tonal whiplash of making the ‘vampire’ literal. The final structure also intentionally ends around birth/fatherhood, which better matches the film’s emotional destination than a late genre pivot.

Movies Explore: Marty Supreme Scrapped Ending Explained: The Vampire Finale

Marty Supreme – Original Scrapped Ending Explained (What Changed and Why)

Last updated: February 22, 2026

Spoilers ahead for both the theatrical ending and the alternate ending Josh Safdie has discussed publicly.

The short version: what changed?

Final cut: ends grounded and intimate—Marty returns to Rachel and their newborn, and the movie lands on an emotional shift rather than a big “twist.”
Original (scrapped) ending: jumped to 1987 and made the vampire line literal at a Tears for Fears concert—Milton Rockwell bites Marty’s neck.
Why it matters: it changes the film’s “verdict” from a human reckoning (responsibility, fatherhood) to a supernatural punishment/curse (immortality, parasitism).

Watch: the official trailer (for quick context)

The theatrical ending, explained (what the movie is actually saying)

In the version released in theaters, Marty Supreme ultimately refuses to treat “winning” as the final word on Marty’s life. The ending plays like a quiet snap back to reality: Marty’s pursuit of greatness has left damage behind, and the last movement turns toward consequence—especially the human fallout tied to Rachel and the child.

A helpful way to read the final scene is that it isn’t a victory lap—it’s a rerouting. Marty’s tears and the turn toward fatherhood land less like redemption-by-speech and more like the first moment he can’t hustle his way out of being a person with obligations.

That choice also matches what Safdie and Sean Baker discussed about the film’s structure: the finished movie leans into a conception/birth framing—ending not on “legend,” but on the beginning of a life Marty is responsible for.

The original scrapped ending (the “vampire finale”), explained beat-by-beat

On January 13, 2026, A24 published an episode page for The A24 Podcast featuring Josh Safdie and Sean Baker. In that conversation, Safdie describes an early-draft ending that goes far beyond the film’s final grounded tone.

Here’s what that scrapped ending was supposed to do:

Time jump: the film fast-forwards from the baby storyline to 1987.
“Success,” on paper: Marty becomes an elite salesman, renames and franchises the shoe shop, leaves New York, gets rich, and builds the “metrics of success.”
Iconic setting: Marty sits at a Tears for Fears concert with his granddaughter, reflecting on youth and the theme of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”
Supernatural payoff: Milton Rockwell appears behind Marty, hasn’t aged, and bites Marty’s neck—a literal reveal that he is (or has made Marty into) a vampire.

Safdie also said the team had already built the aging prosthetics for Chalamet for this ending, and that A24 reacted with immediate alarm—essentially, “this is a mistake, right?”

“Marty, I was born in 1601, I’m a vampire.”

What changed between the scrapped ending and the final cut?

Element	Scrapped ending (early draft)	Final cut (released ending)
Time period	Jumps to 1987	Stays anchored in the film’s main timeline and immediate aftermath
Rockwell “vampire” line	Paid off literally via neck-bite reveal	Left as unsettling language/metaphor, without literal confirmation
Theme	“Success is a curse” / immortality-as-punishment	Responsibility, adulthood, and the cost of obsession
Genre energy	Late hard pivot toward horror/surreal supernatural	Stays grounded as dark comedy-drama
Closing image	Shock twist: bite, immortality, Rockwell unaged	Emotional pivot: Marty confronting fatherhood

Why the ending was changed (the real “why,” not just the headline)

The obvious reason is tone. Even in Safdie’s telling, the studio response wasn’t subtle: A24 questioned whether the vampire bite was simply a mistake—because it risks turning the entire movie into a “gotcha” ending that re-labels what you just watched.

But there’s a deeper craft reason: the finished ending locks into a human-scale consequence. Instead of punishing Marty with supernatural immortality, the final cut punishes (and potentially saves) him with something harder to escape—responsibility.

There’s also a “screenwriting math” problem with the vampire payoff: once you make Rockwell literally immortal, you’re asking the audience to re-interpret every prior scene through genre rules the film hasn’t actually been playing by. In other words, the bite doesn’t just end the movie—it rewrites the movie.

And, interestingly, Safdie notes that Kevin O’Leary (Rockwell) wanted the movie to be even darker. In the podcast conversation, Safdie describes O’Leary pushing for a “fucked up ending” and lobbying for harsher consequences—energy that clearly aligns with a literal vampire punishment, even though the final film doesn’t go there.

So why does the movie still include the vampire talk at all?

Because even without fangs, the “vampire” idea still works as a thematic flare: a way to name the film’s broader anxiety about parasitic power, extraction, and people who feed on others while staying clean themselves.

In a Guardian interview, Safdie explicitly frames “vampire” as a metaphor for extraction—likening it to parasites who “suck the oil out of the planet.” Read that way, Rockwell’s monologue isn’t a secret supernatural plot; it’s the film telling you, out loud, what kind of force Rockwell represents.

Safdie also says in the podcast conversation that O’Leary himself came up with the vampire line during their script/character work. Business Insider likewise reports O’Leary discussing the “vampire speech” and how far he pushed the idea (including wanting fangs), which helps explain why the monologue is so vivid even after the literal ending was dropped.

Bonus insight: the scrapped ending explains the movie’s ‘80s DNA

If you ever felt the film was weirdly “out of time” (especially in its relationship to later-era pop/needle-drop choices), Safdie basically confirms that the 1987 concert ending was part of the logic. In the podcast discussion, he connects the original structure—and the 1987 Tears for Fears finale—to why the film was willing to “contaminate” the period feel.

Instagram posts that fueled the conversation (marketing, mood, and “Dream Big”)

What Reddit Theories Say About the vampire ending (and whether it would’ve “ruined” the film)

On Reddit, the scrapped ending has sparked a very specific split: one camp loves the sheer audacity of a late horror pivot, and the other argues it would’ve shattered the film’s emotional landing. You can see both reactions in real time—especially around the question people keep asking after the Rockwell monologue: “Wait… was he actually a vampire?”

Safdie Says ‘Marty Supreme’ Originally Ended With Kevin O’Leary As A Vampire…

‘Marty Supreme’ Review Thread

Why Marty Supreme didn’t work for me

Watch: the “leaked” A24 Zoom meeting promo (related viewing)

It’s not “ending explained” content, but it’s highly relevant to why the alternate ending story spread so fast: Marty Supreme became a conversation-first movie, where the mythology around the film (and the “is this real?” vibe) kept bleeding into how people interpreted big choices—like whether the vampire line was metaphor, promise, or prank.

Twitter/X posts fans kept sharing while the alternate ending story spread

FAQ: quick answers about the scrapped ending

Was Milton Rockwell really a vampire in the final cut?

Not literally—at least not on screen. The released film keeps the vampire language as a charged, thematic monologue, but removes the literal bite-and-immortality payoff that would have confirmed it as supernatural canon.

Did they actually prepare to film the vampire ending?

Safdie says they built prosthetics for Chalamet for the older-age look, and multiple reports summarizing the podcast discussion note the sequence was developed far enough that practical prep work was done—even if the ending never made it to audiences.

Who came up with the “I’m a vampire” line?

Safdie says Kevin O’Leary came up with the vampire line during their discussions about how Rockwell would confront Marty. O’Leary has also spoken publicly about the monologue and how far he wanted the vampire concept to go.

Marty Supreme Scrapped Ending Explained: The Vampire Finale