Guillermo Del Toro Reveals How He Fought To Change Frankenstein’s Original Ending

The following contains spoilers for Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein

Book readers encountering Guillermo del Toro’s take on Mary Shelley’s immortal Frankenstein may be surprised by the movie’s ending, which leaves things on a much more hopeful note than the 1818 novel does.

It wasn’t easy for del Toro to get his way on this new, more uplifting Frankenstein ending, the writer-director revealed in a new interview (via EW). “I had to argue with my producing partner,” the Shape of Water Oscar-winner explained. The main bone of contention was a shot del Toro felt was needed to drive home the film’s hopeful ending.

“I knew I wanted the Creature to have his only act as a human,” del Toro recalled. “Meaning, he reacts to love with love, he reacts to hatred with hatred.”

Shelley’s Frankenstein ends as the Creature catches up with the icebound ship carrying Victor Frankenstein, only to discover that his creator has died. In del Toro’s version, the Creature (Jacob Elordi) finds the ship in time for a last moment with Victor (Oscar Isaac), a poignant encounter that del Toro characterizes as “the moment they make each other human.”

The book sees the Creature resolving to throw himself on a pyre and end his existence after finding his creator dead, but in del Toro’s movie, he has become human enough that he’s compelled to rescue the trapped ship and its men from the ice.

“He comes out and he decides in a beautiful moment to say, ‘The people that attacked me, I’m gonna free them,’” del Toro explained. He then elaborated on why he needed the shot that became such a sticking point between him and his producer.

Because you’re pushing the ship and looking at it for a second, that gained a lot more weight, I thought. It’s a liberation. And I think that’s the difference with the book. This ends in a note of possible hope.

Del Toro’s Frankenstein also differs from earlier film and TV adaptations in how it approaches the grim process by which Victor assembles the creature he will ultimately bestow with life (via Variety):

Almost nobody shows the creation of the monster. Everybody shows thunder, and the monster is already put together. And I thought, if you are following a rock star, you want to shoot the concert.

So instead of making it horrible that he is putting all these things together from bodies, I made it into a waltz. I made it into a joyous fun, sort of crazy concert. He’s running around the lab, putting this body together, grabbing this part and placing it together here or there.

Critics have largely embraced del Toro’s unique take on Frankenstein, leading it to an 85% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The $120 million movie is currently streaming on Netflix after a limited theatrical release.

ScreenRant’s review of Frankenstein calls it, “a masterclass in atmosphere,” that is energized by Elordi and Isaac’s lead performances. In the same review, the film is taken to task for its excessive length and sometimes sluggish pacing.

Del Toro first spoke of wanting to develop his own version of Frankenstein back in 2007. In the nearly 20 years since then, the director has released a string of acclaimed movies, including 2017’s The Shape of Water, which swam away with 13 Oscar nominations, winning 4 awards, including Best Picture, and Best Director.