Minions: The Rise of Gru Has A Very Different Ending In China

Imagine watching a globally renowned film, except in your country it releases with a different ending. Wild, right? But this is exactly what happened when Minions: The Rise of Gru premiered in China on Aug. 19. The latest movie in the popular Despicable Me series follows Gru, the beloved antihero through his teenage days and explains his evolution into a villain later in the series. In the fifth part of this series, Gru — voiced by Steve Carell — learns the tricks of the criminal trade with his mentor Wild Knuckles, voiced by American actor Alan Arkin. The original film ends with the duo escaping any punishment for their vices after Knuckles fakes his own end. But as it turns out, a different version of this film released in China where the ending is... not as fun.

According to users of social media platform Weibo, the Chinese iteration was accompanied by an end note stating that Knuckles was finally captured by the police and served 20 years in prison. Per The Independent, this time in prison helped him discover his love for acting and Knuckles even goes on to establish an amateur theatre troupe for other inmates.

Gru’s plot was altered, also. According to the new ending, the antihero focuses all his energy on his family and claims his “biggest accomplishment is being the father to his three girls,” social media users revealed.

This isn’t the first time that Chinese censor boards have changed the ending of a film. Earlier this year, Fight Club released on Chinese streaming platform Tencent Video, but with a twist. The violent end with the protagonist blowing up skyscrapers was instead replaced with yet another subtitled message where the authorities saved the day. However, after severe backlash, the streaming service reversed most of the changes, except for removing the scenes showing nudity, per BBC.

Similarly, the Minions movie has seen social media outbursts, too. DuSir, a popular movie blogger with 14 million followers on Weibo, called the changes “outrageous”. However, as of now, the movie seems to be flourishing in China despite the altered end. The BBC reports that the film made a box office record of £2.7 million on its opening day alone. So, maybe the Chinese censor board will make changes in the days to come, or simply leave Minions fans with its alternative ending.