Quick Fixes

Game of Thrones: Season 8 (2019)

Give Dany one scene in E4 where she is told the city will not accept her and she says 'Then they will fear me.' The bells scene then lands.

Prometheus (2012)

Vickers runs straight and Shaw dives left. The ring crushes Vickers. Same outcome, one person on screen thinks.

Prometheus (2012)

Have Janek confirm over the radio that the air has stayed stable for an hour before anyone touches a latch.

Armageddon (1998)

Add one line from Truman: 'We tried to train astronauts for this. Drilling at that depth takes ten years, not ten days.'

Game of Thrones: Season 8 (2019)

Before he leaves, show Jaime visibly shaken by news of Cersei's plan and Brienne asking him to stay. His leaving is then a choice, not a switch.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Kylo asks, 'How are you alive?' Palpatine replies with one line about a ritual that he began before the fall. The audience has an anchor.

Independence Day (1996)

David says the ship's systems use a signal he has already decoded, and the laptop only has to send it back in the right order.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Keep Rey's parents as nobody. Palpatine tries to claim her and she says 'You do not own me.' The twist is a lie, and the theme stays the same.

Titanic (1997)

Jack takes off a cork life jacket and slides it under the door so it floats higher. He still goes under the cold water, but Rose lives.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Cut to Bruce on a cargo truck near a border crossing. One shot, one line: 'Three weeks.' That is all the film needs.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Have Blake mention a food drop through a hatch every few days, one line during the tunnel scene.

Prometheus (2012)

Millburn stays back and films it. The creature lunges at him anyway when it senses the pulse of the recording device.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Add a line from Lucius: 'The courts are closed and the exchange is frozen. The trades stand until we can reach a judge.'

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Keep Chewbacca off the transport, and show Rey's guilt in the next scene. She can focus on her own fear, not on a death.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Show Lando sending a message on a long-range comm earlier in the film. Later, the fleet's arrival has a source.

Prometheus (2012)

Show Vickers glancing at a locked door in the first act and cutting off a question about it. The reveal then pays off a thread.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

In The Last Jedi or the opening scenes, show cargo ships with no registry heading for the Unknown Regions. A small clue builds the fleet.

The Dark Knight (2008)

Gordon says the hospital's renovation crew was a Joker front, so the explosives were in the walls for weeks.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Make it a stolen fission core. The countdown becomes a decaying core with a failing cooling system, and the science sounds right.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Cut the crawl line and let him be a ghost in Kylo's dreams. No return needed, just a long shadow.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Plant a message from Snoke or Luke in the prior film that mentions the Emperor's body was never found.

Armageddon (1998)

Add a scene where an astronomer says a funding cut shut down the survey that would have found it. The film then has a villain.

Interstellar (2014)

Have Brand say the probes lost signal near the wormhole, so humans have to go. One line in the briefing scene.

Game of Thrones: Season 8 (2019)

Have Tyrion or Sansa say the crypts are the only space with stone doors the dead cannot break, and that the dead have never risen indoors.

Jurassic Park (1993)

Nedry says the fences run on a separate circuit, so the shutdown only affects the doors. The storm then takes the fences down.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Add a short scene of Rey seeing a vision of Palpatine's voice in the first film. The later reveal pays off an earlier hint.

Interstellar (2014)

Add a line from TARS: 'Gravity is the only signal that crosses the barrier, and the watch is the only mass Murph still keeps near her.'

The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

Stretch it to three weeks, with a title card for each stage. The ice age still arrives, and the science only has to bend a little.

Game of Thrones: Season 8 (2019)

Keep the cavalry behind the castle walls until the dead are close, then have them ride out in a flanking charge with torches.

Prometheus (2012)

After surgery, Shaw collapses and needs two scenes of recovery before the crew pulls her to the next set piece.

The Walking Dead: Season 1 (2010)

Rick takes the patrol car as far as the city's edge, then goes in on foot. The horse survives and so does the first set piece.

Game of Thrones: Season 8 (2019)

Earlier in the episode, show Arya slipping past two wights in the corridors. The audience sees her do it before she does it to the Night King.

Armageddon (1998)

Use a series of small charges to push the asteroid off course. No deep drill needed, but the crew still has to place them.

Interstellar (2014)

Show a flicker of doubt in his early video log, one line that gives the audience a clue before the reveal.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Keep the mask but mix his voice louder and clearer, with a deep echo, so the menace stays and the lines can be heard.

Prometheus (2012)

Make it a sealed viewing port instead: Holloway presses his face to the glass and says he cannot wait any longer.

• CKcanon_keeper

  Then the later infection plot loses its trigger.

Game of Thrones: Season 8 (2019)

Tyrion urges her to wait for the bells to stop. She hears the second set of bells begin and the fire starts after that.

Armageddon (1998)

Have Truman warn that the remote link is unreliable at that distance and the crew must prepare a manual trigger.

Armageddon (1998)

Truman says the halves will still be dangerous, but small enough for defense systems to handle. The film shows that after the split.

