Wing Commander Movie Cut Scenes (August 20, 2023)

[Bandit LOAF]

AD has been hard at work recovering and restoring some of the scenes cut from the final version of the Wing Commander movie. Enjoy this collection of work he's done so far!

Paladin Ejects - Paladin is forced to eject from his Broadsword after sinking a Kilrathi warship.

Blair Leaves the Diligent - Blair, originally the turret gunner, is lured aboard the Diligent in search of the NAVCOM AI.

Tattoo - Blair asks Paladin what his neck tattoo means.

Kilrathi Compilation - All the Kilrathi footage originally intended for the film.

Pilgrim Chat - Paladin reveals more details about the Pilgrims.

Alternate Intro - An alternate cut of the movie introduction featuring an opening narration from Blair. (As of publishing time this video is blocked because of an incorrect copyright claim; it should be available soon!)

FPS Experiment - An experimental sequence shot first person for the shipboard combat sequence.

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Original update published on August 20, 2023

 

[AD]

Woohoo! I want to add that these are all kind of WIP edits and not really final scenes that you might find in a release. Some of these scenes exist in various forms in the workprints... a few, like paladin's intro monologue in the Pilgrim scene or his ejection clip, do not exist in any of the workprints I have available and have been edited from the various individual shots. They're more "roughed in" than anything final but I like what they add to the movie. Any color correction is also temp work and the condition of the original footage makes matching the DVD Or Bluray footage.

There's also a couple of other scenes that the CIC reported on previously that didn't show up in this update so I'll append them here:

This one would have appeared shortly before the Claw jumps into the Ulysses Corridor. It's short and I like the vibe of it. It adds a quick character moment between Blair and Angel that would help make the ending come less out of nowhere.

A nice moment with Maniac and an apology by Hunter... You can kind of see why they cut this since it just slows down the end rush to Earth but they're nice moments none the less and makes Hunter at least have a bit of redemption

 

[Scribbler]

ohh i think it's time for a personal directors cut ^^

 

[AD]

This one will have to do until I'm ready to put it in a longer edit, or unless I figure out a better way to handle the color issues. My editing skills are reasonable for my experience but I can never seem to wrap my head around getting the color to look more like the Bluray etc without just completely making the overall picture look like garbage. The quality of the source material isn't helping but I feel like I'm just missing something fundamental there.

This one would have gone immediately before the Tiger Claw's jump into the Ulysses Corridor.

 

[AD]

And another This is probably the first scene in the movie that differs significantly from the theatrical cut. Actually, this scene is barely in there... Anyway it's a nice character introduction for Blair, Maniac, and Merlin... and it's not really that long either. I'd probably try and tighten it up a little in a full movie, but overall I don't think it needs that much trimming... a few frames here or there and maybe a line or two.

 

[AD]

Alright, here's another for everyone. I had fun using alternate takes to give this one a slightly different feel. You can read more about it in the youtube description:

 

[AD]

Alright, here's another for everyone. I had fun using alternate takes to give this one a slightly different feel. You can read more about it in the youtube description:

Replying to myself, hehe. Anyway, I didn't mention it in the scene notes but I wanted to add that this scene never really worked for me in the theatrical cut. It feels like it's missing something, and while I'm no pro editor I do feel like it's missing a bit of connection. Maniac is worried about his friend and I think that comes off well enough. THey tried to play up him being awkward and I'm not sure they ever quite get to him sounding sincere.... but more than that, this scene really should be motivating Blair to actually figure out what Pilgrims (and therefore his heritage) is all about. In all the previous versions I've watched of this scene the take used by the production for the "winners make the rules" part always felt awkward and I can see why they dropped it, but in the additional wide shots that don't have matching closeups, I feel Lillard really sells those lines a lot more and they add some nice flavor so that when you make it to the end of the scene Blair contemplating his cross feels more natural.

If I wanted to guess, I think a lot of the way movies have been made has evolved a lot since 1998. Everything is digital now so it's easier to review and update your footage. The productions always made lots of notes regarding the DP and DIrector's choices for favorite takes and other elements like continuity issues, but going back to change footage you had previously settled on was probably more of a chore once you had already built a whole scene around a specific idea or set of complimentary takes. Still, the more I look at this stuff, it's still surprising how often I'll find stuff in the various edits that doesn't match the final movie becuase at some point they changed which takes they used and often it's not changed for the sake of the performance but rather continuity or flow between shots. The final choices are often not necessarily wrong but are made to support changes sometimes deletions of material

It also occurs to me that I'm not sure the movie in the theatrical cut ever explicitly says Pilgrims lost the Pilgrim war though it's implied, which Maniac's line actually does.