Interstellar (2014)

After the fall, have TARS say, 'Cooper, there is a structure here that was built for us.' The rescue is announced, not just shown.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Show a brace made from scrap and a title card, 'Three months later,' before Bruce makes the climb.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

After the healing, Rey sways on her feet. The cost is visible, and a line from Leia's voice says 'It takes something from you.'

Interstellar (2014)

Lower the score by a few decibels during dialogue-heavy scenes. The music keeps its impact and the lines stay clear.

Prometheus (2012)

Make the ring roll down a slope that funnels them into a corridor, so sideways is not an option.

Prometheus (2012)

Add one line from Fifield: 'Do not touch it.' Millburn replies 'I am only going to look.' Then he steps forward.

• Pplothole_pete

  Now Fifield sounds like the only one who knows protocol and the ship has no other voices.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Show Blake at the youth home noticing Bruce's reaction to a news story about Batman. The later reveal builds on it.

Game of Thrones: Season 8 (2019)

Show Euron's crew practicing on seagulls in E3, and Qyburn at the walls promising a better scorpion that will 'have to wait.'

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Bruce is already in Gotham when the pit is revealed to be an underground facility. No transcontinental escape is needed.

Game of Thrones: Season 8 (2019)

In E5, have two lords notice that Bran saw everything coming and did nothing. The Dragonpit vote then has a small argument to answer.

Game of Thrones: Season 8 (2019)

Brienne says 'You are not who she thinks you are.' Jaime answers 'I am exactly who she thinks I am.'

Prometheus (2012)

Fifield says his probes lost signal after the storm hit, so he cannot trust the map until the signal returns.

Frozen (2013)

The queen suggests teaching Elsa control with a tutor. The king says no one can be trusted with the secret. The gates still close.

Game of Thrones: Season 8 (2019)

Send the civilians to a fortified hall in the keep. The Night King has to break in through the castle instead.

Friends: Season 1 (1994)

Add a line where Joey says he has an audition cancelled and Monica says the restaurant opens at noon. One line for the schedule.

Independence Day (1996)

Keep him on the ground with a headset, calling shots to the squadron. The speech stays and the country stays governed.

Interstellar (2014)

In his first scene, let Brand hesitate when Cooper asks if the equation is finished. The lie then has a visible crack.

Lost: Season 1 (2004)

Jack sets a rule that nobody goes out alone, and the group's first big scare comes when somebody breaks it.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Show a small object pass between Rey and Kylo during a previous bond scene, so the later use is an escalation.

Prometheus (2012)

David asks Weyland over comms, 'Shall I proceed with the test?' and the audience hears the reply.

Interstellar (2014)

Cooper answers with a one-line counter: 'That is a feeling, not a fact.' The film shows both sides before the crew decides.

Armageddon (1998)

Make it a comet that appears from the dark side of the sun. Short notice is then expected.

Game of Thrones: Season 8 (2019)

Tyrion asks, 'Who here wants to be king?' Every hand stays down. Then he names Bran.

Prometheus (2012)

Have the pod only numb her and close the wound. She holds her side during every later scene and is visibly slower.

Game of Thrones: Season 8 (2019)

Melisandre tells Arya before the battle, 'The dead will not see you if you do not look at them.'

Armageddon (1998)

Pair each driller with an astronaut who has two weeks of drilling training. The film keeps its cast and it makes sense.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Cut the scene where the group mourns. Go straight from the explosion to Chewbacca appearing at the rebel base.

Interstellar (2014)

TARS and CASE go through the wormhole first. The crew follows once they have confirmed that a planet is habitable.

Armageddon (1998)

Let AJ and Harry draw the short straw together and decide who stays. The scene keeps the emotion and drops the trick.

Game of Thrones: Season 8 (2019)

Rhaegal is hit by nets and harpoons, not scorpion bolts. Then the scorpions are not contradicted later.

Signs (2002)

Cut the glasses of water from the ending's setup. Keep Merrill's bat and the wife's last words. The ending is still tidy but less crowded.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Cut the fleet to a few hundred Star Destroyers. The threat is still huge and easier to believe.

Game of Thrones: Season 8 (2019)

Daenerys says 'Wait for the signal' and Jorah points out that the Dothraki will not.

Prometheus (2012)

Swap the map for a handheld device that dies from the storm's interference. He is lost because the equipment is.

Interstellar (2014)

Cut the line 'love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space.' Keep the rest of the speech.

Interstellar (2014)

Replace the watch with a model of the wormhole that Murph keeps on her desk. The message would be in the way the pieces move.

Prometheus (2012)

Cut the speech where he explains himself. Let Holloway and Shaw work it out from what they have just seen.

Prometheus (2012)

Cut the shot of the helmet leaving his head. Let him say he wants to and cut to the next room.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Cut the line about months. Say the core is unstable and the timer is whatever Bane decides.

Game of Thrones: Season 8 (2019)

No hiding. The civilians flee south with a small guard. Fewer deaths, less suspense, a better route.

Game of Thrones: Season 8 (2019)

Make Sansa queen of the Six Kingdoms and give Bran the Three-Eyed Raven title only. The finale gets a more active ruler.